Aldan Upplands

The Aldan Highlands form the southern mountainous country of Sakha, between the Aldan River and its Uchur tributary. The Stanovoy and Toko-Stanovik ranges hem them in from the south, the Olyokma River marks the west, and the Dzhugdzhur Range rises beyond the east. The Amga crosses the western side, while the Buotama, Timpton and Tuolba drain other valleys.

Crystalline slates and gneisses of the Aldan Shield underlay the region. Broad interfluves reach heights near 1,000 metres, cut by middle-height ridges and river gorges. Larch taiga reaches elevations around 1,100 to 1,300 metres and gives way to rocky tundra above. Mount Ningam rises above the Gonam basin to 2,287 metres, though another measurement places the highest summit at 2,306 metres.

Winters bring extreme cold and little snow; summers remain cool. The forests and rivers offered fur-bearing animals, fish and pasture, but passes and open tundra demanded local knowledge. Evenk and Sakha communities and later Russian travellers moved mainly along established river corridors.

In the late 1630s Dmitry Kopylov led a party from Yakutsk up the Aldan. In 1639 Ivan Moskvitin and his men continued east through river valleys and portages to the Sea of Okhotsk. These journeys connected the wider Aldan country to the expanding fur trade, although they did not imply that the whole highland interior was mapped or controlled. Travellers depended on Indigenous guides, seasonal ice and knowledge of difficult routes.