Ice mode. Hummocks What are hummocks on Baikal

26.03.2020

It's hard to resist the temptation to take a ride in a car with a breeze on the smooth and thick Baikal ice, so that fluffy snow flies out like a fan from under the wheels. In sunny weather, the frozen lake simply irresistibly beckons you to go out onto the ice and drive up close to the sparkling pile of hummocks or to the coastal rocks, fancifully decorated in height with splashed ice and icicles swirled by the storm wind.

ATTRACTIONS OF ICE BAIKAL

Transparent Baikal ice and sparkling hummocks are especially impressive in spring. After the thaw and strong wind, which blows away all the snow, the ice becomes perfectly polished. Through it, the stones at the bottom are clearly visible in shallow water. If a lot of snow falls during the winter, there are not many open areas of mirror ice on the lake. From late February to early April, most trips on the ice of Lake Baikal take place. This is the ideal time to travel on ice: it’s warm, you can ride a bicycle, for example, in light clothing, without gloves, and even strip down to a T-shirt for a short time. The sky is blue, the sky is clear, and the snow-capped mountains of the opposite shore are clearly distinguishable down to the details, as if they were nearby.

IN last years It has become popular to make long journeys on skis, skates or bicycles from the south of Baikal, from the village. Kultuk, to the north - to Severobaikalsk.
At the end of March, the ice becomes rough, the snow drifts harden, which makes it possible to ride bicycles without special studded tires. In general, riding a bicycle on smooth ice is quite a difficult task; if you pedal a little harder, the bicycle is guaranteed to slide to one side. The practice of conducting tourist trips on ice by cars, snowmobiles, amphibious vessel "Khivus-10" on a hovercraft and dog sleds is quite new for Lake Baikal; such tours began to be carried out regularly only in 2003. On the ice of Lake Baikal you can travel much faster than in summer. get to remote places on the coast, usually accessible only from water. For example, to get to the Baikal-Lena Nature Reserve by boat, you need to sail continuously for about two days; in winter, all this is accessible within a five to seven hour drive from Irkutsk.
Winter Baikal leaves an indelible impression. At the end of winter, powerful ice movement occurs, and individual hummocks can exceed the height of a person. Hummocky fields attract the attention of photographers with an unusual pile of sparkling ice. The mirror-like Baikal ice and the amazing blueness on the chipped ice blocks amaze all visitors. The exceptional transparency of the ice allows you to see the bottom near the shore and look into the dark, mysterious depths of the lake. The thickness of even thick ice is imperceptible and can be determined by eye only in places riddled with cracks.

In winter, coastal cliffs are decorated with multimeter-high ice splashes sparkling in the sun. The thickness of the ice on coastal rocks reaches several tens of centimeters, and the height of such ice splashes on the rocks on the windward side during a strong autumn storm sometimes exceeds tens of meters. Numerous grottoes are decorated with many large icicles and ice columns. These ice sculptures are created anew every winter. Particularly spectacular splashes of ice and sokui are found on the rocks of the Ushkany Islands, the capes of Olkhon Island - Kobylya Golova, Sagan-Khushun, Khoboy. Every year, powerful ice thrusts form exceptionally beautiful hummocks near Cape Rytyi.

Sagan-Khushun - “white cape” - an extremely picturesque rocky cape, located on Olkhon Island, about 1 km long, made of light-colored marble, densely covered with red lichen and therefore having a burgundy tint. In winter, it is impossible to drive past it on the ice without noticing it. The winter road, as a rule, runs close to the rocks. At the foot there is a pile of transparent ice floes; rocks tens of meters high are decorated with delicate branched icicles. In a small stone bay between the rocks, tens of meters up, every year when the lake freezes, spreading ice stalactites, similar to the branches of fir trees, are formed. Near the north there is an 8-meter grotto, like in the fairy tale about the Snow Queen, fantastically decorated with transparent ice icicles, stalagmites, ice crystals and patterns. All this beauty sparkling in the sun is difficult to convey in video or photographs. The ice lace of the grotto is especially impressive at sunset, when sunlight illuminates the inside of the grotto for a short time.

BAIKAL ICE

Baikal freezes every year, and every year roads are built on the ice. With the onset of cold weather, at air temperatures below -20 °C, in the first 3-4 days the ice grows by 4-5 cm per day. In the water area of the lake, the ice thickness ranges from 70 to 113 cm, and a pattern has been identified: the more snow, the thinner the ice. It is believed that ice broken by a storm when a lake freezes is less durable than homogeneous and monolithic ice. But even homogeneous and monolithic ice can suddenly crack. The broken ice moves apart, in the cold the crack freezes very quickly, it is lightly dusted with snow, and a dangerous trap for cars with 2-centimeter ice appears on the road with poles. Therefore, the ice crossing from the mainland to Olkhon is open only during daylight hours: from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Ice 50 cm thick can withstand a weight of up to 15 tons, and about a meter thick - the weight of a helicopter or steam locomotive. In the history of Baikal, it is known that a rail track was laid on ice between the Baikal and Tankhoi stations during the particularly harsh winter of 1903-1904. Loaded wagons were transported along the ice track one by one by horse traction.

Usually they go out to the ice early in the morning to catch the moment of the enchanting sunrise. The first rays of the rising sun fill the usually crystal clear ice hummocks with a mysterious golden glow. The desire to see this winter beauty beckons you onto the ice, away from the winter road laid out on the ice towards unusual hummocks or icy rocks. But it is better not to take risks unless absolutely necessary and not to leave the winter road, and in places where steam holes and cracks are possible, move with a local guide who knows the characteristics of the ice well. The difference between roads on ice is the dense blowing of snow, on which the car bounces, like on a springboard. When overcoming frozen cracks and snow-covered hummocks, the car's suspension often experiences strong shocks. Only at first glance, from a distance, the ice seems smooth, like a mirror; in practice, it is often discovered that it is impossible to drive straight on the ice due to winding cracks, hummocky fields and snow drifts.
Local residents and fishermen have long and confidently mastered the ice expanses for movement by car. There are ice roads between coastal villages, and where there are no roads, in most cases you can drive, preferably with a guide, around hummocks and cracks.

In March you can see a rare event- powerful ice thrusts; during a water hammer, individual ice chips fly up like from a cannon and scatter far across the ice. The silent balance of the hummocks crumbles with the rustle of revived ice. Right before our eyes, ice floes are squeezed out from under the ice. All this is accompanied by a continuous roar, like an earthquake, the sound comes right from under your feet, frightening with its power. The hummocky seam of the crack moves noticeably, individual ice floes fall and crumble into small pieces. The movement of ice can be figuratively compared to the work of a millstone - as if tightly clenched jaws are breaking the ice into small crumbs. It happens that at such moments water quickly appears on the ice and in a short time covers it by 4-5 cm. After three or four minutes, everything usually freezes, and complete silence sets in.

In April, intensive ice melting begins. In a matter of days, and sometimes even hours, the car trail completely disappears, becomes covered with water, and you have to drive through deep puddles at random, in a cloud of splashes, like from a glider. It happens that after lunch the snow on the ice becomes so disintegrated that it is impossible to even find your morning car trail.

ICE TRAPS

Numerous car tracks on the ice in all directions create the illusion of safety. However, one should not delude ourselves - no matter how reliable the ice may seem, its treachery is unpredictable. Even roads marked with markers sometimes present unpleasant surprises.

