February 22.

The team consisting of 9 men, completed an ascent to the highest point in the Altai mountains -. Belukha (height 4503 m) Their route was rated at a 3 level of complexity through the TKT pass.

January 22, 2003.

Christening on the river America.
The members of the Russian delegation went rafting on the river America. From the very beginning nobody believed that we could realize this dream, including Gary Cook, the American manager of the project.
All pointed to the low water level, which could be changed only by arranging it with the hydroelectric power station. At last the request was granted for the benefit of the rafting trip. The water level was raised, and 9 participants arrived at one of the companies that leads rafting trips- Mother Lodge. First, the leaders of the trip gave us careful instructions, and we were given wet suits and lifejackets. We then packed our supplies into waterproof bags. In the beginning, we floated through a quiet part of the river, and then through two 3-level sections that were much rougher. In the end, when we were all soaked and freezing, we remembered that the day of the rafting trip was also the orthodox holiday "Christening";. So, we had been "christened" in an unusual way. Four different firms work on the river America who specialize in rafting and kayaking. In the summer the rafting trips are very popular, though they certainly can not be compared to a trip on the rivers of Colorado, where to get on a rafting trip it is necessary to wait on a list for several years.

January 10, 2003.

On January 10 began the visit of a delegation from the Federation of Sports, Tourism, and Mountaineering to the USA. During the course of the visit there will be meetings with our partner organizations (Tahoe Rim Trail, Earth Corps, Tahoe-Baikal Institute, Forest Service, FRAEC, Earth Island Institute), during which issues of the development of the Great Baikal Trail (GBT) will be discussed. The visit will last until January 25, 2003.

November 4, 2002.

The Federation gathered the results of two actions connected to the beginning of a winter season in mountains of East Sayan: a Republic tournament in a legendary valley of mineral sources on the river Shymak and a gathering of alpinists in the valley of the river Kingirga, including Angarsk, Irkutsk, Brask and Chita climbers. About 30 men participated in the tournament, and for the majority it was their first visit to the mountains and their first time completing a campaign. Buryatiya was represented by 9 men, including 3 beginners (Mikhail Kovalevsky, Nicholai Khunkhenov, and Yuri Polyansky), who executed the "the Climber of Russia" classification and have begun to perform 3rd level mountaineering campaigns.

November 1, 2002.

THE CLIMBING FEDERATION of RUSSIA has published a POSITION about a winter championship of Russia) (the Cup of Russia of 2002) (Pavel Camoylin Memorial Prize- 6th annual tournament). The present position is an invitation to the competition. [more...]

October 31, 2002.

Update on the seminar on the GBT from the School of Tourism and Ecotourism. The Sevrobaikalsky portion of the Great Baikal Trail is both the most remote and the least developed for tourism, and has other economic activity. It includes 6 sites of overall length of 665 ??. In different years all of these sites, except for a portion at the Barguzine State Reserve, have been traversed by representatives from the School of Tourism and Ecotourism and the Davan Outing Club. [more...]

October 30, 2002.

Irreparable damage is done to the Baikal coast near the area of the village of "Bolshoi Galusnoye" a group of ecologists and scientists declared yesterday. Some days back, in territory of the Pribaikalsky National Park, the Ministry of Defense started construction on a military vacation resort. The "Greens" maintain that construction began without the proper authorization. This impudent and unprecedented seizure of public land the ecologists say occurred in an officially protected area of Baikal. A few days ago, the Ministry of Defense began construction on the coast of Baikal. Several hundreds of trees were cut down, and a huge trench was excavated. The contractors have not produced a document authorizing the construction. Unfortunately, no sanctions can be brought against the trespassers, says Dimitry Govorukhin, the chief of ecological inspection at the Goloustnensky Ecological Center. This construction violates five federal nature protection laws at once. First, it is on the territory of the Pribaikalsky National Park. Second, according to a law on Baikal and water codes any economic activity there is forbidden. The project has not passed an independent environmental impact examination, there was no ecological and watershed impact measurement done. "This is the first time in my life that I have seen such a sudden and unauthorized seizure of public land, especially on Baikal, a designated World Heritage Site" said Peter Naumov, a professor and doctor of biology. The area is in the territory of the Goloustnensky administration. The head of the administration, Vacilly Mishukov has declared that the construction began without his knowledge. However, later it became clear that he wasn't entirely accurate. The general plan of construction Mishukov had seen: "Well, the resort is fairly small. There will be one small wooden building." An employee of the Pribaikalsky National Park, Viktor Vorotentsev, speaks about the same plan: "The general plan is a very thick folder. There some houses, other structures." The territory, fenced for construction, impresses with its scale. Chain-link fences on a concrete foundation encircle 450 square meters. "If to give to these people to finish construction, it will present an opportunity, and everyone who wants claim any tidbit on Baikal will begin to eat away at the coastline, and soon it will be built up", said the chief of ecological inspection at the Goloustnensky Ecological Center. Yesterday a commission of representatives of the Land Bureau, the Natural Resources Department and the Department of Sanitation visited the site. They wrote an official report, and the workers of the Pribaikalsky National Park have written down all infringements to official protocol. The materials will be received by the office of the public prosecutor.
?atyana Klimova /17:/

October 26, 2002.

