One of the largest karst caves in the Mid­dle Urals (the total length of all pas­sages and halls is more than 5 km, but the area acces­si­ble to an unpre­pared tourist is only about 240 m with two halls), is actu­al­ly locat­ed in the Nyazepetro­vsky dis­trict of the Chelyabin­sk region, south of Olenikh Ruchiev. Rec­om­mend­ed vis­it­ing time is Feb­ru­ary-March, because… At this time, ground­wa­ter recedes (in sum­mer, the entrance to the cave is gen­er­al­ly flood­ed with water). Descent into the cave should be done with cau­tion; the thin ice of under­ground lakes can appear under your feet quite unex­pect­ed­ly, and many branch­es can get con­fus­ing. Near­by is the sec­ond cave Skaz‑2 (or Shemakha‑2), more dif­fi­cult to descend, requir­ing spele­o­log­i­cal equip­ment and spe­cial skills. You can stay overnight at the Skaz camp site near­by. It’s eas­i­er to get there by train — from Druzhini­no sta­tion on the Chu­so­­vaya-Bakal train, but the rail­way ser­vice on this sec­tion is irreg­u­lar, the line is always on the verge of can­cel­ing pas­sen­ger traf­fic. You can also get there by car, or through Mikhailovsk, Tul­gash and She­makha, or from the Chelyabin­sk region — from Nyazepetro­vsk through Araslano­vo. The roads are unpaved; in win­ter, the road to the cave is not usu­al­ly cleared by a trac­tor.