We made it out of Kosh-Agach and up to the Ukok Nature Park’s camp at the sacred radon springs, cold water baths that Maria told us would reinvigorate us (if not make us glow a bit for the next 200 years!)  As soon as we arrived a massive snow storm headed our way. We quickly geared up to film with Danil, driving the wazi (Russian army van) up the road as far as we could go and then stumbling through the falling snow to a precipice. We filmed Danil in a short interview (see our Pilgrimage to a Sacred Mountain video) as long as we all could take it and then retreated to the warm and dry cabins.

Once the storm blew through, we sat down with Sergei and Danil to talk about what brought us to the Ukok Plateau. Gas. And, more specifically, Gazprom’s plans to build a natural gas pipeline through this majestic, biodiverse plateau to China.Local Altaians are up in arms over this plan. While Gazprom has made promises to protect the environment and landscape and bring energy to the local district, people do not believe it. The Ukok is where the Ice Princess was unearthed from her grave and where many other burial sites have been disturbed.

Many Altaians believe the Russian federal authorities are in a rush to exploit the country’s natural resources for profit and may destroy the land and culture of the Altai to accomplish their goals. During the interview Sergei brought out his map to show Danil the planned path of the pipeline.