Stolby Nature Reserve

The Stolby are syenite pillars weathered out of the taiga hills immediately south of Krasnoyarsk, standing up to a hundred metres, with names like the Feathers, the Grandfather, the Lion's Gate and the First Pillar. The reserve was created in 1925 - at the request of local people, which was unusual - and covers about forty-seven thousand hectares of pine, fir and cedar taiga with bear, lynx and sable, of which a small area near the city is open for walking. What makes the place distinctive is stolbizm, a climbing culture that grew here from the 1850s: climbing the pillars free, without ropes or protection, in soft shoes, with its own routes, slang, songs and unwritten rules, passed on by generations of Krasnoyarsk climbers. It produced serious mountaineers and it has also killed people regularly. Visitors walk the trails; climbing the rock unroped is what locals do and is not a thing to copy casually.

What you actually see

• The pillars - syenite towers up to a hundred metres named individually.
• Stolbizm - a ropeless climbing culture running here since the 1850s.
• The 1925 reserve - created at local request, unusually for the period.
• The taiga - pine, fir and cedar forest with bear and lynx beyond the open zone.

When to go

May to September for walking; winter for ski trails and the Bobrovy Log slope. A day. Weekends bring crowds from the city.

Honest expectations

The unroped climbing on the pillars kills people most years - watching it is not an invitation. Trails to the main pillars are a real walk of several kilometres uphill. Bears are present in the wider reserve. Very busy at weekends.

Nearby

Krasnoyarsk is directly north; the Yenisei and the Divnogorsk dam are west.