16-18 October

From October 14 to 16 of this year, the Baikalskii State Nature Reserve hosted a seminar to discuss the results of our first season of work at the Great Baikal Trail Association. There were six Baikal trail building projects that were presented at this seminar, which itself took place in the Nature Reserve's new visitor center....... next

September 18

The volunteer season 2003 is over! We want to say a lot of thanks to our volunteers! We are preparing reviews and official reports now. A short movie and a questionnaire form are being developed as well. Let us thank everybody once again!

September 12

The works at the last section of the Way to Clean Baikal - 2003 (in the Barguzinskaya Valley), which is a part of the Great Baikal Trail, were completed on September 12.

August 31

On August 31 the works began at the last section of the Way to Clean Baikal - 2003 (in the Barguzinskaya Valley). These works should be completed on September 12. Leader of the section is Zadevalov Igor Michailovich.

August 29

On August 29 the works at Chivirkuyskiy section of the Great Baikal Trail were successfully completed.

August 16

On August 16 the works were started at Chivirkuyskiy section. Their completion is expected on August 29. At the same time the preparation for the last and the most important section of the trail in the Barguzinskaya Valley, scheduled for this summer, has began.

August 15

On August 15 the works at Severobaikalskiy section of the Great Baikal Trail were completed. Some volunteers who worked on this section took a boat heading to the next, Chivirkuyskiy section of the Great Baikal Trail.

July 24th

The group of Tahoe-Baikal institute has arrived to Irkutsk in July,24. They brought the load of instruments which was waited for working on the parts of GBT trail.

July 17th

17th of July the works on the Baikal part of GBT has been over. The report about the done work will be issued soon.

July 10th

On July 10th work was completed on the Hamar-Daban portion of the Great Baikal Trail. Work was completed 2 days earlier than the scheduled. For a report on the project, look at the "Project Progress" section of our site.

July 5th

On July 5th work on the first part of the Great Baikal Trail at Bolshoi Golustny was completed. Hank Birnbaum led this project. For a report on the work completed look at the "Project Progress" section of our site.

July 1st

On July 1st construction began on the demonstration trail in Jubilee Park (Ulan-Ude). This portion of trail will be a universally accessible trail- a long-held dream of the handicapped and wheelchair bound people of our republic. More....

June 28th

On June 28th work began on the Hamar-Daban (an ecological trail along the Osinovka river) section of the Great Baikal Trail. 15 volunteers from Russia, America, and Great Britain worked on this trial. Project leaders: Nicholai Nicholaevich Volodchenkov and Mikhail Sergeivich Ivanov. Work will continue to the 12th of July.

June 25-27th

From June 25th to the 27th there was a seminar at the village of Tanhoi (at the National Baikal Biosphere and Nature Reserve) on the construction of ecological trails with participants from the Great Baikal Trail Project and American experts in trail building. In the seminar, participants explored different issues and the use of equipment in the building of the Great Baikal Trail.

June 22nd

On the 22nd of June work began on the first section of the Great Baikal Trail at Bolshoi Golustny. Construction will continue to the 5th of July. Project leader- Hank Birmbaum

June 21-24th

From June 21-24th the visit from American experts in trail planning and interpretation, Desna and Kraig Young, took place. During their time here, they visited two parts of the Great Baikal Trail located within the territory of the Zabaikalsky National Park. Work on these sections is planned for this summer; one trail is an ecological trail on the Ushkany islands and the other is the "Monokhova/ Smeinaya Bay" trail. Additionally the experts plan to participate in the seminar that will take place from the 25th to the 27th of June at the village of Tanhoi (at the National Baikal Biosphere and Nature Reserve). The goal of the expert"s work is to prepare recommendations and project goals for the ecological trails planned for the Great Baikal Trail.

March 21, 2003

On Thursday the 20th of March, our comrades Chimit Tarmaev and Sergei Kalugin, participants of a level 5 skiing campaign in the region of the Sayan Reserve, returned to Ulan-Ude. They are members of the Federation of Sports Tourism and Mountaineering and instructors in children's tourism, and will present a session in schools in Bostochny. 9 people participated in the competition, among them tourists from Krasnoyarsk and the Republic of Khakasia,. The active portion of the campaign took place over the course of 22 days (February 22nd to March 16th), during which the participants traversed over 320 km (without factors), 8 passes, and completed ascents on 4 summits. Their route ran through some of the most remote regions of Tuva and Khakasia, and therefore the group was completely independent, relying only on those stocks that they could carry themselves. The region they traveled through appeared very underdeveloped for tourism, inspiring extraordinary interest in writing a tourism plan for the region, which was completed by the group in the course of their trip. They were the first to ascend the Western peak, which will be named after our comrades. Thus completes the account of the Championship of Russia, 2003, the results of which will be known at the end of the calendar year.
The participants of the campaign discuss their impressions. Chimit Tarmaev: "My impressions of the campaign are only positive. The staff was extremely warm, and now we have many new friends in Krasnoyarsk and Abakan, who before this campaign we only knew through email. And this isn't the last action we'll take together; we already have new ideas and plans. I want to thank the State Committee for Youth Activities, Sports, and Tourism and especially the President of FSTA, S. D. Baldanova for providing financial assistance. "Sergei Kalugin "Everything went extremely well, and our expectations were 150% met. We saw so many new things, but I especially remember the tundra zone, when we saw such panoramic views! Now our next plan is to master more of the East Sayans, and now it's clear that our Federation has the resources to do it."

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.