Putorana Plateau
A short primer on the place you'll be walking through with me — its geology, its wildlife, and the people who have walked through it.
An ocean of frozen lava
Around 250 million years ago, at the boundary between the Permian and Triassic periods, one of the largest volcanic events in the planet's history buried this part of Siberia under layer upon layer of basalt lava — the same eruption event known as the Siberian Traps. Over millions of years, rivers and glaciers cut into that solid rock, carving it into flat-topped mountains, roughly 1,000 metres high on average, deep canyons, and the terraced, stepped cliffs you'll see everywhere on this trip. The plateau covers roughly 250,000 square kilometres — an area comparable to the United Kingdom — making it the largest single mountain massif in the entire Russian Arctic. And while it has never been permanently settled, it has been used seasonally by indigenous groups for generations, and traces of that presence can still be found here today.
Thousands of waterfalls and lakes
The plateau's basalt folds hold a vast network of lakes, many of them long and narrow like fjords — together making Putorana the second-largest reserve of fresh water in Russia after Lake Baikal. That same terrain is cut through by dozens of canyons and produces the highest concentration of waterfalls anywhere in the country, among them some of the tallest and most powerful waterfalls in Russia.
UNESCO site
Putorana was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2010, recognised for the scale of its untouched arctic and subarctic landscape and for sitting exactly where taiga forest meets open tundra — a transition zone that supports plant and animal life rarely found this far north.
The Putorana snow sheep, and its neighbours
The plateau's best-known and most mysterious resident is the Putorana snow sheep, a subspecies found nowhere else on Earth, cut off from the nearest other population by roughly a thousand kilometres. It's believed to have arrived here around 12,000 years ago and has remained isolated ever since. Recent surveys suggest fewer than a thousand animals survive today, and the subspecies is listed in Russia's Red Data Book as a population in decline — protecting it was one of the reasons the Putoransky Nature Reserve was established in 1988, and it remains part of why this landscape carries UNESCO status now.
One of the largest wild reindeer migrations left on the planet crosses the plateau every year, its skies are patrolled by eagles and arctic falcons, wolverines prowl the same slopes, and — as you'll notice from the berry-filled poo along the trails in August — bears share the same forests and river valleys.
The indigenous peoples of the region
People have moved through this land for far longer than it's been mapped. The Nganasan, the northernmost indigenous people of Siberia, have deep historical ties to this region and to the wider Taymyr Peninsula. The base where we'll be staying holds the largest private ethnographic collection of Nganasan artifacts and antiques, alongside pieces from other indigenous peoples of the area — a subject we'll return to more than once during our storytelling evenings.
Beyond the Nganasan, the wider Taymyr region has long been shared by several other indigenous peoples of the North — including the Evenki, Nenets, Enets, and Dolgans — each with its own language, migration routes, and history here.
Summer in Putorana
Not all the ice has melted yet. Ice floes still drift across the lake, and snow lingers on top of the plateau, slowly feeding the rivers and waterfalls, which grow more powerful by the day as it melts. The weather is already warm, and the mosquitoes haven't arrived yet — this is also when Ivan-chai is ready to pick, and spending some time gathering it makes for a nice experience and a tasty souvenir. The polar day is in full swing: the sun never fully sets, and the sky stays bright 24 hours a day.
As the weather warms further, the last of the ice disappears — but the air fills with mosquitoes, sometimes in genuine clouds. A head net (a fine mesh net worn over a hat, covering the face and neck) is a very helpful, almost essential piece of gear for this stretch.
The sun starts dipping below the horizon again — just briefly at first, a little longer with each passing day. The nights stay light for a while yet, growing gradually darker through August.
The mosquitoes are finally gone, and the forest fills with berries. Walking through the woods picking them — and eating them right afterward — is one of the simplest pleasures of the trip. Bears enjoy them too, and you'll often spot bear poo full of berry seeds along the trails.
The nights turn properly dark again, and the air cools. Mushrooms take over, and foraging for them is a slow, quietly rewarding way to spend a morning. This is also aurora season — on a clear night, with a little patience, the sky lights up overhead. Then the snow returns, and the cycle begins again.
