Russia: West of North-Ural Mountains
 

Hi,



I'm planning to visit the north-eastern-european part of Russia this Sumemr: West of the Ural, North of Perm - around Syktivkar. See https://blog.foxel.org/2016/06/13/tr...-to-komi-ural/ for an rough Idea of the route ... maybe visit Arkhangelsk on the way back.



This seems to be a relatively sparse traveled area? Most famous seems to be the Man PuPu Ner Rock Pillars and the Taiga Nuke Craters where they tried to dig a canal by nuclear bombs (seems no tourist has been there so far).



Besides http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...russia-80018-2 I'm aware of very little Information on that area.



Anybody got some information or pointers?



--max

We will be around that region ourselves very soon, before making our way to Surgut and beyond and then south to Tomsk and beyond until Kyrgyz. We are currently in Poland and will be in St Pete next week, before going north to Kem (via Kizhi... ) .

For Manpupuner, the only way to get there is by a travel agency. No roads as far as I know. First by boat then few gruesome days hiking... Or helicopter. One lad went there recently in this forum (EO... O being for overland can't remember his full name but he explored that region in a 4x4 some time ago).

Maybe see you on the road.

Cheers,

Not really feasible to get to Manpupuner on a bike unless its your sole goal.
 

This is what riding to Manpupuner entails:

https://vimeo.com/143582272?

Haha I'm glad it's that bad. It's an incredible place and would be ruined by people buzzing around on bikes / cars. From the end of the road in Troitsko-Pechorsk I spent two days in a boat, then two miserable days trudging through ankle-deep swamps to reach Manpupunyor.

In addition to the terrain, the area is utterly plagued by mosquitoes. Not much fun but worth it for that final view!!

Hi Max

I've never heard of the Taiga craters (can you send me a link to some pictures??) but I have been to Manpupunyor.

I'm afraid I cannot be much help as I did not drive in the area. To be honest, I have serious doubts about whether your route can be done in summer.

This year I plan to cross the north Urals and would like to see the mountains a little west of Ivdel, but I have no information other than what we can both see on Google Maps.

Good luck,

EO

Be interested to know about these myself

Russia: West of North-Ural Mountains
 

See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pech...0%93Kama_Canal for some information about them:

on March 23, 1971, three 15-kiloton underground nuclear charges were exploded near the village of Vasyukovo in Cherdynsky District of Perm Oblast, some 100 km north of the town of Krasnovishersk. This nuclear test, known as Taiga,[2] part of the Soviet peaceful nuclear explosions program, was intended to demonstrate the feasibility of using nuclear explosions for canal construction. The triple blast created a crater over 600 meters long.

interesting, just quick look, cannot see any proper access roads, jsut what seemed to winter roads. Will be very much interested to see if you manage to get there

Russia: West of North-Ural Mountains
 

See
https://blog.foxel.org/2016/09/14/ca...to-manpupuner/
and
https://blog.foxel.org/category/reis...d-2016/page/2/
(German) on how it worked out.

TL;DR: we did not get there

Hi Max

Thanks for updating us.

I delayed my 2016 trip as I spent far too long restoring my new car (which I bought for the trip).

I'm still carefully researching a 2018 trip from Magadan right across Russia using ice roads as much as possible. I think there are interesting winter roads in that area coming down from Labytnangi and crossing the Urals to Ukhta. What I would really like to do however is cross the Polar Urals along the railway path between Labytnangi and Vorkuta, but this seems impossible from local info.

Good luck,

EO

Russia: West of North-Ural Mountains
 

See "Entlang der Polarkreisbahn" at https://blog.foxel.org/2016/10/04/no...upuner-queren/ for some Notes I took should I ever get there again.

Especially https://dhuu.files.wordpress.com/201...v7snapz025.png and https://dhuu.files.wordpress.com/201...v7snapz026.png

These Maps indicate a track.

And also http://www.wikiloc.com/wikiloc/view.do?id=4186919

Hope that helps!

--max

Russia: West of North-Ural Mountains
 

Also see https://blog.foxel.org/2016/11/12/ko...-taiga-krater/ for some Maps regarding the Taiga Crater.

https://dhuu.files.wordpress.com/201...onsnapz009.png

Found just this report about Russian car trip to Dyatlov pass - they managed it with a soviet passenger car (Zaporozh from 1983), I guess in July 2014:

https://www.drive2.ru/b/2456806/ (blog report part 1 of 3)

Wow!