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The editor and author of Tales about how she challenged herself on a mountain hike.
Why would an ordinary city dweller, who spends most of the time looking at the computer, go to the mountains? I asked myself this question, and went hiking with the guys from @adventuredog.
Photo by: Victoria Linko, Instagram: @vikhadog
I love my job, but as Trent Reznor sang, love wasn’t enough. At some point, I realized that work fatigue had accumulated, life had turned into groundhog day, and in general I wanted to change everything, preferably radically. And then I came up with the idea to go to the mountains, and not alone, but with my dog. Why mountains? First, I wanted to be out of touch. At all. So that there wasn’t even a temptation to respond to messages from colleagues, and I could completely reset my head. Secondly, I was interested in how I would react to stressful situations, and how I would cope with difficulties. Overall, it was necessary to reset the head and get to know myself a little better.
In this series of articles I’ll talk about how I was looking for answers to the question: “Why do I need this?” and how I overcame myself in Arkhyz.
Day 0
I started preparing for my hiking trip in advance: gathered all the necessary equipment, trained for a long-distance walk in the city and forests, and did stretching. I decided to go to the mountains with my dog Ulya, a two-year-old white Swiss shepherd, and chose an intermediate-level hike.
Day 1
When we arrived at the Taulu glade, our starting point of the route, I realized that it wouldn’t be easy. I had absolutely no idea how I would carry a heavy backpack on my shoulders and how I would cope with ups and downs. But after the backpack was properly adjusted, and the extra things were left at the start, it became easier.
Photo by: Lidia Orlova
It was quite unusual to walk carrying my backpack, it seemed that I couldn’t handle it. But it took me a couple of hours to get used to the weight. It was like a set workout: effort, rest, effort, rest. The first hiking day is a chance to become accustomed to your gear and new feelings. The first climb was difficult for me. On this day, I didn’t know yet that you should stop a dog from pulling because it affects general breathing and rhythm. I got up the fastest and realized that I didn’t feel well. Turned out, I started experiencing altitude sickness. I was saved by a hot soup, a chocolate bar, tea and an incredibly beautiful overnight stay “Eaglet” with a panoramic view of the village Arkhyz.
Photo by: Victoria Edemskaya
Day 2
My day started with sunny weather, tasty breakfast and spectacular views. We were morally prepared that the second day was the most difficult, because we had to walk through the pass and climb to a certain height. We packed up the tents, exchanged worried glances with each other, because we had no idea how we would do it, and began our journey.
Photo by: Victoria Edemskaya
Photo by: Victoria Linko, Instagram: @vikhadog
It didn’t start well: Ulya pulled so hard that I fell twice, and I had to change dogs with Darina, one of the organizers. We passed the first stones. And then… We reached the pass. We were going uphill, it was difficult, but we were going. I concentrated on my breathing, took breaks if necessary, and continued climbing. The most pleasant thing about the ascent, perhaps, is a halt. Only if it’s not a small piece of land on a steep part of the climb. At this moment, you think only about one thing: “Very scary, but very beautiful.” Until recently, you lived an ordinary life, complained that your office chair wasn’t very comfortable, and now, you are in the mountains, having an opportunity to take a deep breath and reset. Values and priorities, of course, change quite strongly in the mountains. At that time, the organizer Victoria cheered me up, saying there was nothing left. Who would’ve known that this very nothing would be the most difficult part of the climb.
Photo by: Victoria Linko, Instagram: @vikhadog
At first, it wasn’t easy to overcome the stones with a dog who has a fear of heights. I must say that at that moment I learned about the concept of a “living” stone – one that’s not fixed and can easily slide down. It was even more scary to slip up. Ulya had her own dog backpack in which she carried her food. I had to take it off when she couldn’t pass two big stones. Two extra kilos is a doubtful prospect, which Victoria said and took this weight. Then we came to a snowfield – an area of the road covered with snow. The danger is that it’s impossible to say exactly what is under it: stable stones or emptiness. Another problem is that it’s easy to slip up. One of the participants didn’t take hiking boots and slipped on the snowfield. At that moment, life flashed before the eyes of the whole group. This girl was unharmed, but you wouldn’t wish something like this to anyone.
At some point, I felt that I was having a panic attack. But realizing that now was definitely not the time for tears, I gathered all my power, took a deep breath and went on. When I was almost there, other participants helped me with my dog, and I was on a mountain.
Photo by: Victoria Linko, Instagram: @vikhadog
In the evening, my friend began to feel sick because of acclimatization. So be aware that anything can happen in the mountains. Take into account every detail when going on a hike. However, if you never try, you’ll never know. From personal experience: it’s better to fight it on your feet and eat fast carbohydrates (yes, it’s absolutely legal in the mountains: don’t be afraid to gain extra pounds, you’ll burn them during the next pass). Before going to bed, eat and drink tea with sugar. It helps! If things are still awful, try isotonic, our guides drank it and offered it to Maria, my friend. She says that this drink made it possible for her to continue the route.
Day 3
I woke up from a terrible heat. Let me remind you that at night it gets very cold in the mountains. If during the day the temperature reaches +30 °C, then after sunset it can be +10, and +5, and even 0 °С. Therefore, we slept in warm clothes with our heads plunging into a sleeping bag. Already at 9-10 in the morning it becomes very hot in the tent, so it’s almost impossible to oversleep. The plans for the day were to climb another pass, and descend it to our next beautiful, as we were assured, stop. On ours, there was only a snowfield and a tiny stream, which still had to be reached: in slippers, like a mountain goat, I galloped over large stones. “But the view is beautiful,” I thought, washing my face with almost ice water. Well, after the pass, a practically whole river awaited us, it was a stone’s throw from our stop and with green hills around. So beautiful!
Photo by: Victoria Linko, Instagram: @vikhadog
All this was waiting for us ahead, but for now the sun became more and more active, the clouds disappeared, and it became clear that the pass wouldn’t be easy. I must say that the weather in the mountains is unpredictable, so wearing shorts and a T-shirt is a very rash decision. I chose long waterproof pants and a thermal top. Delicious breakfast (everything is delicious in the mountains), camp pack up and go! Already standing with the backpack on my shoulders and waiting for the group, I realized that it was very hot, and I hoped for cloudy weather more than ever. Fortunately, when we started our journey, the wind blew…
Read about what happened later in our next articles!