Open steam holes - ice holes are visible on the ice from a considerable distance; you just need to look carefully and be able to distinguish them. It is more dangerous when steaming areas are hidden by a thin crust of ice, and after a snowfall they are powdered with a layer of snow. In this case, it is difficult to detect them. If steaming is caused by the release of deep gases, then gas bubbles can be seen under the ice, if it is clean and transparent. Steam baths formed by thermal waters, springs, or the inflow of warm tributary waters are more difficult to notice. To do this, you need to carefully examine the ice in a suspicious place and test its thickness with an ice pick or other sharp object. The local ice features are best known to old-time fishermen from these places.
Every year, ice cracks appear in the same places - peculiar temperature seams in the ice cover. They form in the same places, usually in a straight line between adjacent protruding capes. Individual through cracks can reach a length of up to 10-40 km and a width of up to 4 m, but most often the cracks are from 0.5 to 1-2 m wide. The appearance of these cracks is caused by the linear expansion or compression of ice with daily temperature changes, sometimes reaching 20 -30 C per day. It is calculated that when the ambient temperature changes by 1 degree, the linear expansion of ice reaches 70 mm per 1 km of ice.

The danger is cracks and crevices 0.5-2 m wide, extending for tens of kilometers. Many of them do not freeze all winter, periodically narrowing or expanding. Not a single crack, even the simplest one, is crossed immediately. Before each of them, you need to stop and check the condition of the ice using a pick - a special forged sharp pike with uneven edges so that it does not stick to the ice. Cracks are often found thin ice, easily penetrated to the water with an ice pick. Such cracks can easily be jumped over by cars at speed. To soften the blow, the edges of the crack are beaten with a pick. A meter-long gap with water is clogged with pieces of ice, the car drives away 200-500 meters to accelerate, a gate is set - a reference point for the driver, where the car will jump through the gap, then rapidly accelerates to 70-80 km per hour - and jumps through the gap.
The thickness of the ice is also affected by underwater currents, which reduce its strength. For example, in the Olkhon Gate Strait, for this reason, there is no ice crossing. In winter, there are many cracks and steam holes on the ice here. The crossing to Olkhon is marked with poles, regularly cleared with a grader and the ice thickness checked. IN different years the ice crossing is arranged either from Kurkut Bay or from the mainland after the delta of the Sarma River. A sign with an arrow “Ice crossing” will help you get onto the ice in the right place.
At the end of March, when the sun begins to warm up, it becomes dangerous to drive close to the rocks on the ice, near which the ice melts faster than in the open waters of the lake. You should also know that, despite frosts and thick ice, if a lot of snow fell and it melted quickly, such ice, due to the absorption of melt water and changes in its structure, is less reliable and homogeneous than ice on which there was no snow.

WINTER CLASSES ON BAIKAL

Official winter roads on the ice of Baikal are marked with poles frozen in the ice and numerous signs when leaving the shore: “Permissible load capacity of vehicles is 5 tons”, “Distance between vehicles is 200 m”, “Stopping is prohibited”, “Recommended speed 10 km/h”, “Time work from 9.00 to 19.00." But usually most of the roads are paved by fishermen and do not have any warning signs. Experienced drivers always prefer to stick to the trail in the right direction, and if they go straight, they try to avoid cracks and suspicious places that are distinguished by the grayer color of the ice from afar.

One hundred percent reliability on ice roads does not happen even with a guide. There are several known cases when cars fell through on permanent winter roads between the villages of Listvyanka and Bolshiye Koty, near the stanovoy crack, which starts immediately from the shipyard in Listvyanka. Cars that move on the ice at their own risk are much more likely to go under the ice. In 2002, an expedition of the Ministry of Emergency Situations conducted a special search for sunken objects in the summer and only in the waters of the Small Sea registered 15 unrecovered vehicles. According to local residents, there are from 25 to 50 cars at the bottom of the Small Sea.

Usually in Southern Baikal the road is made from Baikalsk to the village. Kultuk and from the village. Kultuk to the village. Marituya. There are fewer roads on middle Baikal. Most often they travel on ice from the village. Listvyanka in the village. Koty (18 km), from the village. Bolshoye Goloustnoye to Peschanaya Bay. Sometimes local residents, if the winter was cold, they build a winter road across Baikal from the mouth of the Anga River to east coast. An official crossing, equipped with poles and signs, is organized annually between the mainland and Olkhon Island. Total more roads on the ice of the Small Sea, these are mainly fishing roads to ice fishing areas, but there are also permanent roads from the village. Khuzhir, along the island and in the village. Onguren, to the cordon of the Baikal-Lena Nature Reserve on Cape Solnechny and further to Zavorotnaya Bay. Every year a winter road is laid on ice in the northern part of Lake Baikal between the city of Severobaikalsk and the village. Ust-Barguzin through the Chivyrkuisky Bay.

WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW WHEN DRIVING ON ICE

As knowledgeable people say, falling through the ice occurs unexpectedly and quickly. In a matter of seconds, the car dives nose-first and instantly finds itself under the ice. If your car falls through, the main thing is not to panic and have time to open the doors. Even when diving to 2-3 meters, excess pressure from outside makes it difficult to open doors and break out windows. When you hit the windows with a hammer from inside the car under water, the windows bend but do not break. Not everyone will have time to lower the glass and jump out through the window in winter clothes, overcoming the powerful oncoming flow of water. If the depth is known and insignificant (10-15 meters), it is recommended to wait for the car interior to fill with water and the pressure to equalize, then the doors can be opened. There is enough time to take off the high boots and collect the essentials: documents, matches, a knife. If you manage to get out of the water onto the ice, there is still a danger of simply freezing in the cold and wind while you get to the saving warmth of nearby housing. You definitely need to have a knife in your pocket to get out on the ice, and a lighter to start a fire on the shore.
Most often, excessive confidence and driving while drunk are ruined on ice. Even experienced drivers are not immune to treacherous ice traps. In warm winters, especially at the end of winter, the cracks do not freeze, but if they are covered with thin ice and dusted with snow, they become extremely dangerous for cars. In cold weather, on the contrary, they freeze almost instantly, but the thickness of the ice in such a place is not sufficient to support the weight of the car.
Usually, fishermen, ignoring danger and prohibiting signs, travel on the ice of Lake Baikal in all imaginable directions. Unjustified self-confidence often ends in tragedy.

HOW DROWNED CARS ARE RAISED

The recovery of sunken cars is carried out both by local residents and by specially trained teams of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and the Irkutsk diving company Aqua-Eco. You can lift a car from a depth of up to 40-50 m; depths of 60-80 m are the maximum for submariners to work with. Divers say that for some reason cars most often end up on their wheels at the bottom, rarely turning over onto the roof. And if the car is not dented too much when lifting, it will remain in excellent shape. To lift, divers hook the vehicle to one point, usually the frame or outpost. Then, using an arrow or a homemade structure of three or four logs, frozen vertically in the form of a hut into the ice, at the top point of which a block for the cable is installed, the car is lifted from the bottom and pulled onto the ice.

