Weather station on Mount Rai-Iz in Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area to be converted into mountain shelter for tourists
© RIA Novosti. Ramil Sitdikov

Weather station on Mount Rai-Iz in Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area to be converted into mountain shelter for tourists

The Altitude 868 project in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area has been launched to remove garbage from Mount Rai-Iz in the Polar Urals. The abandoned weather station on the peak will be converted into a mountain shelter for travelers, Arctic-Info reports.

The Altitude 868 project of the Green Arctic inter-regional public environmental and social organization won a grant in a contest for local tourism projects in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area. Altitude 868 was the best project for local tourism development and social tourism. The project will take two years to complete. During the first stage this year, an expedition to Mount Rai-Iz will clean up the area around the weather station. 

On September 17, twelve volunteers from Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Omsk, Chelyabinsk and Tyumen started the climb to the top of Mount Rai-Iz to the 1940s weather station that is now a run-down building with a leaking roof. Over the course of three to five days, the volunteers will be collecting garbage and dismantling the two collapsed buildings next to the weather station.

"We need to collect the garbage and then correctly store it for further removal so that next spring we can find it under heavy snow," Green Arctic Chairman Alexei Rudkovsky said.

After the garbage is removed, the weather station will be equipped with a heater, beds and a new roof. One of the rooms will accommodate a museum dedicated to the weather station's workers.