In 2017, The Navigable Iset River became part of a large-scale water program developed by the Ekaterinburg History Museum team. It included the exhibition Water and the City. Straightforward History, lectures, discussions, plein air painting sessions, and other events.

The name of the project referred to the attempts to turn the Iset river into a fully navigable river. The attempts were made in the 19th and 20th centuries but never succeeded, remaining a utopian dream for our city.

The aim of the project was to promote the river as a significant resource for the development of the city. In addition, the organizers faced the task of capturing the modern image of the Iset before the projects to upgrade the embankment and change the whole river landscape are implemented.

In the course of 12 hours, the participants covered about 20 kilometers along the waters of the main city river: from its mouth in the Verkh-Isetsky pond to the Nizhne-Isetsky pond in the Khimmash District.

It turned out that rafting on the Iset is a unique one-day urban leisure option. It provides you with the opportunity to get a new experience from your city: to see its picturesque landscapes, to look at it from an unusual angle, to get an adrenaline rush from crossing the pipe on Malysheva Street and the dam on Bazovy Lane and overcoming the rapids of the river.

The participants of the first rafting event were employees of the Ekaterinburg History Museum, representatives of the leading city media—E1, Serebryany Dozhd in Ekaterinburg, ETV, ATN, Komsomolskaya Pravda—as well as representatives of the Sports Tourism Federation of the Sverdlovsk Region. A total of 13 kayaks from the Dinamo Sports School went on the rafting trip.

As a result, rafting became a regular event. It was supported by the largest city developer Atomstroykompleks. The company could also show its housing complexes located along the river. Thanks to the support of Atomstroykompleks, a special tourist website dedicated to rafting on the Iset river was created.

The project turned out to be of interest to the city administration as part of the Iset River embankment renovation project, as well as to other city developers. Today, rafting on the Iset is no longer deemed exotic. It regularly takes place in a number of areas. However, rafters still don’t go into the city center. Although in fact, rafting in the very center has a special charm. You can get into the spirit of the project by watching the video on the page of the Ekaterinburg History Museum dedicated to rafting.