The mystery of the Silk Road. Trekking without backpacks to the Shavlin lakes

Documents for citizens of the Russian Federation:

• A valid domestic or foreign passport.
• The birth certificate for the child.

Documents for foreign citizens:

• A valid foreign passport.
• The birth certificate for the child.
• A completed visa (if required).

Money:

• We have tried to save your money as much as possible by including almost all expenses in the tour price. Despite this, it is better to have a certain amount of cash with you to pay for souvenirs, personal purchases, meals in a cafe (lunch cost 450-600 rubles), baths, additional services. Altai is a place practically untouched by civilization, so you will have to pay in cash, since the possibilities of non–cash payments with bank cards are very limited here.

The 1st hiking part of this tour (7 days) can be walked accompanied by pack horses (horses will carry provisions, tents, campfire equipment, sleeping bags). Only your personal belongings will remain in your backpack, while the average weight of the backpack will be about 10-12 kg, if you pack things strictly according to the list, it is undesirable to take extra things on a hike. If desired, you can pay extra for an additional horse to go completely light. 

2 Mountain trekking is a heavy physical activity. You will travel long distances over rough terrain with different surfaces and angles of inclination (over rocks, mud, mountain rivers and streams, tree roots, swamp). 

3 People who do not have hiking experience can take part in a trekking trip. But this does not mean that the hike is easy. If you prepare for the route – go to the gym, run, attend cardio training, then you will enjoy going the distance. If you do not prepare for the route, then the trail will become a great test for you not only of physical strength, but also of willpower, because if you go on this journey, you will have to go through it to the end, you can only take off from the route ahead of time with the help of a helicopter, the order of which, outside of an insured event, it will cost about 550,000 rubles per board. 

4 To participate in the hike, you must have specialized trekking shoes and other recommended equipment. 

5 By booking this type of hike, you confirm that you are familiar with all the dangers and risks associated with walking the trail in a mountainous area. 

6 Only physically and mentally healthy participants are allowed to go. By booking this tour, you confirm that you do not have any diseases, phobias or contraindications to such routes. There is no possibility of providing emergency medical care on the trail, there are no pharmacies, there are no roads or any infrastructure. In emergency cases, it is possible to evacuate by helicopter under insurance. 

7 There is no varied food on the hike. All food is cooked on fire and gas burners. Breakfast is porridge, sandwiches (sausage, cheese, bread, cucumber), dried fruits/chocolate, cookies, tea/coffee. Lunch ration – sandwich (bread, cheese, sausage, cucumber), squash caviar, dried meat, chocolate, dried fruits, biscuits, tea/coffee. Dinner is a hot second course + soup or salad, cookies, sweets, tea/coffee. 

8 Please note that all products are purchased before the hike. There is no way to replenish supplies on the trail. There is no refrigeration equipment on the trail. Products that are perishable may deteriorate during the hike. For example, these are cabbage, cucumbers, bread, apples, cheese, etc. If this happens, they will be discarded and replaced with long-term storage products. Water for drinking and cooking is collected in mountain streams, rivers and lakes. 

9 The weather in the mountains is very unpredictable. During the day, the temperature can range from +5 to +30 degrees. Moreover, in any period of summer. Nighttime temperatures can drop to -5 degrees. Be very careful when choosing a sleeping bag and clothes for a hike. 

10 Accommodation during the sightseeing part of the tour takes place at the bases – 2-3 people per room. Facilities (shower and toilet) they are located in a separate block, on the territory of the base or in the room. Accommodation during the camping part of the tour takes place in tents – 3-4 people per tent. Double occupancy is possible by separate agreement, but is not welcome. There are several reasons for this: 1 – insufficient number of large flat clearings in the mountains, if the whole group will live for 2 people, then the tents simply will not fit into the perimeter of a convenient flat area for their installation; 2 – heavy weight, the more tents, the more weight the horses carry, and if the horse is for what reason-for some reason, it will not be able to carry weight (very rarely such cases occur, for example, if a horse accidentally stumbled and injured his leg), then the participants will carry all things on themselves; 3 Sleeping in threes or four is much warmer than two, especially when the temperature becomes negative. 

