{"id":37408,"date":"2016-04-11T11:32:34","date_gmt":"2016-04-11T08:32:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mountainguides.pro\/?p=37408"},"modified":"2026-09-10T16:11:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T13:11:11","slug":"second-attempt-to-climb-elbrus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mountainguides.pro\/pt\/2016\/04\/11\/second-attempt-to-climb-elbrus\/","title":{"rendered":"A Second Attempt to Climb Elbrus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Climbing Elbrus with our guides<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n

So in two thousand and thirteen I decided to join one of the mountain trips. I badly wanted to try to reach the summit of Elbrus \u2014 the western summit, to be exact. For me personally this was the second attempt on the highest point in Europe and Russia. The first had been a year earlier, when bad weather meant our group never had the luck to reach the summit of Elbrus. We waited several days for a weather window that never came. So next time I decided to go from the opposite side, from the south. Everyone planning to climb Elbrus from the south starts from the village of Terskol, at two thousand one hundred metres. It is a place with genuinely well-developed facilities: there are not only hotels, bars and restaurants but sports shops, climbing equipment hire, food shops and much else. There is also a dedicated rescue and control service, a sports centre and a couple of cable cars. They will carry anyone who wants to ride up to the slopes of Cheget, a mountain known above all for its ski runs. You can also use a cable car to get onto the flanks of Elbrus itself \u2014 not to the summit as such, of course, but to three thousand eight hundred metres.<\/p>\n\n

There were about seventeen of us in the group at the time, three of them guides and the rest of us there as clients. The climbers ranged in age from twenty-five to forty-five. The whole trip, including the travel, took twelve days. The group had to carry all its food and personal equipment itself, and we cooked for ourselves in shifts. As soon as we arrived in Terskol we made an acclimatisation walk towards Cheget on the first day, deciding to go light. Then, over three days on foot, we climbed to four thousand two hundred metres on the flank of the beautiful Elbrus, and that is where we pitched our tent camp. During those three days we even had to walk roped up across the glacier. One of the party somehow managed to break through into a covered crevasse and went in up to his chest. He could have fallen right in, but his rucksack stopped him. Fortunately it all ended well and the guides helped him out. The next day, as soon as we reached camp, we were given another acclimatisation walk. This one went to the start of the Kosaya Polka, at five thousand metres \u2014 the stretch where the track rises gently, skirts the eastern summit and brings you out on the saddle of Elbrus. That walk went off without trouble. That evening, though, brought an unwelcome surprise: the weather turned and the next twenty-four hours had to be spent in camp. As a result the group was not at full strength when it set off for the summit. Two of the party decided against going for the top, and the guides took another one down on the cable car, because his condition had deteriorated badly and he could not carry on climbing. Everyone else began the summit push. Visibility was superb. The moon was so bright that you could walk without a head torch. From four thousand eight hundred metres a very strong wind began to blow, and then it became very cold. The temperature dropped to ten or even fifteen degrees.<\/p>\n\n

It was not only my fingers and toes that froze then; several other people’s did too. We had to take our boots off and rub them. Otherwise there could be frostbite. In the end I decided to use mountaineering boots, the sort made specifically for climbs and expeditions.<\/p>\n\n

I did not take a spare pair of plastic or double high-altitude boots with a wider working-temperature range, because of the overall weight of the rucksack. At six in the morning we were all on the Kosaya Polka. By then the sun had come out and it was much warmer. My toes warmed up completely. But the pace of the climb slowed down. The altitude began to tell on all of us: walking became much harder and we had to stop often. Unhurriedly, step by step, we did manage to get up onto the saddle, at five thousand three hundred metres. We all took a break there. It was here that another member of the party decided not to carry on with the climb. In the end thirteen of the seventeen reached the summit of Elbrus. We were able to get back down to camp at four thousand two hundred metres by the route we had come up. The next day we walked down to the cable-car station and were very soon in Terskol itself.<\/p>\n\n

I can say with complete confidence that my second trip to Elbrus ended well. I had now done everything I had failed to do a year earlier. I had stood on the highest point in Russia and Europe. I felt no euphoria on the summit, and no particular lift of the spirits, and the same was true of everyone else on the climb. What I did feel was very strong tiredness, and an equally strong gratitude to fate that we had managed to get up there. Most of all, that I had been able to get down again and still felt perfectly well. So you could say that the mountain decided to let us in. Looking back, it all sounds fine, but in reality none of it was simple. Even so it is within reach of any physically healthy person, of anyone who genuinely wants it. And all of it is difficult, too. It matters to understand that whatever grade a mountain is, it is not an ordinary walk in the park and it takes time and strength. So if you have any health problems before a climb, see a doctor. And if your climbing experience is minimal, or you have none at all, you would do better to use a guide. As for me, although I have several Elbrus climbs and a Kilimanjaro climb behind me, I do not consider that enough for an unguided ascent. What that experience is enough for is understanding that some people treat climbs like this far too lightly. Going into the mountains thoughtlessly, without understanding what dangers may be waiting, really is very dangerous. Talking about my climb, I cannot leave out all the beauty I saw. It really is something you never forget. The feeling is a particular one. You will not see anything like it anywhere else, only in the mountains. So if you too have that strong wish to test yourself in the mountains, go where your heart calls you!<\/p>\n\n

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What to read next<\/h2>\n

See the programme:<\/strong> Climbing Elbrus from the south, 9 days<\/a><\/p>\n