Mountain Shoria, Mountainous Shoria, or Gornaya Shoria is a mountain-taiga region lying on the south of Western Siberia between the mountain systems of Altai and Sayan. It is called after the Shors, the ingenious ancient people, very original but small one, still living there. The Mountain Shoria is a considerable mining area on the Russian national scale. The Kuznetsk Basin the coal resources of which are being tapped is situated next to here. But the tourists come here all the year not because of the natural resources, but for the wide possibilities for tourism. In winter the Mountain Shoria is a ski resort, in the summer the tour operators offer you different modifications of active rest backpacking to the rafting and cave tours.

Ski resort in winter

In the winter the Mountain Shoria is a ski resort, very popular not only in the Kemerovo Region, but all over Siberia as well. The most popular ski slope is the mountain of Zelenaya (Mustag), next to the settlement of Sheregesh. By the way, the hunters tell that they’ve seen something like yeti or big foot next to this settlement. The Championships for nonprofessionals and professionals are being carried out there every winter. The ski slope is supplied with the slopes for skiing and snowboarding, gondola lifts and funiculars, skiing schools, for the children as well, and hotel complex with a wide choice of accommodation variants.

Book transfer to Sheregech from Kemerovo Airport

 Summer possibilities

In the summer the Mountain Shoria turns into a tourist stronghold for the people fond of the wild nature. The excursions to the nature resorts and monuments of nature give the tourists the possibility to see the cedar forests, which were to disappear, and etalon taiga forests, the life environment of the Shor people (Shor State Natural National Park). The State nature sanctuary of Sheregesh is the place where such rare specie like sable is protected there. Moreover, the tourists observe extremely strange and picturesque rocks and mountains, caves on the river Mras-Su, relict lime tree groove on the island and the rapids on the rivers. These places of interest can be observed in different ways.

The excursion programs the tour operators offer are quite different. It can be backpacking tour to Mustag Mountain a sacred place for Shors, or a horse-riding tour along the shamans’ paths, or a cave tour to the caves of the Mras-Su, combined with rafting or another type of water activities. The rivers are rich in fish, so you can go there for fishing as well. You can visit the Kubez Mountain, which is surrounded with the relict taiga, where huge 16-ton block masses of the native copper were detected.

Indigenous population of the region is the Shors people. Their ancestors were famous all over the Siberia with their art to smelt iron in old time. The Shors speak Turkic language.

The world-view of the Shors is shamanism. They believe that the world consists of three parts: the first one is the heaven the god Ulgen rules, the middle one is the earth where the people live and the last one, ruled by Erlik, it is a land of the malignant daemons. The communication between the worlds of the gods and daemons and the people-s world is carried out by the shaman, who is the chosen one. Moreover, the Shors believe in the genii of the taiga, lakes and rivers. Now some of their cults are curiously mixed with orthodox Christianity. Unfortunately, this nation is very small.

If you want to know more about them and not only them, visit the ethnological eco-museum of Taz-Gol. It is situated in 100 kilometers from the town of Tashtagol in the Shor settlement of Ust-Anzas, where the Anzas River flows into Mras-Su. It is a reconstruction of a burial complex, which was detected an excavated by the archaeologists not far from the settlement. It is the first open-air ethnographical museum in the region.

Getting around

You can get to the resort of Sheregesh by bus from Novosibirsk. In winter the buses go from Novosibirsk every Thursday and Friday at 21 and 22.00. The return trip takes place on Sundays. Novosibirsk is rather easy to get, because it has an international airport. It is also availiable by train, because it stays on the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

Book transfer to Sheregech from Kemerovo Airport

Read about other Russian Ski Resorts

Yulia Buzykina

Sources:
    www.ruschudo.ru

    shoria.ru

    www.sibaltay.ru