You mean you climb that without ropes!!!-Krasnoyarsk

Day 5th March

Katya picked us up early and we headed to the Stolby(Pillars) Nature Reserve where our guide Slava met us. We were very spoilt and because of time constraints he drove us the 7kms to the base of the walk that led to the Stolby themselves. However this enabled us to beat the Sunday walkers and he turned out to be a terrific guide and full of information and passion for the Reserve. It is an example of Russian environment called Taiga and is essentially a pine forest surrounding a set of unique volcanic extrusions called Stolby. He led us to all the main formations and pointed out the various names and the faces and animals that could be seen in the shape of the rocks. Walking through the pine forest with the snow on the trees was wonderful. He also managed to get both of us up to the “grandfathers shoulder” which gave a view of the protected acreage and the city off in the distance.

On the “Grandfather’s Shoulder with Katya”

As well as being a guide Slava was a keen climber and told us about the ethics of climbing at Stolby-essentially free climbing i.e. without ropes as protection. Apparently it is not uncommon for people to climb without the proper gear and one climb there was a memorial to a guy called Volodia Warm who had been the “master” climber there for years but he had one bad day and fell to his death in 1989.

The rock formation “Feathers’-the small black square is the commemorative plaque to Volydia

On doing some research it appears that the climbing without ropes is just expected and done by anybody and everybody.

See

After our walk Slava drove us back down to the start of the walk again and Katya took us to the “Pig and Beads’ Gastropub where we had a great meal.

We then spent the afternoon wandering around Krasnoyarsk including an art gallery honouring the painter started on the bridge crossing to one of the islands and then ended up in the main square before going to the station .Leaving Katya was a bit sad as she had in a very short time made a real impression on us. She had gone out of her way to be hospitable beyond her job description and she was a real delight. In fact Krasnoyarsk would not have been the same with her.