MOSCOW, May 15. /TASS Correspondent Polina Boldyreva/. The Arctic is a rare tourist attraction: only a few are able to enjoy the frosts, unpredictable nature and huge distances. And yet, the number of visiting tourists has been growing: in 2022, Norilsk, a polar city, welcomed 12,000 guests - three times more than three years earlier. For those, who may want to visit, for example, Norilsk, Dudinka or the Putorana Plateau, to learn how the North's low-numbered indigenous peoples live, TASS correspondents have tried to put together a guide to the biggest tourist attractions.
"We all stick to each other"
Between November and May, getting to Norilsk is possible by air only: different air companies from many Russian cities offer flights, including from Moscow. The closest biggest city is Krasnoyarsk. In summer, there is another transport option - by the Yenisei River. Boats serve passengers from late June or early July (depending on the weather).
Warm clothes are not the most thing that every tourist must have. What matters is patience. The severe North is welcoming not to all. However, if it does, as the locals say, then it's for good.
"Here, people are always helpful - that's a rare thing nowadays. The climate is truly severe here, not many people around, and we all stick to each other, because if you are caught in a black storm (a snow storm with hurricanes), nobody would just pass by - will always help," said our guide, Ekaterina Kaverina, who lives on the Taymyr Peninsula all her life.
The first thing tourists feel in the Arctic is the biting wind, which hinders all pilots. At times it may be strong enough to tear off roofs and spin pets away from their owners.
It's next to impossible to imagine Taymyr without winds. The wind is a calamity, which creates the unique nature of the only place on Earth that has most landscapes: from the Northern taiga to the Arctic desert.
"You may run into furry white Arctic foxes and hares. In strong frosts, 50 - 100 hares may stick to each other to remain warm, and the noise they produce is comparable with the noise from a musk oxen herd," Ekaterina smiled.
The main animal here, anyway, is the reindeer. In spring, herders take the animals northbound to escape annoying midges. Visitors may watch the migration, though nowadays the routes have shifted to the east from Norilsk.
"In the past, the population could be as big as 1.2 million animals, and nowadays it has shrunk to 500,000," our guide said. "One of the reasons is poachers. Now, laws in this sphere are strict."
Flying over Arctic Circle
An aircraft is once again the only option to get to a herder camp. A Mil Mi-8 helicopter takes off, stirring up a snow tornado underneath, and revealing incredible Northern views: larches scattered on the white hills and the endless sky. The gloomy days' period - between the polar night and the polar day - is over, and here begins the period of white nights. This is the time, she continued, when people in the North are gradually waking up from the winter dozing and are getting outdoors more often. The polar day will begin on May 20.
Deer herders are outdoors practically the year round. The Harp nomadic camp ("Northern Lights" in the Nenets language) is a place where visitors may learn how herders live. The Nenets are one of the last indigenous peoples of the North who continue to nomad across the tundra.
Deer, walking amid the snow, are seen clearly from the helicopter. We step on the ground, and this stopping in fact is stepping into small pits in the snow. The pits are from the hoofs digging through the snow in search for yagel - reindeer lichen - reindeer's main food. In winter, they may even condescend to small rodents. The most favorite delicacy is mushrooms. "They go crazy, even domestic deer. They may run away following the smell, and then people have to search the tundra to bring them back," Ekaterina said.
"As long as we have deer, our culture is alive"
Elena Evay in the ethnic Nenets outfit welcomes us to the camp. She wears a parka of deer skin, and unts (fur footwear). Making this outfit may take a few months. The most complicated part is the embroidery decoration. The stitches form deer horns. Elena is a manager at the Arctic Culture Center. She tells us about how nomadic people live in the North.
"In my opinion, for as long as we have deer, our culture is alive. Without deer everything gets lost - the language, the traditional life. In the past, here used to be many deer. I can remember from my childhood, a fawn got to us. It was running differently, very gracefully," she said.
Elena assists in organizing tours to camps and stays in contact with herders. The herders, whom we have visited, are a Nenets family. They wander across the tundra year-round. Their home is a balk - a small house on sleds. The invention goes back a century ago. A few dozen riding deer, about 30 normally, are able to pull this house.
Obedient but cheeky
Big eyes - this strikes first. It is quite an impression to be the object of 1,500 incredulous and fearful staring animals. Meanwhile, emotions settle rather quickly, and here you are stroking an animal. The fur is long, and the nose is fluffy warm.
"The deer are obedient, but some may be too cheeky, so be careful," said Alexander Yadne. He used to be a herder, but now the age is too big - 59. He has moved to the city.
The herd's owner is his nephew, Leonid, who is 30. Among deer herders in that part of Taymyr the Yadne have many relatives. In summer, the herd walks right to the Kara Sea - there the midges would not annoy the animals. Every autumn, they slaughter and sell about 300-400 biggest deer. The herders also sell horns and antlers.
Ekaterina explains to us: domestic deer are squat and look like dogs, they have fur even between the hooves, their ears and tails are small. Deer are known for hollow hair - thus, the animals retain heat much longer and can swim long distances.
