Konzhakovsky stone is the highest point of the Sverdlovsk region. Command center of the Strategic Missile Forces "Kosvinsky Stone" Description of Mount Konzhakovsky Stone

Kerzhaks are representatives of the Old Believers, carriers of a culture of the North Russian type. They are an ethno-confessional group of Russians. In the 1720s, after the defeat of the Kerzhen monasteries, they fled east to the Perm province, fleeing political and religious persecution. They have always led a rather closed communal lifestyle due to strict religious rules and traditional culture.

The Kerzhaks are one of the first Russian-speaking inhabitants of Siberia. Here the people were the basis of the Altai masons, they contrasted themselves with the “Rasei” (Russian) later settlers of Siberia. But gradually, due to their common origin, they were almost completely assimilated. Later, all Old Believers were called Kerzhaks. To this day there are Kerzhat villages in remote places that have virtually no contact with the outside world.

Where live

From the Urals, people settled throughout Siberia, to the Far East and Altai. In Western Siberia, people founded villages in the Novosibirsk region: Kozlovka, Makarovka, Bergul, Morozovka, Platonovka. The last two no longer exist. Today, the descendants of the Kerzhaks live in Russia and abroad.

Name

The ethnonym “Kerzhaki” comes from the name of the Kerzhenets River, which is located in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

Number

Due to the Soviet transformations of society, the influence of such factors as collectivization, atheism, dispossession, industrialization, many descendants of the Kerzhaks stopped observing ancient traditions. Today they consider themselves to be part of the all-Russian ethnic group; they live not only throughout Russia, but also abroad. According to the population census conducted in 2002, only 18 people classified themselves as Kerzhaks.

Religion

The people believed in the Holy Trinity of the Orthodox Church, but in their religion they retained faith in various unclean spirits: brownies, water spirits, goblins, etc. The “worldly” - adherents of official Orthodoxy - were not allowed to pray at their icons. Along with the Christian faith, the people used many secret ancient rituals.

Every morning began with a prayer, which was read after washing, then they ate food and went about their business. Before starting any task, they also said a prayer and signed themselves with two fingers. Before going to bed they said prayers and only then went to bed.

Food

Kerzhaki were prepared according to ancient recipes. They cooked various jelly, and as the first course they ate thick Kerzhak cabbage soup with kvass and barley groats. Open pies “juice shangi” were made from sour dough, which were greased with hemp juice. Porridge was made from cereals and turnips.

During Lent, fish pies were baked; it is noteworthy that whole fish was used, not gutted. They just cleaned it and rubbed it with salt. The whole family ate such a pie, they made a circular cut on it, removed the top “lid”, broke the pie into pieces, and ate the fish from the pie with forks. When the upper part was eaten, they pulled the head and removed it along with the bones.

In the spring, when all supplies ran out, Lent began, during this period they ate fresh greens, leaves with shoots of horsetail, bitter turnips (colts), pickled honey, and collected nuts in the forest. In the summer, when haymaking began, rye kvass was prepared. They used it to make green okroshka, radish, and drink it with berries. During the Assumption Fast, vegetables were harvested.

For the winter, the Kerzhaks prepared berries, soaked lingonberries in tubs, ate them with honey, fermented wild garlic, ate them with kvass and bread, fermented mushrooms and cabbage. Hemp seeds were roasted, crushed in a mortar, water and honey were added and eaten with bread.

Appearance

Cloth

For a very long time, people remained committed to traditional clothing. Women wore slanted sundresses made of fabrics (dubas). They were sewn from painted canvas and satin. They wore light canvas shaburs and leather cats.

Life

They have been engaged in farming for a long time, growing grain crops, vegetables, and hemp. There are even watermelons in the Kerzhak gardens. Domestic animals include sheep and, in the Uimon Valley, deer. The people were very successful in trade. Livestock products and products based on deer horns, which are considered very useful and healing, are sold.

The most common crafts are weaving, carpet making, tailoring, making accessories, jewelry, household items, souvenirs, basket weaving, making wooden and birch bark utensils, pottery, and leather production. Burlap was made from hemp, and oil was pressed from the seeds. They were engaged in beekeeping, carpentry, stove laying, and artistic painting. The elders passed on all their skills to the younger generation.