Sometimes they do without an arrow, as, for example, was the case with the village that failed opposite. Angosolka with light LUAZ. In that place there is a shallow bank, and the depths immediately begin at 130 m, the car fell through 1.5-2 meters from the edge of the cliff, in this place there is a strong undercurrent and springs flow. The ice was too thin to lift the car in the usual way. The rescuers decided to bring an uninflated rubber boat into the car's interior, which they then inflated through a hose from the ice from a compressed air cylinder. This was enough for LUAZ to float to the surface. If the ice is thin and does not allow the car to be lifted, it is removed from the water in the summer using a boat that tows the sunken car to the shore. And already there a tractor pulls her ashore.
Buryats get the car out of the lane using a gate. A hole is made according to the diameter of the chock, and a collar with a long rope is tied to the chock inserted into the hole. One end hooks onto the frame or outpost of the vehicle at one point so that the vehicle comes to the surface either nose-first or rear-end. At the edge of the lane, a boom is built from thick logs or a specially welded iron structure up to 6 meters long, usually the length of a car. The boom is installed on the edge of the ice, at an angle of 45 degrees above the water, and with the help of a winch or winch is lifted with the machine above the ice into a vertical position, after which it overturns onto the ice along with the machine, which is accompanied by a strong roar when the machine stands on its wheels.
If it is warm outside, the car raised from the bottom is towed without draining the oil and fuel. If temperatures are low, it is necessary to prevent freezing of water that could get into automobile components. To do this, engine oil, brake fluid, fuel and axle oil are immediately drained. All filters and spark plugs are replaced.

This is what the process of pulling a car out of the ice looks like:

ICE ROADS OF BAIKAL

There is such a profession on Lake Baikal - ice captain. These are real “ice wolves” who know almost everything about winter Baikal, its ice shell, underwater currents and winds. The main task of ice captains is to choose a road on the ice of Baikal so that it is as safe as possible for movement by vehicle in winter. On Baikal there is the so-called “League of Ice Captains”, who in the winter season determine the location of winter roads on Lake Baikal and conduct car caravans on the ice of the lake. The basic principles of movement by motor transport on the ice of Lake Baikal were laid down by Alexander Yuryevich Burmeister in 1964. Having once found himself in a difficult ice situation, he survived himself and led the people out. Since then, he has been systematically studying the ice situation in the northern and middle parts of Lake Baikal. His observations formed the basis of a unified system of safe passage in the difficult navigation conditions of Lake Baikal. League of Baikal Ice Captains - e-mail: [email protected].

Here are the most popular car routes along the winter roads laid on the ice of Lake Baikal:

1. Expedition on the ice of Lake Baikal "Big Ring"

Route lasting 5 days: Irkutsk - Elantsy - Maloe More - coast of the Baikal-Lena Nature Reserve - Zayotnaya Bay - Chivyrkuisky Bay - Irkutsk. The distance is 1200 km, of which 750 km is on the ice of Lake Baikal.

The format of this route could be as follows:

First day. 260 km on asphalt, 60 km on a good gravel road, 60 km on the ice of Lake Baikal. Visit to shamanic serge and ancient rock paintings. On the way, lunch at the Buryat Kitchen cafe. Placement on tourist base in Zama or at the tourist base of Olkhon Island. Russian bath. Festive dinner.
Second day. About 200 km on the ice of Lake Baikal. Olkhon Island: inspection of splashes on the rocks and icy grottoes. Travel on ice to Cape Khoboy and to the seal caves. Crossing the Small Sea with a guide. Picnic at the sacred Cape Ryty, where powerful multi-meter hummocks form annually. Visit to the seal cave at Cape Sagan-Moryan. Overnight at the shelter in Zavorotnaya Bay.
The third day. Crossing Baikal. A trip to the hot springs in the Chivyrkuisky Bay in Zabaikalsky national park. The famous Ushkany Islands are the favorite rookery of the Baikal seal. In the evening, a Russian bath with brooms and swimming in an ice hole for those who wish.
Fourth day. Fishing for grayling. In advance, a hole will be dug into the coastal hummocks with an ice pick. Bait is poured - drill. If you sit quietly and look into the hole, you can see how the grayling swims and how it takes the bait. This is one of the most exciting winter types of fishing. Fresh fish is prepared in place of the ear or split.
Fifth day. Early departure and return to Irkutsk.

2. On the ice to Peschanaya Bay

3. To the ice grottoes of the Small Sea

The trip can be completed in two days with one overnight stay in warm conditions either on Olkhon Island (Bencharov's estate) or at the individual recreation center "Enkhok" (Thin Cape, west bank Small Sea). The total mileage is 750-800 km. The trip is interesting with a visit to the ice grottoes, which in summer are only visible from a boat. An excellent safe additional transport for excursions would be to take bicycles or a snowmobile with you; they can be safely used outside the winter road, moving near rocks, for example Cape Khoboy (336 km from Irkutsk), which is quite difficult to get close to by car due to large quantity cracks and hummocks on the ice.

In winter, a winter road is laid from the mainland to the island, marked with poles and road signs. Cars, including heavy trucks, pass through it all winter.
From Irkutsk to the shore of the Small Sea the road (250 km) takes 3.5 hours. You can refuel in Bayandai and Elantsy. In Elantsy you need to fill up at least one can of gasoline in reserve. In the village Elantsy has a cozy cafe "Olkhon Gate" (after the gas station, to the right of the road), where it is advisable to have a snack before heading out to the ice.
Before reaching the MRS (45 km from the village of Elantsy), you need to turn towards the base of Sakhyurt to the Kurkut Bay or to the river. Sarmu at the sign "Ice crossing". Through binoculars you can clearly see the ice route with poles on the ice and road signs. The road is regularly cleared by a grader, and it is quite easy to spot. The road is laid in approximately the same area every year. safe place, length 15-20 km. Hummocky areas in front of Olkhon Island are cut off with a bulldozer, so it is comfortable to drive on the ice road even in foreign passenger cars. At the Olkhon Gate, where the distance to the island is much shorter, the crossing is not possible due to underwater currents in the strait, as a result of which the ice there is not uniform in thickness and poses a danger to cars. Near Cape Kobylya Golova, a crack is also formed every year, starting from a large steam hole near the cape itself. Cape Khorin-Irgi is separated from the Kobylya Golova peninsula by a steep crevice right up to the surface of the water and resembles a horse’s head from a distance. In winter, this crevice is filled with ice taller than a man's height. The heavily icy cliffs of the cape attract attention from afar, but it is not recommended to approach them closely, especially closer to spring, when intensive melting of ice begins near the steep cliffs. Ice splashes - sokui form on rocks when the lake freezes. Due to the frequent autumn wind here, ice deposits on Cape Kobylya Golova are the largest on the Small Sea.

You can stay overnight in the village. Khuzhir in a hotel, private estates or forestry. For assistance with accommodation, please contact: information Center at the estate of Nikita Bencharov, they will always help with accommodation. In winter there are practically no tourists, and it is easy to find overnight accommodation in the village even without prior arrangement.
In the evening, before sunset, you can walk on the ice around the famous Shaman Rock near the village. Khuzhira.

