Hurray, New Year?

Winter hike “The northernmost Demerdzhi” Crimea, New Year 2013.

At 12 o'clock we went out to the southern slope of Demerdzhi and watched fireworks fly up over the valley. The reflections from the flashes rolled across the entire valley and rested against the walls of the mountains. From our height it was even impossible to understand whether the light had taken off or flared up near the ground. And we had some vodka to warm us up, lard and one tangerine. Night. Coast of the Black Sea. Height 1200m. This is how we greeted 2013.

Morning. Walking in the fresh air throughout the day is quite exhausting, and the morning becomes the hardest part of the day. You have to drag yourself out of bed and force yourself to go outside. And it's cold there! The zombie movie takes a break from this morning.

We arrived at the railway station a little later than the agreed upon seven o'clock. But even half of the group had not yet arrived. We sorted out provisions and equipment and waited for all the tourists. Interestingly, the majority are from Russia. And around this time I remembered a piece of smoked lard, which we apparently now gave to the cleaning lady at the hotel.

Fully assembled, we boarded the trolleybus. Yes, yes, exactly to the trolleybus. Along the Simferopol-Alushta route, about 40 km long through the mountains. You're riding on a trolleybus, and there's a forest outside the window!

The trip to the pass took about 40 minutes. Get off the trolleybus in the mountains, in the forest:) Who would have thought?!

From here further into the mountains forward and upward. Demerdzhi is waiting.

01. Somewhere ahead, into the stones.

02. You look and it seems like you have a long way to go, but in fact you walk very quickly.

First stop. Everyone is busy. Let's start getting acquainted.

03. Evgeniy, our guide, brings water for tea. Lives in Crimea. I'm totally jealous. Maybe also move to Crimea in retirement?:)

04. Anya. Makes a fire. Flint. Cool, of course, but, as practice has shown, it is ineffective.

05. Oksana. She invited us to St. Petersburg, and there it’s not far from Karelia. I think we'll take advantage of this offer somehow.

06. Ivan. Our silent travel companion.I’ll introduce a couple more people later when they appear in the photographs.

07. This photo characterizes our entire trip. Yes, yes, that’s exactly how we walked, towards the sun.

This was a walking campaign. Therefore, there was almost no time to stop and think about the photo, to wait for the lighting. And I didn’t take a tripod to shoot at night/evening. How can we solve this problem with the weight of the equipment? Should we take less food when we go in May?)

08. We have already risen quite high. At a bird's eye view.

09.10. Halt, halt.

11. Mikhail. Moscow. Engaged in aerial photography. After seeing his photos from Ecuador, I was also excited about going there.

12. Another stop. The sun is setting. "Angry Birds" in the mountains!

13. An attempt to chronicle.

14. Roman. Kiev resident. Roma, did you invite me to visit you? Wait, we'll be there soon!)))

Evening gradually came. Usually, at this time, everyone starts to sit down at the table, but we just started setting up tents. 15. Evening sunset. Long-focus optics are needed here, but they are not.

The second time we celebrated the New Year on the street and the first time in the mountains. What can I say? Better than on Red Square last year. In the evening I put on fifty dollars and photographed portraits. 16.

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Even at lunchtime we considered that the New Year had arrived in Vladivostok. In the evening we sat and counted where the New Year had arrived at the next hour.

At 12 o'clock we went out to the southern slope of Demerdzhi and watched fireworks fly up over the valley. The reflections from the flashes rolled across the entire valley and rested against the walls of the mountains. From our height it was even impossible to understand whether the light had taken off or flared up near the ground. On distant peaks, red, green and yellow dots suddenly began to light up. So the neighbors, located half a kilometer away from us, lit the fuse of the pyrotechnics.

And we had some vodka to warm us up, lard and one tangerine. Night. Coast of the Black Sea. Height 1200m. This is how we greeted 2013.

20. There must be a Christmas tree, and a decorated one at that. We had it.) We even had a “night” Snow Maiden. She came herself. Julia from the Ministry of Emergency Situations. She says she followed the smell, although with GPS.

After this photo, I missed a whole day of filming. 21. A new day, another transition and a halt.

22. The waterfall is the first ice we saw on this hike.

23. Julia seems to be saying: - Look at the water!

And then the idea came to make portraits wide. 24.

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27. I think this photo is especially successful.) The ball suits both the color and mood.

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We go to the next waterfall – Jur-dzhur. This waterfall is, so to speak, ennobled. Handrails have been installed, the path has been trodden, bridges have been built. And at the entrance there is a booth with bribe collectors. I wonder on what basis the fee is collected? There was no one there that day, but we need to keep that in mind for the future.

31. And the place is very beautiful.

32. You can even say fabulous.

33. Tripod and ND filter. That's what I need!

In a few hours the hike will end, we will get on a minibus, get to Alushta, and then we will each go our own way. We have Great Yalta ahead of us. 34. Group photo for memory.

P.S. The hike was organized by these guys - / And last time, for a summer hike, I “cut off” their route. Thanks to them both times. And special thanks to instructor Zhenya for leading us through these beautiful places.

P.P.S. We are going to Kyiv for 3 days in March.