Weekend trip: Katavka-Big Bitch-Rapids. Big bitch, mountain Mountain big bitch
Ridge Big Bitch(NoneStop attempt)
The Bolshaya SukA ridge (emphasis on the last vowel) is admired by thousands of people every day, crossing Ural Mountains according to federal highway M5. Its stone kurum wall, stretching for more than 20 kilometers along the highway, can hardly be ignored.
The location of the ridge next to the highway, the possibility of quick descent and easy entry predetermined my choice of the final object for the cross-hike within the framework of the Southern Urals NoneStop project.
On November 1 at 7.00 am, leaving the car in the forest at the foot of the Maly Uval mountain, I begin the traverse. As I make my way through the snout, I think about the differences between this hike and the previous ones. In the summer I wear light 200 gram Solomon sneakers, the weight of my lightweight Bask Lite backpack did not exceed 8-9 kg with a 4 liter water supply. Now I’m going into the unknown, and therefore I’m carrying on my back and legs additional equipment, capable of providing me with a margin of safety in the conditions of the late South Ural autumn. I understand that there is most likely snow at the top, but how much there is, what the temperature will be at night and the strength of the wind remains a mystery. The higher I rise, the more snow there is and at the border of 900 meters snow cover becomes solid. The first obstacle on my way, the city of Maly Uval (1006.7), was difficult. In the semi-darkness I wander among the towers of the stone ridge crowning the peak for a couple of kilometers: visibility 100 meters, strong wind. Sometimes windows appear in breaks in the clouds, which gives hope.
At the top, the snow depth reaches 20-30 centimeters in some places, which already affects the speed of movement, coupled with windbreaks and solving rock labyrinths. I lose precious two hours for the first 2.5 km and an altitude gain of 500 meters, which is critically long in conditions of short 9.5 hour daylight hours.
Behind the Maly Uval mountain there is a small section of windfall forest and an ascent to the highest and completely kurum part of the ridge.
7 kilometers of ascents and descents through snow-covered kurums. And if the ascent is relatively simple and safe, then the descent is like walking through a minefield and the smaller the stones, the more dangerous it is to walk on them.
The ascent and traverse of Peak 1194.8 is easy. Under the cover of the rocks and with a view of the wonderful infernal performance, I arrange lunch.
I make myself freeze-dried macaroni and cheese, adding 100 grams. raw smoked sausages. Sublimates never cease to please me, 20 minutes and I, after eating hot food and drinking warm water, I can move on. I pass the large summit plateau quickly, but the 300-meter descent into the saddle brings a lot of trouble.
I cross the Katavka-Sibirka road and go towards the forested peak 1080.1. On the way to the top, making my way through another blockage, I understand that there is no way I can cross the ridge before dark, there are 2 hours of daylight left, and there is still 7 km ahead of a large section with rocks and turmeric. You have to make a decision to walk in the dark or get up for the night.
What to do? On the one hand, the goal is to complete the ridge within one day, on the other hand, I understand that I am very tired and moving in the dark along snow-covered rocks can end very badly. The second option is also driven by the desire to spend the pre-sunset time taking photographs. Caution wins. Having walked 20 kilometers, I set up my bivouac on the top of a cliff under the cover of a small stone wall. Down under the rock there were places that were more comfortable and more protected from the wind, but I sacrifice a certain amount of comfort for the “Feng Shuiness of the place”; I had the sunset in full view against the backdrop of the section of the ridge I had passed, and the opportunity to photograph the sunrise without getting out of the tent, which in winter conditions is very comfortable.