They lived mostly in large families of 18-20 people. Three generations of the family lived in one family. Family foundations in Kerzhak families have always been strong. The head was a big man, he was helped by a big woman mistress, to whom all the daughters-in-law were subordinate. The young daughter-in-law did not do anything around the house without her permission. This obedience continued until she gave birth to a child or the young ones separated from their parents.

Children from an early age were instilled with a love of work, respect for elders, and patience. They never brought up by shouting; they used instructive proverbs, parables, jokes, and fairy tales. People said: to understand how a person lived, you need to know how he was born, got married, and died.

Housing

The Kerzhaks built log huts with gable roofs, mostly rafters. The frame of the dwelling consisted of intersecting logs laid one on top of the other. Depending on the height and method of connecting the logs, different connections were made in the corners of the hut. The construction of the dwelling was approached thoroughly so that it would last for centuries. They surrounded the hut and the yard with a wooden fence. There were two boards as a gate, one on the outside of the fence, the second on the inside. First, they climbed up the first board, crossed the top of the fence and went down another board. On the territory of the yard there were buildings, premises for livestock, storage of equipment, tools, and feed for livestock. Sometimes they built houses with covered courtyards and made sheds for hay called “booths”.

The situation inside the hut was different, depending on the wealth of the family. The house had tables, chairs, benches, beds, various dishes and utensils. The main place in the hut is the red corner. There was a goddess with icons in it. The shrine must be located in the southeast corner. Under it were stored books, lestovki - a type of rosary of the Old Believers, made in the form of a ribbon of leather or other material, sewn in the form of a loop. The ladder was used to count prayers and clones.

Not every hut had closets, so things were hung on the walls. The stove was made of stone and installed in one corner, slightly away from the walls to avoid fire. Two holes were made on the sides of the stove for drying mittens and storing seryanka. Above the table there were small shelves-cabinets where dishes were stored. The houses were illuminated using the following devices:

1. splinters
2. kerosene lamps
3. candles

The Kerzhaks' concept of beauty was closely connected with the cleanliness of their homes. The dirt in the hut was a shame for the mistress. Every Saturday, the women began cleaning early in the morning, washing everything thoroughly and cleaning it with sand to smell the wood.

Culture

An important place in Kerzhak folklore is occupied by lyrical, drawn-out songs, accompanied by a very unique voice. They are the basis of the repertoire, which includes some wedding and soldier songs. The people have a lot of dance and round dance songs, sayings, and proverbs.

The Kerzhaks living in Belarus have a unique singing style. Their culture was influenced by living in this country. You can easily hear the Belarusian dialect in the singing. The musical culture of the settlers also included some genres of dance music, for example, krutukha.

Traditions

One of the strict religious rules of the Kerzhaks is to cross the glass when it was accepted from the wrong hands. They believed that there could be evil spirits in the glass. After washing in the bathhouse, they always turned over the basins, into which “bathhouse devils” could move. You need to wash before 12 o'clock at night.

Children were baptized in cold water. Marriages among the people were strictly permitted only with co-religionists. One of the features of the Kerzhaks is their attitude to the truth and the given word. The following words were always said to the young:

• go to the barn and joke there alone;
• do not light it, extinguish it until it flares up;
• If you lie, the devil will crush you;
• you stand in truth, it’s difficult for you, but stand still, don’t turn around;
• promiseha nedahe - sister;
• Slander is like coal: if it doesn’t burn, it gets dirty.

If a Kerzhak allowed himself to say a bad word or sing an obscene ditty, he dishonored not only himself, but also his entire family. They always said with disgust about someone like this: “He’ll sit down at the table with these same lips.” People considered it very indecent not to say hello even to a person whom you know little. After saying hello, you need to pause, even if you are in a hurry or busy, and talk to the person.

From the nutritional characteristics, it should be noted that the people did not eat potatoes. It was even called in a special way “devil’s apple.” The Kerzhaks did not drink tea, only hot water. Drunkenness was highly condemned; they believed that hops lasted in the body for 30 years, and dying drunk was very bad; you wouldn’t see a bright place. Smoking was condemned and considered a sin. People who smoked were not allowed near the holy icons; everyone tried to communicate with him as little as possible. They said about such people: “He who smokes is worse than dogs.” They did not sit at the same table with the “worldly”, did not drink, did not eat from other people’s dishes. If a non-Christian entered the house during a meal, all the food on the table was considered polluted.

