History of the OutdoorUkraine project
Sometimes tourists planning to go to the mountains with us for the first time decide to ask about reliability. Can the OutdoorUkraine project be trusted, will the planned hike take place, will they not be “thrown in” at the last moment?
It seems to me that the best antidote to such doubts will be our story about the stages of development of the project, starting with the appearance of the first site back in 2005. We are not a fly-by-night site, we have history, traditions, and reputation.
Well, for those who have known us for a long time, this article also contains a couple of surprises - for example, the “address” of the rock from our logo and little-known screenshots of our first sites.
April 8, 2005. First site.
Our first website about hiking has been launched. It was located on the free hosting Narod.ru and was not called OutdoorUkraine at all. There were actually NO hiking routes on the site, but only mentioned the possibility of creating them if necessary:) 90% of the information was in German, since we initially planned to target foreigners.
May 2, 2005. The first hike is organized!
The first trip organized by us. And of course it was Crimea for May! The route, which later became the basis for the most popular tour "Water and Stones" - from Perevalny through Chatyr-Dag, Demerdzhi and Karabi to Rybachye. Contrary to our hypothesis (see above), there was not a single foreigner in the group.
June 1, 2005. Second version of the site.
We bought the domain OutdoorUkraine.com. By the way, do you know what does Outdoor mean?
Our website about hiking has a new design - we drew it ourselves in Frontpage (the first one was done in a notepad).
The site is still static, without an engine - to add an article, you need to create an html file, upload it via ftp and add a link to it from the main page.
All this is quite inconvenient, and yet the site is developing - routes and photo reports about the hikes completed are being added.
July 12, 2005. First foreign clients.
You won’t believe it, but there were people who took our German site seriously. The Grüter family (father, mother, son) drove from Berlin to the Carpathians in their car. Communicating in a mixture of English and German, we walked with them the route along the Montenegrin ridge, took part in a rodeo with drunken foresters, missed the walking president and generally had a good time.
August 11, 2005. OutdoorUkraine logo.
During an afternoon rest near the Big Gate Pass (Crimea), tourists from our group - Andrey and Lisa - made several pencil sketches. They painted a small rock sticking out directly opposite our rookery. At the end of the hike, they presented the drawings to the club, and we used them to create the OutdoorUkraine logo - the Great Red Rock with Black Bushes:)
April 2, 2006. Third version of the site.
Over the winter, we managed to understand Joomla (a website building engine) and transfer the site to it. The main “branded” routes have already been formed, the foundation has been laid for the section with tourists’ reviews, and certain foundations of the corporate style have been formed (logo, red-black-white palette, little people). For the next 8 years, this “base” will remain virtually unchanged. Some solutions (schedule of tours in the right column, article “how everything happens,” full reports instead of short reviews) seemed successful not only to us and were adopted by numerous imitators.
May 2008. Equipment rental.
We purchased the first batch of equipment (backpacks, sleeping bags, mats...) specifically for rental. Before this, there were so few orders that the need for rentals was fully satisfied by a couple of our own sleeping bags and backpacks.
June 2008. We are in the Lonely Planet guide.
In June 2008, the second edition of the Lonely Planet guide dedicated to Ukraine was published. To our great joy, this issue included mentioned and recommended project OutdoorUkraine.com
Summer 2008. Ease of movement.
Let's get acquainted with such a relatively “new” (in domestic tourism) phenomenon as easy walking. It turns out that a backpack on a hike does not have to be heavy at all (i.e., weigh more than 12 kg). We experiment a lot with homemade and purchased equipment, exchange experience with tourists.
July 17, 2008. First corporate event.
At the request of the distribution company "Sweet Life" (sweetlife.ua), we are conducting a three-day corporate trip around Crimea (area Demerdzhi and the Valley of Ghosts).
September - October 2008. Study of Eastern Crimea.
