The Vitim is a major tributary of the Lena. With its source east of Lake Baikal, the Vitim flows north through the Transbaikal Mountains and the town of Bodaybo. Including its source river Vitimkan, it is long, and has a drainage basin of. The river peaks in June and freezes from November to May. It is navigable from the Lena to Bodaybo. Upstream, tugs can haul barges as far as the Baikal Amur Mainline, but this is becoming rare. Formerly, because of its swift current, goods were hauled overland from Chita to a place called Romanovka. There boats were built, floated down the river, and broken up at their destination. This lasted until the late 1940s. The Vitim is an excellent place for adventure rafting, but is rarely visited because of its isolation. The first Russian to explore the river was probably Maksim Perfilyev in 1639–40, who brought back reports of the upper Amur River. Baissa, one of the famous localities of fossil insects is situated on the left bank of the Vitim River.
Course
Going upstream: Vitim town where the Vitim joins the Lena. Mama and Mama Airport, about south of Vitim. A muscovite mica mine from 1705 until the late 1930s. Now a small settlement. Mamakan, on a west-flowing stretch south-southeast of Vitim. In 1961 a 86MW dam on a left tributary was completed, one of the first dams built on permafrost. Bodaybo, just upstream, a gold mining center founded in 1864. Upstream, the port of Luzhki was the start of a road to the Lena gold fields. From here upstream the river goes crookedly east and then south. About upstream from Bodaybo are the Uronsky Rapids and after more, the Parama Rapids. About or so upstream, the Vitim is crossed by the Baikal Amur Mainline between Taksimo and Kuanda. Upriver there are more rapids and goldfields. South through the Stanovoy Mountains toward Chita, then west into the Vitim Plateau east of Lake Baikal.
Tributaries
The main tributaries of the Vitim are, from source to mouth:
An event called the Vitim event on September 25, 2002, occurred in the Vitim River basin near Bodaybo. The event was probably caused by a bolide. The event was similar to Tagish Lake.