In Kerzhak families, the following rules existed: all prayers, knowledge, and conspiracies must be passed on to their children. You cannot pass on your knowledge to older people. Prayers must be learned by heart. They cannot be told to strangers; the Kerzhaks believed that this would make the prayers lose their power.

Traditions closely related to work were very important for the Old Believers. They have a respect for work, which is considered good for the earth and nature. The hard life of the Kerzhaks, persecution, contributed to their caring attitude towards the land as the highest value. Laziness and careless owners were strongly condemned. Often these were paraded in front of large numbers of people. They always cared about the harvest, the health of the family, livestock, and tried to pass on all their life experience to the future generation. It was considered a sin to sit at a dirty “filthy” table. Every housewife baptized the dishes before cooking, and suddenly devils were jumping on them. If a stranger came into the house, they always washed the floor and wiped the door handles afterward. Guests were served separate dishes. All this is related to the rules of personal hygiene. As a result, there were no epidemics in the Kerzhak villages.

After work, special rituals were performed that returned the lost strength to the person. The earth was called mother, nurse, bread-maker. Kerzhaks consider nature to be a living being, they believe that it understands man and helps him.

The people had a reverent attitude towards fire and water. Forests, grass and water were holy in their understanding. They believed that fire cleanses the body and renews the soul. Bathing in healing springs was considered a second birth, a return to original purity. The water that was brought home was collected from rivers against the current; if it was intended for medicine, it was taken downstream, while a spell was pronounced. Kerzhaks never drank water from a ladle; they always poured it into a mug or glass. It is strictly forbidden for people to pour dirty water onto the river bank or take out garbage. Only the water that was used to wash the icons could be poured out; it was considered clean.

It was considered a sin to cry or lament at a funeral; people believed that the deceased would drown in tears. 40 days after the funeral you need to visit the grave, talk with the deceased, remember him with a good word. Parental days of remembrance are connected with the funeral tradition.

Kerzhaks who live today continue to observe religious rituals. The older generation devotes a lot of time to prayers. There are many ancient icons in the houses of Old Believers. To this day, people are trying to preserve their traditions, rituals, religion, and moral principles. They always understand that they need to rely only on themselves, their skills and hard work.

Konzhakovsky Stone is the highest mountain in the Sverdlovsk region. Height – 1569 meters. Refers to the Northern Urals. Every year thousands of tourists from all over the Urals (and not only) come here. The landscapes here are truly magnificent! Tourists usually call the mountain briefly and simply – Konjak.

Origin of the name Konzhakov Stone

Together with the Konzhakovka River (a tributary of the Lobva River), the mountain is mentioned in sources of the 18th century. Head of the North Ural Expedition of the Russian Geographical Society E.K. Hoffman, who visited the peak on July 3, 1853, wrote that the mountain was named after Vogul Konzhakov, “who at the foot of it had his own yurt and hunted on it.”

Description of Mount Konzhakovsky Stone

Konzhakovsky Kamen is a large mountain range consisting of several peaks: Konzhakovsky Kamen (1569 m), Trapezium (1253 m), South Job (Duparkov Kamen) (1311 m), Northern Job (1263 m), Tylaysky Kamen (1471 m) , Ostraya Kosva (1403 m), Serebryansky Kamen (1305 m) and others.

The slopes are covered with kurumniks of various sizes. Main rocks: pyroxenites, dunites and gabbro. The altitudinal zonation is clearly visible here: forests give way to forest-tundra, and then to mountain tundra. There are many cedars growing in the forests on the slopes. By the way, in some places on the Konzhakovsky Stone there are magnetic anomalies that can throw off tourists who are guided by a compass.

The weather on Konzhakovsky Kamen, as in any mountains, is changeable. It’s not easy to catch good, sunny weather here. It rains almost every day. It is not without reason that a comic sign appeared: if Konjak is visible, it will rain, if it is not visible, it means it is already falling.

In winter there is a lot of snow on the mountains. In some places it does not melt all summer.

In the 1720-40s, four mines with the general name Konzhakovsky worked on the slopes of the Konzhakovsky Stone. The mined copper ore was sent to the Lyalinsky copper smelter.