Harmony with nature
At the Harp ethnic camp, visitors may ride sleds pulled by reindeer. They pull the sleds slowly through the friable snow. The herders, however, use snow bikes to get anywhere.
To have more strength in the cold polar spring, reindeer need bread. In the freezing air, the frost wraps slices immediately. The deer grab bread quickly, smack like horses, and keep asking for more.
Tourists will never be hungry at the camp - they will learn how to cook correctly stroganina (chopped frozen fish or meat), and will taste it. Elena made a master class for us. First of all, she said, you need to cut off the fins and skin, and then remove the spine. Before tasting fish, don't forget to dip the frozen pieces into salt. Cold stroganina is tasty with hot tea with jam of cloudberry - an orange Northern berry.
Heart of Taymyr
It's hardly possible to stay at the camp for long - the weather may change any moment, and flights may be delayed. Thus, 2 hours later we return to the helicopter. The next stop is Dudinka - a city some 79 km from Norilsk. The locals say Dudinka is the heart of Taymyr. Additionally, it is where most low-numbered indigenous peoples live.
The first impression is brightly colored facades. Light blue, pink and green - the locals say the colors are great in the polar night as they make bright spots on the snow-white ground and skies.
Dudinka is where Taymyr's central "chum" (tent, house, home) is. It is a local culture center. The building is really similar to a chum, though it's made of metal and glass. Indoors are an exhibition hall and an art gallery where now is running an exhibition of Boris Molchanov - the first artist coming from Taymyr's ethnic group. He painted pictures on nyuks - leather covers on traditional chums. His pictures are about "the North's soul."
Reconstructed traditional houses of five ethnic groups living on the Taymyr Peninsula are in the center's yard. Those are houses of the Evenks, Nenets, Ents, Nganasans and Dolgans. This ethnography complex, dubbed Taymyr Ecumene, was opened in 2021.
"Tundra soul wish is argish"
We meet Natalya Yarotskaya. She works at the Taymyr culture center. Natalya comes from a Nenets family. Her brothers, sisters and their families nomad the tundra, and their kids are at a boarding school in Dudinka.
"Nowadays, it is very complicated to leave kids in the tundra, and reindeer husbandry, in my opinion, is on the verge of extinction. For example, my elder brother has only one son who is in the tundra now, and he wants to move to the city and to hire somebody to take care of the herd," she said.
Natalya lives in Dudinka, and very often goes to see relatives. "At times, my tundra soul's wish, so to say, is an argish (a deer caravan - TASS)," she said laughing. "I get my kids dressed and we drive snow bikes to the family. This is what we do every spring."
To understand better the specific world of the Nenets, make a national doll - a nukhuko. Its head is in the form of a bird's beak. A man's doll is made with a swan's beak, a woman's - with a duck's beak. "Such dolls were talismans when girls got married. The doll was sewn, and then it was spell worked for a long and happy married life," she said.
"Our friends"
We continue the Taymyr Ecumene tour to learn the Evenks culture. Of all the low-numbered indigenous peoples, it is the most high-number people. Here tourists will join the tradition of feeding fire, dubbed "imty." Tatiana Bolina, the center's expert in folk arts and ethnography, says the tradition of feeding fire is an obligatory custom when the Evenks welcome visitors.
"Fire is treated with deer and fish oil, and here now I will ask Mother Fire to receive guests: they are not strangers who have come, they are ours. Our friends. Receive them well," she said.
The Evenks will invite guests to have tea, will explain why their outfits necessarily have a loon image (the bird is on the Red Data Book), will offer for good luck to tie a ribbon on the "chimka" - - a pole between the entrance and the stove. Many geographical names in the Russian North - like the Yenisei, Taymyr - come from the Evenk language, Tatiana added.
Sounds of the tundra
We are still at the Taymyr Ecumene. The next destination is baltysakh. It is an ancient wooden house of rough planks 6 by 6 meters, where the Dolgans live. The house is divided into two parts - women's and men's.
"In the past, our people lived in such houses in winter - from December to March, and in summer they used chums," Tatiana Zharkova, a Dolgan, told us.
She invited us to take part in the "alastyr" ritual - to fumigate the house to protect people from diseases and misfortune. The smoke comes from burning herbs - ledum, juniper - and amber beads, mined on the Taymyr. The fragrant smoke fills the room, and the guests can't help feeling relaxed. "All misfortunes have disappeared with the smoke," Tatiana said as the ritual was over.
The Dolgans have a musical instrument. Bargan. The Dolgans say its specifically drawling sound is the "sound of the tundra". Indeed, listening to Tatiana Zharkova, we could hear the sounds of deer hooves.
Waterfalls land
Another flight takes us to the Putorana Plateau. Those who have not seen it have not seen the Taymyr, the locals say. They speak about it breathily. The Putorana Nature Reserve is on UNESCO's World Heritage List.
