Siberia Expedition "Into the Unknown" 2oo9

Project description:

Whitewater kayak expedition to Sayan mountain range, Baikal region. Huge territory of ex USSR lands is tempting to be highlighted as a new whitewater mekka. Russia have not been widely exposed in many kind of ways. It is still a future market for most of the human activities. But the thing is, it is the largest country on Earth encompassing unique resources, including whitewater. The expedition will take place on the best rivers of Sayan mountain range, in the heart of Syberia, close to Baikal lake, the biggest lake on the planet. This is a full on kayak expedition requiring not only technical excellence of the athletes, but also awakened warrior spirit, as conditions will require long self sustaining river runs and long hike-ins. The list of the rivers unleashes the potential found in the land previously hidden by the USSR iron curtain. Most of the runs barely was done only by the best Russian paddlers. Some are still first descent waiting for their heroes. This is the journey for the best of the best.

Rivers:

5 rivers, huge amount of rapids waiting their first descents, 2 absolutely unknown rivers – this is our plan! The main river of Eastern Sayan – Kitoy. Our route lies within this river and its most interesting tributaries. The first river is Gorlyk-Gol (2-3 days class V) – no one has ever been before on this river! According to the data I have from the local trekking tourists, this river is stuffed with high waterfalls. Then the most menacing obstacle of Kitoy river awaits us – 17km of Motkini Shoki canyon. (2 days, class V). The next river in our list is Ekhe-Gol (1 day, class IV-V). The river has 7km long canyon, which ends with 15m waterfall. Then we will be heading upstream on the right tributary of Kitoy to reach mineral springs on Shumak river. The river will take 3 days to run and is class IV-V(???). Nobody has ever kayaked this river before, the data I have states presence of some really deep canyons. The last river in our plan is Biluty (3 days, class IV-V). This river has two canyons with series of waterfalls from 3 to 12 meters high. The most amazing thing about this river – it has absolutely white river bed! This river was first time ran by www.kayakUSSR.com crew on 2008.

TEAM adidas:

Olaf Obsommer (germany)

Fabian Dörffler (germany)

Jared Meehan (new zealand)

Tomass Marnics (latvia)
Florian Dillier (switzerland)