A few pictures…
... and in anticipation of food and warmth I climb into the tent. It’s so good that I wore winter ski covers with galoshes and a special top. Although my boots are wet, they are completely free of snow; I put them under my head. I unpack the food, put the burner outside and open the valve, gas begins to come out with a strong hiss, I strike the lighter and the flame engulfs the entire burner, the situation is dangerous, the open fire is 30 cm wide in the tent, I am reclining in a sleeping bag and limited in movement. I try to turn the burner over into the snow, but there isn’t much of it on the rock shelf, the burner tips over and the fire flares up stronger, a blow with my hand and the burner flies down the cliff. Cursing, I get out of the sleeping bag in one isothermal, throw on a down jacket, put on almost dry boots and climb down. The rocks are not high, about 10 meters, but we need to find another place to descend, and then a burner among the stones. There is a place for descent, there are no problems with the burner either, the strong smell of gas and the characteristic hissing lead directly to it. After 15 minutes I’m lying in the tent again, my boots are standing outside. I'll deal with these two icy pieces of snow in the morning. The night passes normally, I sleep poorly, a strong wind rinses the tent, a strong cough rinses me. Dawn is scheduled for 9.10, so at 7 o’clock I start moving towards the exit. I open the entrance, I’m in a thick cloud, the dawn will apparently pass by. I prepare breakfast, clean and warm my boots between my legs and in my sleeping bag. At 9.00 I start moving. Rested and with fresh strength, I pass the peak 1139.6 quickly and easily, I simply fly through the forest area, avoiding the rubble
and by 13.00 I reach the last peak of the ridge 1102.8. The weather has completely deteriorated - snowing. I decide to get out onto the M5, since the road is 3 km away from me, I can clearly hear the hum of cars. After 4 hours, using the help of 3 cars and walking 10 km along the road, I get to the starting point.
In total, the total length of the path along the ridge was 27 kilometers.
As for the new equipment, I tested my Palm neoprene kayaking mittens. I was extremely pleased with the test results. A great way to keep your hands warm in humid and windy conditions if needed frequently. delicate work, for example, photography. Thanks to the cutouts on the palms, you can use your fingers in a matter of seconds and hide them just as quickly, while neoprene, in turn, perfectly retains heat when wet, preventing your hand from freezing.
This ridge is clearly visible from the M5 highway. High mountains kurumniks rise sharply above the forest. The idea to climb it was born exactly two weeks ago, while driving past on Kruglitsa. Perhaps, without seeing its outline through the car window, we would never have gone there. But everything turned out well and let ours lie in the Urals again.
The photo shows the Bolshaya Suka ridge. The accent is on the letter a, from the word "suuk", which means cold.
Mountains appear in the dawn mist.
The ridge and the small village of Katavka, from which our walking part of the route began.
Large size
From Katavka the path went east, to a pass between two peaks. The left one is less high, the right one is higher - 1194 meters. Let's go to the right. Right along the ridge.
The photo shows the neighboring peak of the ridge
There are no roads here. Trope too. Only dense thickets grass, fern and raspberries. A real edible jungle. And this continues until about 800m
Higher up, the vegetation disappears and an endless mound begins.
Various types of moss dangerously cover the paths between the stones
The climb turns out to be very long. Somehow even endless. Having risen to the top, it turns out that this is not it at all and in the distance a ridge can be seen much higher. Ema, down again and up again on the stones. Again the peak and again a bummer. And this happened five times!!!
In the photo you can see several peaks that we climbed, thinking that they were the highest point on the ridge))
The top appears to be on the top right. But it's not her. The peak is further and higher.
Here I am at the top. The hill that was taken in the previous photo is visible. The rest of the climbers are rising below.
From here you have a beautiful view of green valleys and ridges.
The village of Katavka and Bakal in the distance.
View to the east, into the depths of Zyuratkul.
Large size
View to the west. In the distance is a rutted ridge and countless waste dumps of Bakal.
Large size
Having descended from the mountain back to the pass, we decide to go into the valley. Time is full. On the map they found some kind of gushing well, as it turned out, drilled by geologists in the 60s. Let's go there. The path goes exactly to the east and is constantly crossed by small rivers and streams, which in such heat could not but please.
The whole forest is rustling with streams invisible in the thickets. Unlike Taganay, there is an incredible amount of water here.
Here is the well. There is a nozzle on it and the stream flies up above the trees. In the heat below 40 and such a fountain, it’s just a fairy tale =)
Spend the night here. With such a fountain in the neighborhood, there can be no other options. Based on the facial expression in the photo, you can roughly estimate the temperature of the water escaping from the ground. Cool))
Excellent forest parking and “I was here” style photos =)
The next day was Bakal.
To be continued...