The climb to the top of the Konzhakovsky Stone is long and quite difficult. Unprepared people then have pain in their legs for several days. It seems that this is already the top. But, having risen, more and more new ascents open up. The highest point of Konjac with an altitude of 1569 meters is located on top of small cliffs.

There is a metal tripod with a Russian flag installed here; underneath it are various pennants, a weight with a broken handle weighing 24 kg and other artifacts. Previously, there was also a sewer hatch here, which surprised tourists.

Participants of the project "Uraloved" on the top of Konjak

Stunning panoramas open from the top and slopes of Konjac. If you're lucky with the weather, you'll remember them for a long time! Everywhere you look there are mountains all around. The rocky teeth of Serebryansky Kamen and the cone of Kosvinsky Kamen are especially beautiful. By the way, in the depths Kosvinsky Stone The military has built a mysterious bunker. According to some information, there is a combat control center for the Strategic Missile Forces of the Perimeter system, from where Russia can launch a nuclear strike on the world. Its location here is due to the special properties of the rocks that make up the Kosvinsky Kamen.

Despite its uniqueness and symbolism (still the highest point in the region), Konzhakovsky Stone does not have the status of a natural monument.

At the top of the Konzhakovsky Stone. View towards Kosvinsky Stone

The path to the top of Konjac partially goes along the edge Job plateau. It is a large, partially swampy clearing at an altitude of 1100-1200 meters, surrounded by rocky slopes.

Geologists have done good work here in the past. What was left of them was a lot of iron rubbish (pipes, trolleys, drill parts, remains of mechanisms, etc.), pits and a small shallow lake (Lake Geologists, height 1125 m). It’s better not to be here during a thunderstorm - the pieces of iron lying around here attract lightning well.

Lake Geologists

While in Konjac, it’s worth going to Job's Gap (Job's Abyss). The plateau here abruptly ends to the east.

GPS coordinates of the Job Failure: N 59º 38.104´ E 059º 10.358´.

The Job gap is one of the few glacial cirques preserved in the Northern Urals. The depth of the hole is 300 meters, the average steepness of the slopes is 35 degrees. Multi-colored rocks come to the surface (some of them, due to their light shade, create the illusion that the sun is shining on them). In some places the walls of the hole are completely smooth, as if polished.

Below, in the canyon, the Poludnevaya river flows. Even in summer there is snow and ice in places. Streams flowing into the hole form small waterfalls. Despite the menacing name, it is quite possible to go down to the bottom of the hole. The slopes are not that steep. It is much more dangerous in winter, when, having gaped or not noticing a failure in bad weather, you can slide down on skis. Then a tragedy can happen. They say that such cases have already happened.

Soon this beauty will be destroyed forever, and a quarry will appear here. In 2018, the Dunites of the Middle Urals enterprise began open-pit mining of dunites. The reserves of the Iovskoye deposit are estimated at 20 million tons of dunite. This should be enough for 30 years.

Traces of the former presence of geologists on the Job Plateau

Miners believe that the quarry on the Job Plateau brings only benefits to tourists. Well, they don’t care about nature.

“Tourists will be able to receive medical assistance in case of injury. In addition to the development of the deposit, there will also be a road to the quarry. And the road is prospects for development. Now Konjak is visited by a handful of people, a negligible number of tourists. When the road appears, even people with disabilities will admire the mountain,” Nikolai Kuzmin, director of Dunitov, told Vecherniye Vedomosti.

Every year on the first Saturday of July, Konjac is very crowded. Since 1996, the Konjac mountain marathon has been held here. It attracts participants from all over the Urals, Russia and even from other countries.

For many, Konjac is a source of inspiration. Songs are written about it, paintings are painted here. It is not for nothing that the favorite stopping place for tourists is called the Glade of Artists.

The surroundings of the Konzhakovsky Stone are also interesting. Everywhere you look there are mountains all around that you can walk on and on.

Expedition E.K. Hoffmann on the Konzhakovsky Stone

In the summer of 1853, the Konzhakovsky Stone was visited by the expedition of the famous geologist E.K. Hoffman, who worked on the creation of a geological map of the Urals. A report on this was published in the Mining Journal, vol. 5, 1865

“Since none of the guides knew further the road to the Konzhakovsky stone and since the peaks of the mountains seen had a different shape than what they appeared from Bogoslovsk, we decided to climb some hill in order to get an overview from its top and thus navigate...