On the southern side of the Shaman Rock, with a certain degree of imagination, you can see the image of a dragon with a head and tail. The next morning you can continue your journey across the ice of Lake Baikal to the northern tip of the island, Cape Khoboy. The exit to the ice is located to the right of Cape Burkhan or immediately from the pier, depending on the ice conditions. It is clearly visible from above. The road to the north is not marked with markers. It is mainly driven by fishermen, so the roads on the ice, like in the Mongolian steppe, sometimes fan out. The principle of movement is the same - stick to the coast and don’t go without a rut. Worthy places to visit will be Cape Sagan-Khushun and Cape Khoboy, which have grottoes, ice splashes on the rocks, and Cape Khoboy - powerful ice thrusts with large hummocks.
It is 35 km on ice from Khuzhir to Cape Sagan-Khushun, and another 4 km from Sagan-Khushun to Cape Khoboy. Along the way you will definitely meet Kamchatka fishing camps - fishermen's camps with tents and cars. Cape Khoboy is the most northern cape on the island of Olkhon, difficult to access in summer due to a bad dirt road (4-5 hours from the village of Khuzhir), and in winter travel on the ice of Lake Baikal will take no more than 40 minutes.
It can sometimes be difficult to get close to Cape Khoboy due to difficult ice conditions, and you have to walk the last hundreds of meters. On the side of Big Baikal, large vertical ridges form near the rocks almost every year broken ice, which are even difficult to climb. There are many large hummocks and fresh cracks. On the northern side of the cape at water level there are two grottoes. One of them goes 21 m under the rock, and you need a flashlight to visit it. Like all Baikal grottoes formed by the wave-breaking process, it has a fairly large entrance hole in which you can stand at full height, and a gradually narrowing passage, the end of which can only be reached by crawling. Throughout the entire length of the grotto, it was abundantly overgrown with ice and icicles. Particularly impressive is the entrance, which has a palisade of ice pillars of different diameters.
In addition to the grottoes of Cape Khoboy and Sagan-Khushun, grottoes are known on the mainland of the Small Sea: on capes Kurminsky, Aral, Khaltygei.
From Cape Khoboy the road goes along the ice of Lake Baikal to the mainland Cape Rytom and to the Baikal-Lena Nature Reserve. From there they go to the Ushkany Islands, Chivyrkuisky Bay, and to the north of Lake Baikal.

An extended version of this route is a car ride around Olkhon Island, which can be completed in 4-5 hours, carefully driving around ice cracks and steam holes on the north-eastern part of the island near Mount Zhima.

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Baikal. Ice splashes, hummocks and grottoes

Baikal ice is an amazing mystery of nature. It is not clear why, say, on the Volga, the ice is ten centimeters white, while on Lake Baikal, going a meter deep, the ice remains transparent, like glass?

However, it is not only the transparency of the ice that is striking on Baikal. Any works of nature made from frozen water - hummocks, splashes and ice grottoes - also attract the attention and fascinate travelers. Read more about all this in today’s post.

Near the shore, the ice is hidden under the snow, but if you drive two hundred meters away, Baikal reveals its purest blue ice:

Seeing the mirror thickness, everyone immediately started taking pictures:

Starfish on ice:

Of course, we immediately “muttered”, thanking the local spirits for the hospitable weather:

And this is a splash. They are also called sokui:

These splashes on the stones are formed when the lake freezes at the very beginning of winter. During a strong storm, windward rocks can be completely covered with ice, up to ten or more meters in height:

After Baikal freezes completely, its level drops, forming impressive gaps under the splashes:

Splashes come in a variety of forms:

There are many grottoes hidden behind the splashes. In summer you cannot approach them (the ship will crash on the rocks), however, in winter you can easily get there on the ice:

The ceilings of the grottoes are studded with ice icicles, the countless abundance of which paints beautiful surreal pictures:

There are different types of cracks in ice. There are huge dead bodies (more on them later), and there are ordinary ones, with which the entire surface of the frozen lake is dotted. These cracks run along the top of the ice sheet, forming a patterned grid on the mirror-like surface. Fantastic beauty:

We spotted local cyclists. Bicycles on Lake Baikal in winter are common. Further, during our journey, we often met tourists and travelers on two wheels:

Near Olkhon there is Ogoy Island. He is also all shamanic and sacred, they say this is a place of power. I don’t know, maybe I’m an insensitive blockhead, but no matter how much I travel, I don’t feel any places of power or sacred energies. And you?

Ogoy is a rocky islet with several bays, three kilometers long from west to east:

Until recently, it was of interest only to animals and local fishermen:

Everything changed when the sacred Buddhist Suburga or Stupa of Enlightenment was built on the island in 2005. The eight-meter structure consists of three steps, a dome and a spire. It is believed that Buddhist stupas are meant to dissolve negative energies and favorably contribute to the prosperity of the area. Volunteers from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Minsk, Yekaterinburg, Irkutsk, New York, London and Lisbon took part in the construction of the stupa. Everything needed for construction was transported to the island on boats and then manually lifted to the top. Particularly heavy loads were transferred to the island using helicopters.

By the way, the construction of the stupa was supervised by a lama from Bhutan. He has already built more than 40 Buddhist stupas in different countries world:

Our machines:

After Ogoy we went for a ride around Lake Baikal:

Here you can see a crack behind the car. Such faults arise after the lake freezes and are through cracks in the ice. Their appearance is accompanied by a deafening crash. Often water appears in places of cracks, however, during our trip the cold was around -20 and the water instantly froze. Locals overcome these faults using special ladders made of thick boards laid across the cracks. These boards can often be seen on the roofs of cars:

As the temperature rises and the cracks narrow, ice is squeezed onto the surface and creates hummocks - piles of ice fragments:

There was a guy on our expedition who turned to me with the words: “Oh! You seem to have a good camera, take a photo of me!” I can understand when they ask me to take pictures with my camera once or twice, but this one was constantly tugging at me at every tree and every piece of ice, as if I was his personal photographer. I don’t know, maybe I’m wrong, but it seems to me that this is at least tactless:

The sun began to slowly set. It seemed that the ice was ripples on the water with small snow islands:

Photography won this year's Golden Turtle Volodya Medvedeva with Baikal ice. All the way, remembering this shot, I tried to reproduce a similar plot in my own way. In general, I often look at photographs of good photographers and try to reproduce them in my own way. In my opinion, this works great:

On this ice floe you can clearly see what kind of ice we have (white) and what kind of ice we have on Lake Baikal (transparent). In this block, somehow, both appeared. The transition of one structure to another is very beautiful - with the smallest volumetric cracks-hairs:

Finally, we arrived at Olkhon. I drew attention to the icy ship on the splash ice:

It turned out that in this way local residents closed a small harbor with their ships (view from the shore):

We spent the night in Khuzhir, the only village on Olkhon:

In the next post I will talk about how you can have fun on icy Baikal!

The Taurus Mountains range stretches across Turkey. Coniferous and deciduous trees, deep valleys, alpine meadows, rapid waterfalls and rivers have made these mountains a beautiful, amazing and worthy place for tourists.

The Toros Mountains can be called Toros or Taurus, from the European “taur” - hill.

The Taurus Mountains surround the Gulf of Antalya on all sides. In the heart of the mountains is the famous Egirdir Lake, famous for its famous historical sites. The Taurus Mountains are covered with evergreen forests that stretch along the entire coast. A thousand years ago, Turkmen tribes came here, looking for good pastures in the mountains for their animals. The nomads adapted to wintering in the lower mountain reaches and over time the first permanent settlements were formed. Mountain roads transported goods and people who came to port cities bay. Located in the magnificent Escher Valley ancient city Xanthos, whose past is closely intertwined with mythology. Many tourists prefer to explore the mountains by going on jeep excursions or rafting on mountain rivers.

Nature of the mountains

The Taurus Mountains have a length of 1600 km from west to east, from Aegean Sea to the Euphrates, capturing historical areas Lycia, Caria, Cilicia and Pamphylia. In the east they reach up to 3500 meters, and in the western part they gradually decrease to 2000 meters, completely blocking the approach to the sea (only near the city of Adana is a narrow pass open - the famous Cilician Gate). An uninterrupted mountain range of forested slopes is intersected by many river valleys where you can go rafting. In some places, the mountains come close to the shore, falling into the sea with sheer cliffs, while in others, on the contrary, they retreat, forming a narrow coastal valley. There are magnificent bays with beaches that attract endless tourist flows. The northern slopes of the Taurus imperceptibly pass into the Anatolian Plateau.

At an altitude of about 1000 meters, the Taurus Mountains are covered with maquis - thickets of evergreen bushes, low-growing trees (myrtle, laurel, cistus, strawberry trees, tree-like heather) and tall grass. Hiking among such nature turns into endless photography of the surroundings. With increasing altitude (about 2400 meters), real forests begin (oak, cypress, pine, fir, Lebanese cedar), giving way to thickets of juniper and alpine meadows.

Geographically, the mountains are divided into Eastern, Western and Central Taurus

Western Taurus – a country of numerous blue lakes. On the southern side of the mountain it covers the resort Bay of Antalya, Northern part– a scattering of fresh and salt lakes (Egridir, Sugla, Akshikhir, Beishikhir, etc.). The most high ridges: Beydaglar - 3086 m and Elmaly - 3073 m. The western part of the mountains occupies the former territory of historical Lycia and part of Cilicia. Here you can observe the remaining traces of the planet's glaciation.

Central Taurus - the highest mountain range in the Taurus Mountains. The height of the ridges is more than 3000 meters. The western part comes close to the sea, and the northeast borders the Cilician Lowland - the most fertile region of Turkey, where citrus fruits, olives, sugar cane and cotton are grown. After avalanches, Central Taurus becomes ideal place for mountain hikes. Here is the Aladaglar National Park and famous waterfall Kapuzbashi, pouring directly from the depths of the mountains.

Eastern Taurus (Armenian) stretches over 600 km from the Murat River to the Euphrates River to the border with Iran and Iraq. This part of the Taurus Mountains is famous for its ancient glaciers, pointed peaks, deep caves, underground rivers and stunning picturesque waterfalls.

In addition to Aladaglar, the Taurus Mountains have three more national parks: Nemrut, Beydağları-Sahil and Beishikhir-Gelyu. On the territory of Nemrut there is a mountain of the same name, the famous tomb of Antiochus I, the ruler of the Armenian region. The tomb is surrounded by unique archaeological monuments - stone heads 10 meters high, included in the lists World Heritage UNESCO.

The Taurus Mountains were once inhabited by Greeks and Armenians, now Turks and Kurds live here. It is also the homeland of a rare animal – the bezoar goat, which is on the verge of extinction. The mineralized food masses that were deposited in the intestines and stomach of this goat were attributed magical and medicinal properties.

The Taurus Mountains will always attract tourists. Village tours organized here introduce interested travelers to the natural beauty of the region and Turkish culture. More extreme tourists book quad or jeep safaris and enduro tours. The excellent fish restaurants built along mountain streams are very popular with vacationers and local residents. Tables and chairs are located directly in clean, cool water. Brands offer alternatives and opportunities to those who are already tired of beach holiday and I want to hide from the scorching sun.

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February and March are a traditional period when many Russians, tired of the endless frost, go to Asian countries for sun and warmth. So this year I was finally ready for a similar trip. I made a route, saved up the required amount, and found travel companions. The only thing that was not ready was the international passport, which was promised to be done by mid-March.

Meanwhile, it was February 17th. Defender of the Fatherland Day was approaching and the weekend, which turned out to be longer than usual this year. And I really wanted to take this opportunity and spend it on travel. The choice, however, was limited only to Russia. And now I understand that it was even for the better! I then remembered how a couple of years ago, at one of the photo exhibitions, I first learned what winter Baikal was like. His fantastic landscapes inspired me so much that I promised myself to see this magnificence in person someday.

When, on the same day, I came across an announcement about the upcoming tour to Lake Baikal, I realized that the time had come! True, very quickly and somehow suddenly. My brain resisted for a long time, analyzing the trip budget. “Yes, for this amount you can fly to Thailand for 2 weeks! And you choose a 5-day tour, and even in the cold. It’s not enough for you in Moscow, or what?” However, such a response was felt in my soul! My intuition told me that I would still have time to fly to Asia. And in the case of Baikal, you need to seize the moment! In addition, February is the most favorable time to travel there in winter.

And now on the evening of February 21st I was sitting on the plane, filled with adventurism and the spirit of a pioneer. I couldn’t shake the feeling that something adventurous and even somewhat expeditionary awaited me ahead. After all, Baikal, especially in winter, has not yet become popular tourist resort. And this fact could not but rejoice!

Upon arrival in Irkutsk, we met with the guide and within half an hour we boarded a transfer to our destination. I couldn’t believe that in 5 hours the real Baikal would open before me - the purest and deep lake in the world that we were told about back in elementary school. Moreover, I will spend 5 days in its very heart - on famous island Olkhon! Intoxicated by these thoughts and having not slept for a day, I fell into a sweet sleep straight to our guest house.

The place where we lived turned out to be more than worthy! The rooms are very cozy and warm, there is a small fireplace in the living room. It also has its own bathhouse and dining room, where they cook wonderfully!

And the house itself was located near a beautiful pine grove.

This is the view from our veranda!

On the first day, I enthusiastically set out to explore the island.
It was something incredible! What I managed to see and learn over all 5 days is difficult to fit into one article. So many discoveries, emotions and new impressions! It seems that I gave a piece of my soul to this wonderful place...

1. Hummocks

The instability of the physical composition of the lake and the temperature of the ice cover lead to the formation of hummocks - ice debris rising above the frozen surface.

The pronounced turquoise tint of hummocks is formed in approximately the same way as the blue color of reservoirs. Sun rays passing through ice are refracted and scattered. Long red rays are absorbed more, and short blue rays are better scattered, visually coloring clear water in a stunning turquoise color.

The height of hummocks is usually small - up to 1-1.5 m. But at the end of winter, when powerful ice movement occurs, they can be taller than human height!

In some places there were not just ice fragments, but real blue mountains.
I cannot express in words how much these landscapes excite my imagination... You are mentally transported somewhere to the Ice Age or to the North Pole!

It’s as if a chronicle is depicted here on ice parchment

And here you can see ice floes in the form of sunken ships, whose sails rise above the snow cover...

2. Music

Yes, yes, winter Baikal has its own music! And we are not talking about local folklore or folk instruments at all.

This sound cannot be compared with anything... It was incredible, grandiose and scary at the same time!
The sound when it breaks huge lake, like thunder. My guide explained that winter Baikal only seems quiet and asleep until spring... In fact, under the ice the water continues to move, and how! It is these underwater currents that create hummocks and cracks that cover almost the entire surface of the lake. By the way, it is thanks to cracks that all living creatures living under water receive oxygen.

When I heard these sounds for the first time, it seemed to me as if a car was driving somewhere in the distance with music on. It really does sound like a muffled beat! But when the sound gradually grew louder, and no car appeared, it became uneasy. My rich imagination was already picturing the approaching Loch Ness monster, which was about to break through the ice right under my feet!

And here and there, by the way, there were actually cracks where someone could easily have plunged into. Probably, only now am I beginning to realize where I was in the first place... 😉

3. Snow and ice patterns

Since real cracks start to appear after April, in February-March you can calmly and without any fear enjoy the unique patterns that cover the lake. You can spend hours looking at this endless canvas, where not a single stroke, not a single crack, not a single pattern will be repeated! And when you realize that all this was created by nature, you are once again convinced that people still have time to learn and learn from it.

Thanks to the combination of ice and snow, the outlines of faces or animals could be seen here and there. This is how the phrase suggests itself: “There are traces of unseen animals on unknown paths...”

