High Altai-tude: Hiking to the Blue Lake in Siberia
It’s day eight of the first-ever Uncharted Expedition and I’m hiking to the Blue Lake (2,840 metres) in the Altai Mountains in a remote pocket of southern Siberia, Russia.
On paper, this 12-kilometre trek from Aktru Base Camp should take about six hours to complete, up and back. But I’m not making good time – in fact, none of us are. And it’s not the altitude and thinning air that’s slowing us down; at least, it isn’t for me.
Instead, I’m repeatedly lured, dare I say, compelled, to stop and attempt to capture these incredible glacial vistas through the viewfinder of my camera. So it’s two steps forwards, one step back as I frame and zoom and turn and click my shutter, again and again and again. Of course, it’s never really possible to fully capture such dynamic beauty in a two-dimensional image, but I’m getting mighty hopeful that at least one of these shots will do the Aktru glacier justice.