Between sport and romanticism

01.10.2014

Sporty Bogatyr Coal

 

The mass enthusiasm about hiking is almost brought to nought – this is what people say with the bitter regret, who participated in special tourist hobby groups in the far Soviet times to learn all the details of this exciting hobby. In the past the fans of this kind of sport in the USSR were united by the big movement. Nowadays people are tempted by other hobbies, that is why, few of them know that tourism, first of all, is an excellent medicine against mental blues and physical ailments, and second – it is available for any typical citizen of Kazakhstan. Where there is a will, there is a way. Probably the matter is that the world is ruled by other values, and a number of enthusiastic romantics fond of travels has been decreasing. But still among us there are those, who are able to stop their “Groundhog Day” and become mentally and emotionally richer. They are upbringing their decent replacement. Among them there are the employees of Bogatyr Coal LLP: Lead Engineer of Maintenance Direction Lyudmila SHEPELEVA and the shunting master of Yuzhnaya rail station of Bogatyr Loading and Transportation Department Aleksandr URALOV.

Tourism continues to live

Beside the coal enterprise Lyudmila SHEPELEVA devotes her time to the occupation, which became her favorite one from the school times. Being the honored tourism instructor of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the judge of the national category, she is the head of ZUVS tourist club in Kainar creative center and leads the team of Bogatyr tourists-sportsmen in various competitions. By the way, most of them are her former pupils from the club.

- I have brought this hobby through my whole life as I “got sick” with tourism. One should just “get sick” with this kind of sport not to leave it, - she admitted. – In the past I was the part of the town tourist club Prometheus, which unfortunately does not exist anymore, and now I am a tutor myself.

The results of the work are real. In Ekibastuz the tourism movement gets restored step by step, the youth gets used to an active mode of life, everyday life of the coal mine employees is prettified.

- The children, who are the club participants, have no consumer attitude to the environment. They are more responsible in their attitude to other people than their peers as in their hikes and competitions they find themselves in certain conditions, sometimes even dangerous. Mutual help works there. A good example can be a hike on the Zailiyskiy Alatau in May this year. At that time our group of sixteen people overcame a mudflow. It took the river a few minutes to get filled with melt water and start spilling over banks. The flow could have leveled our camp to the ground but we mustered our efforts and thanks to the teamwork folded the tents for five minutes.

 

 

The club members participate in competitions of different levels constantly and repeatedly win the republican championships and cups of the Republic of Kazakhstan or take second and third places. Sometimes juniors are included in the composition of the picked team of Bogatyr Coal LLP, which also actively takes prize places. For example, last year the coal miners returned with silver medals from the Championship of Kazakhstan.

Perhaps, the main achievement of Bogatyr picked team lately became its bright victory in the Irtysh Meridian competition, which took place at the end of August this year in Bayanaul. By the way, in this camp-fire other representatives of Bogatyr Coal LLP – Sergey ZAKHAROV and Anatoliy BUTYRIN – took the second places in the competitions of bard songs and photography, accordingly.

- The debut participation in the Irtysh Meridian in 2001 brought the first place to us. After that for five years in succession we supported the competitions actively. Then there was an eight-year pause – we did not participate in it. But this year we decided to resume the tradition. With the good success. Four days of tense competitions consisting of conquests of mountain peaks and rowing turned out a cherished first place for us. It was taken by the team captain Aslan Nurumov, Islam Mamaev, Sergey Zelyonykh, Vera Garifulina, Temirlan Dostimesov and Ruslan Manatov for us. By the results of the Irtysh Meridian our people fulfilled the norm of a candidate master in tourism, - Lyudmila says.

By her opinion, the victory was not accidental. It was preceded by the serious training. The boys and girls had the training in Kainar center for children and youth and in the park near Akku club – there they “conquered” local trees. One should state that Kainar members and the management of Bogatyr Coal LLP represented by its General Director Viktor Shchukin give active help to the picked team. The first one – by free rent of costly equipment, the second one – financially.

We are glad that looking at the professional sportsmen some people far from tourism “get sick” with it. Age is not a barrier for them – some of them are much older than 40 years old. Mainly, newcomers participate in internal competitions. However, there are such people, who have a shot at tourism on a higher level. Currently the employees of Bogatyr Loading and Transportation Department are getting ready for the regional championship in tourist multiathlon called Golden Fall, which will be held on September 27th, on the International Tourism Day, in the plain flood of the Irtysh river, who will participate in such an event for the first time. That is why, the chief coach of the team Lyudmila SHEPELEVA is inexpressibly glad because her deed finds its continuation. Tourism continues to live.

