Reserve pillars rock big tokmok. Sunday Posts
The Takmak rock, located in the Stolby nature reserve, is visible from almost anywhere in Krasnoyarsk. This landscape has become one of the calling cards of the city. This is an excellent example of how the unique and beautiful Siberian nature complements and transforms a huge modern metropolis.
Takmak Rock: history and legends
It is not known exactly when the rocks appeared in this place. Surely there is a scientific explanation for their formation, but local residents prefer to believe in the mythical origin of Takmak. Perhaps that is why a huge number of legends are associated with it.
One of them says that many centuries ago the majestic Yenisei ruled in these parts. He had several daughters, but most of all he loved Bazaikha and Laletina. When the time came to marry them off, Yenisei decided to start with the eldest. Prince Takmak was called to marry Bazaikha. However, as always, love intervened. And the handsome young man dared to ask for the hand of not his eldest daughter, but of another, who he liked more, Laletina. Yenisei became angry and cut the love triangle forever, turning Takmak and his retinue into rocks, and his daughters into rivers flowing nearby. So the three of them remained forever. And rocks and rivers still bear their names.
The reliability of such an assumption is, of course, controversial. After all, the names could simply come from a long-forgotten Turkic language.
Conquest of Takmak
Climbers became interested in the Krasnoyarsk Pillars back in the 19th century. Mysterious and mysterious peaks have become the target of professionals and amateurs. Takmak was conquered only in 1899. For a long time they were afraid to even approach it; among local residents this rock was considered sacred.
The first Russian climber, Anastasia Kachalova, was the first to step over prejudice.
Takmak today
Today Takmak no longer evokes such horror and awe as it did in the 19th century. Anyone with a certain level of physical fitness can repeat A. Kachalova’s feat. Under the guidance of experienced instructors, groups of brave and fearless tourists constantly climb Takmak. From the top of the rock there is a wonderful view of the city and surrounding area. It is believed that there is no better place to see Krasnoyarsk in all its glory.
In addition, there is a legend that everyone who climbs the Takmak rock forever falls in love with the Krasnoyarsk Pillars and returns here again and again to conquer new peaks.
Video about Takmak rock
Stolby is our local nature reserve, located just outside the city. It is a section of mountain taiga with picturesque rocks scattered among forested mountains, mainly on their peaks. There are two official entrances to the reserve: Central, the most popular, and Takmakovsky. In addition, from Stolbov you can go to the upper cable car station of the Bobrovy Log fan park.
This time I invited the participants of the hike to take a walk along the well-known route of the Takmakovsky district of Stolbov. We climbed to the Chinese Wall rock, walked around its perimeter, went down to the Mokhovaya stream, and then went up to the Takmak rock, from where we went to the cable car. The Takmakovsky district is notable for its short distances between mountains, but steeper climbs and large differences in elevation. So today we walked only 12 kilometers, but we gained more than 800 meters of altitude.
1. Our route
Takmak met us at the very beginning of the route, although he was not the first destination of our hike. But it is clearly visible already when approaching the reserve, and in general, it is visible even from the city. We stopped at an abandoned quarry to watch climbers train on an ice wall that they had specially poured and built this year. Competitions have recently taken place, so the ice on the wall is painted with blue and red lines marking the tracks.
The climb to the Wall of China was, although steep, quite surmountable. People were coming towards us on ice boats. It’s always like this in the Takmakovsky region: it’s easier to descend from these steep mountains while sitting on the ice than standing, but still standing you risk suddenly finding yourself in a sitting position. The wind picked up at the Chinese Wall, and we even got a little cold. We walked around the perimeter of the wall and ran down into the valley of the Mokhovaya stream, protected from the wind by the mountain slopes and forest.
We had to climb to the Takmak rock, which turned out to be not as easy as climbing to the Chinese Wall. The mountain slope here is steeper, the snow melted in places, then froze and turned into an ice crust. Small areas where rock climbing was required turned out to be more difficult than expected due to a crust of ice covering the rocks. But we, supporting each other, passed them without problems. Having looked at the city from the heights of Takmak, we went to the top of the neighboring mountain, where the upper station of the ski cable car is located. Satisfied and tired, with a sense of accomplishment, we lounged on the chairs of the cable car, which took us down to the city.
2. Entrance to the reserve
3. Quarry with an ice wall
4. Waiting
5. Climbing to the Chinese Wall
6. At the Chinese Wall
7. At the Chinese Wall
8. At Takmak's
9. At Takmak's
10. Transition between the rocks of the Takmakov group. Rock Berkut in the background.
11. Rocks of the Takmakov group
12. Climbing the slope at Takmak
13. Transition between Takmak and the upper cable car station. Takmak is in the background.
14. Top view from the cable car
Hi all!
I would like to talk about the K1 chairlift, which is located in the Bobrovy Log fun park in Krasnoyarsk. There are two cable cars in Beaver Log, but K2 operates in the winter to lift skiers, and in the summer it works only to lift the Ziprider attraction. Everyone else rides K1 in the summer.
I have a special relationship with cable cars. I am terribly afraid of them, so I ride them more often than ordinary people. In Rosa Khutor I never got to the top; at the penultimate transfer I had to wait for my people. I didn’t dare ride there in the open either. But in Krasnoyarsk the cable car is only open, so you have to go (
You can get to Bobrovy Log without a car by bus number 37. If you are coming by car, there is parking. Then you buy a ticket at the box office and go to the cable car. The cost in July 2019 for ascent and descent is 280 rubles for an adult ticket and 170 for children.
