In the days when I set off on the trip, the journey to Mineralnye Vody took me about twenty hours. I admit that I saw the whole of that journey as a real ordeal, something close to hell. When we arrived in the town the clock said three in the morning, and the place looked wholly given over to silence and calm. It seemed to have frozen; even the street lamps were out. Out of boredom, perhaps, or out of an excess of feeling, I decided to buy a ticket to Kislovodsk and go off on the spur of the moment to look at the town. Once there I set about seeing everything around me, and then, on the way back down, I came across an abandoned local hotel. I explored it thoroughly, from top to bottom as they say, and then went to the station, because it was already late and I had to get back to Mineralnye Vody, where I was due to meet the group in the morning.
The next morning we finally met as a whole team. We got to know one another, loaded everything into the vehicle and set off towards the Adyr-Su gorge, where our first acclimatisation walks were to take place. I was very lucky with the company, all in all. Every member of the team turned out to be genuinely interesting, many-sided and out of the ordinary. I knew that on trips a crisis sometimes sets in by the third day, when everyone, you might say, quietly hates everyone else. Happily that fate passed us by: there were no arguments on the third day, or the fourth, or even the tenth day of our time in the mountains. Yet for all the charm of the weather and the beauty around us, the Elbrus region, and the Adyr-Su gorge in particular, has its quirks. This is border territory, and to walk here you need a special permit, which the border service staff can issue. The catch is that work which could be done in a day takes anything from three to thirty (!) days here. It raises a fair question: what good are all the comforts of civilisation to them if everything moves this slowly? In the end we spent three days sitting in the gorge, and then decided to drop the idea and go to Terskol, having settled on acclimatising at the foot of the mountain instead.
Terskol is a small town at the foot of Elbrus where all the most popular ski resorts, Cheget and Elbrus among them, are concentrated. There are plenty of hotels, restaurants and bars, and it is worth saying that the prices are quite reasonable. But like true tourists we lived in tents near the river.
Terskol, I should say, was the starting point for all our walks in the mountains nearby. In four days we managed to visit a great many remarkable places. We looked at the superb waterfall called the Maidens’ Braids and were able to climb the summit of Cheget, a mountain every climber knows. We also called at the Barrels station and the Priyut 11 camp, where our climb of Elbrus began.
There is no getting to the summit without acclimatisation, because up there the amount of oxygen is far lower than on the plain. Because of that many climbers run into trouble with their health: nausea, dizziness, apathy and much else. To avoid altitude sickness you need to spend as much time as possible at different heights during the first six or seven days. On the first day, for example, you should go up to three thousand metres and then come down; the next day to three thousand eight hundred metres and down again; and after that up to four thousand one hundred and four thousand eight hundred metres. It is important not to overestimate your own strength, because even someone who is well prepared can be taken ill at the top. The climb is a test both physical and psychological. At four thousand nine hundred metres a person may simply fall and be unable to go on. In that state they may be sick and barely able to speak. A climber in that condition has to be taken down at once. The climb starts at two in the morning, and the temperature at that height can reach minus twenty degrees. Hands and feet freeze instantly, and some people feel the psychological strain, particularly after the Pastukhov Rocks, between four thousand nine hundred and five thousand two hundred metres. The traverse there is hard and exhausting, and as they approach the saddle many simply give in, turn round and leave. I remember that as I was going up I had my moments of anger and irritation, and cursed everything under my breath, but I had a goal: to reach the summit at any cost. That gave me strength. Our acclimatisation process consisted of five stages.
The walk to the waterfall was not difficult, but it was quite long, and a good many of us probably came back with blisters. The waterfall itself, though, was worth getting to. It is not only a sight but a chance to bathe in its ice-cold water. From up there a stunning landscape opens out that words cannot convey, a real wonder of nature. The only thing that disappointed us was the weather turning sharply, so we decided to go back. And we had wanted to visit the observatory.
Our next objective was the summit of Cheget, at three thousand eight hundred metres. The task in front of us was simple and the way up was straightforward, but the views that opened out took the tiredness out of our legs. I can say with complete confidence that I had never seen anything like it before. The mountains hold you with their grandeur and their unapproachability, and make you think that our everyday problems are not really so important after all. So if your life is full of difficulties, leave them behind and go to the mountains.
On the way down we walked into a cloud. When you are above one it seems you could jump and walk about on it. The feeling is a strange one. And when we went into the cloud something remarkable was waiting for us. It surrounded the cable-car station, and there was nobody there at the time: the cable car was stopped, the buildings were empty, everything was wrapped in mist. We were so tired that when we got down we simply collapsed on the ground and fell asleep, with no wish to eat or drink, only to lie still for half an hour at least.
Our instructors decided that we were ready enough for higher ground, so the next day our group set off for the Barrels huts, where everything was under snow and the tents stood on a white blanket. That hut became a special place for us, because the following day we went up to Priyut 11, where we were shown how to use poles and ice axes to go up and down safely. We even managed to walk as far as the Pastukhov Rocks.
Then came the very day we had come here for: the day of the climb of Elbrus. The height is five thousand six hundred and fifty-two metres.
We were to get up at two in the morning and leave camp at half past two. We skipped breakfast, which was not easy for me. Even so, we put on our rucksacks, packed everything we needed and set off.
The summit push is never easy, but these were the decisive metres that had to be covered to win through. And then at last the summit we had waited for stood in front of us. We reached it at ten in the morning, having covered all five thousand six hundred and fifty-two metres. The feelings that came over us are hard to describe: incredible joy, relief and euphoria all at once.