We carry out more than a dozen reconnaissance missions across Eastern Crimea in the triangle of Feodosia - Old Crimea - Sudak. Here, unlike the Demerdzhi or Ai-Petri areas, there are practically no multi-day groups, there is not enough information, the available maps are outdated. Based on the results of the reconnaissance, we are creating a route Scarlet Sails and also describing several springs for Yuri Yezersky’s project “Springs of Crimea”.
January 3, 2009. Winter hike with a group.
OutdoorUkraine instructors go to the mountains all year round. But so far in winter they have walked mostly on their own, without tourists. And only on the New Year holidays of 2009 we finally managed to gather a full-fledged group of people who wanted to exchange Olivier and Christmas trees for snow and pine trees (Crimean, of course). Read review about this hike.
September 25, 2009. Extreme marathon.
Together with Sevastopol instructor Sergei Nazarov, I took part in the “Crimean Weaving” tourist marathon. Walking, running and jumping, we cover 100 kilometers from the Angarsk Pass to the Crimean Observatory in less than 30 hours and take an honorable second place. Having sincerely rejoiced and been quite surprised by such a high result, I nevertheless concluded that I was inclined towards more relaxed types of tourism.
October 27, 2009. First trekking in Nepal.
We spent a whole month in Nepal, completed two classic treks (Around Annapurna and to Annapurna Base Camp), visited Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Patan, Pokhara, Chitwan Nature Reserve. The developed tourist infrastructure of Nepal (mountain shelters, catering, porters), which allows even tourists with an initial level of training to see the Himalayas, made the best impression on us. Since then, OutdoorUkraine conducts 3-4 treks in Nepal every year, usually in March-April and October-November.
May 17, 2010. First trip to Turkey.
In March 2010, we traveled around the south of Turkey in a rental car and were thoroughly impressed by the combination of such important factors as “warm-it-is-already-March”, a bunch of historical (antique) attractions, good marked trails, the opportunity to camp with a tent by the sea and a relatively inexpensive flight. Already on May 17, we returned to Turkey with a group of tourists and walked along the Lycian Trail from Goynuk Canyon to Cape Gelidonia and fell in love with this region even more. With our light hand, the route along the Lycian Trail has become fashionable and now the majority of tourists on this trail are our compatriots (until 2010, Germans predominated).
June 17, 2010. Bicycle trip around Crimea.
We are timidly trying our hand at a new niche - organizing bicycle trips. We hire an experienced instructor and bike mechanic, run the first bike route in Eastern Crimea, get acquainted with the specifics of this type of tourism, and purchase rental equipment.
February 2011. Extreme hiking with ropes.
To satisfy the demand of lovers of adrenaline and technical bells and whistles, our Feodosia instructor Sergey Zaporozhchenko is developing an extreme route Two ropes. Entertainment along the route includes rope crossings over a precipice, rappelling over waterfalls, and descents into unequipped caves.
June 6, 2011. The first hike especially for parents with children.
Children have not been such rare guests on our hikes since the very beginning of OutdoorUkraine’s activities. But only in the summer of 2011, when our own children were a little older, we finally realized that it would be a good idea to periodically organize special children’s hikes - with the simplest possible route and a comfortable pace of movement. In addition, in the company of peers, young tourists endure the difficulties of camping life much easier (i.e., the lack of TV and chips)
August 18, 2011. First hike in Montenegro.
The idea for this trip arose so suddenly that we didn’t even have time to properly assemble a group. In the end, the three of us went. Even worse for those who missed their chance - tiny Montenegro turned out to be an incredibly pretty country. The mountains here are not high (2500 m), but remarkably “toothed” (rocky and sharp). Even in the well-promoted Durmitor Nature Reserve there were few people, and in the border Prokletiye there was no one at all (not even border guards). Well, you probably know about the azure Adriatic Sea and medieval fortified cities without me.
November 4, 2011. Everest Base Camp.
Our group reached Everest Base Camp from the Nepal side. Height 5369 meters. A very controversial route, in the sense that the high popularity and desirability of Everest encourages many to go here prematurely, without gaining enough experience and health. As a result, the constant risk of exacerbation of altitude sickness among trekking participants significantly complicates the work of the instructor... And yet, it is impossible to ignore such a beautiful trek - we are adding it to our collection and annual schedule.