Dynasty of conquerors

Having listened to the exciting stories of Aleksandr URALOV on his tourist adventures, one can say with certainty that he is not just fond of this kind of sport, but an active devotee of it. Aleksandr initiated his family to his hobby, that is why, he goes in for subduing tourist routes and ascending various hills particularly with his akins.

For his spouse Natalya the tourist experience started from the trip to Almaty market at the end of the 1990-ies, where the cost of clothing was almost twice less than in Ekibastuz. But prior to going to the market Aleksandr suggested Natalya having rest in the mountains. Since that time hiking has become her hobby either.

Aleksandr’s children – his elder daughter Sofia and his son Andrey – went to their first journey, when they were infants. Sofia was 8 months old, when she, sitting in the children’s rucksack, overcame her first classical route Almaty – Bozteri village situated on the coast of lake Issyk-Kul. And the tiny tourist Andrey was just…. four! months, when jointly with his parents and sister he went to the Aksakay canyon for the first time. Currently they are ten and eight years old, accordingly, but they are still in the liaison with their parents.

Aleksandr himself started his tourist activity in 1970, when he was the part of the youngest subgroup of the tourist hobby group, when he was a pupil of the secondary school #1.

- The love to tourism, mountains and the native land was planted in us by the excellent person, great teacher – Kotlyarova Nina Nikolaevna, - Aleksandr recollects. - Thanks to her enthusiasm the secondary school # 35 alone holds the tourism competitions. I would like to thank her that she opened this hobby to me.

Several tens of years have passed since that time, and for this time Aleksandr conquered the mountains of Altay, the Caucasus, the Zailiyskiy Alatau, the Northern Tien Shan and even Elbrus, but this devotion is still something bigger for him than just a hobby. He gets ready for every tourist trip very thoroughly. Let us take at least composing a menu for a travel and selection of some food basket. By his opinion, in the mountains, especially during the first days of acclimatization to high mountains one can often get a height sickness: dizziness, apathy, weakness and lack of appetite, but one should have good meals as one needs energy for long crossings.

- For these purposes one should take something spicy, garlic, for example, as a natural means to bring the water to mouth. However one should not forget about cereal products, - the traveler opens his secrets.

Their last uprise the Urals (this is how Aleksandr names his family) devoted to Miner’s Day. In honor of this holiday in July this year they conquered the Komsomol Peak in the Zailiyskiy Alatau located at the height of 4,376 meters above sea level. The head of the Uralovs family described this travel in his diary in many details. On the way to their cherished goal hey had to overcome various difficulties: precipitation – rain and fog, complicated period of acclimatization, temperature differences. By the way, by the opinion of the tourist, this makes a family closer. The “storm” of the Komsomol Peak finished on the fourth day of their travel. The uprise, which started at midnight, finished at ten o’clock in the morning.

- Of course, the children did not sleep at that time. We left them in the camp and made the conquest without them. Although they did not climb up to the peak, the conquest was registered for all four of us. As during the expedition the uprise of even one participant is automatically registered for the whole group – whether it be an alpinist or cook in the main camp, - Aleksandr says.

When I asked, what peak would be the following for the Uralovs family, Aleksandr answered he was thinking about it.

- At the end of the eighties, when uprising the eastern side of Elbrus in the team led by Fyodor Kislitsin on the pendulum rope road we saw the portrait of the local long-liver Chokka Zalikhanov, who being 100 years old made the uprise to Elbrus. We have a lot to live and conquer until this age. When I was fifty, I conquered the western side of Elbrus with the financial support of Bogatyr Coal LLP, in five years – the Komsomol Peak. Now we will plan what peak to conquer, when I am sixty. It is most important not to lose optimism and romanticism. Like all tourists say – I wish light rucksacks, interesting routes and good weather to everybody!

Marina PONKRATOVA

Photo by Vladimir BUGAEV and from the personal archives of Lyudmila SHEPELEVA and Aleksandr URALOV

In the photo: the moments of the workout of Bogatyr Coal picked team, the Irtysh Meridian competition, the uprise of the URALOVS’ family to the Komsomol Peak.