Mountain Touring Group Ayudag Debuted Backpacking in the Carpatians

Imams of RAMU UMMA had been thinking lately how they could have a great recreational backpacking trip without having to spend a lot of money. So they created a Mountain Touring Group Ayudag, where independent backpackers can cooperate. Everyone pays their own expenditures and takes care of their own equipment (a tent, a sleeping pad, dinner gear and utensils, food supply, first aid kit, etc.), yet they still enjoy the benefits and safety of backpacking in a group. Anyone can join through a special group on Facebook created for people share their experiences from previous backpacking trips and coordinate the further ones.

The club’s name, Ayudag, is the nod of nostalgia for the occupied Crimean peninsula, for about half of the first backpacking party consisted of Crimean Tatars. Ayudag (literally - “Bear Mountain”) is the name of one of the Crimean Mountains which indeed looks like a bear crouching at the sea surface.

Despite the fact that the first backpacking trip happened to be all-Muslim, the initiators assumed that people of other religious views might want to join the club, so the group is open for everyone. They stress that Mountain Touring Group Ayudag Group on Facebook was created in order to share their experiences and exchange ideas and proposals for further trips, along with promoting active and healthy recreation backpacking trips.

“Any offensive speech against other participants is strictly prohibited in this group. We discourage debates on religion, politics, ethnicity and other matters not concerning mountain tourism. Members of the group are from different walks of life and religious groups; no hate speech is allowed, be it against Muslims or Non-Muslims,” reads the group description section.