“Between the mountains lay a further stretch of forest, and then still other mountains constantly rising higher and higher. And higher than all, stood snow-capped peaks white as sugar, and one snowy peak rose like a dome above them all.”
-Leo Tolstoy, A Prisoner in the Caucasus-
As part of a two-week long trip, my friend Taylor and I are climbing Mt. Blanc, Mt Elbrus, and Running with the Bulls. We have successfully summitted Elbrus and returned safely. Elbrus is the tallest peak in Europe standing at 18,510ft and located in the Northern Caucasus of Russia. Our story is chronicled below.
July 5th
We flew into Mosocow’s Sheremetyevo airport at 3am operating on only two hours of sleep. We navigated our way through the terminal and passport control keeping our eyes peeled for Snowden. After a short layover and an even shorter plane ride, we arrive in Mineralnye Vody for the most unsettling transportation of all; a taxi ride into the Northern Caucasus. After our driver filled up his 1987 Yugo at the local Gazprom, we were off to the races. The mountain roads were steep and windy, and the cattle freely roamed the countryside, often taking naps on the road or in the middle of a bridge. Our driver would speed along until encountering a bull just over the crest of a hill, only to swerve into oncoming traffic at the last second; narrowly missing an accidental Yugo burger sandwich. We weren’t expecting this kind of action before even arriving at the mountain, but we figured this was at least a good practice exercise for the Running of the Bulls.
Once we arrived at our hotel in Cheget, we were kindly greeted by the english-speaking Tatiana. She provided us with our necessary registration papers and climbing permits. She was particularly curious about our intentions over our Border Zone permit. When we mentioned that it might be interesting to cross the border into Georgia, her male sidekick laughed and replied in a thick Russian accent, “Two days in Russian prison, and a little money. This paper will not help you.” We got the point. Everyone got a good laugh out of this.
Quickly realizing that we had no local currency, we headed toward the closest bank in nearby Terskol. 30 minutes later we found ourselves lost outside of a Russian prison. The barbed-wire and guard towers were an ominous sign that we were in the wrong part of town. Figuring we made a wrong turn, we headed back where we came from. On our way we stumbled across a Russian wedding. We loitered for a few minutes, trying to decide if it was worth attempting a dance with the bride, until a local started pestering us for money and we decided to cut our wedding crashing short. Finally arriving in Terskol, we were able to convince the teller to exchange our US dollars for rubles. We ate dinner back at the hotel that evening. We were served a delicious local specialty…beef spine soup. As I sawed through each vertebrae with a butter knife I couldn’t help but imagine the gruesome car crash that might have delivered my dinner.
July 6th
Our climb of Elbrus began with a short taxi ride from our hotel in Cheget to the base of the gondola in Azau. After buying our tickets we rode the first leg of the gondola with a group of Russian soldiers. I had my papers ready just in case, but I kept quiet and the ride went smoothly. At the transfer station for the second leg of the gondola we met a Russian who upon learning we were Americans asked, “Do you feel safe?” Despite cattle-dodging car rides, prison encounters, and rubbing elbows with soldiers I had actually felt relatively safe…until he asked this question. After stumbling over an answer he explained that Americans don’t often visit the Caucasus. He turned out to be a friendly guy who had been to America twice before; once for New Year’s Eve at the turn of the millennium and once on September 11th. We rode the second gondola with him, listening as he shared stories of trying to find work in Brooklyn after being stranded from plane delays. The gondola complete, there was one final chairlift until basecamp. It was an old single chair lift that had probably been running since the WWII era. As we passed by exposed electrical wires 100ft above jagged rocks I was holding tight and praying that neither I nor my bag on the chair in front of me would fall to his demise.
Arriving at basecamp we spoke to the man known only as “The Administrator”. He was a jolly Russian fellow wearing a beard and Ray-Bans who would find us two beds in the barrels. From what we had read ahead of time, we expected the barrel huts to be quite dirty. Elbrus basecamp has been well documented as having the dirtiest bathroom on earth. Most of our low expectations were met in full. After brushing the soot off of my bunk bed and spotting a mouse running from a trash pile in the corner we affectionately named our Barrel #2 “The Dirty Deuce”.
Shortly after settling into The Dirty Deuce we grabbed our bags and headed up for an acclimatization climb. From the barrels, we took a 5 hour climb to the top of the Pastchukov Rocks. While the weather was pleasant when we began, we were greeted by cloud cover, freezing temperatures, and light hail as we approached the rocks. When we reached the top of the rocks at 15,300ft we were content to swiftly head back to the barrels for shelter. Back at the barrels, we contemplated waking up at 1am to attempt a summit bid or the alternative of a rest day. After a long day of climbing and soaking wet gear, we opted to take the rest day to refuel.
July 7th
Taking advantage of a rare rest day, we let our muscles recover and slept until lunch. A short walk to the glacier allowed us the opportunity to refill our water supply with what you might call fresh glacier melt. Judging by the state of affairs in the nearby facilities, I wasn’t taking any chances. I added iodine tabs to our bottles to kill any lingering bugs. Our new-found free time gave us an opportunity to get to know the fellow climbers from our barrel. Surprisingly, they were from Dallas, TX and climbing as a group from Texas Health Resources. Their group was guided by RMI and came well-prepared with all of the toys and local comforts of home. I joked that they were running a Radio Shack out of the barrel as I enjoyed listening to the Beatles on their bluetooth speakers. It’s always nice to have little luxuries on the mountain, so long as you aren’t the one carrying it up there.
