The largest cascade waterfall in Gorny Altai, Uchar (Big Chulchinsky waterfall) is located on the right tributary of the Chulyshman - the Chulcha river, 11-12 kilometers from the place of its confluence with the Chulyshman. One of the versions of the translation of the name "Uchar" is "Inaccessible". Indeed, getting to it is not so easy. In 2011, the association of tour operators included Uchar in the list of the 5 most inaccessible attractions in Russia. To get to the waterfall, you need to drive to the village of Artybash at the northern end of Lake Teletskoye, cross the lake from north to south by boat or motor ship, then hitchhike to the Chulcha estuary, cross the river (this is a paid service), and walk a few hours to waterfall. You should definitely take safety ropes with you, or even better, use the services of a guide.
Another way is from Aktash towards Ulagan, Balyktuul, and further along the Katu-Yaryk pass you need to get to the Chulyshman Valley to the mouth of the Chulchi river.
From the Chulyshman valley to the waterfall there is a mountain trail along the right bank of the Chulcha, fifty or a hundred meters above the river level, not to say that it is very "extreme", but requiring some caution, especially in rainy weather. The trail crosses the talus, in one place there is a rocky pressure above the cliff, where, during organized excursions, a rope belay is usually pulled. On the way to the waterfall, in several places it is necessary to cross the turbulent streams flowing from the mountains to Chulcha. In high water, these crossings can be difficult, especially in the spring, when some of the logs that groups of tourists crossed last summer are washed away. But all the difficulties of the path are more than compensated for by the exciting spectacle and the feeling of the energy of the unbridled Release of Water …
Near the waterfall, you cannot hear the voice of the interlocutor, even if he shouts. But there is no need to talk, because for an ordinary person it is practically impossible to simultaneously experience deep feelings and share them on a verbal, so to speak, level - to describe them in words. Let the words wait, their turn will come …
The Big Chulchinsky waterfall was formed presumably less than two hundred years ago as a result of a tremendous collapse caused by the next Altai earthquake; it was opened only in the seventies of the last century, and it has been a tourist attraction for less than ten years. It is called "the youngest masterpiece of nature in the Altai Mountains." Another title of the Uchar waterfall, which appears in advertising catalogs and on the websites of travel agencies, is "The Greatest Waterfall of Eurasia". Uchar waterfall certainly deserves all these "titles", but probably (just in case, since the turn of words has already come:) here some formal points should be clarified. If you ask someone the question: "What is the largest waterfall on Earth?", Then, I think, the majority will answer: "Niagara", and a specialist "botanist" will ask again: "what do you mean - width, height or power ? "…
In his diary of 1905, the famous Altai explorer, local historian Viktor Ivanovich Vereshchagin seems to be the only one in the press who mentions this waterfall: “The big waterfall on Cholche near its mouth, they say, is an insurmountable obstacle…”. V. I. Vereshchagin did not see this waterfall. Many decades have passed …
And so a group of water tourists from Novosibirsk, making their way in the summer of 1981 with the purpose of reconnaissance of the area along the gorge of the Chulchi River, which flows into Chulyshman in Altai, came across a huge blocky blockage overgrown with forest. He blocked the gorge from side to side and formed a giant step in this place, from the height of which an unknown waterfall cascaded down in cascades, all in roar and water dust.
Promotional video:
At the end of May 1982, a group of the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences consisting of Yu. Shevchenko, A. Prusevich, S. Rudnev went to this waterfall …
To begin with, it was decided to go to the sources of Chulchi, having overcome almost 250 km through Tuva and part of Altai. Along this path, they had to get acquainted with the powerful manifestations of the latest movements of the earth's crust and the clearly expressed traces of the Tertiary and Quaternary glaciations of Gorny Altai. In the future, this would help them to work out one of the hypotheses about the age and origin of the waterfall, which they met in absentia on the screen while watching a film shot by tourists.
There were three hypotheses: the waterfall is the result of manifestations of the movements of the earth's crust in the Chulcha basin, a consequence of damming the river bed by moraine deposits or products of a mountain collapse. At that time, they had not yet imagined that they would encounter a unique case when a waterfall was formed as a result of a landslide that built up the lower edge of the terminal moraine and blocked the river valley …
The area adjacent to the waterfall has a slightly dissected relict mid-mountainous relief, a characteristic feature of which is the wide distribution of glacial and other formations in the valleys and interfluves.
