By Andi Brunner
and Janosch Plathner

Paddlers and photos: 
Janoschki di Janosch
(Janosch Plathner)
Andrea il Piccolo
(Andi Brunner)
Permanenza
(Pirmin Dlugosch)
Flipper
(Philipp Mach)
Daniele de Bauero
(Daniel Bauer)

Q. What were one Austrian and four Germans doing at the airport in St. Petersburg? 

A. They are trying to get five kayaks to Siberia!

Siberia – back to nature

It was raining heavily as our Russian driver and his wife brought us (the one Austrian and four Germans) to a house. We expected to be there at any moment along the way, however, after eight hours of, “We are almost there,” the driver stopped and we finally arrived at the house. The door opened to reveal Vasily, our kayak guide whom with his Russian accent shouted, “OK guys, listen! I hope, you are in good condition. Water level is super high. Are you a good group?”

“Ah, I hope so…”

“Not sure…”

“We’ll see…”

All of us were hesitating – then Vasily said, “OK, dawei (Russian for: let’s go)!”

The group loaded the boats, luggage, a children’s bicycle and a chainsaw onto the UAZ 452. Still the heavy rain fell. Nine people on eight seats, a rain jacket instead of a window pane and a leaking roof. All the clichés about Russia seemed to be perfectly true. Our motivation was put to the test for five more hours. In the middle of the night, we finally arrived at the Chuya camp.

The Chuya – upper and lower

The next morning Vasily told us, “Water levels are high, but it’s normal.” So he wanted us to start on the Mazhoy Gorge (a difficult canyon with no escape, but really good rapids). Tired of the driving, we preferred to warm up on the lower section. Vasily said that this section is for girls and not for real men like us, but we did it nevertheless.

Right in the first rapid, Vasily got stuck in a big hole. We expected him to swim out of it, but after what seemed like hours of fighting, he managed to get out. Afterwards he told us, “Ok guys. We have really high water! Normally there is a rock two metres out of the water, not a hole!” The rest of the run was fun read-and-run class III whitewater and the perfect warm-up.

The next day, the weather cleared up, the sun was shining and water levels started to slowly drop. So we spent the next three days on the Chuya and its different sections.

The Chuya is an ultra classic glacier-fed river in Altai, that is runnable all summer long. Each section takes over one hour, even if you know the lines, which is typical for Russian rivers (there are hardly any short runs like in the Alps). The Chuya is about 40-70 cumecs and starts with a long read and run class IV, followed by a harder gorge, where you have to scout and/or portage some rapids. However, it’s more like a box-canyon, which makes it sometimes harder to get out of the boat. So you should paddle with someone who knows the lines.

Upper Bashkaus

After this Chuya warm up, the first bigger trip was waiting for us! We drove six hours towards the Chulishman, with a short stop at the Upper Bashkaus. Again, water levels were very high and what used to be a class III run was super fun, pushy and no longer class III. Plus the landscape was class VI.

Chulichman

On the next day, we continued the drive to the Chulichman. After leaving the main road, there was barely a road anymore. We drove through a forest, went around mud holes, fallen trees, whilst trying not to flip the car. When there was no possibility to drive any further, we stopped and set up our camp next to the river.

The Upper Chulichman is a super good class IV-V river and with around 70 cumecs, it offers some stout rapids and resembles the classics in Voss. All the rapids are runnable, but we portaged some of them. Normally it’s a, “Yeah, second run, double fun” section, but again, water levels were very high. This section took us about three to four hours.

After a siesta at the take-out, we decided to start our first multi-day in Russia on the middle Chulishman that afternoon. Throwback: when we all met in the beginning of the trip (four hours before the departure of the flight), Andi was very surprised to learn, that we would do multi-days in Russia, “What? We need drybags? I did not expect to do multi-days…!”

A little tired, but super stoked, we paddled a class IV read and run gorge to our camp spot, where we changed our clothes and lit a fire. Sat together with a fire at a multi-day is definitely a different feeling than being with a fire next to the car.

On Chulishman things are huge with long, big rapids and the biggest siphons we had ever seen. Nearly the whole of the big volume river disappears under stones at the ‘Gate’ rapid. The take-out is on a wide, open valley, where there were some tourists camping next to the river, which is quite impressive as it’s in the middle of nowhere.

Sauna

In the evening we went for a Russian sauna where the thermometer showed 100°C! Sasha, our driver, was waiting for us with a whip of branches. The branches are supposed to stimulate the circulation when you whip the back with it.

