{"id":37397,"date":"2016-03-28T12:48:26","date_gmt":"2016-03-28T09:48:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mountainguides.pro\/?p=37397"},"modified":"2026-09-10T16:11:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T13:11:00","slug":"attempting-to-climb-elbrus-independently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mountainguides.pro\/ar\/2016\/03\/28\/attempting-to-climb-elbrus-independently\/","title":{"rendered":"Trying to Climb Elbrus on Our Own: Part One"},"content":{"rendered":"

So we decided to go and admire the highest mountain in Europe and, of course, to try to climb it. A great deal was in our favour that time. The weather, without any exaggeration, really was ideal \u2014 very good for a climb, at any rate. I would certainly not have dared to go up alone. But with an old friend, why not? My friend arranged in advance for us to stay in a cottage before and, of course, after the climb of Elbrus<\/a>. He also arranged a transfer from Pyatigorsk station. A small minibus got us to our destination in about three hours.<\/p>\n\n

What surprised me is that you can see the summit of Elbrus in the morning from the Pyatigorsk\u2013Baksan road, with ninety kilometres still ahead of you. After that everything is swallowed up in haze. Anyone who wants to get there more cheaply should take a shared taxi from Pyatigorsk to Nalchik, and go on to Terskol from there.<\/p>\n\n

So, our first day in the mountains. We are heading up towards the hut. At nine in the morning we left Pyatigorsk for Terskol. I have to say that I was hugely taken with the remarkable narrowing of the Baksan gorge, and with the narzan meadow.<\/p>\n\n

We were in Terskol towards midday and checked straight into one of the cottages. The cottage is a small two-storey building not far from the nine-storey block, which is the only one here. There is a little shop nearby with cheap food. We had something to eat and went off to explore Terskol. The road runs through Terskol gaining height all the time, so it is up and down the whole way. A little below our cottage there is a fairly large hotel. It has a cash machine, which is of course very convenient. Internet access, on the other hand, is expensive here, though you can also take a computer for a shorter block of time. And at the summit itself only Megafon has a signal. So I would advise anyone planning to go up to buy a card from that operator. Since I had MTS at the time, I was left without a signal and, of course, without a forecast.<\/p>\n\n

You have to walk up under the cable car. Then you go down towards the Cheget meadow. There are far more hotels and caf\u00e9s there. Two hundred metres up from the cottage the old road towards the hut starts, going past the ice base. The original plan was to walk exactly that way. But when we registered with the search-and-rescue service, they advised us against it. They explained that because the weather was hot there were a great many crevasses and seven or eight groups had been forced to turn back. Yet nobody we met on that road said anything about difficulties. Even so, it is a very good thing that we listened and did not go that way. The point is that the path is badly eroded and walking it with a rucksack would have been genuinely hard for me. So we decided to go via Azau instead. The tarmac ends at the Azau meadow itself. There is a small souvenir market here. There are also a couple of hotels and the lower cable-car station. So we made it to the first cable-car station. Elbrus was already clearly visible from up there, though I only have that at second hand. As for me, I do not accept such an unsporting way of getting about. The first cabin goes up just after eight in the morning. This is where a rather dusty track starts. It runs over stony scree towards the barrel huts. Lorries sometimes drive up this track. We managed to get up to two thousand six hundred metres. There are already water tanks up there. And there is the rare chance to have a proper rest on the grass and drink your fill of clean, good water. Above that there is no water until the Barrels themselves. Only at three thousand five hundred metres is there a small stream. We really were very pleased with that piece of reconnaissance. Tired but happy, we went back to the cottage. So on the first day, with the help of transport, we managed to get up to two thousand one hundred metres.<\/p>\n\n

And now it is our second day in the mountains. Since a hard walk was ahead of us, we got up early, at six. We ate quickly and were on the road by half past seven. The starting height of our cottage is two thousand one hundred and thirty metres. Walking uphill with poles really is a great help, I have to say, and I could tell that at once, since I had walked in the mountains with a rucksack before. The two kilometres towards Azau took us a whole hour, which counts as perfectly acceptable when you are gaining height. So an hour and a half later we reached the water tanks. We drank happily, rested and set off up the road we already knew. At about twenty past ten we came up to the first cable-car station. That is two thousand nine hundred metres already. At last a superb view opened up of Elbrus and of the main Caucasus range. Almost immediately, at three thousand one hundred and forty metres, we decided to stop for a rest at a bend in the zigzags. Here for the first time we saw a superb alpine meadow. It was like a breath of fresh air after the dreary stony scree. The grass really is beautiful, but there is no drinking water at all. The air temperature in the shade is nineteen degrees. A cool wind blows from every side and you can feel that the glaciers are close.<\/p>\n\n

At three thousand four hundred and seventy metres, not far from the second cable-car station, there is a very convenient stream. Anyone can fill up with water here. That was where, for the first time, we decided to test how firm last year’s snow was, since the track goes across a small drift. The snow really is quite firm, since it took the weight of a climber with a load.<\/p>\n\n

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