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Approximately halfway between Yuryuzan and Satka, skirting the Bolshaya Suka ridge, the trans-Ural highway M5 creeps for many kilometers towards the pass. And at its highest point, the stone rivers of kurum, which flow from the ridge through the thinning forest, almost reach the asphalt of the road. Driving past this place many times, I “licked my lips” looking at the nearby peaks. I thought that I should stop someday and run upstairs, since they are so close. I thought and drove on, because there was always something else in my plans. And this would probably have continued forever if I had not one day specifically come to Suka for the purpose of climbing.
Katavka - Big Bitch
The starting point of my journey was the ancient village of Katavka, founded near the ancient Kazan trail, seemingly back in the days of the almighty Myasnikov and Tverdyshev and lying near the ridge.
An old forest road leads from the village to the pass. At one time it was used for communication with Sibirka, which lies beyond two passes, and also for the removal of timber. And it is quite possible that it was part of that very legendary ancient Kazana (Kazan Trail), along which communication was carried out through Bolshoy Kamen to time immemorial. The pass here is too convenient: low, smooth. And opposite it, on Nurgush, there is an equally good one, leading further to the east.
It's very close to the pass. “Reached” quickly - in about an hour. The ascent ended, and the road led to an old clearing - a woodland with clearings, low birches and fir trees. A little ahead on the right, a remnant peeked out from behind the low trees, marking the pass point. The murky peaks, guardians of the pass, parted a little and opened a passage through the ridge. Here lies the border of the forest and lifeless stone. Junipers and dwarf fir trees climb upward along the rocky slopes. They are interspersed with green spots among the redness of the mountain tundra. Crooked, squat, smoothed by the constantly blowing winds. And gray stone rivers—kurums—rush from the peaks to meet them and get lost in the sea of taiga.
The road, having caught its breath a little, pulled the trail further, towards the emerging slope to the east, descending into the Yamki tract - a basin between Suka and Uvan. Here the distant Zyuratkul ridge with a characteristic white mark on one of the hills was clearly visible.
He stood for a while, peering into the distance, then stepped to the side and, making his way through the thickets of undergrowth, past a pass outcropping, came out to the edge of the ridge drop. From here the entire eastern panorama of the mountains opened up - the vastness of nearby Uvan and Nurgush. However, I wasn't going there today. My goal was the dominant kurum height to the right of the pass, where I planned to find a convenient place to spend the night.
I left the road with regret. Now we had to make our way up through windbreaks and kurums, past rocky outcrops, every now and then slipping off moss-overgrown stones. If there were any paths here, they all had claw marks. And as is customary according to the strange law of animal stitches, they disappeared as unexpectedly as they appeared. But they helped me walk for a while.
Meanwhile, the views were stunning. In the golden evening light, with every meter of height gained, the mountains grew closer. Uvan’s hump is already very close. The sources of Malaya Satka were hidden below it. From the height it was clearly visible how my road, drawn by an arrow along the clearing, went to Moskal and the Olympic Cordon, invisible from here - the center of all the local paths. It must be said that Big Bitch, being the northern continuation of the powerful Zigalga ridge, is located in the very center Southern Urals. Its name comes from the Bashkir “suuk”, that is, “cold”, and not what many thought. Although, as authoritative Ural toponymist Alexander Matveev writes, local population puts the emphasis on the first syllable, citing the fact that it is very difficult to move along the ridge. Here I completely agreed with them.
Climbing from outcropping to outcropping, I crawl out onto the next stone platform. Here it is, in full view, Big Nurgush - the highest point Chelyabinsk region. Adjacent to the stone peak on the left is a huge plateau with an area of tens of square kilometers. This place is not as often visited by tourists as Big Iremel, and on the tundra plateau many rare plants, including the golden root. Through the saddle between the Nurgush stepson Lukash and the Big Nurgush himself runs the old Thieves' Trail, along which horse thieves took horses from the Satka factory to the Bashkir Trans-Urals. It was believed that if you walked along this path, you yourself would one day become a thief. This is just one of the many legends and tales that the Satka district is very rich in. However, like the entire mining Urals.
