It was planned to attend 4 summits: R9U / SO-007, R9U / SO-008, R9U / SO-012 and R9U / SO-034. All summits are new one. The planned track is over 100 km. Only half of the way is along the old forest roads. The duration of the trip is a week or 6 nights in a tent. 4 people wanted to take part, but only two were at the start: Oleg (R9WCJ) and RX9WT.
On Sunday, October 04, we arrived at the starting point - the village of Tirlyansky, 300 km east of Ufa. In backpacks - everything you need for our autonomous travel for a week.
We wanted hire an all-terrain vehicle to reach the forester’s house, but unfortunately, not a single one was available. With these additional 14 km of travel, our lag behind the schedule began. Exit to the highest ridges from Tirlyansky’s side - a new path for me. Therefore, sometimes I had to waste time choosing the right path by looking at the map and pressing buttons on the GPS.
The first camp is next to the forester’s house, on the river bank.
That night, the temperature probably dropped to -15 C. In the morning everything was covered with frost, ice appeared on the river.
Our way is forward and upward. The first scheduled summit is R9U / SO-012.
The second camp was at its foot, on the edge of the swamp.
Swamps and windbreak, then large stones.
We went up to the summit with backpacks, as we planned to continue the traverse towards R9U / SO-007 and -008.
We hid behind the ridge from the cold and strong wind.
When installing our GP antenna, I had to climb a little over the rocks, choosing the attachment points for the guy wires.
We are in the “heart” of the southern Urals.
The highest summits are around us.
I forgot about fatigue, cold as soon as I put on the headphones.
Oleg replaced me at the transceiver, picked up a microphone. I think the reporters heard the sound of the wind.
While Oleg was QRV, I used a cell phone for the first time in 2 days - the network was available at the top. Called Marat (RA9WJV) and I have the latest weather forecast in my hands. And it was disappointing - rain and snow over the next 2 days. In our conditions, this meant an increased danger of extending the traverse of the ridge over stones and rocks.
It is also difficult to navigate in poor visibility conditions.
The weather began to deteriorate when we were still at the top. Having completed work on R9U / SO-012, we did not continue the traverse, but in our wake descended and set up camp at the very first stream.
The rain started soon.
The next day, we did not wait for the weather to improve and did not try to reach R9U / SO-007 and -008, as we simply would not have had enough time to return. We headed towards a less high summit - R9U / SO-034. The path passed through a swamp, where the river B. Inzer begins.
In the fog, we went around the rocks and came out to an old forest road.
A day later, we set up a camp at the foot of the Inzerskaya Zubchatka ridge, where the R9U / SO-034 summit is located.
Walking along the ridge, we saw probably the most picturesque rocks in the southern Urals.
Due to the rocky nature of the ridge, we had to climb a lot, choosing a suitable position for activation.
It took almost a whole day. There were few options: 1.Just rocks, which we would not dare to climb
2. Dense forest.
3. Forest surrounded by rocks.
Already tired and worried, we finally found the necessary area, free from the forest, surrounded by low rocks. Here we did not install the GP antenna, but simply threw the LW on a tall tree.
Perhaps this was not the best (and not the highest) position on the ridge, but there was no time left. Descending in the dark over frosty rocks and boulders was clearly the worst decision.
The transceiver, having clicked the relay in the ATU, set the SWR to 1. And again the “summit hunters” provided a real holiday for tired and hungry travelers!
We went down amazingly quickly, in some places I just drove down the sloping and slippery stones on the back)
Probably we really wanted to eat and sleep.
A day later we were 5 km from the car, passing the way broken by all-terrain vehicles and timber trucks.
But we decided to make a day of rest, or rather half a day. We just set up a tent on the river bank by the road. What could be better than having a good meal by the fire and sleeping in a tent in the cold? Probably only a SOTA-pileup on the rocks under the howling of the wind!
73!
RX9WT
of a part of Earth that I will never see :-(.
