Chersky Peak detailed route. Climbing Chersky Peak. Slyudyansky railway station building

Today is the second and one of the most interesting days our hike. If the weather were like this, it would hardly be called such.
But today the weather is just a gift, so just go ahead!
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Along the way, we met many runners who specially trained at altitude, where there is less oxygen, so that when they descend they can show better results.
In general, this place is unique in that everyone, young and old, trains here, and not just runners. There are a large number of sports and tourist trails of varying difficulty levels here.
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And this is a natural monument of local importance. The photo shows lava outcrops of a volcano that was extinct millions of years ago.
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As we progressed, the nature of the terrain changed. The dwarf pines have disappeared, alpine meadows. The opposite slopes of the mountains became clearly visible.
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On the horizon, in the distance, the peaks and ridges of the Eastern Sayan Mountains are visible in the clouds.
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Climbing Chersky Peak in practice turns out to be even easier than previously thought. Only 2090 meters, there are no steep or long climbs, rocky drops, gendarmes or glaciers. In a word, paradise for a beginner.
Of course, there is one relatively difficult section on the ridge in the hollow (it is clearly visible in the first photo).
This is a stone plane inclined to the side, about 40 degrees, with layers protruding from it at different angles.
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In places it is crossed by depressions and faults. There is no need to rush here, just carefully choose the path to carefully walk.
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In general, ridges as narrow as a knife blade are very characteristic of the Baikal Mountains. In other, more difficult places, such sharp ridges are crossed by sheer rocky ledges (they are also called gendarmes) and represent a big obstacle on the way to the top, where it is impossible to do without climbing equipment and the necessary skills. Well, here everything is not so complicated, so you can relax for now.
After this section there is a main climb, ending at the top.
Here it is, the culmination of our entire three-day radial.
At the top there is a cross, a flag and a memorial sign to the victims of Beslan near the triangulation tower.
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Our acquaintance with Baikal began from afar, not only from afar, but also from above. From Chersky Peak to good weather you can see the southern part of the lake, the endless expanse of water stretching beyond the horizon and the rugged mountainous shores.
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While we were here, several more groups came to the summit.
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Baikal is not the only thing that attracts your attention. On the way to the top, you can already see the famous Heart Lake from above. You can admire its view throughout the final part of the ascent to Chersky Peak and it is simply impossible not to notice it.
The bizarre shape of the lake actually exactly resembles an inverted heart, but this will be discussed in the next part.

