Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1258433
over 3000 km, which connects the southern part of Siberia with the city of Magadan located on the coast of the Sea of Okhotsk. The Momsky Mountains ex- tending along 700 km are situat- ed in north-eastern Yakutia and adjoin the Chersky Range from the north. They are separated by a swampy valley of the Moma River that has a width of 15km. This re- gion is very inaccessible. You can forget about any marked trails in these mountains. We made our first attempt to reach the highest peak in the Momsky Mountains in the summer of 2017. At this time of year there is no paved road, an access is only possible from the water or air, and exclusively to few places located in the upper reaches of the Moma River can, under the favourable conditions, be reached by a giant Ural truck. You need to travel 300 km, sail a boat on the Moma River, to get to the peak. As a means of trans- port, we choose a raft, which we have been building by ourselves. The poor steerability of the raft and very fast falling water level in the river mean that rafting must be given up. We borrowed a kay- ak from the locals. Upon a week of rafting we leave the kayak on the river bank of the Moma and return to the peak with the ruck- sacks. There is about 60 km to go in a straight line. Walking on foot in this season of the year is very difficult due to a large amount of water on the ground surface, which infiltration is prevented by the permafrost. A pace of march- ing across the taiga is less than 2 km/h, and in some places, water reaches above the knees. Anoth- er difficulty that we have to face is crossing the rivers. Passing across the turbulent tributaries of the Moma River can be very time-consuming and may come to a bad end. A turbulent stream, in which the water level reaches the knees, can carry us along, in particular since we are carrying our rucksacks weighing more than 30kg. The march is hindered by the omnipresent mosquitoes and midges. The larger animals which footprints we encounter and which can be dangerous are brown bears and elks. The end of summer, however, is a period when the bears are already abun- dantly provided with food and a man is rather not an item on their menu. The forests abound with all kinds of berries and mush- rooms. There are also no ticks, so dangerous in southern Sibe- ria due to tick-borne encephalitis transmitted by infected ticks. EXPEDITION