11 A mountain hike is significantly different from a classic tour. The whole group on the hike is a single team. Each participant helps each participant to walk the trail. All public duties in the camp are shared with each other, and duty officers are appointed. Cooking, installation and assembly of the camp is carried out by all participants, on duty. The instructor guide is the head of the group. 

12 Your manager will send you a detailed list of necessary items in a separate memo. 

13 Also, you will receive a recommended list of medications that you need to carry with you on a hike. Be sure to coordinate with your personal doctor the possibility of participating in a mountain hike. 

14 If, after reading this information, going to the Shavlin Lakes no longer seems like a good idea to you, then we invite you to consider other, simpler, but also very beautiful programs – "Big Altai. 5, 7 or 10 days", "The Heart of Altai.10 days", "Chulyshman River Valley + Ukok Plateau", "Mongolia". Accommodation on these tours will be cozy and comfortable, loads are within the power of any person, while traveling is active and interesting.

Air and railway tickets are not included in the price of the tour. You can purchase them yourself or contact us for help.

It is very important to tell about the ticks that scare tourists.

The peak, when there are a lot of ticks, is May and until the end of June. Not every tick is encephalitic. That is, many of them are completely harmless. But it is possible to distinguish a vector from a regular one only in the laboratory.

How to minimize the risk of tick-borne encephalitis?

A few points:

1. Don't let the ticks bite you. Look around when hiking in the forest, take off your clothes on time. It is not difficult to notice a tick on the body. If you hit a bush, you looked at your feet, if there is a tick, just throw it off. In practice, this is a very, very effective way (and I am writing about what I have tested, the advice is extremely practical). Additionally, it is advisable to treat clothes with a repellent.
2. Vaccination. It is done in a polyclinic. If you do a full course of three vaccinations, then immunity can last up to 3 years. I will not dissuade from vaccinations, but in practice, vaccination does not always work. A lot of people, hoping for a vaccination, get sick. Maybe that's why neither I nor my friends make them. This is a big topic for discussion, many people believe that there is a lot of harm from these vaccinations, etc. Everyone makes their own choice.
3. After a tick bite, carry out emergency prevention. Within 72 hours, you need to get an injection of immunoglobulin and take iodantipyrine. This is not a vaccination, but a fight against an infection that has already been received. Such an injection is quite expensive (about 1000 rubles per 10 kilograms of body weight).

But there is a method of protection that is used for the unvaccinated, and which allows you not to force your immune system unnecessarily. It consists of three stages:

• we insure ourselves in case of a tick bite in an insurance company, which allows us to compensate for the cost of an immunoglobulin injection. You need to send us an application for tick bite insurance now if you have purchased a ticket for April-May;
• in case of a tick bite, we pull it out and take it to the laboratory for analysis for the presence of infections (Gorno-Altaysk, 17 Kommunistichesky Ave.). It is better to take it right away, since there are only 72 hours for everything about everything;
• if the tick is "clean", then we sleep peacefully. If the tick-borne encephalitis virus is found, then we proceed to emergency prevention, then we reimburse the costs for insurance.

This method minimizes unnecessary medical interventions. I repeat, everyone is responsible for their own health, someone can just rely on "maybe", pull out the tick and move on.

1. There is no varied food on the hike. All food is cooked on fire and gas burners. Breakfast is porridge, sandwiches (sausage, cheese, bread, cucumber), dried fruits/chocolate, cookies, tea/coffee. Lunch ration – sandwich (bread, cheese, sausage, cucumber), squash caviar, dried meat, chocolate, dried fruits, biscuits, tea/coffee. Dinner is a hot second course + soup or salad, cookies, sweets, tea/coffee. 
2. Please note that all products are purchased before the hike. There is no way to replenish supplies on the trail. Products that are perishable may deteriorate during the hike, if this happens, they will be thrown away and replaced with long-term storage products. 
3. Water for drinking and cooking is collected in mountain streams, rivers and lakes.

The weather in the mountains is very unpredictable. During the day, the temperature can range from +5 to 30 degrees. Moreover, in any period of summer. Nighttime temperatures can drop to -5 degrees. Be very careful when choosing a sleeping bag and clothes for a hike.