uknowy said:
mr-mouse said: uknowy, where in Russia do you usually ride? which mountains, exactly where? Kavkaz, Ural, there are some hills/mountains up far north near Kirovsk, any other place? i am interested
Kavkaz has big mountains and some serious freeriding. Haven't been there for a while though. Ural, yes, more like Western Siberia - a place called Sheregesh. Relatively small mountans, no avy danger, lots of pow tree riding. Sort of a mini Japan. I've been there 5 times for the last years. This season however, was catasrophic there in terms of snow, complete failure. Anomaly.
Kirovsk is rough. It's near the arctic circle, so the weather can be very cold and unstable and so on. Mountains are relatively small and known for their high avy danger. For the last years I've been going there in spring (end of April - early May) to ride park.
There are some good big mountains in post soviet territories. Georgia has now 3 resorts, heli skiing, they are having a good season this year. Also there's lots of mountains in Asia, like Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan. Uzbekistan has unbelievable champagne powder, it's really special and light. But the infrastructure is fucked there, old chairlifts, etc., they are poor. These are the places I've been too. Haven't been to Kazakhstan though.
I know few guys who visited Kavkaz for freeriding, heli ski, they were more than satisifed with their decision, also summer camps on mt elbrus were quite famous around these places (slovenia), i don't know anyone who visited it though but there was alot of talking about it back then (first few years of new millenium)...yeah i ve red that Kirovsk can be wild weather wise and that people mostly go there in spring to ride park as you already mentioned.
I am sure Uzbek, Kazakh places are more than interesting to visit but also quite expensive to get there, from my position at least but it would be unique trip for sure.
btw our season is unusually dry aswell
thx for answer
