Zigalga, Nurgush and Bolshaya Suka

Description

Several days among the highest mountains of Chelyabinsk Oblast — between the Yuryuzan, Satka and the Ay River. Here stand Bolshoy Shelom, the third summit of the Southern Urals; Bolshoy Nurgush, the highest point of the oblast; and the twenty-seven-kilometre Bolshaya Suka ridge, with a cave holding the region’s largest underground glacier to temper the mountains. Part of the territory belongs to Zyuratkul National Park, part to the young Zigalga National Park: visits are paid, and each ridge ascent takes four to eight hours, so the route calls for three or four days. The classic ascent of Bolshoy Shelom (1,427 metres) starts from the village of Tyulyuk: the trail climbs “staircase” fashion through the forest belt and out onto stone rivers. The crest is made of very hard quartz sandstones and keeps steep shapes; there is no water up top — stock up at Tyulyuk. The neighbouring summits — Poperechnaya, Evlakta, Third Shelom and Merzly Utios — form one of the most powerful ridges of the Urals. Nurgush stretches for dozens of kilometres from the southern shore of Lake Zyuratkul to the Yuryuzan River; its Bolshaya summit — 1,406.2 metres — is the highest point of Chelyabinsk Oblast. The ridge is built of quartzites that shine white in the sun; above the treeline lie bald summits and patches of mountain tundra. The classic climb starts from the “At Three Summits” shelter near the Sibirka settlement: the round trip takes six to eight hours, and you should set out at dawn. To the west stretches Bolshaya Suka — a twenty-seven-kilometre ridge with rocks and a broad plateau at its northern end; it is prized for the “alpine” look of the Southern Urals with a relatively modest elevation gain and starts from the roads of the Satka district. A rest from the passes is Kurgazak Cave above the Ay River: a corridor-and-grotto system five hundred and thirty metres long in Devonian limestones, described as early as the eighteenth century by academician Pyotr Pallas. Ice lies year-round in the entrance section — the largest underground glacier of Chelyabinsk Oblast; a bat colony winters here too. Ridge routes are almost unmarked: download tracks in advance, and expect wind and temperature drops on the bald summits even in summer.