Elbrus – part 2

DSCN0806Tired as we were we got up at 2 am with the intent to climb the mountain. As it turned out despite strengthening our tent with fixed ropes it did not withstand the gale – side wall was torn to pieces which gave me rather cold night 😉 The weather was not improving at all – despite our 25kg backpacks gusts of wind were strong enough to throw us out of balance. We tied up to move as a team joined by the rope. We slowly moved up through crumbling rocky ridge to avoid icy field and crevasses. Late morning we reached the altitude of 5k m and began to traverse the slope to bypass rocky wall and reach more accessible snowy couloir. In the afternoon the wind had lessened but not by much. As we were quite exhausted at this point we decided to make one more camp at 5300 m. We tried to repair our tent with duck tape but with little to no effect. In the end we blocked this side of the tent with stones and our backpacks. In the evening we tried to melt some much needed water. At this altitude it takes quite a long time due to low air pressure. Despite being dehydrated from the whole day effort we were too tired to spend few hours melting snow. We had drunk a bit and went to sleep. 

 
DSCN0833The 6th day of our adventure began – at dawn we moved on motivated by the proximity of our target. Around 10 am we reached the East summit of Elbrus – 5622 m. We took a few pictures and rested a bit. We had to move down around 300 m to a pass between the two summits. We made a stop there in an emergency shelter – a big metal box provided by Russian Mountaineering Federation. Sheltered from the wind we melted snow and ate a bit. We decided not to go down back to the normal route but to climb directly 200m up the snowy wall to a group of rocks. We reached that point in the afternoon. The mountain was already abandoned – last climbers had already gone down. Visibility was getting worse – the peak was covered with clouds. We tied our backpacks to the rock and covered last tens of metres light. Around 4 pm we stand on top of Elbrus main summit – 5642 m – the highest mountain in Europe.

DSCN0845

Tired as we were we had to go down. We were in a hurry as the other 5 of our companions that was climbing the normal route had already reached the summit and ordered a return bus for the following day. Around 10 pm we reached a hut where we had a hot meal and some tea. As the cable car was not running at night we had to continue on foot. We went down by a maintenance gravel road which was rather uncomfortable wearing our heavy mountaineering boots and packs. At 3 am we got to Azau village. We still had to walk 8km on the asphalt road to our hotel near Terskol. At this point I was on the verge of collapsing – making a stop to rest and sit down resulted in falling asleep sitting in a minute. Finally after 26 h on the go we reached our base and can have 3 hour rest. After a late breakfast we repacked and at 11 am started our journey back to Georgia.
DSCN0823DSCN0827DSCN0828DSCN0832DSCN0834dscn0837DSCN0840DSCN0843DSCN0850DSCN0851DSCN0853DSCN0863DSCN0864DSCN0866DSCN0869dscn0900

Add a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *