The Altai Mountains

Where Siberia, Mongolia and Kazakhstan lean together, the Altai lifts the 'golden mountains' UNESCO inscribed for a wilderness running from taiga to glacier: Belukha, the range's sacred 4,506-metre crown, anchors ridgelines above valleys where the turquoise Katun braids rapids past standing-stone meadows and petroglyph galleries thousands of years deep. The Chuysky Trakt - counted among the world's great drives - threads it all, Ukok's high plateau keeps its frozen-tomb legends, and the travel culture runs to horse treks, rafting camps and log-banya evenings. It is Russia's answer to every mountain wish at once.

What you'll find

• Belukha's massif - the sacred ice crown at 4,506 metres.
• The Katun rapids - turquoise water braiding the valleys.
• The petroglyph valleys - millennia of carvings at Kalbak-Tash.
• The Chuysky Trakt - the legendary road through it all.

When to go

June to September is the trekking-and-rafting window with passes open; September gilds the larches. Winter belongs to specialists. Border-zone permits (near frontiers) need lead time - operators arrange.

Things to know

Distances are Siberian: drives are long, comforts are camp-and-guesthouse, and the best valleys ask days on foot or horseback - the Altai rewards commitment, not sampling. Weather changes by the hour at altitude.

Nearby

Gorno-Altaysk, Lake Teletskoye and the Mongolian border ranges.

Key facts