Khamar Daban Mountain Range
At the southern shore of the lake the Kharmar Daban moutain range is favourably situated nearby Irkutsk but pretty unknown even the Transiberian Railway passes it directly. Anyhow you have a fantastic view in contrast to the more mentioned Sayan. At one side the Baikal on the other more than 2000m high mountains and between them just a few hundred meters distance.
The biggest part of Kharman Daban belongs to the Baikal Biosphere Reserve ("Baikalskij Gosudarstvenni Prirodni Biosferni Sapovednik") with an expansion of 50km beside the banks of the sea and 60km landward in the south. This area has it's own climate slightly warmer and damper than around Irkutsk or Ulan-Ude wherefore some endemic animals and plants are domiciled here. Another result of the special climate is a lot of snow which falls from october till april. The region around Baikalsk is a famous wintersports centre including a down-hill area where president Putin already was carving.
