The road to Chike-Taman Pass will take your breath away

Pereval Chike-Taman is a high mountain pass at an elevation of 1.246m (4,087ft) above the sea level, located in Ongudaysky District of the Altai Republic, in Russia.

Chike-Taman pass

The road to the summit is paved. It’s called P256 (also known as Chuiskyi trakt road or Chuya Highway), and is the main highway of Altay, joining the main centers of Siberia with the distant Mongolia and China. Today it’s a regular road but it was a horse path some years ago, extremely dangerous, especially in winter and spring. In 1903 another road was built and since 1927 it is possible to drive by car. The road was covered by crushed stone and only one car could to move on it. Drivers often had to give a signal to warn other cars, because cars could to pass one another only at special pockets. The dual highway was built in 1984. When you drive on the road parts of the old road are still visible. The new road is carved through the granite rocks and forms a serpentine with numerous turns and twists.

The pass road is 19.7km (12.24 miles) long, running from Хабаровское се́льское поселе́ние to Kupchegen. The climb is pretty steep, hitting a 13.7% of maximum gradient through some of the ramps. Due to its steepness the pass seems to be much higher. Steep rises, sharp winding roads, abrupt cliffs on the sides and appearing mountain views will simply take away the breath of all those who pass the pass for the first time, with the marvelous view of surrounded mountains. Be aware about rockfall. It often happens after heavy rains or shake of the earth's crust.