Sergey Karpukhin's Photography - Suntar-Khayata - Russia

http://www.YaharaWay.com/KarpukhinPhotography Suntar-Khayata It looks like just enumeration of some geographical objects, doesn't it? But it is a route of a difficult photo expedition. The Suntar mountain range, stretched out in the areas of the south-east part of Yakutia and the north-west part of the Khabarovsk Territory, first caught my attention few years ago. When you look at the map, you can notice that the Suntar-Khayata stands out among surrounding mountains for its height and iced tops. Besides, it is situated near Kolymskaya road, which makes it possible to visit this area. But the final decision to visit this region I took after watching some photos on Internet, when I was impressed by coloured mountains. This wasn't an expedition on my own, I was accompanied by a friend, Viktor Proskurko from Vladikavkaz. The trip began from shuttling the weight of 180 kilograms upwards the Suntar valley. It lasted for one month, because we had to carry it over 120 kilometres. Nevertheless, the main objective was not power lifting, but creativity - taking pictures, that's why we had lots of stops. Thus we climbed to the Suntar's origines, and then crossed over to the Khabarovsk Territory, where the river Udoma begins. In this part the river is called Nitkan. It turned out to be the most beautiful part of our route. Then, we reached places where water was sufficiently high for river rafting, there we built up the catamaran and sailed down the river 600 kilometres to the first settlement, which is named Yugoryonok. We managed to visit that wonderful place, watched colourful mountains and headed back. During two months we had had only two meetings with the Evenks. Now I have the opportunity to share everything we've seen with those who are interested in our unforgetable journey.