Abzakovo (skiing)

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I will briefly state that I had to postpone my great plans for alpine skiing this season. It was excellent ski-trekking in Kirovsk, Hibiny, and I needed at least a couple of days of alpine skiing so that winter was not spent in vain. I decided not to ski in Kirovsk because slopes there turned out rather extreme for me. I fully understand that two days of skiing mean nothing, but it turned out an excellent ‘week-end’ (in the middle of the week). I bought rail tickets several weeks in advance and asked my friend Alexey to join me. He said, we’ll see, and now we both have returned from the resort.

I decided to go to the Urals, the ski resort of Abzakovo. The choice is obvious because it is close to my hometown, Birsk, with only 8 hours by train, and is one of the most popular in the area. Moreover, it’s situated in the Urals region which I intend to visit little by little. I have recently submitted the documents for a new passport and in a month it will be ready, I'll be able to go abroad.

The Abzakovo alpine skiing centre owes its existence to Magnitogorsk Integrated Iron and Steel Works (the Urals are rich in minerals, as I remember). It is located close both to the republic of Bashkortostan and Chelyabinsk Region, so the population can go there at leisure. The main mount in Abzakovo is the northernmost peak of Kryktytau Range, 819 m high. There are 15 pistes of total length 18 kilometers, level difference 320 meters. Therearegreen, blue, andredslopes.

We arrived at Novoabzakovo train station in the morning and went straight to the hotel, less than a kilometer away. It’s Tau-Tash, a pleasant locality with various rooms (we had the cheapest), a restaurant, and something else. We had no trouble with early check-in, simply added about 5 Euros to the bill. In two hours, we already went to the ski resort (it’s also about 800 meters from the hotel).

Along the road, on the right, were some low rocks, and on the left an unfrozen river bore its waters, apparently, to the frozen lake. We wasted no time, rented the equipment and started trying on the easy slope. It was quite unexpected that I felt so scary at the top of the hill. I just could not force myself to go down (and I have skied in Chamonix last year!), I was afraid. I feared lest my knee, still feeling remains of the Hibiny injury, would fail. But it did not, thank god. Gradually I got accustomed to the skis and the slope and began descending properly. Alexey just went straight ahead with little carving. I’ll not talk much about him.

All was just excellent. After many descents on the easy slope, we decided to try the adjacent one, which turned out to be medium-difficult (blue). As I found myself at its top, damn, I again felt the wave of fear sweeping me over. How the hell would I descend? I first negotiated a bumpy short area near the top, and then the descent was easier, and after several attempts I skied down rather well. Besides, the views were excellent – the snowy ridges of hills and bare trees, harsh and simple, but inspiring for all that.

After three hours of skiing, we went to the hotel’s restaurant and had an excellent dinner (I drank Narzan mineral water – recommend it to all). Generally, during the time, we talked a lot and discussed some current news and issues, with much negative emotions being evoked because only ‘no news is good news’. But, damn it, skiing was excellent!

On the second day we had several pistes to explore. We took the lift to the mountain top and from there descended piste No.12. What views! In spite of the piste’s simplicity, I liked it immensely, for its length and the far-reaching panorama. Added to that were two tricky and rather unexpected curvy sections, such as one might encounter during a slalom contest. I negotiated those with much trouble. After this piste, we tried No. 10, almost three kilometers long, gently sloping and with multiple humps allowing acceleration. It seemed endless and finally took us to the chair lift. We drank hot tea from the dispensing machine and enjoyed the long ride on the lift with nice views all around us. Alexey says I descend slowly but I care little about speed, because speed is not my greatest delight. I need to be slower because I need total speed control, never allowing a fall.

The highest peaks of the Urals are in a different area (Komi Republic) and, hopefully, we'll hear about them in the course of a year, because I found several interesting tours offered in the area.

The chair lift took us to the mountain top. We chose piste No.5 this time, which was very difficult for me (classified as blue). I forgot to mention that the clamping of my left boot got loose while descending piste 10, and it again got loose just in the beginning of piste 5. It discouraged me to a great extent but I was thankful it happened not in the middle of the run. I attached the boot and descended in my own manner, no doubt clumsy, but I proved to myself that I can ride such slopes.

Next we descended piste 1. It was not very difficult, but most enjoyable, where I finally began feeling certain confidence. There were some icy areas on this piste (and one piste 5 also). Somehow we then split because Alexey, obviously, wanted more speed, and I descended several times alone. On the tricky curvy section on piste 12, my boot unfastened again, I even had to go down on foot to reach a level area. I thought it was enough, skiing for about 4 hours, and soon we rejoined and went to the hotel. Our train was in the evening, we arrived in Ufa at 6, and in Birsk at 9 o'clock.

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