The world famous lake of Baikal has recently become very popular among freedivers. Of course, Baikal is worth visiting for plenty of reasons, but now the people go there for deep virgin snow and very long slopes. Unusual interest to Baikal as to freeriding destination was detected last years, so the slopes are not yet very crowded. Maybe the problem is that other destinations like Kashmir mountains (India) can become uncomfortable of even dangerous because of political reasons. The local extremals are riding here since 1990-s. So, Baikal is also a skiing and snowboarding destination. There are pistes, equipped with lifts and everything freeriders run away from. They are Sobolinaya piste (Baikalsk) and Eastland piste (Listvyanka). What about freeriding places, the main ones are Mamai and Davan. Mamai is situated not far from Vydrino, Davan lies not far from Severobaikalsk. There also others like Barguzinsky range and Arshan.

Mamai

Mamai is an iconic place for Baikal freeriders. It is not empty on weekends and holidays, whatever cold the weather is. It is located in the Bolshoi Mamai river clove, in the area of Vydrino town on the frontier of Irkutsk Region and Republic of Buryatia, (195 km from Irkutsk, highway M 55).

Skiing season is from November to April.

Vertical drop amounts to 500 - 900 metres, longitude of slopes - 1 - 3 kilometers. The forest on the slopes is very thin, in some places it is absent. Thickness of snow covering reaches 3- 5 meters. It snows rather often, and despite Mamai's popularity, you can always find virgin snow. This place caught fancy of French freeride team of Salomon.

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Davan pass

Davan pass is a zone of off the piste skiing on north from Baikal. Its slopes are unbelievably long (10 kilometers!), its vertical drops are exceeded by Caucasus only. This unique place differs from Mamai with that some travel operators sell tours there and snowcats and helicopters can help you to save your time climbing.

Davan is situated in the area of station Goudzhekit of famous Baikal-Amur Railway in the Severo-Baikalsky district of Republic of Buryatia, (55 km from Severobaikalsk, 500 km from Irkutsk).

Skiing season is from early March to late April. In winter it is too cold. This pass is unique on from the climate point of view. It holds much downfalls, providing much snow.

Vertical drop on Davan amounts to 600-1100 metres, longitude of explored slopes - 5 kilometers, there are also non-explored ones from 7 to 10 km. Thickness of snow covering reaches 2,5 – 6 metres.

Among the slopes recommended is Leningradka mountain. Slope longitude - 2 - 4 km, vertical drop 550-850 meters. Other point is mini-Elbrus, Severobaikalskaya mountain. Its shoulders are covered with forest, but the top is scalped, with large snow fields. Longitude of slopes is 3-5 km. vertical drop is 600 metres.

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