The entire ridge and the small peak of the Konzhakovsky stone still lay to the west of us. The Konzhakov stone is the name given to a whole series of mountains stretching from SO to NW. The highest hill lies in the middle, rising above the neighboring hills, which adjoin it with jagged ribs from SO and NW...

The entire path lay through entire fields of scree, which tired us very much... Since we had to reach the main hill very late, and since it lies above the border of trees that could serve us as fuel, we decided 5 or 6 versts from this peak pitch a tent directly at the northern border of the forest...

At 12 ½ o'clock we reached the main peak and erected a cross on it, which was cut down by one of the guides at the border of the forest and brought here... Apart from several wild deer, which immediately disappeared upon our approach, we did not see any living creature here, with the exception of perhaps annoying flies that followed us, perhaps from a halt.”

Alexander Burak. Konzhakovsky Stone. 1956

How to get to the Konzhakovsky Stone (Konzhak)?

To get to the highest point of the Sverdlovsk region - Konzhakovsky Kamen, you need to drive a car from Yekaterinburg along the Serov highway, turn before Serov to Severouralsk, then turn to Karpinsk (see map below). Having passed through the city of Karpinsk, you find yourself on the road to Kytlym. In the past there was a bad dirt road here, but an asphalt road was recently built. About 50 km from Karpinsk there is a recreation center “Konzhakovsky Kamen”, where you can leave your car and continue on foot along the “marathon”. Distance from Yekaterinburg – 445 km.

You can also get here by public transport: by bus from Yekaterinburg to Karpinsk, then by bus Karpinsk - Kytlym (but it runs rarely, not every day).

Usually you climb to Konzhakovsky Stone along the so-called “marathon” - along the route of the Konzhak mountain marathon. It starts from the Karpinsk-Kytlym highway, 5 km short of the village of Kytlym.

GPS coordinates of the start of the marathon: N 59º 31.974´ E 059º 15.987´. It is marked along its entire length, and there are also signs reporting kilometers.

From the start of the “marathon” to the Artists’ Glade on the banks of the Konzhakovka River is 14 km (it is most convenient to set up a camp there and climb further lightly), and to the top – 21 km. The distance to the top, leisurely, takes seven hours. Almost the entire path is uphill, and after the Artists' Glade it is also along kurumniks.

GPS coordinates of the top of the Konzhakovsky Stone: N 59º 37.921´ E 059º 08.089´ (or 59.632017º, 59.134817º).

Since 2017, only a few people have been able to walk to Konzhakovsky and Serebryansky Stones. Now the majority prefers to drive cars to Konjak along the technological road built by Kuzmin to destroy the Job plateau for the purpose of dunite mining. From here to the top there is nothing left. The flow of tourists has increased significantly, and at the same time, lovers of drinking in nature and garbage have appeared.

When traveling around the Urals, take care of nature! Happy travels!

Kosvinsky Stone- a mountain range located next to the Konzhakovsky stone, in the Northern Urals. It is composed mainly of pyroxenites and dunites. In the lower part, the slopes are covered with coniferous forests, and above - mountain tundra and stone placers. Height - 1519 meters.

Details about the top-secret Soviet system located in this mountain were first revealed in 1993 by Bruce G. Blair, a former American intercontinental ballistic missile observer and now one of the leading US experts on Russian weapons. Fearing that a secret attack from an American submarine could wipe out Moscow from the face of the earth in 13 minutes, Soviet leaders ordered creation of an automated communication network, strengthened so that it was able to withstand the consequences of a nuclear strike. The system was controlled by a computer similar to the one discussed in “ Doctor Strangelove", codenamed " Perimeter" The system became fully operational in January 1985 g. And it has not yet been dismantled.”

(Perimeter system, Index of the Strategic Missile Forces ALV - 15E601 - a complex for automatic control of a massive retaliatory nuclear strike, created in the USSR at the height of the Cold War. Designed to guarantee the launch of silo-based ICBMs and SLBMs in the event that, as a result of a crushing nuclear strike by the enemy on the territory of the USSR, all command units of the Strategic Missile Forces capable of ordering a retaliatory strike are destroyed.

In the Western press the name was assigned to the system "dead hand" (dead hand ) .)

In the additional explanations that end Smith's book, you can find a link to a more detailed description Soviet computer system "Perimeter", published in 2003 in the Washington Post by Bruce G. Blair. Today he heads the World Security Institute in Washington, a liberal think tank.

