Savage Taiga

Pre-Polar Ural Expedition Report - 2019

Pre-Polar Ural — 2019

Photo Report by Alexis and Jérémy Lopez

Three weeks in complete autonomy.

First on foot.
Everything on our backs. Only the essential, to stay light.
Swamps. Taiga. Tundra.
The windy and rainy ridges of the Ural Mountains.
Everything blows and flies away.
Crossing from Europe to Asia.
Fatigue. Endless walking.
Yet the joy of seeing the greatness and beauty.

Streams meet. There is the river.
The journey transforms.
Sun, fish, softness.
Life drifting on the raft.
The lynx watching us from the golden sand beach.
The tracks of a bear waking us.

With Joffrey, Alexis and Jérémy.
The photographs are by Alexis and Jérémy Lopez.
They crossed with us, like us,
their photography and film equipment in their packs.
Thank you to them for their vision and their work.

Pre-polar Ural mountains covered with vegetation

Hikers crossing the Ural mountains with heavy backpacks

Off-trail progression through the Ural taiga

Remote wild landscapes of the Pre-Polar Ural

Misty landscape in the Ural wilderness

Minimalist autonomous bivouac in the Ural wilderness

Mineral ridges of the Pre-Polar Ural

Immense wilderness landscapes of the Ural mountains

Tired hikers in the taiga after days of crossing

End of the crossing, returning to inhabited areas

The Ural Mountains are vast.
Harsh.
Sublime.
Without measure.

You enter them slowly.
You leave them changed.