On one of the climbs, I left my backpack and lightly rushed up to catch the sunset light in order to catch something else after the setting sun. And here it is, the sun, imperceptibly, imperceptibly, but seemingly quite noticeably, and quickly rolled up to the edge of a distant ridge. And I sat down on the edge of the rock, suddenly realizing that my legs were not going to the top, although there was very little left to it. But I can't bring myself to do it. I need to go back for my backpack and then crawl back up. But that's not the point at all. I sat in silence on the cliff. Somewhere far below the highway rumbled. And I seemed to feel good and calm. But the sunset light began to play its usual trick on me. Anyone who has been alone in the evening, far from human habitation, will understand me. In the evening twilight, during sunset, a wave of anxiety and loneliness rolls in, which you just need to wait out. Survive this hour and a half, because when the sun sets and night falls, the wave will subside. But at this very time you are ready to give up everything and run without looking back to people. Because because the feeling that covers you is ancient, at this time the instincts turn on, saying very clearly: “Now night will come, and if you are left alone, you are unlikely to live until the morning.” And nothing can knock it out or erase it.
I returned to my backpack. I sat and thought for a while, but Once again Realizing that his legs weren’t going up and there was nothing he could do about it, and having come up with several well-reasoned reasons, in the approaching darkness he began to move down.
Moving down is always some kind of sadness. The sadness of parting with the mountain. Already leaving the pass, I turned around and saw how the first very bright Star. So big, warm, furry. A silent peak, a silent star and its bright magical light flying through God knows what space and time! “Heavenly nail” flashed through my head. That's what the Arabs called Sirius. And a feeling of pity also appeared at the same time. I regret that I couldn’t find the strength to stay and left, leaving behind a fairy tale and the view of silent ridges.
On the way back, I didn’t turn on the flashlight for a long time and, as a result, I went the wrong way: into abandoned meadows, swamps, and came out to the outskirts of Katavka from a completely different direction, when night had already fallen.
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The name is quite euphonious for the Russian ear, if the emphasis is placed correctly. It is placed on the last syllable. The word “suky” in Bashkir means “peak”, “ridge”. It is possible that the origin is also connected with the word “syuyk” or “suuk” - “cold, “icy”. It’s really always not hot at the top, but in the cold season it can be even extreme. However, there is another version of the name, from the Turkic word “su” - water, where the second syllable indicates its negation. This option also reveals the peculiarities of this corner, where during the day with fire you may not find not only a stream, but also an overflowing spring.
This ridge is clearly visible from the M5 highway in the area where this highway approaches the city of Bakal and the suburban village of Katavka. The most convenient place for the assault begins from Katavka. There is a well-paved path leading to the mountains from the village through the spruce taiga. Soon it rises quite steeply and takes tourists to the saddle of the Bolshaya Suka ridge, to one of its most picturesque corners, where rock outcrops are located. Among them, one is called the Bear Stone. The view from above is simply mesmerizing. The city of Bakal with its mining operations and the Shuyda ridge are visible; the cities of Yuryuzan and Trekhgorny are visible to the side.
If you cross the saddle and continue to walk along the same road, then after descending from the ridge it will lead to the famous “Boiling Spring” at the sources of the Malaya Satka River, and then to the no less famous fountain at the sources of the Bolshaya Kalagaza River. There is a place for picnics and overnight stays, where the climb to the neighboring mountain Uvan begins. This mountain is sometimes called Malaya Suka.
The Bolshaya Suka ridge stretches from southwest to northeast for 27 kilometers. Its highest sections are located just at the edges; they exceed 1100 meters. Highest point- 1195 meters. Externally, the relief resembles an uneven sheer wall made of gray-green bricks. This is because the slopes are covered with stone rivers - kurumniks. Their boulders are densely overgrown with green lichens, almost hiding the color of the rock. Stones, as a rule, are slippery and dance underfoot, so it is more comfortable to climb where there are thickets of moss between the stones, and also relatively rare trees. Lonely spruce and birch trees grow among the stone scatterings. Larch is also often found.
In winter, the climb is difficult due to deep, abundant snow, which also hides the gaps between the stones. But in early winter, on rocky outcrops you can admire numerous bizarre icicles. They were formed from the fact that rocks continue to give off the heat accumulated over the summer. The Bolshaya Suka ridge is one of the favorite places of the rector of Chelyabinsk State Pedagogical University Vladimir Sydyrin, who grew up in these parts.