Tag Archives: altay

And so, our Altai-Katun rafting adventure was coming to its inevitable end, and so is my Altai-Katun series of posts detailing it. All that’s left to do is share the most interesting photos that I don’t think I’ve shown here before. If I have – apologies for the repeats. So, in this final installment to the series, a brief review of our summer Altai rafting trip – guided by a perusal through said leftover pics.

Altai-2025: a five-day hike through the Altai mountains, then an incredible 500-kilometer rafting journey down the Katun (plus a short side-foray along the Chuya) ->

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Continuing the tales of our Altai summer adventure – next up, we’re edging down the Katun with the final stretch fast approaching…

Today’s rapids – the Teldekpen Rapids, aka “the Stumps” (here) – which, in high water, are probably the most difficult, unpredictable, and genuinely dangerous of the whole river. But let’s start from the beginning…

That morning, we saw that the water was still high (as I mentioned earlier, it had rained non-stop the previous day – raising the river by 130cm). On the flat sections, the current was racing along at around 13km/h (if I remember rightly), so there was absolutely no need to paddle ->

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After a full day of downtime given the incessant rain, the following morning, finally, we were able to get back on the Katun. Which we were reeeaaally keen to do since, turns out, without a steady stream of outside stimuli to jolt the nervous system, modern big-city office types like us get rather down.

Another effect of the rain: the Katun’s water level had risen a staggering 1.3 meters in just 24 hours – a massive change, and not a good one for tackling rapids…

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Hi folks!

Another day – another spot of rafting in Altai!…

After a thrilling day of whitewater rapids on the Chuya, we were back on the Katun river. By this point we’d already done the Cheeks, the Akkem Rush, and the Chuya’s Turbine and Horizon rapids. Next up – yet more exciting aquatic adventures: great! But, alas, the sky began to cloud over with nasty gray gloom: not great at all…

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