Chulcha and Kurkure

The next few days we paddled the tributaries of the Chulishman: Chulcha and Kurkure, both of which you have to hike in. The Kurkure is the opposite of what you would expect from a Russian river: 200 metres long, steep and around three cumecs. The Chulcha on the other hand has so many big rapids in a row, that the pools in-between are barely pools. We spent two days on these rivers, and after each day, Sasha was super motivated for a sauna! After the long hikes we were so tired heading into the sauna and Sasha was waiting for us with the branches…

Bashkaus –
the book of legends

The well known book of legends river and finally our journey took us there! On the first day of this multi-day trip you will find only class II for four hours. So we took all the delicious food we needed, as on class II it is not too bad if the boat is heavy. Our plan was to make sausages, stick bread and potatoes.

Unfortunately, the sausages were absolutely not enjoyable, the stick bread raw inside and burnt outside and the potatoes looked like coal! So the food was the opposite from the kayaking on that multi-day (umschreiben).

After the first two bigger rapids, we found the book of legends, which isn’t too easy if you don’t know where it is. To be at such a famous place was really fascinating.(ausschmücken) and it was really interesting to read about all the groups, who had been there before. Especially if you know some of those people in person.

The Bashkaus provides five star whitewater. Some big rapids (nothing too scary) and a lot of class IV in between. Vasily told us about a big landslide, that you have to portage river right – once there, we realised, that it was a really big slide. Nearly the whole part of the mountain fell apart and formed a 45° steep gravel field. As soon as you wanted to set foot on it, everything started to move. We walked a little bit uphill and started crossing the gravel field. Pirmin went first and seemed to be quite comfortable, we followed him and it always looked as if it was getting better a few metres ahead. However, it became worse and worse. To make it worse, the wind started to blow pretty strong.

It’s quite a scary situation to be on a gravel field, having over 25kg of multi-day equipment on your shoulders, trying to keep your balance on slippery ground with heavy winds, which was turning the boat all the time. We gave our best to get ahead, when we suddenly heard a scream and saw a cloud of dusk and a green spade kayak air-cartwheeling towards the river. Not able to help Pirmin, we watched the boat bouncing 30 metres downwards towards the unrunnable rapid. Luckily, it got stuck near the river bank.

Pirmin managed to rescued himself without bigger problems and to our all surprise, the boat was still in one piece, it didn’t even have a dent! Now even more scared, we carefully continued the portage and were more than glad when we made it safely back to the river – until the moment when we heard the sound of moving rocks! We looked up and saw them sliding down, so we immediately searched for small projections and tried to cover below them. The rocks came flying over our heads super fast! Luckily none of us got hit but it was very scary – take care on this one!

Sauna again

One hour later we arrived at the take-out, totally exhausted, and saw Sasha already preparing the whip of branches for sauna. This is where we noticed him stressed for the first time, because we were late. Thinking the landslide was the hardest part of the day, we came into the the 100°C sauna with a stressed Sasha and his whip!

Barely alive we slept like babies until the warmth of the sun woke us up the next morning.

Chuya

It is always nice to go back to the Chuya camp for lapping Mazhoy Gorge, drying the gear and chilling in the sun. The Mazhoy Gorge is always fun! After the mandatory portage, we were talking about the next rapid, which we named, ‘Subway of surprise’.
Andi was always nervous before this rapid, so he asked Janosch, “How do you paddle this rapid?”

The answer from Janosch was, “Like always, try to boof somewhere somehow and let the first curler be your subway. Go in and enjoy your uncontrollable ride. You never know where and when you will get out!”

Karagem and Argut

So that’s what we did, before we started our last adventure – the Karagem Argut. The Argut, with its two overnighters, is another ultra-classic and one of the biggest rivers in Altai. It’s a whole day’s drive to get to the put in, that is only possible with a really big car or a tank, otherwise you would have to walk the last bit. So we had to carry our multi-day boats for 5km. Finally at the put-in, we started our multi-day routine: collecting wood, making a good fire for cooking, getting into our dry clothes, setting our tarps, preparing our sleeping place, cooking and sitting together on the campfire.

The easiest way to the Argut is the Karagem tributary, which we paddled down on the first day. It’s a small, fast, rocky and cold glacial river with plenty of wood and nasty stones in it. Not the best river, but for us the only way to get to the Argut. There is another way, but you need a special border visa to do it.

Super good big volume drop and pool character, the second day put a smile on our faces! There are not a lot of rivers like that in the world. If you like the famous Rio Futaleufu, you will love the Argut – the only disadvantage is, that it’s not roadside. In return, you get an inaccessible, impressive landscape far away from everything.

After some hours of flatwater paddling on the Katun (the Argut is a tributary of the Katun), we did the last paddle strokes of our journey. It was time to start our long way back, full of amazing impressions of Russia and a completely new opinion of the very kind and helpful Russian people.

Thank you Siberia for this awesome experience!