At the top of the pass, we ran into a guy who had bicycled from Biysk to backpack and climb into the Altai mountains. He and I compared gear, he inspected every component of our bikes, and was impressed with our trip while we were equally impressed with his summer vacation. As we were talking to him, a couple arrived who had been mountain biking in the Altai. He was a dentist in Biysk. He told us about a river rafting competition going on down on the River Katun on the other side of the pass, about 15 miles from where we were. We zipped down and spent the rest of the evening hanging with the river rafters.
We met this awesome Russian cycle tourist (in the hooded shirt) at the top of the pass. He had ice climbing gear and camping equipment - over 100 pounds of gear in total!