Chersky Peak is located near Slyudyanka. First we rode by train from Melnikovo station to Slyudyanka. My traveling companions were Alexander Khobta, the author of works on the history of the Circum-Baikal railway, also his wife, son Igor, our mutual friend with Igor, my neighbor Lyokha Medvedev. The long journey on the train ended, and Slyudyanka greeted us on the post-rain day with a bright rainbow in the rays of the evening setting sun, which gave the town an orange color. We left the city and went deeper into the taiga and mountains. The Slyudyansky district is famous for its mineral resources, so there was a marble quarry near our overnight stay. In the morning we moved on. We got to the base, on the top of the mountain, near the weather station, through windbreaks and stones, a marble quarry, thickets, and we also had to cross a shallow, cold and sometimes wide mountain river. There was a halt near one of these crossings. Our tourist diet included refined sugar, a loaf of bread, dried bananas (a quite popular sweet snack in those days), condensed milk, tea, mayonnaise in bags (once it spilled, staining our sleeping bag!) and much more. The closer we got to the top, the steeper and narrower the climb became. From a flat path at the beginning, it turned into almost a large earthen wall with a narrow strip of beaten stitches. That was where we spent the night. Spruce and pine brushwood crackled in the fire, and fragrant pine smoke rose. And dry pine needles quickly flared up and soon burned out. We warmed ourselves by the fire and cooked food. The next morning, after spending the night in tents, we set off. Through beautiful vegetation and stones, we were getting closer and closer to the goal. We climbed up a stone ridge called “Devil's Gate”. Below there was a heart-shaped lake, which was called Lake Heart. At the top, where snow always lies, even in summer, there was a metal frame in the shape of a high triangular prism with quadrangular bases like Eiffel Tower. In addition to it, there was also a wooden tablet with a portrait of Chersky carved on it and his name on it. Polish language. (It is noteworthy that when we next climbed the peak, about a year later, the sign was no longer there; I don’t know which climber took it, but he did something wrong). We took pictures at the peak with snowballs in our hands, on the frame and on the edge. After conquering Chersky Peak, we went down the Devil's Gate to Lake Heart. And, taking advantage of the fact that it was a fine June day, we decided to take a swim. And as soon as we had time to swim in the lake, we noticed that a huge white cloud, like a ghost, was slowly, majestically, confidently advancing on us. A few seconds later, white, fresh, cold, coarse June snow began to fall from the cloud. Falling on green grass, yellow and blue flowers and even for the red berries that had time to ripen, the summer hail-like snow was accompanied by a strong wind. The people who found themselves at the mercy of the elements put on their clothes and covered themselves with cloaks. So we walked through the valleys and forest edges to the camp. The next morning, the shoes left outside the tent were frozen, the bowls nested one inside the other were frozen to each other. Drops of water hung in the air. But it was not rain, but a cloud that enveloped the mountain on which we were located. Water was taken from a well at the weather station. We also met a group of tourists, among whom were instructors from the Stalker camp. The weather station workers treated us to wild garlic. “Take some,” they said, and gave us a whole armful of this wild plant, which grew here in considerable quantities. We decided to take a photo with the horse Grisha. I stood next to the tail, and Igor stood next to the head. The button of the film camera clicked, and at the same instant, Grisha, who instantly reacted to an incomprehensible terrible sound, clicked his hooves just once in a jump, turned 90 degrees, standing with his back to the photographer. In the picture, however, Grisha stood, as we wanted, in profile. And so, with the film snapped, we gathered back at the Slyudyanka station, from where we returned to the big city.

I was walking alone and for the first time, so I downloaded the track to my Garmin navigator in advance.
The road starts from small town Slyudyanka. From here to Irkutsk it is about 110 km, there are minibuses and electric trains, and taxis from a good man Kostya took me there for 1800 rubles. I start my journey from the RUDO management area.


The road is excellent, its differences from our Urals are sand and stones, almost no dirt, although it has recently rained.

The road crosses the Slyudanka River many times, through which volunteers from the Great Baikal Trail built bridges

Slyudanka is mountainous, swift, clean

I didn’t have any poles, but my friend, former Irkutsk resident, climber Sasha Yakovenko advised me to contact local skyrunner Sasha Gutentog, who kindly lent me her poles, for which I thank her very much.

The quarry dump, once the city-forming enterprise of Slyudanka, dazzles in the sun.


another bridge. I lost count, there are at least 7-8 of them

the higher, the faster the river

10 km covered, here is a small base, you can eat, spend the night and go to the bathhouse

Old women are being prepared in the kitchen

hot sweet tea with lemon and hot pancakes instantly restore strength


harsh Siberian tourists

After another few km there is a sign to the second base. Usually tourists reach it, spend the night and climb to the peak in the morning. But I don't have that much time.

Light snack. Altitude 1000 meters, 14 km covered, travel time 3 hours. The speed is lower than expected.
During this time, female skyrunners reach the top (the time for male winners is even less - 2 hours for 20 km!)

There is a beard on the spruce trees

I walk through magical valleys, a comfortable path, beauty, an unusually pleasant smell of pine needles and herbs in the air. Even the leaves don't move.


. I often overtake tourists who travel overnight and therefore carry huge backpacks.


Near the path there was this grass, unfamiliar to me, everywhere. upd This is "incense"


but Chemeritsa was often found in grandfather’s high-mountain mowing in the Southern Urals


Someone's horse is grazing!!


raindrops on branches


roots form fabulous steps


I go out to the Khamar-Daban radio station.


she's just like in the movies and books


The guys at the weather station are wonderful, I will write a separate, big post about them. By the way, the horse turned out to be from a weather station. It carries food.