Due to the accessibility of the lift system, basecamp of Elbrus becomes an eclectic melting pot of international climbers, Russian guides, and European tourists. We were interviewed by an Estonian photographer interested in our summit attempt. I approached a woman wearing a Texas A&M hat, only to find she spoke little to no English. Meanwhile, two plus sized Russian women were stripping down to swimsuits and taking comical photos on the edge of the glacier. Look for Mrs. November in the Women of the Caucasus calendar. Another Russian woman with her daughter mistook us for scientists. After a short conversation we found out she had lived in Arlington, TX for several years. It was unlike any mountain I have ever climbed. There was no common language so we confided in our newfound barrel-mates who were also enjoying a rest day before their summit bid. We organized a ski-doo ride back to the rocks for the following morning with a local named Vladimir. He makes sure we understand we must be ready at 2am, sternly telling us, “Do not be late!”
Our barrelmate and new companion, Bob, made a fantastic video of the RMI team’s journey. There are some excellent timelapse shots of Elbrus.
July 8th
Our 1am wakeup call came fast and cold. Despite chilling temperatures, the RMI guide was adamant that the day was going to be “too perfect”. The night sky was crystal clear with the Milky Way stretching from one end to another. Judging by the billions of visible stars, we knew he would be right. We warmed up with some hot muesli and gathered our gear for the long climb ahead. Taylor was 30 seconds late to our ski-doo appointment because another climber had a similar ice axe and he was worried that I had left mine behind. Vladimir’s driver was already complaining, “Time! Time!” In typical Russian fashion he sped us up to the rocks with little concern for safety. Halfway through, he realized that there was too much weight and kicks Taylor off. As he continued on toward the rocks, we left Taylor alone in the cold dark night on the side of an icy slope with nothing but the trust that the driver would return to retrieve him. At the top of the rocks I frustratingly yelled at the driver to go back to get Taylor. He replied in broken English, “Come back, come back!” I took that as a good sign and 5 minutes later he arrived with my teammate no worse for the wear, albeit a bit confused.
We began our climb up the steep icy mountainside during the frigid night with nothing but our headlights to guide us. You could faintly make out the headlights of a trail of climbers on the slope above. The stars were brilliant and mesmerizing but the chilling -15 degree wind kept my mind focused on the task at hand. We wore our largest down parkas for insulation against the cold. After the first hour of climbing, Taylor’s right hand was beginning to go numb. We took a moment to add hand warmers before continuing on. Thirty minutes later Taylor’s hand was showing early stages of frostbite and he had lost most of the feeling in his fingers. Our last option before turning around was to upgrade to the warmest down mitts that we had. Fortunately, the symptoms began to subside and we were able to continue on towards the summit.
As we reached the saddle, the sun began to rise from the backside of the mountain, forming a pyramid shadow across the entire valley. Once in the saddle, we could see most of the remaining route to the summit. The wind began to subside and the warmth of the sun brought our frozen bodies back to life. The bitter cold had exhausted most of our strength but the sight of the summit ridge gave us just enough motivation to continue on. With another 1,500ft to the summit and the air already thin, many climbers were beginning to turn back. Our preparation on Mt. Blanc left us well acclimatized to the altitude and we were ready for an arduous summit day. The final push to the summit ridge was steep and protected with fixed lines. We were climbing strong and passing by slower moving groups throughout the section. Once at the summit ridge, the air was so thin that it took everything in you just to take a single step. The final 200ft of ascent to the summit took another 20 minutes.
We reached the summit of the tallest mountain on the European continent at 8am in the morning. The summit was only big enough for about three people to be standing on at a time and was marked with a small rock monument. There was not a single cloud in the sky and we could see for miles. From the summit you can see the lush green countryside to the North and the snow-capped peaks of Georgia to the South. We enjoyed the view but made sure to take pictures and get down within a few minutes due to the extreme cold and altitude.
We made record time on the way down; glissading much of the mountain. A glissade is a kind of controlled slide in which you sit down and slide down the mountain with your ice axe as a brake. We explored the abandoned Diesel Hut before making it back to the barrels. Upon return, we were greeted with open arms and congratulations by the fellow climbers in camp. It was not yet noon, but we were the first successful climbers to return that day.
We paid The Administrator, took the chair lift to the gondola, negotiated a taxi ride by drawing numbers in the dirt, and before we knew it we were back at the hotel in Cheget. Back at the hotel we enjoyed clean showers and a warm dinner before going to sleep.
July 9th
Our rest day back in Cheget allowed us to catch up on sleep and relax around the village. We did some light shopping in the market followed by a trial run with the local bulls. For dinner we joined two other American guided groups at a local café. All of the climbers had successfully completed Elbrus so we celebrated with local barbecue and drinks. After the celebration we packed our bags and got ready for an early taxi ride back to Mineralnye Vody.
Next
We will be heading to Pamplona, Spain to Run with the Bulls on Friday morning. Our route will take us through Moscow for a night, allowing us to spend an afternoon in Red Square on Wednesday. Thank you to everyone who has been praying for us. We were blessed with great weather once again, and could not be more excited to have knocked out the first of the Seven Summits.
P.S. Congratulations to my sister, Melanie, who passed the National Counseling Exam yesterday!