The main targets of American Cold War strategists in Russia were objects located under the mountains Yamantau And Kosva in the Central and Southern Urals.

They were huge construction sites set up in the late 1970s, when the full force of US nuclear power was aimed at the heart of the communist complex. Fearing an attack that could decapitate the country, the Soviet government sent tens of thousands of workers to these construction sites. Judging by images taken by US spy satellites, work in these areas continued in the late 90s.

Blair received information about the command bunkers being built (drawings and notes) in the late 1990s from senior Strategic Air Command officers responsible for guiding American missiles to Soviet targets.

According to him, the Yamantau command center is located inside a mountain quartz massif at a depth of approximately 1 thousand m. It is more of a refuge for senior political leadership than a command post, as Yamantau's communications systems leave much to be desired, with quartz rocks preventing radio signals from passing through the mountain.

But this “monument of the nuclear era” pales in comparison with the automated “Perimeter” system installed in the area of ​​Mount Kosvinsky Kamen. According to Blair, “American strategists consider it the crown jewel of the Russian nuclear combat command system, since it can communicate through the granite mass with Russian long-range strategic aviation using VLF- radio signal (3.0 - 30.0 kHz), capable of propagating even in a nuclear war. This bunker is a critical link in the communication network system " doomsday machines"designed to provide semi-automatic retaliation in response to a decapitation strike."

However, for the final launch of the missiles, the Soviet system needed a person to press the button. “This “doomsday machine”, which started working in 1984 year, during the apogee of the era of nuclear confrontation, represented a stunning crown of engineering creativity,” writes Blair. According to him, if the systems “ Perimeter"registered a nuclear strike on Russian territory, and then did not receive any commands from Moscow or other command bunkers, then only one person, located deep in the mountain massif, received the authority to launch the entire nuclear arsenal Kosvinsky Stone.

Blair believes that the Bush administration's interest in bombs that destroy underground bunkers is explained by the desire to obtain a device capable of eliminating " death machine", buried in the depths of the Kosvinsky bunker. If this statement is true, it means that the Soviet system retained its functionality. Perhaps someone knew about the deactivation of Perimeter, but Blair was unable to find such information.

President Bush's nuclear war directive requires the Pentagon to develop destruction plans. Yamantau And Kosvinsky Stone along with 2 thousand other targets in Russia and hundreds in China. But such a strategy requires highly effective weapons with significantly greater destructive power than the bombs dropped on Japan in 1945. We are talking about a “doomsday” plan, according to which two underground bunkers are to be destroyed as a result of an exchange of nuclear strikes.

What worries Blair today is not the prospect of a targeted nuclear war along the lines of " cold”, and the so-called accidental war, caused by the presence in the arsenals of states of too easily triggered and unreliable weapons of the previous era.

Colleagues regard Blair as a cautious scientist who raises only real questions. Thus, Stephen M. Meyer, an expert on Russian weapons at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in an interview with the Times that Blair “ holds himself to much higher standards in the evidence-gathering process than others in the intelligence community ».

His book " The logic of accidental nuclear war”, as well as alarming publications, are another reminder that the illogicality, irrationality and possibility of catastrophic errors on the part of our nuclear command and control systems inherited from the Cold War have never been corrected or adjusted by anyone. They were simply forgotten as soon as the Cold War ended. Judging by his analysis, in those days we managed to avoid a full-scale nuclear conflict only due to chance, not reason.

Nowadays

The initial impetus for the construction of the facility, which did not stop even during the crisis of the 90s, was the spent horizontal platinum mines, which themselves were quite a secret mine during the period of their development. Mount Kosva, by the way, is made of dunites, which are a mineral for the production of refractory materials, and also have another useful property - blocking scanning radio emissions (isn’t it a very valuable property for the military. To supply the site, a couple of years ago an additional Power lines, a new bridge has been laid across the Kakva River, the dirt road is maintained in good condition all year round. On the road between the city of Karpinsk and the village of Kytlym, tractors with heavy construction equipment and cement trucks regularly move. In the city of Karpinsk, a residential building was built specifically for officers and their families guarding/ servicing the facility... In Kytlym itself, adjacent to the base, residential houses for soldiers and officers and other infrastructure are being built.