From October 26 till November 3 the Federation of Sports, Tourism and Mountaineering will lead a touriada in the area of the Shumaksky Springs, participants being students from the East-Siberian Academy of Culture and Arts and Buryat State University, and employees of organizations Mobiltelekom and Vtorchermet. Ulan-Ude.
In a parallel touriada, in gorge of the river Kingarga, trainings on alpinism will be carried out.

October 25 2002.

We congratulate all tourists and climbers of Buryatiya on opening of the new winter season in mountains!

October 15, 2002.

On the 15th of October ended the visit of a commission of experts from the USA.
This visit was organized as part of the partner project "Association for EcoTourism and the Development of Business". The delegation included representatives from partner organizations including the "Tahoe Rim Trail", The United States Forest Service from California and Nevada, representatives from "Earth Corp" in Seattle, Washington. During the trip, the delegation visited Irkutsk and Ulan-Ude, the Pribaikalsky and Transbaikalian parks, and the Baikal reserve. The different section of the planned Great Baikal Trail were examined, and meetings were held with the representatives of governmental, business, non-profit organizations, and other protected territories located around Baikal were visited. A coalition was formed to help with the preparation and realization of the various projects planned for the system of trails around Baikal. Annual trainings on trail building in the United States are planned for the future, in particular five young experts, who will be leading volunteers on the GBT projects, are planning a trip to the USA later this year. The first such training was on finance, and was organized United States Forest Service. The leader of Club LAT (Ulan-Ude), Igor Zadevalov, for three months worked on various trail construction sites in California and Nevada. Also due to support of the US Forest service, Andrey Suknev was able to arrange a visit to America. For three weeks Andrey visited sites in Washington State, Nevada, and California. During this time he made contacts with many organizations, who may take part in the future development of ecotourism in the Baikal region and other regions of Russia.
In January of the next year is planned a return visit of a delegation from the Baikal region to Lake Tahoe. The goal of the visit is the expansion of our coalition and the preparation of practical projects directed at economic cooperation between the Far East of Russia and the Western coast of USA.

September 27, 2002.

September 27 The world day of tourism has passed! The Federation of Sports, Tourism and Mountaineering has acknowledged this event by holding a meeting on hiking. 12 teams participated in competitions which took place in areas of Ulan-Ude.
For the first day, the participants competed in the completion of a controlled-tourist route- team-work skills were checked here. On the second day, on a tourist obstacle course, the skills of the individual team members were tested.
First place went to team K-9 (from the Eastern region), second place went to the team from club "REEF", and third place went to the team from club "Ermak: (Liceum 16).

September 25 2002.

New contacts for the Federation.
Representatives of Federation of Sports, Tourism, and Mountaineering of Republic Buryatiya have visited The Center for Climbing and Rock Sports in Reno, Nevada. The purpose of visit was to become familiar with the equipment used on artificial rock walls and simulators. The manager, Dave Shouller, kindly told the visitors about the Center. Igor Zadevalov, the representative from Club LAT, is going to construct similar simulators in school 7 in Ulan-Ude. Climbing lessons for different age groups were recorded on video. We hope that in the future this acquaintance will develop into a partnership between climbers in Ulan-Ude and Reno.

September 9, 2002.

From the 20th of August to the 2nd of September, the Federation of Sports, Tourism, and Mountaineering of Buryatiya, together with its partner from Munich, the tourist company Hauser Exkursionen, organized and lead tours for 8 German journalists. [more...]

August 3 2002.

Today a team from club "LAT" left to go to an area of the East Sayans to make level 2 mountaineering trip. During the trip the team will visit the sacred valley of the river Shumak, which is fed by the medicinal mineral springs.

July 31 2002.

From July 27th to July 30th a team from the club "K-9", consisting of 18 men, completed a rafting trip on the river Selenga, past the Merkinskoy fortress, along the shore of the river Khilok, up to Ulan-Ude.