Strong winds and endless snowdrifts fear off visitors in winter. In spring, the weather is milder. We are waiting for an ok from weather specialists. Here it comes, and we are getting ready for a flight.
The Putorana Plateau has the most waterfalls in Russia, including the most powerful Kureysky and the highest (600 m) - Talnikov. We have also visited the famous Irokindinsky waterfall. Its height is of a 9-storey building.
If a helicopter cannot land on the snow crust by the Irkindinsky waterfall, the only way out would be to fly back. We were lucky.
The nature is asleep now. Over the 90-minute flight, we could see below only a couple of moose wandering along the frozen pond. When the weather gets warmer, visitors will see white hares, polar wolves, moose, bears, reindeer and, if lucky - the Putorana snow sheep.
"The sheep is endemic, and nobody can explain how it got here, because the plateau has not been connected with other mountain systems for about 15,000 years. They live on peaks rich in vegetation, but there must be steep cliffs nearby so that they could escape from predators. Nowadays the sheep are not more than 1,000, they are on the Red Data Book," Ekaterina Kaverina said. A sheep may weight 110 kg, and fluffy fur coats keep the animals warm even at minus 70 degrees."
Interestingly, some females give their newly-born cubs to their mothers for upbringing. Putorana sheep are a rare species of ungulates whose "grannies" care for the little ones.
The high tourist season begins in late spring: the landscapes are easier to watch, like the unusual basalt pillars, which guides call "gendarmes". "I had a season when I worked on the route to the mountain passing the "gendarmes", there were seven of them. Over the season two pillars collapsed. We always say - be that in winter or in summer - you have to be careful - these are mountains, and they keep breathing, moving, living," Ekaterina said.
Extreme routes
Getting up the mountains is possible by air only. At the same time, it is also possible to drive up to the Putorana Plateau spurs by car. However, that must be not a regular car. That car must be able to drive through snowdrifts higher than a human. This extreme tourism on the Taymyr Peninsula is offered to those not afraid to get stuck in a snowdrift and who is ready, if necessary, to walk a couple of hundred meters to see truly scenic views.
Another tourist attraction is near Talnakh - a district of Norilsk, Russia's ore capital. This is the Krasnye Kamni (Red Stones) mountain gorge, which is popular among the locals. The place is known for a mountain waterfall flowing down the rocks that contain much iron ore, which turns the stones red.
Travelers would need off-road vehicles with big wheels to get to the gorge. But anyway, the first to drive along the route would be a ratrak (a self-propelled crawler transport, with a tractor base, a ski tracker that can prepare snow-covered mountain slopes, transport people and can be used in rescue operations).
"You may think it's easy to be the first to drive because the snow in front of you is smooth, not yet dug up by anyone's wheels, but you need to mind - you may be also the first to fall into a snowdrift," driver Alexander Nechaev told us.
He is a driver on the Norilsk Railway, has been living on the Taymyr since birth. He transports tourists only occasionally. The car has a first aid kit, ski goggles, a walkie-talkie, burners and warm tea. There's an option for a sleeping place.
On the Red Stones, seeing wild animals is not an exception - hares, foxes, arctic foxes, sables. "Bears are sleeping now, but anyway meeting bears is also possible," he laughed.
The red-brown rocks, called Red Stones, are easily seen from afar not only because of the color, but also because of the frozen two-stage waterfall running into the lake. Ice climbers train there in winter. Those people enjoy climbing icy slopes, not mountains.
The waterfall, which ice climbers conquer on the Red Stones, is 15 meters high. Climbers have two types of competitions - in the route difficulty and in speed. It took Vladislav Golub, who comes from Norilsk, and who is the winner of the Cup of Russia, about an hour to climb the waterfall. "If faster, I can manage within 15 minutes," he explained, adding that truly difficult routes combine rock and ice climbing.
You can climb the ice only with belaying ropes. To gain a foothold at a certain height, climbers use special ice hammers to break through the frozen water, and then roughen it with a file for better grip. Only professionals can do this job.
The ice climbing season kicks off in spring. Climbers say this sport is experiencing hard times. "Norilsk used to have a great school, a lot of people. I can remember, in some years, the city's team was of ten people, we went to competitions, brought many prizes, were among the best in Russia," Vladislav said.
However, ice climbers do not give up. There are plans to build in the coming years an international-level ice climbing base at the Ol-Gul sports complex near Norilsk.
Waterfall climbers come also from abroad. Not so long ago, to the Putorana Plateau came climbers from Spain. Jointly with them Vladislav for the first time in the world conquered the 76-meter Princessa (Princess) Waterfall.
"I am confident - as soon as Ol-Gul opens, in the very first year we will hold the Russian Cup stage, because people in Russia have been waiting for a cool base to appear in Norilsk, north from the Arctic Circle. People are curious to come here not only because of ice climbing, but because this is the largest Northern city, where, as many believe, the locals buy bread with one hand, and fight off wolves with the other," Vladislav laughed.
This tour was organized as an event of Russia's chairing the Arctic Council - a leading intergovernmental forum on cooperation in the Arctic.