In 1813 the height of the eastern summit of Elbrus, which stands 5621 metres above sea level, was measured for the first time by the academician V. K. Vishnevsky. A few years later, in 1829, the first documented ascent of Elbrus took place, organised by the Russian Academy of Sciences. The expedition was led by General G. A. Emmanuel, commander of the Caucasus fortified line. Its main purpose was to carry out scientific research in the region and to produce a detailed topographic map.
Among the participants were leading scientists of the day: the physicist Emil Lenz, the geologist Adolph Kupffer, the zoologist Edouard Menetries, the botanist Carl Meyer, the artist Joseph Bernardazzi and the Hungarian scholar Janos Besse. The expedition was also accompanied by a substantial support party: 350 Cossacks, 650 soldiers and around 50 local guides. The main camp was at Pyatigorsk, and it was from there that the approach to Elbrus began.
The climb itself was begun by Lenz, Kupffer, Meyer, Bernardazzi, Menetries, several guides and 20 Cossacks. Most of them, however, soon gave up any further ascent because their equipment was unsuitable and they lacked experience at high altitude. In the end only four continued: the physicist Lenz, the guides Akhia Sottaev and Killar Khashirov, and the Cossack Lysenkov. At 5300 metres Lenz, Sottaev and Lysenkov were forced to stop, and only Killar Khashirov, a Kabardian guide, managed to reach the eastern summit on 10 July 1829, becoming the first person to set foot on Elbrus.
General Emmanuel watched the ascent through a telescope from camp, and a rifle salute was later fired there in honour of the event. A commemorative inscription was carved at the expedition’s camp site; it was lost over time and was found again by Soviet mountaineers more than a century later.
The western summit of Elbrus, 5642 metres high, was climbed in 1874 by a party of English mountaineers led by F. Grove. The first climber to reach both summits of Elbrus was the Russian surveyor A. V. Pastukhov, who reached the eastern summit in 1890 and the western one in 1896. Pastukhov also drew up the first maps of the two summits.