A warning for novice skiers
If you have seen snow at four thousand metres, you have probably thought that it would be the perfect place to learn to ski. At that time of year, however, places like that can turn out to be not merely awkward but genuinely dangerous for a beginner, especially without acclimatisation. We often came across daring skiers in such situations, whom we overtook while wearing crampons. For an experienced skier a slope like that may be difficult, but it will not be a serious obstacle. Even so, however good you are at other times of year, do not overestimate your abilities during the dangerous shoulder season. Be extremely careful.
Something should also be said about the border guards and the border itself. There is a border post on the Baksan highway even before you reach Terskol, and there is a fair chance you will be stopped and checked. Local people are well known here and are usually left alone. Travellers are treated with understanding, and without good reason nobody will find fault with you.
If you want to visit interesting places beyond the marked signs, you have to apply for permits. That should be done about a month before your trip. Permits can be obtained from the border administration in Nalchik. In our case we were not planning to travel from Mineralnye Vody and hoped we would be able to see the lake anyway. In practice nothing came of it. We set out onto the slopes of Cheget and crossed the border without noticing. About half an hour later border guards came up to us, explained everything, and we had to go back down. All our attempts to talk our way through were unsuccessful. On the whole the border regime really is necessary, and violations get a quick response. It is just a pity that we never saw the lake. We met border guards once more in the gorge of the Azau river. We had read that there are several waterfalls in its upper reaches, but we had barely left the hotel complex before we ran into another sign marking the border zone. Taught by our previous experience, we decided not to go on. Fortunately, we did manage to photograph the nearest waterfall. As we came out of the gorge a border guard met us. We explained that we had wanted to walk to the waterfall and even pointed to our tracks in the snow. If the other side is policed just as strictly, one can only imagine what the border guards do during the tourist season – probably shooing sightseers away from the forbidden places.
Now a few words about how not to walk. Even before arriving in Terskol I had been asking whether there is a route from the Azau meadow to the waterfall with the striking name of «Devichyi Kosy». It really is a popular acclimatisation route. We decided to walk to the waterfall after we had come down from the mountain, the day before our flight. According to the information available, you can only approach the waterfall from the road that begins five kilometres from the Azau meadow and runs past the waterfall towards the observatory. Since starting the climb from there was inconvenient, we decided to go up the Gara-Bashi gorge. The gorge really is impressive, with black vertical walls and views of Cheget, where you can even make out the lifts. The track here is good, and you can see a small waterfall. The river, however, veers off to the right behind the rocks, while the path keeps curving to the left. We thought it would eventually join the road from the observatory, and we carried on climbing towards the waterfall. Before long we realised that the road leads onto the plateau above the Azau meadow and was probably built to service the avalanche barriers and the water pipeline. Rather than turn back, we decided to do a little scrambling and cross the small ridge that was blocking our way to the observatory. That was an ill-considered decision, because rockfall is frequent in the gorge – stones warmed by the sun can come down at any moment, and they do not care who is below. The ridge itself proved steeper and higher than we had expected. With rocks flying past us and vertical walls rising in front of us, fear made us move fast. We climbed to three thousand two hundred metres in a couple of hours and came out on the crest of the ridge. From up there we had an impressive view of the beautiful Elbrus, the Gara-Bashi glacier and the roads leading to the observatory. Getting up onto the ridge was not difficult, but how were we to get down? The northern side of the slope was one unbroken sheet of snow, and we could not descend the way we had come up. Sunset was already close, and we had no wish to wander along the ridge in the dark looking for the best way down. The snow at the top, where the sun had been shining, was soft, but towards the middle of the slope it might well be hard and compacted. On a gradient like that, without crampons and an ice axe, it would not have been easy. It is just as well that we did not try to go straight down. On the eastern side of the ridge we found a more or less gentle descent over grass, though we came across rocks and deep snow here and there.
And so there we were at three thousand two hundred metres. We managed to come out onto the road that runs down from the observatory past the waterfalls. Because we were there just before sunset, however, we could not take good photographs. It was starting to get dark, and the descent lay ahead. The direction of the road leading away from the Azau meadow did not suit us, so we decided to go straight down. But in the mountains a direct route can turn out to be far longer, and it is quite impossible to tell what lies beyond each fold of the terrain. A special map with diagonals gives only a general impression of the ground.