In some places the snow lay like snow-white, untouched carpets, and the ice nearby was clean, without cracks. This created a truly dizzying effect - as if you were walking on clouds rather than on ice!

Like a path between the clouds 😉

4. Sokui and ice grottoes

Splashes on the shores and rocks that form when the lake freezes at the very beginning of winter are called sokui. Just like patterns on ice, sokui come in a wide variety of weird shapes!

Sometimes it looked like beautifully frozen waterfalls...

Behind the splashes there are many caves and grottoes that are inaccessible in summer due to the higher water level. Despite the fact that I have been in real and quite large caves, the Baikal grottoes really impressed me. It’s like an ancient sacrament that you’re afraid to disturb with unnecessary movement or sound. And it’s hard to believe that in the summer all this conceals and disappears.

The ceilings of the grottoes are dotted with many icicles resembling stalactites.

5. Bubbles frozen in ice.

It was always interesting to imagine what a bubble frozen in ice would look like. And is this even possible in principle? It turns out that it’s still possible!
Methane gas released by algae rises to the surface from the bottom of Lake Baikal. When the lake becomes covered with ice, the bubbles of this gas also freeze. And since they freeze at different depths, it creates an amazing visual effect!

6. Ice transparency

It’s not for nothing that Baikal is still officially recognized as the most clean lake in the world. Its waters are rich in oxygen and so clear that you can read a newspaper or watch a movie through the ice.

Should you add pieces of ice to tea, or is it just that way 😉

Believed to be crystal clean water Baikal owes its existence to a microscopic crustacean, the Baikal epishura, which filters water by passing it through itself.

7. Vehicle and active rest.

Winter tourists going to the island. Olkhon, we were much luckier than in summer.
After all, there is no need to wait for the ferry, which will take a long time to ferry you from one shore to the other. Thanks to the ice, enormous freedom of movement opens up and the opportunity to visit even the most inaccessible corners of Lake Baikal. However, this opportunity should be used only in February and March, when the ice is already quite strong and has not yet begun to melt.

Ice is also a great place for active recreation. Here everyone is having fun as best they can.

And our group had lunch one day right in the middle of the lake. Very unusual sensations, I tell you! As if we are participants in a big and long journey, on which there are no signs of civilization. When our driver cooked fish soup online in a pot, it seemed to me the most delicious fish soup in my life!

But the most interesting entertainment What I saw was making a fire right on the ice. Someone clearly lacked adrenaline :)

Summing up, I would like to say that everyone should visit Baikal at least once. And exactly in winter!
You will experience a range of sensations that you will not get anywhere else.

But that is not all! It is also worth mentioning a few words about the Olkhon, in particular – about the village Khuzhir, which is also rich interesting features and riddles.

During an introductory walk around the village, my guide stopped near one house and pointed to a small hole in the fence.

– What do you think it is?

My assumptions that this is a window for domestic cats, or that it is used instead of a peephole or as an opening for the transmission of something, have failed. Looking around, I realized that there is such a hole in the fence in almost every house. What is so important that all local residents might need? Moreover, this window opens from the outside.

My guide laughed and said that such a question was even in the program “What? Where? When?" It’s a paradox, but the residents of Khuzhir, which is located on the shores of Lake Baikal, drinking water They are brought in special water carriers. When residents are not at home, utility workers open the window in the gate, extend a hose and pour water into a barrel, which is always there at the ready. I never expected to hear this! Then they told me that even electricity was installed here only in 2005.

Another thing that surprised me while walking was that many of the houses still had Christmas decorations hanging on them! I already wanted to attribute this to the characteristics of the local pace of life... But then my eyes were opened to the fact that the Buryats, who make up a large part of the population of Olkhon, are celebrating New Year on the night of February 26-27.

It’s a pity that on the evening of the 26th I already had a return transfer to Irkutsk. It would be interesting to look at local traditions and how they celebrate this important holiday!

I also remember the atmosphere on the territory of the abandoned Malomorsk fish factory. Once upon a time it was the real pride and beauty of Khuzhir and the Irkutsk region. Several workshops functioned here: fish production, processing, net shop, timber shop, mechanical shop, etc.

But this is the picture that opens on the pier near the fish factory... Somewhat gloomy, but beautiful and even attractive.

Graffiti artists did a very good job on some of the ships, turning them into masterpieces of sorts. I even had a question: why aren’t operational ships painted like this?)
This place of accumulation of old ships can even be called a kind of local museum. Each ship seemed to have its own soul...

I couldn’t help but notice the local temple, which rose beautifully on a hill not far from the entrance to the village.

It was quite unusual to see him here. Personally, I have always associated Baikal and Olkhon with shamanism or Buddhism. But even more surprising was the story of the construction of this temple, which I later read on the Internet. I quote from the source:

“The servant of God Natalya came to me,” says the dean of the Verkholenskoye deanery, Fr. Vyacheslapav Pushkarev. “Grieving for her deceased husband, she spoke about one decisive event in her life: half asleep, the Mother of God appeared to her and told her to sell an apartment in a prestigious area of Irkutsk, on Gagarin Boulevard, and buy one on Fr. Olkhon house, and with the remaining money she built a temple there. In doubt, she went to Fr. Kalinnik, who did not see any charm in her dream, but sent her to me as the dean of this area. We decided to try it. If it is from God, then it will work, but if not, then it will stop. The proceeds from the sale of the apartment were not enough. Therefore, the temple was built bit by bit by the whole world over several years.” This idea evoked a great response from European tourists, who left considerable donations for the construction of the temple.

Now this is the Temple of the Sovereign Icon of the Mother of God. The doors there are open, there are no employees, you can take candles and pay as much as you want.

Thus, Olkhon is a place where paganism and Christianity coexist peacefully.

By the way, the hill on which the temple stands was simply created to watch sunsets from it and reflect on the eternal...

I wish everyone who goes to Lake Baikal in winter to experience as many vivid emotions and sensations!

ICE KINGDOM

Winter Baikal leaves an indelible impression. The exceptional transparency of the ice allows you to see the bottom on the shelf near the shore and look into the blackened, mysterious depths of the lake. The thickness of even thick ice is imperceptible and frightening in its uncertainty. Because of its transparency, it is scary to go out on the ice, although its thickness can exceed a meter. Through the Baikal ice you can read newspapers and take portraits of people, as if through glass. Winter travel along Lake Baikal are often associated with extreme conditions: strong wind and frost on open ice- a serious test for the traveler. There is nowhere to hide from the piercing cold far from the coast, so winter clothes should be as warm as possible and not exposed to the wind.

At the end of winter, powerful ice movement occurs; individual hummocks can exceed the height of a person. Frozen vertically transparent ice floes attract the attention of photographers with their unusual shape and sparkling randomness of the pile. The mirror-like Baikal ice and the amazing blueness on the chipped ice blocks amaze all visitors. People travel on smooth ice on skates and ice boats, and on a snow-covered lake on skis and on foot.

Splash ice freezes bizarrely on the rocks

In winter, coastal cliffs are decorated with multimeter-high ice splashes sparkling in the sun. The thickness of the ice on coastal rocks reaches several tens of centimeters, and the height of such ice splashes on the rocks on the windward side during a strong autumn storm sometimes exceeds tens of meters. Numerous grottoes are decorated with many large branched icicles and ice columns. These ice sculptures are created anew every winter. Particularly spectacular splashes of ice and sokui are found on the rocks of the Ushkany Islands, the capes of Olkhon Island - Kobylya Golova, Sagan-Khushun, Khoboy. Every year, powerful ice thrusts form exceptionally beautiful hummocks near Cape Rytyi.

