IWG week 7 & 8 - Excursion to Russia (The guiding day)

As mentioned on the previous post, every one in the group had a "The guiding day" and the day 6 was the day for me to take guide position...

This was our rout plan.

As can be expected from just by looking at the map, this guiding is not going to easy. I have expected to be tricky to navigate, tough to walk through.

I have started the day as on guide on tail. keeping track of where we are and my partner was taking lead. The morning part, was also not so easy walking as had quite many up and down and by time time for the lunch break, some people were dragging them feet.

changing the lead guide after the lunch, I started to lead the group and followed the contour line towards the point where change the bearing to go over the lowest point of the mountain.

the plan seemed good at that time, but in reality, because of the large rocks along the line plan to take, it was not possible to go as planed. Resulting in descending quite a bit and made it even harder later on....

However, I have managed to change the bearing in good place and head up the mountain.

it was harder than expected. Long way up with constant 45 degree ascend.

when reached the high point, we were reworded by wonderful view. Lifting everyone's spirits.

descending in the valley. Very rocky and was a bad choice of the route. 

Route I took for descent was a bad bad choice. It was just lucky that all those rocks were not as slippy as it could have. if it was, we could have had some injury in the group.

little before the sun down, I have managed to get the group to the planned camp site, but there was the situation awaiting us and that made my day a "Hell"....


because it was very up stream of the water, the expected water sauce was dry. So decided to go towards the lake till find the more suitable location. worst case, it was only about 2km to the lake, so estimated DO-able before dark.... well. read the map wrong. it was much more than 2km to the lake and when reached the lake, it was almost dark.

reached the lake, and start to look for the suitable ground.

The last bit of looking for the camp site was truly tough for me. As every one in the group,  I was tired. and top of that, I had huge pressure of getting people to the camp site. This combination is dangerous, the mind trick you and I start to doubt myself on every steps.

but on the end, everyone was happy of the day. had tough walk rewarded by beautiful view and the camp site we picked also had fantastic view.

next day was the break day.  slow morning and drying everything that is wet.

It was like mountain weather. shower was constantly coming and going, creating extraordinary scene. 

The legendary "Jungle King II" survival knife. one of the class mate took this with him as his back up knife. 

Lots of wood washed out on shore. This lake is a back water of a power plant so the water level changes quite big.

 The trip continue to wards the last day. stopping by at the north end of Paana Lake. lunch break with this view was great time.

on the lake bank, found the bare track and was still fresh. see how large it is.

the only bridge connecting east and west side of the lake.

Kilometers of reindeer moss bed.  

Typical look of esker. trick to plot the easy walk rout is to follow the ride.

The last night in the forest. the task of this night was to set up perfect camp. 

This trip was constant learning experience. I did use up all the trick and knowledge I have on my sleeve. On some area, pushed my limit to new height.
It was not easy but have enjoined every bit of this trip. perhaps some day, will go back there again all by myself or with real customer.