Every skier is simply convinced that there is nothing better in the whole world than the mountains. When it came to choosing where to spend a long-awaited holiday, I did not think about it for long: I settled on Elbrus and Dombay. I should say that I personally liked Dombay far more. And although my trip was not a long one, that short time was quite enough for me to understand that I will be going back to Dombay more than once. I had to travel from St Petersburg to Mineralnye Vody by train. The journey was rather tiring, but it was also beautiful and one I will not forget. At Mineralnye Vody the particular atmosphere of the Caucasus wraps itself round you at once. Taxi drivers offer their help right there on the platform:<\/p>\n\n
“Where would you like to go? Elbrus? Or Dombay? Only 4000!”<\/p>\n\n
“No thank you, I would rather walk!”<\/p>\n\n
A little further from the platform you can call an ordinary taxi and get there 2 times cheaper. First I decided to go to the Elbrus region. The taxi took more than 2 hours. But what a beautiful road! You genuinely cannot take your eyes off it. At last we arrive in Terskol and Cheget. What beauty! It is quiet everywhere, mountains all around and a gentle sun shining\u2026 What is the local food like? Not especially varied, it has to be said, but rather tasty. I chose one of the best local hotels. I liked the comfortable room very much, above all because of the balcony with its view of the mountains. The room has everything a skier needs: a comfortable bed, a shower and a television. The hotel also has a sauna, Russian billiards and table tennis. I even had the luck to learn how to play it. I was pleasantly surprised to find ski and snowboard hire here, with a good choice of kit and everything new. Straight after a filling and tasty breakfast, anyone who wants to can take the bus to the Azau meadow. The bus comes right up to the hotel. We are there\u2026 Elbrus! Simply enormous! My task is to run to the ticket office as fast as I can, buy a lift pass and get onto the mountain. The beauty that opens up in front of every traveller cannot be put into words. Whatever else, I was certainly lucky with the weather \u2014 I got sunburnt in a single day. Even the sun cream turned out to be powerless. As for the lifts, they are perfectly good here. I am delighted with them: new, just like the Alps! The piste, though, is nothing like an Alpine one. There is simply nothing to compare Elbrus with. The snowcat, on the other hand, seems to have been forgotten by everyone at the end of the season \u2014 and that although it costs only 400 roubles to ride it up to the Barrels. I am not a particularly expert skier, so it is easy to see why I became slightly hysterical about skiing the slopes of Elbrus. And all the while you know that Azau is down there, and beyond it Terskol, and further still Cheget. I never did dare go up the last of those. I managed only one run, from Mir down to Krugozor. And now it is time to lie in the sun! And to eat delicious khychiny, washed down with fragrant sea-buckthorn tea! My second day on Elbrus was less of a pleasure, mainly because enormous queues appeared from somewhere. It took me a full 50 minutes to get up to the Mir station. There were good moments too, though: today’s skiing was far better, and there was several times more of it. After skiing the bus takes us, as usual, right to the hotel. And that is nowhere near the end of the trips, or of what they left me with. I have to mention the wonderful walk to the beautiful Cheget meadow. How pleasant it is simply to walk on a quiet evening and sit in one of the local caf\u00e9s with a view of Cheget. It is a little sad, of course, since I have to leave tomorrow.<\/p>\n\n
In the morning I will be off to Dombay itself!<\/p>\n\n
First comes the drive of more than 2 hours to Mineralnye Vody. After that there is another 3 hours by car to Dombay. The good part is that you can sleep in the car, which is more or less what I did for the whole journey. When I opened my eyes I was pleasantly surprised. There is only one village here and everything is close by! No need to walk 15 minutes from Terskol to Cheget, and no need to travel 15 minutes to the lift either. Here I decided, as an experiment, to take a flat instead of a hotel room \u2014 although there are plenty of hotels in Dombay. Naturally I went straight off to look at the popular local hotel Gornye Vershiny. It is not for nothing that it is considered the best. Everyone comes here. The hotel is perfectly good, but it falls some way short of being the best in the world. It does have something I have never seen in Europe, though: a real live lion in a cage. It feels as though you are in a zoo rather than a hotel. You can walk round the village of Dombay in twenty minutes at a slow pace. I cannot leave out one of Dombay’s sights, the Bridge of Love. It is a wildly beautiful place: a magnificent suspension bridge over the Amanauz gorge. Two rivers meet here, the Amanauz and the Ulgen. In the evening I went round the local caf\u00e9s. I have to say the khychiny in the Elbrus region are tastier. In the morning I went to the local hire shop. I liked the hire here better, and the service in Dombay is far more agreeable too. I take the lift up to the fourth stage and ski down. The pistes here are quite wide, and the run-outs are excellent. Cheerful and happy, I fly from one piste to another. Then I am lying down looking at the sky\u2026 my skis are a long way away. I try to stand up. That works, but going any further does not. I stood on the slope for about ten minutes and then came down to the 3rd stage on one long ski. Wonderful skiing! I spent all the time I had left sunbathing and talking to the local instructors. Having applied every ointment for sprains that I had with me, the next day I go out to ski again. I chose one of the easiest runs, but my leg still refused to work. A couple of runs and back to the village. A little galling, of course. On the other hand there is time for a walk. We went on foot to Alibek. I saw beautiful roe deer. Later I went into the Teberda nature reserve. What a zoo that is! I looked at bears, foxes, wild boar with tiny piglets, and swans.<\/p>\n\n
Bit by bit my holiday came to an end\u2026<\/p>\n\n
See the programme:<\/strong> Ski tour to Elbrus, 7 days<\/a><\/p>\n Every skier is simply convinced that there is nothing better in the whole world than the mountains. When it came to choosing where to spend a long-awaited holiday, I did not think about it for long: I settled on Elbrus and Dombay. I should say that I personally liked Dombay far more. And although my trip was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14084,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n