I was treated to canned fish soup and tea. Just at that time it started to rain, I waited it out and moved on.

I climb up the mountain serpentine, the wet path soars under the peeking sun


at the fork sacred tree, on it are various offerings to shamanic spirits. This was adopted by tourists from the Buryats.)


I climb the pass, then the clouds roll in and then disappear


family of tourists


the sign seems to warn

a sharp ridge, there is even insurance on it. It's a little scary because of the fog. How do people run marathons here?


The peak is very close, about 100 meters away


As soon as I reached the top, the clouds immediately cleared


and I was able to see the famous lake "Heart" so named because of its characteristic shape


there is still a piece of snow on the northern slope


and here is the path along which I came. Without fog it's not scary at all)


I walked 25 km, my time with photography, food and stops was a whopping 7 hours and 20 minutes!
I thought it would be less)

clouds at such a height flow up, down, sideways, fold and crumble in amazing shapes
Everything happens at great speed, just the sun and transparent distances, and after 3 minutes you are again in milk soup


A young man ran up the mountain, his name was Evgeniy, he was training for the skyrunner race on August 25th.
I treated him to Coca-Cola, used by skyrunners and triathletes to quickly restore strength.

We ran the way back together, chatted (Evgeniy is an engineer from Angarsk), and then he gave me a lift to Irkutsk.
Hello, Zhenya!!


test photo with a courageous face)


Valley below. Avalanches occur here in winter


Return trip. Do you see how the ridge clearly separates the fog?


facial expressions photo. Chipmunk, there are a lot of them there, they climb the trees like squirrels.


In short, it’s not just Baikal) I sincerely recommend it to those who will be in the Irkutsk region to go to Chersky Peak.

Route June 2017: Irkutsk - Slyudyanka - Chersky Peak - Heart Lake - Waterfalls - Irkutsk.

The month of June is sultry, the temperature on the thermometer is +36, for Eastern Siberia considered abnormal weather. Summer turned out to be hot!

There are three days off ahead, my friend and I decided to go hiking to Chersky Peak - this highest point(2090 m) Komarinsky ridge in Khamar-Daban. The peak was named by Russian geographers in honor of Ivan Dementievich Chersky, a famous explorer of Siberia. This is one of the most popular and most accessible routes in the Southern Baikal region. Thousands of tourists visit the peak every year. The ascent route is safe and does not require special climbing equipment. In the vicinity of Chersky Peak there is a mountain lake “Heart”, as well as many waterfalls.

The route was planned so that it included: off-road driving, climbing Chersky Peak, visiting the mountain lake “Heart”, viewing waterfalls. Calculated for two days, one day in reserve.

We drove from the city of Irkutsk to the city of Slyudyanka along a good asphalt road. At the end of the city of Slyudyanka there is a station of the Ministry of Emergency Situations, where tourists usually leave their cars and continue on foot.

From the Ministry of Emergency Situations station we decided to go further by car until the last time we could go. We had to make our way through rivers, steep ascents and descents, and blocks of stones. IN total We drove 6-7 km along a difficult road, slightly damaging the car - the bumper came off, the engine protection was lost). On the way, I came across a difficult section of the road with large boulders, which I couldn’t overcome in my unprepared car. We left the car in the clearing and moved on with our backpacks.

On the route from the Ministry of Emergency Situations station to the Chersky Peak mountain in the forest there is a small private land with a bathhouse, a guest house, and a cafe. The prices are quite reasonable!

The path to the Chersky Peak mountain is well trodden, there are many bridges across the river, there are places for overnight stays and containers for garbage collection. Along the entire route there is practically no problem with drinking water. In the valley the route runs along mountain river, at the top of the Hamar Daban weather station there is a well with drinking water. But on a short stretch of 3 km to the weather station there is nowhere to get water, since the path goes away from the river, so here it is better to take care of the water supply in advance.