June 7, 2012.
The OutdoorUkraine project was again featured in Lonely Planet (a well-known guide for independent travelers). In the article "Top 10 things to do in Ukraine" we are recommended as organizers of hiking excursions, that is, hikes.
July 22, 2012. First hike in Georgia.
Our regular customers - Kharkov residents Marina Sklyarova and Denis Teslenko literally kicked us into getting ready and quickly organizing a trip around Georgia, which, thanks to the airline’s leisurely pace, was not limited to a visit to Svaneti, but also included a visit to Kazbek. Many thanks to all of them!
November 10, 2012. Discovery of China.
We are simultaneously discovering a new country and a new type of tour - sightseeing or semi-cultural. Our route Jade Dragon is 10 flights in 14 days to see as many Chinese hostels and national parks as possible. Such trips are already difficult to plan, but it seemed to us that this was not enough and in 2013 we successfully held the “Jade Dragon” right during the all-China holiday (the entire billion go on vacation at the same time). Now we are level 99 wizards:)
July 12, 2013. For the first time in the Tien Shan.
The emergence of relatively inexpensive flights to Kazakhstan prompted us to develop the trip to the Tien Shan. Traditionally, the first, experimental group included permanent “outdoors” people, who are not frightened by some uncertainty and the prospect of wandering off in the border region, but on the contrary, are turned on.
September 13, 2013. Elbrus from the North.
Our instructors have been to Elbrus several times, but only in 2013 did we finally decide to lead a group of tourists there. The first pancake turned out to be delicious - all 10 participants of the hike climbed the highest peak in Europe along the difficult, “northern” route.
June 2014. South America.
Peru is the dream of many travelers. We, too, have long dreamed of Machu Picchu and the snow-white peaks of the Andes. And so we managed to assemble a team of daredevils with whom we tested our new tour Treasures of the Incas. In just 16 days we managed to visit the Amazon jungle, the Nazca desert, Lake Titicaca, the legendary Machu Picchu, and storm the Punta Union pass (4750 m) in the Cordillera Blanca mountains.
July 11, 2015. Scandinavia
A really hard track has appeared in our assortment - Jutunheimen. Later we came up with other hikes in Norway, but it is very symbolic that this one was the first - the most difficult and the most severe. The country of the fairy-tale giants Jotuns is extremely reluctant to let strangers in and then just as hard to let them go. A piece of Jotunheimen remains in the heart... like a fragment of the Snow Queen's mirror))
June 2, 2016. Poland
It turns out that the “real mountains” closest to us are not the Caucasus or the Alps, but the High Tatras in Poland. And even though the heights here are small, the cliffs are steep and inaccessible, and the lakes are clean and beautiful. Extreme hike in the Tatras was an unexpected and extremely pleasant find for us. Since then, we have been organizing tours to the Tatras every year. If you're not afraid of heights, join us))
September 2017. Alps
The small OutdoorUkraine reconnaissance group spent a whole month in the Alps. First we walked around Mont Blanc, then around the Matterhorn and it seems we realized that we had achieved Zen. The Alps are beautiful and you can travel here on a budget. Don't hesitate, catch up!
April 15, 2018. Himalayas
Our first six-thousander! Our entire group completed the climb of Island Peak (6189 m) in Nepal. Maybe we can try even higher?
September 2, 2018. USA
Our first tour in the USA. We traveled around the States for a whole month, drove more than 9,000 km, saw more than a dozen national parks, the most important cities in America, and now we want more!
Plans for the future.
Of course we want to go everywhere. You just need to decide on the order of visiting these very “everywhere”. First of all we will go to Patagonia. And then next in line are New Zealand, Alaska, Kilimanjaro, Hawaii, the Fan Mountains, the Dolomites...
Kirill Yasko. March 2019