All the locals know is that the entire mountain is dug up like an “anthill.” And those who were there during the construction of the facility say that heavy vehicles move freely through the tunnels, there is a multi-level pass system, and construction departments work in isolation from each other and no one really knows what is being built and why.

In June 2011 we went to the main mountain and the main ridge of the Sverdlovsk region - the Konzhakovsky Stone. Konjak is a favorite climbing spot for many tourists both from Yekaterinburg and all over Russia. It is especially appreciated, of course, by residents of the Sverdlovsk region and neighboring districts. Not all regions of our vast Motherland are lucky with such a relief! I agree, Konjak is not the Himalayas at all, but this fact does not lower this mountain at all!

Mount Konzhakovsky Stone attracted me for a very long time, just like the one on the border of Bashkiria and the Chelyabinsk region. I already tried to climb Konjak once, but I couldn’t reach the top. This happened in 2010, in November. Then the Konzhakovsky stone met us with knee-deep snowdrifts. We reached somewhere around 17-18 km of the marathon route and went no further. At this altitude there is not much snow and it is rather ice, ice crust on the ridge. There was a terrible snowstorm, visibility was 50 meters at most, it was almost impossible to look against the wind with unprotected eyes, the ice crystals hurt the eyes. It was already evening, and we did not dare to go further, we were afraid that it might get dark and we would not be able to get back in such a snowstorm. Despite the fact that there are markers along the marathon route, they are often not even visible, so you have to look for and walk as if at random.

But this time it was June, and you don’t expect any snow blizzards here. So the ascent should not be disrupted. Tolyan and I arrived in the hero city of Karpinsk by bus. Since buses rarely go towards the village of Kytlym, we naturally didn’t have time to get there and had to take a taxi directly from the bus station. Having learned that it was necessary to go towards Kytlym, the driver changed to another car, a Zhiguli. Since the road will be dirt for about 50 km and he didn’t want to spoil a nicer car over these bumps. But it doesn’t matter, “Zhiguli”, just “Zhiguli”.

We sat down and drove with him to the turn to Konzhak, about 5 km short of the village of Kytlym. Quite a cheerful and interesting driver, we had a great conversation with him about these places, nature, hunting, and fishing. He told us that sometimes you go to Kytlym, and beavers cross the road - you stop and let them pass. The first few kilometers of the marathon we were simply attacked terribly. It was already evening; we reached a parking lot on the bank of the Konzhakovka mountain river and decided to spend the night here.

The Konzhakovka River runs straight from the snowfields of the Konzhakovsky Stone. Crystal clear and very tasty water. Ideal for cooking, brewing pine tea, washing and other sanitary and hygienic needs.

Merry stump - guardian of the parking lot near the river

It was simply impossible to sleep at night. The mosquitoes are gone. Our tent was already old and the zipper did not close, so we had to sleep with the tent open, which was very beneficial for mosquitoes. Having slept poorly, we got up in the morning, prepared food and went on our way.

We reached the famous “Meadow of Artists”, met some guys from the Chelyabinsk region there, chatted a little, and relaxed. And then we decided to go further to the top. Of course, it is unwise to go to the top with heavy backpacks, so we hid them behind a large cedar tree. We took with us what we needed, a two-liter flask of water, and moved on. The weather was cloudy.

The forest gradually changed and a “crooked park forest” of crooked birches, small fir trees, and dwarf cedar trees already appeared.

But old Konzhakovsky stone showed us its snowfields. Those that provide water to numerous streams, which in turn flow into rivers. The beginning of the mountain tundra.

Then we came to an almost straight section with alpine meadows.

Then there were boulders and kurums.

Things were nearing the top.

And finally the long-awaited peak! We did it!

As they began to descend, the clouds cleared a little. They couldn’t before, when we were at the top, to enjoy the 360-degree view! Here we also came across two two-pound weights. Just think, there is nothing strange - to meet two weights on the top of a mountain at 1569 meters. This happens all the time)

We saw a dwarf birch tree under our feet.

The crooked forest began to appear again.

We went down to the Artists' Glade, took our things, set up a tent and began to prepare dinner (or lunch). The weather was seriously bad: if we had gone to the top a little later, we would have been able to observe the panorama of the entire Konzhakovsky massif, but alas, it was not fate.

This is what it is - the Konzhakov stone. Thank you for your attention!