The valley of the Slyudyanka River is very picturesque: varied vegetation - thickets of ferns, boulders overgrown with bergenia, cedars, mountain ash, currants, honeysuckle. In some places the road passes under the crowns of relict poplars. On both sides of the valley, spiky peaks covered with forest, with numerous rocky outcrops, are visible every now and then.

A few words about the experiment with nutrition. My friend Sergei took a pack of emergency food bag with him on his hike, and planned to live the whole day on water and three “plates” from this miracle bag. At the end of the story I will write how it ended))

On the first day of the hike, we reached the Cossack clearing, which is located near the Khamar-Daban weather station. Having pitched the tent, we stopped for the night. It was pouring rain with thunderstorms all night, in my mind I imagined how tomorrow we would climb Chersky Peak on wet and slippery stones. I was so tired that I didn’t notice that I fell asleep. We got up at 6.00 in the morning, the weather was clear, after breakfast and leaving our things in the tent, we set off to conquer the mountain. After 1 km from the clearing we reached the operating weather station “Hamar-Daban”, where you can arrange overnight accommodation for a fee. There is a well with drinking water on its territory. Near the weather station there is a recreation center with all the amenities for tourists.

At the site near the weather station, a base camp is usually set up, from which they go out along radial routes: to Chersky Peak, to Lake Heart, to waterfalls on the river. Podkomarnaya and its tributaries, to the Devil's Gate pass, to Chekanovsky peak.

The ascent to Chersky Peak from the weather station begins along the serpentine Starokomarskaya road. This road, built at the end of the 18th century, crosses the entire Khamar-Daban from north to south, and for more than a hundred years served as one of the caravan routes from Russia to Mongolia and China. After the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway, the caravan route became unnecessary.

The higher we climbed the mountain, the lower the vegetation became; at an altitude of 1500m it turned into the “Siberian Alps”.

Gradually gaining altitude, the road reaches the bald zone, where the cedar forest is replaced by small-growing vegetation: dwarf willow and dwarf cedar, as well as extensive alpine meadows.

Having overcome a difficult bridge separating the char from Chersky Peak, we climbed to its peak. Chersky Peak is the highest point of this part of Khamar-Daban. Its height is 2090 m above sea level. From the top a majestic panorama of mountain ranges opens up; in the distance you can see the snow-covered three-thousand-meter peaks of the Tunkin Alps, and you can see the southern tip of Lake Baikal.

The Chersky Ridge is named after Ivan Dementievich Chersky (born May 3, 1845 - died June 25, 1892). Chersky was a geographer, a famous explorer of Siberia, a geomorphologist, a geologist and a paleontologist. He was engaged in geological research on the shores of Lake Baikal

At the southern foot of Chersky Peak, at an altitude of about 1720 meters above sea level, there is Lake “Heart”, which is clearly visible from the top. We slowly walked down to the lake, where we settled down for lunch.

Having rested, swam in the lake, we gained strength and went further along the trail to the Visitor Pass, from which we had to descend into the valley of the waterfalls. To be continued

Once upon a time, when I was still a child, my parents and I went to Baikal. For some reason, this trip remained in my memory, and I often had dreams about Baikal and dreamed of an unforgettable journey, vacation, and Lake Baikal seemed to be calling me after years and kilometers. School, studying at college and university... All this took quite a lot of time. But as soon as the opportunity arose, I immediately planned to go to this wonderful place. Now I’m again thinking about finding out how much a vacation on Lake Baikal will cost in 2019. In the meantime, I’ll tell you about my first independent trip.
As a source of inspiration, I chose a tour with a very beautiful name “New Year in Baikal style”. I knew for sure that my holiday on Lake Baikal should be active. Of course, it was important for me to know how much a vacation on Lake Baikal costs. As it turned out, not too expensive. Behind early booking tour they even gave me a discount, which was especially nice.

In another reality...

