So why exactly do people go to the mountains? Some are tormented by the question, some answered it for themselves long ago, and some still cannot work out where the truth lies\u2026. And although the question looks simple at first glance, there is no single answer to be found. Perhaps there is no one right answer at all. Perhaps everyone has their own goal and their own unique motive. Some people, surely, just want to reach something that used to be out of reach. Others simply want to test a friend, a partner, or in the end themselves. To prove that they are no worse than anyone else, that if they want to they can do a great deal too. Only here, in the mountains, can you switch off completely and escape from everyday reality. And there is also the rare chance to take a photograph at what feels like the edge of the world. Other reasons can of course be invented if you feel like it. But who needs them?<\/p>\n\n
As for me personally, mountaineering in general and the mountains in particular began six months before I ever set foot on one. It all started when I began thinking about how to spend my coming holiday. By that point I had, I think, genuinely tried a great many things, yet mountain experience was the one thing I had none of. And I wanted to try. I always take anything new and unknown very seriously, so I decided not to waste time and to study everything I needed online. I had a mass of questions back then. I wanted to know what mountains we actually have, what you need to know and to carry in order to set off on an ascent, and how hard an ascent really is. I skimmed through various websites and understood that this is far from entertainment: it is a serious undertaking that demands careful preparation well in advance. It is also a hard struggle, and above all a struggle with yourself. Not with the mountain at all, because you cannot conquer it, whatever people say. Mountains stood here long before we appeared in this world and will go on standing after we are gone. A person can climb one for a short while, and only if the mountain allows it. People have always revered mountains in particular. The legends of most peoples say that the gods themselves live on mountain summits. The Greeks even believed that Zeus himself lived on Mount Olympus. One legend has it that Prometheus himself was chained to Mount Kazbek<\/a>. He was a giant who stole fire for humankind, and for that the gods decided to punish him in earnest. Nor did Prometheus’s torments end there. Every day a mythical bird flew to him and viciously pecked at his heart. There is another legend that during the flood Noah’s ark struck the summit of Elbrus where it protruded from the water \u2013 struck it so hard that the summit split in two. Noah then asked Elbrus for shelter. The mountain refused him, because it could not forgive such treatment. Noah then cursed the mountain and wished that winter should reign on the summit of Elbrus whatever the season. Ever since, the summit has been covered in permanent snow. And it was this mountain, wreathed in legends, that we had to climb. Among many other things, having the right kit matters a great deal for an ascent. And that kit is not exactly cheap. Not cheap at all, in fact. At the time I owned nothing, so I had to work out in detail what people actually take into the mountains. The internet became my helper. That was when I managed to learn a great deal about the modern clothing made for this purpose. Over the following six months I unhurriedly bought everything I would need for the climb. I tried to buy only from established brands that make equipment for mountaineers. Once the equipment was more or less sorted, I turned to the question of how to prepare physically for climbing a mountain. To warm up, I decided at first to head for Crimea. But I realised that with the shape I was in at the time I had no business being in the Caucasus at all. So there was an urgent need to take up training. And the best preparation, without any exaggeration, is running. Swimming can certainly be counted as useful too. In winter, for example, cross-country skiing is excellent. But it was summer, and clearly the time for skiing had passed. So the question was how to load myself. I decided to start with two kilometres a day, gradually increasing the distance and getting up to ten kilometres within three weeks. I met that minimum target. At the same time, though, I understood perfectly well that at such loads there is no point even thinking about extra sessions. The body needed rest as well. So it was important to rework both the schedule and the make-up of the training. I got good advice from a professional coach and settled on three sessions a week. Practice later showed that this really is enough to prepare properly for an ascent. I should say that three months of training like this took ten kilograms off me. A result like that gave me hope, of course, but it came with no guarantees whatsoever. Training needs to start as early as possible, at least six months ahead. A year is better, so that you can ease off a little two or three weeks before the climb. That gives the body time to rest and recover. The thing is that training like this carries one more risk: a drop in immunity. Illnesses you never even suspected can surface out of nowhere. And illness runs a far sharper course in the mountains than it does on the plains. Before I left, my temperature rose to thirty-eight degrees. I had no other symptoms at all. And there was simply no time to go round the doctors. So the question of whether to go at all became pressing. I quickly weighed up the pros and cons and decided to take the risk. After all, I had a few days to recover before the start itself. As it later turned out, I made the right call. Within a few days I felt much better. I decided to travel by train to Pyatigorsk, where the meeting point was. In Pyatigorsk itself the group gathered early in the morning at the station. There were three of us in all. Since the shop would not open for a few hours, we decided to walk around the town for a while. The town is fairly clean, and the streets are narrow. There is a little pavilion right out in the street where you are allowed to drink narzan water free of charge. So we bought the provisions we needed and went back to the station. The bus had been waiting for us for some time. As soon as we had loaded up we set off on the three-hour drive towards the Adyl-Su gorge in the Elbrus region.<\/p>\n\n I first felt the local colour when we all stopped at a petrol station. It really had been a long time since I last saw pumps that old. Curiously, not one of them was working. There was a fuel tanker parked nearby, though, and anyone who wanted to could fill up straight from it. Superb service! Herds of cattle wander up and down the road as they please. They seem to feel like the rightful owners. Interestingly, nobody was watching over them. Then again, where can you go from a gorge? You see a great many cattle on the bridges, where the river keeps them cool and the wind blows through. The state of the road surface, on the other hand, certainly left something to be desired.<\/p>\n\n Along the way we saw several permanent checkpoints. The soldiers on duty at them dislike being filmed or photographed. It is worth saying that the town of Tyrnyauz was in fact built as a town for miners extracting molybdenum and tungsten. It stands at one thousand three hundred metres above sea level. We then decided to stop at the tented camp in the Adyl-Su gorge. We also walked up to the border post, beyond which the climbing camps lie. Getting into that zone without a special permit is impossible, and the permit has to be ordered in advance, at least a couple of months ahead. Once we had taken our photographs in front of the post, we started back down to camp.<\/p>\n\n <\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n <\/u><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n So why exactly do people go to the mountains? Some are tormented by the question, some answered it for themselves long ago, and some still cannot work out where the truth lies\u2026. And although the question looks simple at first glance, there is no single answer to be found. Perhaps there is no one right […]<\/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-37383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat to read next<\/h2>\n