Zaling: tourists indoors - a new kind of sports tourism is becoming popular in Altai Krai.

      The open competition in sports tourism at pedestrian distances indoors took place in Barnaul, a city and the administrative center of Altai Krai, Russia, located on the Ob River, last weekend.

      Indoors tourism, or “Zaling”, is a kind of sport tourism competition held on the artificial landscape indoors. The competition gathered about 170 participants from the cities and districts of the region willing to test their strength and show their skills, as well as about 100 spectators. The competitions were held in several age groups and classes of distance complexity. The youngest participants were the 10-year-old students from the tourism clubs of Pavlovsky and Talmenskiy districts. For many participants this competition was the first in their lives, they had to cover a complicated distance consisting of flying foxes, ascents and descents up and down the steep walls. The organizers tried to create most comfortable and safe environment for sportspeople; the automated start-finish system was operating on the distance, which allowed to to monitor the results of the participants and display the readings on a large indicator board in a real-time mode.

      Zaling is a relatively new kind of tourism in Russia which developed as an alternative to hiking. According to the words of organizers, the events are held twice a year in the regional capital, but it is planned to conduct zonal competitions in the future, so that to involve more young people in this kind of sport.