About six months after payment, I finally got to Lake Baikal, the vacation spot where the group was accommodated was incredibly cozy. I liked our estate from afar. Wonderful place surrounded by coniferous trees and with the most beautiful linen from the purest white snow They greeted me so warmly and cordially that I felt like I was at home. A completely logical question arose: why do we need these Egypt, Turkey and other foreign countries? Here it is, happiness: vacation on Lake Baikal.
Come to Baikal and not miss everything it offers amazing lake, seemed like a crime to me. That’s why I went to study everything that was on the estate.
Leaving the room, I saw areas for Internet access, a library, Gym and, my favorite, the game of tennis, raised my mood to the skies! I spent the entire time until lunch playing at the tennis table. For food we were offered simple, but at the same time, delicious food, prepared only from natural products. In general, whatever you say, the dinner was quite a success.

Walk around the area.

Since I had little time to relax on Lake Baikal, I decided to break away from my sports research and went for a walk around the outskirts of this quiet, magnificent and unique region.
First I walked to the lake itself. Beauty... How much happiness is in every sip of this healing air... And the ice! The purest, providing the opportunity to experience a huge portion of adrenaline while walking along it. You won’t believe it – it took your breath away, and yet there are also cars driving along it. I especially liked watching the mesmerizing stone patterns of the Baikal bottom, which can be seen on the shallows in the bay. You can see it perfectly, because the ice is absolutely transparent! In general, I didn’t go anywhere else that day - I had to go back for dinner.
On the second day, my Baikal vacation continued actively. An excursion to a mountainous country called Tunkinskaya Valley awaited us. First we visited the amazing village of Arshan, located at the foot of the mountain peaks. Thermal mineral springs and fabulous landscapes awaited us here. After lunch we went to the hot springs of Baikal with interesting name Pearl. Divided into two parts, they emitted a nice steam with a feeling of warmth from a long distance. Two guys were swimming in one part, and a couple of girls were swimming in the other. After changing in the locker room, I ran across the ice and plunged into the spring. Warmth, bliss and relaxation throughout the body instantly spread inside. I stayed here for about two hours and went to change clothes. And soon the whole group returned to the estate.

"Baikal-Sugrob-mega-party"

There were two days of drive ahead! We visited ski resort in Baikalsk, where they could have fun from the heart!
I went skiing for the first time. On the first day I never managed to move down the mountain; all the time was spent on training and preparation. We had a simply wonderful instructor who inspired me to perform a feat on the second day. I didn’t just slide down the mountain, but got a lot of impressions and positive emotions wherein. Mount Sobolinaya has steep slopes, clean air and crazy drive. Simply unforgettable! We were delighted with this part of the tour and came up with a very appropriate name for this vacation “Baikal-snowdrift-mega-party”!

It's a pity that it all ends someday...

On the last day, I saw Lake Baikal in all its splendor from the window of the excursion train. The Circum-Baikal Express took us along the golden buckle to the village of Listvyanka, where we were accommodated in a fairly good hotel. Our vacation in Listvyanka was very short, but active! Besides the fact that we visited a unique museum dedicated to Baikal, I managed to ride a snowmobile on the smooth and incredibly transparent ice Lake Baikal. The holiday was a success! It was great! I spent 6 days on Baikal, and my journey was exciting, active and very positive. And taking into account the fact that I had a vacation on Lake Baikal in winter, the prices turned out to be quite reasonable (unlike the summer season). After this, the preparations and flight home began.
Having arrived home, I felt an inexorable desire to return back - to that fairy tale, to that dream. The only pity is that the winter holiday has come to an end. But I firmly believe: next time I will definitely come back. By the way, a holiday on Baikal 2019 is an ideal solution for celebrating the New Year and Christmas. For those who are considering various options to celebrate, I’ll say it boldly - don’t doubt it: Lake Baikal, vacation, photos, prices - all this will forever remain in your heart pleasant memories, especially since the 2019 Baikal holiday offers discounts and the most convenient conditions for flying to this wonderful region.