Transparent Baikal ice and sparkling hummocks are especially impressive in spring. After a thaw and a strong wind that blows away all the snow, the ice becomes perfectly polished. From the end of February to the beginning of April, most trips on the ice of Lake Baikal are made. This is an ideal time for traveling: it’s warm, you can be on the ice in sunny, windless weather in light clothing, without gloves, and even strip down to a T-shirt for a short time. The sky is blue, the sky is clear, and the snow-capped mountains of the opposite shore are clearly visible down to the details, as if they were very close. During this period, ice routes along the coast of Northern Baikal are interesting - mirror ice and snow-white pointed peaks give a unique flavor to the winter journey.

Ice floes frozen in hummocks amaze with their exceptional transparency

In March, you can observe a rare phenomenon when, with powerful ice movement, a water hammer occurs, individual fragments fly up, as if from a cannon, and scatter far around the frozen lake. The silent balance of the hummocks crumbles with the rustle of revived ice. Right before our eyes, ice floes are squeezed out from under the ice. All this is accompanied by a continuous roar, like an earthquake, the sound comes right from under your feet, frightening with its power. The hummocky seam of the crack moves noticeably, individual ice floes fall and crumble into small pieces. The movement of ice can be figuratively compared to the work of a millstone - as if tightly clenched jaws are grinding ice into small crumbs. It happens that at such moments water quickly appears on the ice and in a short time covers it by 4–5 cm. After 3–4 minutes, everything usually freezes, and complete silence ensues.

At the end of March, the ice becomes rough and the snow drifts harden, making it possible to ride bicycles with studded tires. Riding on smooth ice is quite a difficult task; if you pedal a little harder, the bike is guaranteed to slide to one side. Practice tourist travel on ice on cars, snowmobiles, amphibious vessel "Khivus-10" on a hovercraft and dog sleds is quite new for Lake Baikal; such tours began to be held regularly only in 2003. On the ice of Lake Baikal you can get to remote places much faster than in summer on the coast, usually accessible only from the water. For example, to get to the Baikal-Lena Nature Reserve by boat from Listvyanka, you need to sail continuously for about 2 days; in winter, all this is accessible in a 5-7 hour drive from Irkutsk.

The speed of movement depends on the ice conditions, so, according to GPS navigators, in one of the automobile trophy raids on ice, 1537 km were covered, average speed movement was 45.1 km/h, maximum on smooth snowy ice was 102 km/h.

At car travel on ice, you need to listen to the weather forecast so as not to fall into a snow trap after a snowstorm. It is sometimes impossible to get out after a heavy snowfall without a beaten track for passenger cars.

Local residents and fishermen have long and confidently mastered the ice expanses for movement by car. There are ice roads between the villages on the coast, and where there are none, in most cases you can drive carefully, avoiding hummocks and cracks. But it is better not to take risks unless absolutely necessary and not to leave the winter road, and in places where steam holes and cracks regularly form, move with a guide. The winter months are the most difficult time to travel, remote from settlements The corners of the coast of Northern Baikal are completely deserted, there are no tourists or fishermen, only ice and a scorching frosty wind. To say that in the coming years vacationers will flock to this cold edge, prematurely, there are no warm bases or roads on the coast of Northern Baikal. A pedestrian crossing from the northern tip of Olkhon to the Ushkany Islands, for example, will require about 2 days, and it will not be a pleasure ride on skates or skis, but an exhausting one sport hike through fields of ice hummocks and deep blowing snow with a heavy load of winter equipment and autonomous power supply.

The peculiarity of March hummocks is that, thanks to the spring sun, the snow has already partially melted, the ice has defrosted, and piles of clean broken ice become mobile. Walking through such fields is sheer torture. Shafts of broken ice and hummocks sometimes reach a meter in height, and each step is preceded by preliminary covering and clearing of fragments from the places where the foot steps. Walking through difficult hummocks without additional support on ski poles is very risky. But even the use of sticks does not protect against falls. Your feet constantly slip and manage to get stuck among the ice floes in such awkward positions that when you rush, you can sprain your ligaments or twist your ankle. If you fall unsuccessfully, you can break your ski pole and hit your elbow painfully on the ice. A 150-meter crossing through a strip of hummocks sometimes takes more than 40 minutes. Behind the strip of hummocks you can find mirror-like ice, in which the coastal rocks are reflected; on such polished ice you can move on your soles, like on skates.

FEATURES OF TRAVELING ON THE ICE OF THE LAKE

It’s hard to resist the temptation to drive a car with a breeze on the smooth and thick Baikal ice, so that fluffy snow flies out like a fan from under the wheels. In sunny weather, the frozen lake simply irresistibly beckons you to go out onto the ice and drive up close to the sparkling pile of hummocks or to the coastal rocks, fancifully decorated in height with splashed ice and icicles swirled by the storm wind. Numerous car tracks in all directions create the illusion of safety. However, one should not delude oneself - no matter how reliable the ice may seem, its treachery is unpredictable. Even roads marked with markers sometimes present unpleasant surprises.

Ice rules should not be neglected - compliance with them will ensure a safe trip. The main ones are: before going onto the ice, ask local residents about the peculiarities of the route, do not drive on ice at night, and do not drink alcohol while driving. On the Baikal ice there are dangerous ice cracks, powerful ice thrusts and gullies that are dangerous for cars. It is often unknown who built the road, so not every car trail can be reliable. There may be traces of newcomers on the ice who entered at risk to themselves. dangerous place. Living cracks can be clogged with ice, and it is not a fact that the ice plug will withstand another car. The reliability of broken frozen ice in cracks must be checked using an ice pick or crowbar.

Ice about a meter can support the weight of a helicopter

Baikal freezes every year, and every year roads are built on the ice. With the onset of cold weather, at air temperatures below -20 °C, in the first 3–4 days the ice grows by 4–5 cm per day. At the end of October, shallow bays freeze, January 1-14 - deep-water areas. Usually the Maloye More is covered with solid ice in December, the whole of Baikal freezes by January 15–20, although rare warm winters occur when these dates are postponed by a whole month. There are large fluctuations in the freezing times of Lake Baikal from year to year. There are known cases of freezing of the lake in Listvennichny Bay, for example, in early February (1899, 1932, 1952, 1959, 2004). In the southern part, Baikal is covered with ice for 4–4.5 months, in the northern part – 6–6.5 months. In the water area of the lake, the ice thickness ranges from 70 to 113 cm, and a pattern has been identified: the more snow, the thinner the ice. It is believed that ice broken by a storm when a lake freezes is less durable than homogeneous and monolithic ice. But even homogeneous and monolithic ice can suddenly crack. The broken ice moves apart, in the cold the crack freezes very quickly, it is lightly dusted with snow, and a dangerous trap appears for cars with 2 cm of ice on the road with poles. Therefore, the ice crossing from the mainland to Olkhon is open only during daylight hours: from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Hummocks are usually 1.5–3 m high, but some of them can reach 5 m. Ice 10–15 cm thick can support the weight of a pedestrian, ice 50 cm thick can support the weight of a truck up to 15 tons, ice 70 cm thick can support the weight of a tractor, so in winter Winter roads are laid on the ice of Lake Baikal. According to the instructions for constructing ice crossings, for a vehicle with a total weight of 10 tons to pass, the ice thickness must be at least 30 cm, 15 tons - 35 cm, 20 tons - 40 cm at an average daily air temperature of at least 10 °C. In warm winters, the ice at river crossings can be artificially increased, which allows vehicles up to 5 tons to be transported. At above-zero temperatures, the structure of the ice changes within 2-3 days, and its carrying capacity decreases by 20%. In shallow water and near rocky shores, ice melts faster, and gullies can appear at any time.

