So why did I decide to go to the mountains? I suppose I really was short of new feelings and sensations at the time. I simply wanted to try something new, to take in the world in all its colours, as the saying goes. I had heard a lot about the mountains before, but I could not have imagined that one day I would join a group on a climb myself. Of course I needed a push, something that would strengthen the impulse, the wish to test myself in the mountains. And the push came from a chance meeting — although it was probably not chance at all — with someone I had known for years. He told me that he had recently been on Elbrus. He really had been lucky with everything a person can be lucky with in the mountains: the weather and his health both helped him to make a long-held dream come true. He also talked a lot about the people around him. They were all hugely positive, cheerful people, even though they came from different professions and different age groups. It matters a great deal to have people like that beside you. At the same time, going to the mountains with people you do not know is a risk of sorts. You can, of course, go to the mountains with your friends or your family instead. Where better than the mountains to find out what they are made of? Walking a road as hard as that with strangers is always a risk. I thought to myself that I would be happy to go to the mountains like that with people I did not know at all, but who were that positive. My friend also had a great deal to say about how important preparation for a climb is. He even gave an example of climbers giving up the ascent because they were not fit enough. Or a guide forbids them to carry on. Having listened to all of it, I decided to test myself on that mountain whatever it took, all the more so because it is not a technically difficult one. The first thing I started to do was to get my body used to working at altitude. Physical preparation for a climb really does matter. How do you prepare for going up into the mountains? The first thing is to start running. Running is exactly what I began my own preparation with. After that I worked on my endurance, which matters enormously in the mountains. It is also extremely important to be prepared psychologically. You have to understand that it will be hard, and that at times you will even want to turn back. But that is exactly what you should not do. If you have a goal, the strength to climb and to get the better of yourself will come. Watching video reports is one way of preparing. Once you have watched a video, close your eyes and picture yourself up there in the place of those climbers. Then answer the question: could I get through all of that, or would I give up?
The time passed almost unnoticed. The start of my own climb arrived. It is hard to believe that very soon I will see Elbrus, mighty and so unapproachable. We take our rucksacks on our shoulders and set off, following the adventure. Here you begin to forget the town, work and the whole of our busy life. We had to walk for about an hour. But we remembered that stage for a long time: the pouring rain only died away after we had put up the tents.
So it is our second day in the mountains. Early in the morning we had ice practice on the schedule, on the Kashkatash glacier. We practised walking in crampons and moving as a rope team. All of this has to be known and practised by anyone planning a climb of Elbrus. Everyone needs to be able to walk roped up, for the reason that Elbrus sometimes has crevasses, and places like that have to be crossed on a rope and nothing else. That way, if one member of the rope falls, the others will help to hold him and get him out of the trap. When we came back to the meadow where our camp stood, we quickly packed everything up and set off towards the Green Hotel. We walked for a couple of hours and there we were on the meadow. And if for some people stages like that were a simple stroll, some of the climbers were frankly unwell.
The third day in high country really is always considered the critical one. The reason is that this is when the treacherous altitude sickness often arrives — “gornyashka”, as it is often called. We had to set out early in the morning, at four o’clock to be exact. Since it was still fairly dark we had to walk with head torches. Along the lower path we come out after a while onto the glacier. We put our crampons on. Gradually it starts to get light. We walk in the tracks of earlier climbers. We are heading towards the Gumachi pass. There are essentially no crevasses on the glacier, which is a relief. Not long ago it was genuinely broken up here. The group starts to string out. Towards eight in the morning we come up to the final rise to the pass. Lower down it is a steep snow slope; higher up there are easy rocks. It is genuinely cool in the shade of the ridge, so we start up towards the pass almost at once. Some stay below to wait. On the col itself the sun is shining and the weather is a pleasure on the whole. We decided to lie down on the rocks for a while and wait for the people behind. We waited about an hour. One of our companions was taken ill on the pass. Those were the first approaches of that dreaded altitude sickness. Some decided to go straight on up the snow and ice slope to the shoulder of the peak. One of the party was walking almost on all fours. Once he was on the shoulder he felt better — probably thanks to the physical work. From the shoulder a fairly narrow snow-covered ridge leads to the summit. Right or left, it is equally a long way to fall. And how can beginners with no experience at all walk in places like this? Well, whatever grade a summit is given, it is still a summit. It is only at home, reading through various books, that all of it looks easy and simple. We are waiting for the rope team, and they still do not come. And then Nikolai’s rope finally reaches the summit.