SIGHTINGS OF THE BURYATIA
BARGUZINSKY VALLEY
The Barguzinsky range
The Barguzinsky range occupies more than thirds of eastern coast of
Baikal lake, having stretched for about 300 kms along it from the north to the
south, from the valley of the river Verkhnya Angara, its width in the north is
about 80 kms, and in the south, in Chivyrkuysky hills is about 30 kms. The
average height of its tops is within the limits of 2400 m, the greatest height
of 2841 m (peak Baikal) - it reaches in the middle part of the main
water-separate range. Among ranges surrounding Baikal the Barguzinsky range is
the most powerful and the highest. In a high-mountainous part of the range there
is a number of pointed peaks, towers, needles, pyramids and the trapezes
composed from hard minerals. One can find traces of comparatively recent glacier
in the forms of small modern glaciers, morenny deposites, and valleys of the
rivers have trough character with crossbars and ledges on their length, with
numerous falls and their cascades. The highest of them, according to some data,
reaching 300-meter length, is on the tributary of the Tompudy-river, Tykma. In
the upper parts of the range there is a set of glacial lakes in circuses -
sources of the rivers and on the plateaushaped parts of the range. The eastern
slopes of the range (from the side of the Barguzin-river), especially in the
central part, represent steep precipices which face the valley as rocky walls,
the western slopes represent spurs cut by abounding in water tributaries of
Baikal, gently sloping aside the coasts of the lake.
The Chivyrkuyskie goltsy (hills), closing the Barguzinsky range from the
south, conditionally begin by the valley of the river Bolshaya Cheremshanaya and
do not exceed heights of 2000 m. From the north the relief is more smoothed,
however, here are also expressive rocky tops.
As well as on all high ranges of Pribaykalye, on the Barguzinsky range the
taiga reaches the height of 1200m, some trees reach height of 1400 m. Above the
taiga zone there is a vegetation of tundra character - birches, willows, cedar
stlannik. In the upper ranges near lakes there are the Alpine meadows with
plentiful thickets of flowers, where Siberian zharki prevail. The fauna here is
typical for Siberia, but ornitofauna is richer (up to 400 species of birds).
There are a lot of bears. In July they usually move from the coast of the lake
to the mountains where the meeting of travellers with them is rather possible.
The regime of the rivers is unstable: the highest level is marked during
summer showers, conterminous with the period of intensive thawing of snow in
goltsovaya (hilly) zone. The largest rivers of the range located on its western
slope are the tributaries of Baikal as the rivers Froliha, Òîmpuda, Shegnanda,
Kabanya, Bolshaya, Sosnovka, Cheremshanaya. Only the Svetlaya-river, collecting
water from the gutter in its northern cape is an exception. The rivers which are
flowing down from the eastern slopes of the Barguzinsky range without exception
run into the river Barguzin, and having much smaller areas of a reservoir, they
are less abounding in water and are frequently lost on the descent in the
Barguzinskaya valley in their own deposits.
The climate of the range is sharply continental (up to - 40 °Ñ in winter, up
to +35. +40 °Ñ in summer), in high mountains there are a few hot cloudless days,
variable overcast and cool cloudy weather are usual, drizzles can last several
days. The largest amount of precipitations drop in July - August, weather is
unstable, and can change repeatedly within a day. It begins to snow in September
and finishes in June (in mountains it occurs all-the-year-round), the snow cover
in taiga is kept with height of 1,3-1,4 m, in mountains and on the coast it is
in average 0,7-0,9 m, in subgoltsvy and goltsovy zones it is 1,6-2,0 m high.
Avalanche danger is great, blockages of snow in mountains can be kept, as well
as numerous snezhniki (snowdrifts) the whole summer. Baikal softens the climate
at the basis of the range: summer in the coast is cooler, and winter is much
softer, than in mountains, evaporations from water areas are transferred by
north-western winds to the range and fall as rains, warming influence of huge
mass of water is shown in rather warm late autumn and first half of winter, and
as a result of late thawing of ice in water area of Baikal spring comes late.
Average winter temperature of air in the coast is -20,8 °Ñ, and average summer
air temperature is +14,3 °Ñ. In the mountains it is in average lower on 10-15
°Ñ, thus rains in the coast drop in 1,5-2 times more.
For tourism the Barguzinsky range has remained unexplored in many respects
because of its inaccessibility and non-inhabitance. The least accessible and
very interesting for tourists are western, basically taiga slopes of the range.
Movement in these places is possible only in the valleys of the rivers where
animal and hunting tracks pass, sometimes "improved" by tourists, but frequently
they are less suitable and often lost. The 1-st tourist track has been laid and
well-equiped across the range, it begins in the settlement of Barguzin and comes
to an end in the bay of Chivyrkuy. On the coast all tracks come to the
Krugobaikalskaya (Around Baikal) track which is in the stage of creation. The
majority of tourist routes have linear character and, beginning from the
Barguzin valley, through mountains conduct to lake Baikal. Some routes have
radial or ring character, beginning and finishing on the coast of the
Chivyrkuysky gulf, they lead to the upper Barguzinsky range.
There is no regular water communication along the eastern coast of Baikal
lake now, except the voyages from Nizhneahgarsk and port of Kurly to the area of
lake Froliha, to the bay Khakusy - the places of rest and treatment. The
entrance to the range along the Barguzinsky highway beginning in Ulan-Ude is the
most convenient. The way from Nizhneangarsk across the Dagarskaya bay is known
(the variant of the entrance across BAM to the settlements on the river Upper
Angara and a ferry through it to the beginnings of routes is possible). From the
north distances and difficulties are considerably increased achieving the
central part of the range.
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Tour to Buryatia
St. Petersburg