The entrance to the chairlift looks like this:
Place of boarding, insert the ticket into the turnstile and it opens automatically:
And so we are going, I already wrote that I’m afraid, so I’m driving with my eyes closed)) Fortunately, the journey is not long and one way lasts only 10 minutes, which seems like an eternity to me:
At the top you are greeted with a message that a photo has been taken and you can pick it up, the cost of a small photo is 250 rubles. I imagine my face contorted in horror; I didn’t even go to look at this photo. The photo booth is located next to the Vibram bar:
So, what to do at the top? There are several options. For example, stay in the bar and not go anywhere. But I don't think anyone uses this option. Moreover, there are excellent catering establishments downstairs.
If you stand facing the Vibram, there are two ways: right and left. First we go right. There is an observation deck at the Stolby Nature Reserve. At the entrance to the path there is a sign with tips for walking:
Then another sign, this time with a warning:
And a little about “stolbism”:
And here is the observation deck itself, quite compact:
I’ll tell you why further. Over there you can see the Sparrow rock a little:
Then from the observation deck you can go to Stolby. But this is a long route. You can come along the same path from Stolbov, but you won’t be allowed onto the cable car without a ticket; you’ll have to walk down. I’ve never been here before, maybe in the future I’ll decide:
We return back to the cable car station. By the way, here is a hint on what to do with the routes and the time spent, only the fourth (yellow) route involves the participation of a cable car:
The goal of my torment this time was the Takmak rock. Let's go left:
Here's a view of the city:
For comparison, from the same area, from the Torgashinsky ridge on July 7, 2019, the visibility was as follows:
And now our Krasnoyarsk is covered in smoke from forest fires that are spreading in the north of the region. The city is constantly in this haze, there are days when it is impossible to breathe and visibility is even lower. The fires are not extinguished, since they are in control zones (by the way, these zones are determined by the regional authorities). The costs of extinguishing fires in these zones are higher than the damage from fires, so they wait until it rains on its own.
Rospotrebnadzor salutes us every day that there is no excess of harmful substances in the air. But on the AirVisual website, Krasnoyarsk consistently holds 1st place in terms of pollution in the world!:
This week the haze reached Novosibirsk, Omsk and Yekaterinburg. After that, they started talking about us at the federal level, but somehow sluggishly. Can you imagine what kind of territories these are: Siberia, the Urals, plus Transbaikalia is burning. That is, half the country is already suffocating, but no one is going to solve the problem. They created a petition, but it was of no use...:
In general, we are waiting for the saving rain.
At first the road is quite comfortable, there are gazebos on the side that are for rent. There you can grill kebabs or celebrate some event in nature:
At the end of this road there is a view of Takmak, but first a steep descent awaits us:
We go into the gate on which there is a sign “No entry”; the fence on top is surrounded by barbed wire. This is probably the border of the Beaver Log. Let's look back at the path we've traveled:
The descent is small but steep. My sneakers were slipping, there was a lot of gravel there. Then it was much easier to get back up than it was to go down.
Let's go to the rock. Along the way we try to admire the views:
When we approach Takmak, there are options - go straight to the foot of the cliff, or you can first walk around along the forest path. We took a detour. It is not visible in the photo, but some trees are marked with blue paint so as not to go astray from the route. But you have to stop in time when you see that the end of the cliff is turning. The path with marked trees goes further straight, I assume to the Granite Quarry - the entrance to Takmak is not from the cable car:
It doesn’t look tall, but it’s difficult for climbing, he said. They were able to climb it only 50 years after the conquest of the First Pillar.
There should be a great view here too:
There are boulders nearby that are easy to climb and make for great photographs:
That's it, the hike is over. Let's go down. The roots of trees and stones form peculiar steps; I won’t say that it’s very easy to go down, but it’s possible, especially not very high:
We returned back the same way we came. When we approached the lift it started to rain. And I was glad that we managed to get out of the mountains in time. If the road gets wet and slippery, going up/down will become incredibly difficult.
Few people go to Takmak. Mostly people get up, go to the observation deck, sit at the bar and come back. And I did this several times. And in vain. I liked the walk to the rock, it’s a pity that due to poor visibility I couldn’t see all the beauty of our nature, but what I saw was more than enough. If you take the cable car, don’t be lazy and take a walk to Takmak.
Parabola Rock is better known as Brothers. This amazing place is located in the Ergaki mountains, which are part of the Sayan Mountains in the Krasnoyarsk Territory. In its shape, it resembles a parabola, which is why this name was attached to it. Its two peaks, standing side by side, received the names: Big (or Fat) Brother and Thin Brother. The Big Brother has massive high walls of about 500 meters, and the Thin One has a sharp top, slightly inclined towards its brother. Between the rocks, a sharp ridge runs a clear line, reminiscent of a parabola.
Nearby is Lake of Artists. The rocky “brothers” are part of the Ergaki natural park,
Rock "Takmak"
The Takmak rock massif is part of the Stolby state reserve. Height – 417 m above the level of the Yenisei River.
This is the only one of the “Pillars” that is perfectly visible from the city and, accordingly, has a magnificent view of Krasnoyarsk.
Takmak includes a number of spurs that make up a single system. The top of Takmak is made up of the “Big and Small Heads”. The western part of the slope is called “Bear”.
Takmak was first conquered in 1899 by Anastasia Leontyevna Kachalova, the first woman in Russia to engage in mountain sports.
Many legends are associated with this mountain. The most popular is about the “king of all Siberia” - the sorcerer Yenisei, his glorious daughters Bazaikha and Laletina and their beloved Prince Takmak, turned to stone by the formidable ruler for disobedience.
You can get to Takmak through the Bobrovy Log ski complex if you follow the chairlift starting in the Bazaikhi valley.
