{"id":37355,"date":"2016-01-17T11:33:01","date_gmt":"2016-01-17T08:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mountainguides.pro\/?p=37355"},"modified":"2026-09-10T16:10:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T13:10:32","slug":"beginners-and-winter-elbrus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mountainguides.pro\/ko\/2016\/01\/17\/beginners-and-winter-elbrus\/","title":{"rendered":"Beginners and Elbrus in winter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Plenty of people have heard of the Pastukhov Rocks, yet after a week and a half on Elbrus they never actually saw them. That is the new joke of the winter season. Only in our circus. If you never plan to go to Elbrus in winter, you will find nothing of interest in this article.<\/p>\n<p><!-- mg-ski-season-links-20260730:start --><\/p>\n<section class=\"mg-ski-season-links\" style=\"margin:24px 0;padding:20px;border-radius:12px;background:#f1f5f9\">\n<h2>Ski tours to Elbrus with accommodation and hire<\/h2>\n<p>Readers of the \u201cFirst winter experience\u201d section can choose from three piste-based Mountain Guide programmes. Every departure ends on a Sunday, the accommodation is in Terskol, and the basic set of skis or a snowboard is included.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mountainguides.pro\/tours\/ski-holidays\/elbrus-ski-resort-2-days\/\">Two-day tour<\/a> \u2014 Saturday and Sunday<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mountainguides.pro\/tours\/ski-holidays\/elbrus-ski-resort-3-days\/\">Three-day tour<\/a> \u2014 Friday to Sunday<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/mountainguides.pro\/tours\/ski-holidays\/elbrus-ski-resort-7-days\/\">Seven-day tour<\/a> \u2014 Monday to Sunday<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The ski pass, the travel and the instructor are paid for separately. An extra night, a transfer, meals, single occupancy and lessons can be requested subject to availability.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<p><!-- mg-ski-season-links-20260730:end --><\/p>\n<p>This is not only about beginners but about all commercial <a href=\"https:\/\/mountainguides.pro\/climb-elbrus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ascents of Elbrus <\/a> in winter. I would like everyone who buys a tour like that in December, January, February, March or April to understand clearly what they are letting themselves in for. Even ascents in May are questionable, although by then it is only half winter. There have been cases in which people died on commercial winter expeditions to Elbrus, and we will not go into the names of the companies. Though tragedies have happened in the summer months too.<\/p>\n<p>By my own observation, the chances of a successful guided winter ascent of Elbrus are around 15-20%. And that is on condition that the guide really is experienced. They should be capable of spending a night on the saddle alone, of keeping a cool head, and of having no fewer than fifty ascents behind them, not some recent graduate with a handful of summer climbs, even if those were from every side of Elbrus.<\/p>\n<p>It also matters that clients are told the truth two months before the climb, so that they are mentally prepared for digging the doors out every morning and for using the toilet at -20\u00b0C in full kit. On top of that, the place you sleep has to be properly kitted out and warm. Clients have to have the right equipment for both the acclimatisation days and the climb, and be able to look after themselves in gloves \u2014 pouring tea, putting on crampons. The guide has to have enough rope for winter ice, not just a shrug.<\/p>\n<p>The summer season demands none of that.<\/p>\n<p>Even so, the internet is once again full of offers of New Year ascents of Elbrus.<br \/>\u2014 Who exactly are they planning to go with?<br \/>\u2014 Why do people come down from the huts into the valley after a single night up there, instead of the four the programme sets out?<br \/>\u2014 Why did only 10% of teams get as far as Pastukhov this winter?<br \/>\u2014 Why did only two commercial teams reach the saddle? Ours went higher (5600 m, guide Alexander Eliseev), while the second team was, they say, slightly larger (5200 m, guide Chatur).<br \/><strong>What were the rest of them doing?<\/strong> Those who promised people winter ascents and a splendid New Year? I accept that some groups were unlucky with the weather. But Instagram and Facebook are full of sunny photographs from almost every one of those days, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.meteoblue.com\/en\/weather\/forecast\/archive\/mount-elbrus_russia_563532\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here you can easily find the weather archive for those days at 3200 m<\/a>. A curious reader can look up the summit itself in the archives.<br \/>I still have a screenshot from 4300 m.<\/p>\n<p>A bit of a breeze? Cold? What did the \u201corganisers\u201d expect in January? Yes, that is how the world is. Nothing unusual happened this winter.<\/p>\n<p>I found one more screenshot, with an alarming forecast.<\/p>\n<p>Our team went up on 31 December into that \u201c-57\u201d. We were not impressed by any of it, the cold included. Those readings are, to put it mildly, overstated. On top of which, if you play with different websites you can get a divergence of up to 30% in wind speed and in other parameters. Guides cannot be bothered to show clients anything but the most heroic forecasts.<\/p>\n<p>So that nobody quotes me out of context, let me say straight away: of the two tours I had on my site I fortunately sold only two places, having talked some fifteen beginners and barely trained office workers out of it, telling them frankly that the chances of reaching the summit were 10%, and only then with luck. The two who did come were long-standing clients of mine who had already climbed Elbrus, Kilimanjaro and Aconcagua both with us and without us, and who decided to try what it is like in winter. One of them did not go in the end, saying they did not want to expose themselves to that kind of cold danger. We have no problem with demand. Or with our conscience.<\/p>\n<p>Incidentally, there was a recent case on Elbrus in which one person died and a second was rescued by the emergency service. Our thanks to them for that. I feel particularly sorry for the people who end up dealing with other people&#8217;s problems in situations like these.<\/p>\n<p><!-- mg-incoming-link-b15-05-26999:start --><\/p>\n<p><strong>Before you pick a winter date:<\/strong> read the current analysis of the <a href=\"https:\/\/mountainguides.pro\/2024\/11\/14\/climbing-elbrus-in-winter\/\">conditions and risks of a winter ascent of Elbrus<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><!-- mg-incoming-link-b15-05-26999:end --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plenty of people have heard of the Pastukhov Rocks, yet after a week and a half on Elbrus they never actually saw them. That is the new joke of the winter season. Only in our circus. If you never plan to go to Elbrus in winter, you will find nothing of interest in this article. [&hellip;]<\/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-37355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Beginners and winter Elbrus: a guide&#039;s own view<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A guide&#039;s blunt account of commercial winter ascents of Elbrus: the success rate, the cold, what the forecast archives showed and who reached the saddle.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mountainguides.pro\/ko\/2016\/01\/17\/beginners-and-winter-elbrus\/\" 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