Upper Angara Range, Transbaikalia

View ESE across the canyon of Left Fork Mama River. The two tributaries on the other site, Ogdynda-Maskit and (more distant) Koldas Rivers, drain from the most rugged part of the range. Just upstream of the mouth of Ogdynda-Maskit, and out of sight in this picture, is the famous Ice Gorge of Left Mama, with its cascades of frozen waterfalls in a dark slot canyon. Most of the vegetation looks dead to the Western eye, but it is just Siberian larch shedding its soft needles for the long winter. Close by to the right, one can see another notable Siberian member of the Pines family, the stlannik creeping cedar. March 1986