I will not hide the fact that climbing Elbrus was something I had genuinely dreamt about for a long time. I had wanted to be in the mountains for years, and all the more so on the highest summit in Europe. Elbrus also attracted me because it is considered technically undemanding. That is, an experienced climber and a beginner can both realistically get up it. At the same time I knew that any mountain needs preparation, and that the preparation has to be not only physical but psychological — it matters a great deal to get yourself ready in advance for the mountains being hard, and at times very hard, and for the climb being worth trying anyway. For that you need to read a lot of reports, and better still to watch video reports. As for physical preparation, I had to learn to love running, as the saying goes. I had never run before, and now I had to get up early in the morning and run, and run, and run. Before long it became a habit and I even came to love it. There were gym sessions as well. On the whole I prepared thoroughly, or at least tried to give it everything. Then came long deliberations about whether to travel with a group or alone. Having weighed up the arguments on both sides, I decided to go with a group. Going alone is very risky, of course, and all the more so for anyone who has never been in the mountains before. My climb was planned by the classic route to the western summit.
As for the programme, it went like this: a rest day in camp. Then in the morning the beginners were to be initiated as mountaineers and given various badges and climbers‘ record books. At noon a bus arrives and takes us out to Azau. Then comes the lift to the Barrels. After that you have to walk up with your rucksacks to the Pastukhov Rocks at four thousand seven hundred metres. That is our high camp; we sleep there and set off for the summit at two in the morning. Later I wondered again whether I should try the mountain I had dreamt about for so long, or perhaps look for other mountains that were no less interesting. But I had been dreaming about Elbrus for more than two years. In the end I made my final decision: Elbrus and nothing else. I thought at the time that I simply had to stand on Elbrus, at least once in my life. We were too late for the chairlift, so we had to walk. On the way we were lucky enough to flag down a vehicle, which took us almost to the Barrels themselves. We were all at the Pastukhov Rocks at about nine in the evening. What had worn us out was not only the heavy rucksacks but the hard frost. That was when we learnt that many people walk up to the Pastukhov Rocks light for acclimatisation. By the time we had put up our tents, melted snow and eaten, it was nearly midnight. And the start for the mountain was planned for two in the morning, so there was very little time left for sleep. At two in the morning the fourth section left, and part of the third. We decided to set off at six in the morning instead, because nobody except me had slept. Everyone was suffering from altitude sickness and feeling short of oxygen. The temperature had dropped to fifteen degrees of frost. That, and a storm-force wind, made proper sleep impossible. The first thing I noticed when I woke was how bad everyone in our group looked. One had a very bad headache, another had raised blood pressure. Weakness, dizziness, a general feeling of illness — all of it symptoms of that same altitude sickness. I listened to myself, and my own condition was more or less stable. The only thing that troubled me slightly was dizziness. Everything else was normal. Even my appetite was normal: unlike the others, I was not picking over what to eat and what to avoid before the climb. Putting on our crampons and packing our rucksacks took a long time. On the whole we took everything in very slowly, which was another sign of altitude sickness. We left the Pastukhov Rocks at about six in the morning. Everyone’s head was aching badly and spinning. As for me, I felt perfectly well — excellent, you might say. So we start up. Because of how they were feeling, the others fell behind a little, so I decide to climb on my own. I walk to the saddle confidently and calmly. My pace was fast and I made few stops to rest: about once every thirty minutes I allow myself to stop, and only for five minutes. That way I manage to overtake everyone who had set out at two or three in the morning. The weather at that point was mixed. On top of that my start was very late, so there was not much time in hand. I have to hurry through the „I can’t“. Because of the strong, icy wind, breathing becomes harder and harder. My hands and feet are getting very cold — and that with a pair of thermal socks and a pair of mittens. On the summit of Elbrus, though, it really did hit me. There was strong dizziness and I felt weak. And although my pace dropped, I kept going. At one point I decided simply to sit down in the snow and rest. I very nearly fell asleep. But that must never be allowed up there. After the saddle came a steep and very long rise. On both sides of the track you could see marks where groups of people had fallen into the snow from sheer exhaustion. Every step came with great difficulty. It was somehow unclear why all these people were putting themselves through it. Climbers need it for their own record in the book. There were about thirty metres left to the summit by then. And how hard they came. You take ten steps and stop to get your breath. I reached the summit of Elbrus itself at eleven in the morning. There were only five hours left for the climb, no more. For the record I asked a man walking past to take a photograph. The wind and the cold were starting to trouble me badly, and even to grate. If anyone had asked me at that moment what I felt standing on the roof of Europe, I would have answered: only cold and wind. Nothing else. I had the luck to reach the Pastukhov Rocks in a few hours. We packed our rucksacks and set off down, to catch the cable car in time. Hard as it was, I am still proud that the mountain decided to let me in. Not everyone is that lucky, and not always. It really is a great piece of luck!