Official winter crossings, for example from the mainland to Olkhon Island, are marked with poles frozen in the ice and are regularly checked for safety by the road service.

Every year, ice cracks appear in the same places - peculiar temperature seams in the ice cover. They are formed, as a rule, along the shortest distance between adjacent protruding capes. Extended cracks can reach a length of up to 10–40 km and a width of up to 4 m, but most often the cracks are from 0.5 to 1–2 m wide. The appearance of these cracks is caused by the linear expansion or compression of ice with daily temperature changes, sometimes reaching 20–20 m. 30°C. It is estimated that with a change in ambient temperature of 1 °C, the linear expansion of ice reaches 70 mm per 1 km. Many of these cracks do not freeze all winter, periodically narrowing or expanding. Their appearance is often accompanied by a strong “artillery” crack, often frightening people on the ice. In the Irkutsk chronicles about “remarkably large ice breaks, or so-called cracks” in 1890, it is reported: “Such long and wide cracks Even old-timers won’t remember. The explosions were accompanied by a terrible roar, causing panic among the residents of Listvennichny. It seemed that high mountains surrounding Lake Baikal were ready to collapse.”

The danger is cracks and crevices 0.5–2 m wide. Many of them do not freeze all winter, periodically narrowing or expanding. Not a single crack, even the simplest one, is crossed immediately. Before each of them, you need to stop and check the condition of the ice using a pick - a special forged sharp peak with uneven edges so that it does not stick to the ice. Often there are cracks with thin ice, which is easily broken through to the water by an ice pick. Cars jump over such narrow cracks at speed. To soften the impact of the wheels, the edges are edged with picks. Then the crack with water is clogged with pieces of ice, the car drives away 200-500 m to accelerate, a gate is set - a reference point for the driver, where the car will jump, then rapid acceleration to 70-80 km per hour - and a jump through the crack.

In addition to ice cracks, steam vapors that occur on the ice where underwater thermal springs and gases emerge are dangerous for vehicles. Steam holes covered with a layer of snow are almost impossible to detect. Open steam holes - ice holes are visible on the ice from a considerable distance; you just need to look carefully and be able to distinguish them. It is more dangerous when they are hidden by a thin crust of ice, and after a snowfall they are covered with a layer of snow. If steaming is caused by the release of deep gases, then gas bubbles can be seen under the ice, if it is clean and transparent. Steam holes formed by underwater springs or the influx of warm water from tributaries are more difficult to notice. Therefore, it is better not to move off the marked winter road, but where steam holes and cracks are possible, move with a guide who is well aware of the ice characteristics in this area. Suspicious places should be carefully examined and the thickness of the ice should be tested with an ice pick or other sharp object.

The thickness of the ice is also affected by underwater currents, which reduce its strength. For example, in the Olkhon Gate Strait, for this reason, there is no ice crossing. In different years, the crossing is arranged either from the Gulf of Kurkut, or from the mainland after the delta of the Sarma River. A sign with an arrow “Ice crossing” will help you get onto the ice in the right place. The official crossing to Olkhon is marked with frozen poles, regularly cleared with a grader and the thickness of the ice checked. There are signs on it: “Permissible load capacity of vehicles is 5 tons,” “Distance between vehicles is 200 m,” “Stopping is prohibited,” “Recommended speed is 10 km/h.” Most other winter roads are built by fishermen and do not have any warning signs. Experienced drivers always prefer to follow the trail in the right direction, and if they drive straight, they try to avoid cracks and suspicious places, which are distinguished by a grayer color and are visible from afar. There is no one hundred percent reliability on ice roads even with a guide. There are several known cases when cars fell through on permanent winter roads between the villages of Listvyanka and Koty. Cars driving at their own risk are much more likely to go under the ice. In 2002, an expedition of the Ministry of Emergency Situations conducted a special search for sunken objects in the summer and only in the waters of the Small Sea registered 15 unrecovered vehicles. According to local residents, there are from 25 to 50 cars at the bottom of the Small Sea.

At the end of March, when the sun begins to warm up, it becomes dangerous to drive close to the rocks, near which the ice melts faster than in the open waters of the lake. You should also know that, despite the frost and thickness, if a lot of snow fell and it melted quickly, due to the absorption of melt water and changes in its structure, the ice becomes less reliable and uniform than ice on which there was no snow.

Usually in Southern Baikal the road is laid on the ice of the lake from the village. Kultuk to Baikalsk and to the village. Marituya. There are fewer roads on Middle Baikal. Most often they travel on ice from the village. Listvyanka in the village. Koty (18 km), from the village. Bolshoye Goloustnoye to Peschanaya Bay. Sometimes local residents, if the winter has been cold, build a winter road across Lake Baikal - from Cape Krestovsky to the eastern shore. An official crossing, equipped with poles and signs, is organized annually between the mainland and Olkhon Island. The majority of roads on the ice of the Small Sea are mainly fishing roads to ice fishing areas, but there are also permanent ones - from the village. Khuzhir, along the island and in the village. Onguren, to the cordon of the Baikal-Lena Nature Reserve at Cape Solnechny and further to Zavorotnaya Bay. Every year a winter road is laid on ice in the northern part of Lake Baikal between the city of Severobaikalsk and the village. Ust-Barguzin through the Chivyrkuisky Bay.

Ice break-up begins at the end of April from Cape Bolshoy Kadilny, opposite which melting occurs under the influence of rising flows of warm water from underwater sources. The northern part of the lake is the last to be cleared of ice (June 9-14). At the beginning of summer, in June, clusters of dazzling white ice floes float on the blue surface of the lake in the northern part of Baikal, on which seals like to bask in the sun.

STANDING GAP. Through cracks in the ice of Lake Baikal form in the same places every year and persist throughout the winter. With daily fluctuations in air temperature, ice expands or contracts. The width of the gap can vary significantly during the day. They most often have a width from 0.5 to 1–2 m and a length of up to 10–30 km. They are most often found in the middle part of Lake Baikal between Olkhon Island, the Ushkany Islands and the Svyatoy Nos Peninsula. Poses a danger to cars. They overcome them with the help of thick boards or jump over them at speed.

JUICE. This is one of the types of ice on Baikal, formed along the shores during the initial phase of freezing of the lake in the form of a thin ice edge - zaberegi, as well as ice formed in the fall from splashing waves on rocks and stones. The thickness of the ice on the rocks sometimes reaches several tens of centimeters. During a strong storm, windward rocks can be covered with splash ice up to a height of 10 m. Spectacular sokui are found on the rocks of the Ushkany Islands, capes Kobylya Golova, Kurminsky in the Maloye More and on the rocks of the northern tip of Olkhon Island. The ice shell binds the stones and decorates the branches of trees and bushes close to the water with fancy icicles.

ICE THRUDS. In March, ice movement, enhanced by the wind, can squeeze ice onto the shore at a distance of 20–30 m and rise to a height of 15–16 m. Ice thrusts remain on the shore unmelted until the end of May, when the entire lake is already free of ice. In 1933, the ice thrusts were blocked railway near the station Tankhoy and pushed the freight train along with the locomotive off the rails.