On-site studies, analysis of images and aerial photographic materials made it possible to reject the upthrust-fault origin of the waterfall step at Chulcha and focus on the following scheme.
As a result of neotectonic movements along one of the cracks on the left side of the river, a huge block of rocks was displaced, which led to the collapse and damming of the river with rock debris. A powerful dam with a volume of about 50 million cubic meters was formed into a lake 8-10 kilometers long.
The lake was subsequently quickly filled with redeposited moraine material: sandy loam with coarsely processed and processed rock fragments, other sediments. This is quite likely, since the maximum flow rate in Chulcha (near the mouth) reaches 484 cubic meters per second, and on average - only 15.6 cubic meters per second.
As a result, a waterfall step with a height of about 160 meters was formed, and the longitudinal profile of the river channel acquired a step-like appearance, and the channel itself was shifted to the starboard side. Judging by the fact that the “dam” at the time of the study was overgrown with larch forest, which is no less than 40-50 years old, one can estimate the time when the collapse occurred: about 100-130 years ago.
The following should be noted: the group met, if not with a unique, then at least with a rare phenomenon - with the imposition of a landslide on the edge of the terminal moraine (this, in turn, determined the cascading nature of the waterfall).
The following facts testified in favor of the existence of a frontal terminal moraine in the area of the waterfall: below the waterfall, the Chulchi valley has a purely erosional Y-shaped form, complicated by terrace-like ledges along the right bank and a steep fall. Moreover, before the formation of the "dam", the river bed ran, as is the case for most Altai rivers, along the left edge of the terminal moraine in contact with bedrocks, as a result of which the latter were cut off.
What is the future of the waterfall?
Now the right slope of the river in the place of narrowing of the valley, that is, in the area of the waterfall, is complicated by landslide blocks. The top of the flank is cut by tectonic cracks and small faults into many blocks.
A repetition of the process that took place 100-130 years ago on the left slope of the valley is quite likely; in this case, the height of the step and the waterfall will increase by at least 30-50 meters.
But it is more likely that the river will wash away the dam and the waterfall will turn into a kind of steep rapids.
It should be noted that such stepped waterfalls are examples for the most rational hydraulic structures, since there is no water filling a huge space of the earth's surface, which often brings great losses.
The explored waterfall is the largest waterfall in Altai. A group of the first researchers of the waterfall in 1982 (which means a lot!) Proposed to call it Inaccessible. It would be correct to call it that today.
There is one more "formal point". What is considered a waterfall? TSB says that a waterfall is "… a fall of water in a river in places of a sharp change in the height of its bottom with the formation of an almost vertical ledge … Less steeply falling V. are called slopes …". Arseniev in his book proposes to consider a waterfall the overthrow of water from a ledge at an angle of more than 45 degrees, a fall of water at a lower angle will be a slope. The Big Chulchinsky waterfall is multi-cascading with numerous huge rocks in the riverbed. It is believed to be 160 meters high. But, according to some reports, the Chulcha river has a 250 m drop in this place on a site slightly more than 250 m long. That is, it is quite possible that according to some "official classifications", the Uchar waterfall does not directly refer to waterfalls at all. rather, it is a “geological scarp spillway”. So that,officially, he may not be admitted to the “major league of waterfalls”.
On the other hand … why do we need all these "ratings" and "classifications" and other "expert assessments"? Here, the Americans have installed dozens of multi-colored searchlights with a total capacity of one and a half million kilowatts at Niagara Falls, and skillfully present their miracle of nature. The Uchar waterfall is a completely different matter. You also need to pay for getting to know him, but no longer with money, but with your feet. And with my heart …
The walking tour to Uchar waterfall takes one full day. But you can also spend two days on a radial with an overnight stay under the waterfall, it's worth it. The waterfall is located on the territory of the Altai State Reserve and is one of the few objects of the reserve open to tourists. A small recreational fee (about 100 rubles) is charged for the right to temporarily stay in the reserve.
A little further down Chulyshman on the right bank there is another interesting natural object - stone mushrooms in the Karasu gorge. Between the “mushrooms” and the mouth of the Chulcha, on the right bank, there are remnants of ancient irrigation systems - seemingly just grooves overgrown with grass. An interesting point - healthy stones lying here and there along the valley in these places look "very rusty". They say this is because there is a lot of real iron in them.
The Chulcha River itself is difficult for rafting, but kayakers float there, both above the waterfall and down to Chulyshman, and even on catamarans, they say, people walk, but there are a lot of carry-overs.