Elbrus on skis - Video
The North Side of Elbrus seen from Petygorsk. summit day is from almost the base of the snowline to the saddle between the summits then to the West (right hand summit).
Elbrus the Pure Way
The Caucus Mountains in the Russian Federation stretch between the Black and Caspian seas stretching for 1200miles, on there North side sits the dormant volcano of Mount Elbrus. At 5642m Elbrus is Europe’s highest mountain sitting over 800m higher than Mont Blanc. The mountain has two summits; east and west with the west one being the highest, like many volcanoes the sides are never to steep so Elbrus is a great objective for the adventurous ski mountaineer. I have made a number of visits to Russia skiing in the Kola Peninsula, Kamchatka and the Western Caucuses and my Russian friends kept asking when you are coming to Elbrus. Like so many mountains the south side of Elbrus which is the normal route has cable cars and huts with most people acclimatising then taking a snow cat to the Pastukov rocks at 4650m which leaves them less than a 1000m to climb to the summit. If we were going to visit Elbrus I wanted to climb it in a purer style that would allow us to experience the mountain in a more peaceful way. This May the opportunity arose to try and climb Elbrus from the rarely visited North side. On the North side there are a few basic huts which have been put in place by the local rescue team and local legend Uncle Nick. Uncle Nick has built a hut at 3760m on a moraine which gives access to the summit day on the mountain.
Our team had convened the weekend before departure at the Cosmiques hut above Chamonix for some sneaky acclimatisation, our itinerary for Elbrus was only 10 days UK to UK so we needed any advantage we could get. This would hopefully allow us the opportunity to go for the summit on the first available good weather day. We met in Heathrow on Thursday evening then flew via Moscow to Mineralnie Vody where we were met by Alexey our tame Russian; we were joined here by 4 French and 2 Russians who were going to join us on the mountain. After a night in a hotel in Petygorsk the main city of the Caucuses we climbed aboard what could be best described as a 4 wheel drive Bedford van. These incredible vehicles carried us for 5 hours across some horrendous roads before stopping at about 2000m where we had to start walking. Rucksacks felt heavy with sleeping bags warm clothes skis and boots strapped to them for the walk to our first hut at Djilisu Meadow 2500m. This is a collection of small portacabins with bunks, a few of us slept in tents on the grass outside which felt much more comfortable. The next day was our first acclimatisation, we carried skis to the snow line then skinned to 3300m where we left a kit depot to be collected the next day we then left skis and boots at the snow line to try and keep the rucksacks as light for as long as possible the next morning. The weather was pretty miserable overnight with rain which later turned to snow with about an inch on the tent in the morning, luckily the weather had cleared quickly so we could pack all our kit and head for Uncle Nicks hut collecting our skis and kit depot on route. The sacks felt pretty heavy by the time we got to the hut.
Uncle Nick built the first hut on the site about 20 years ago then built a bigger overflow 3 years ago, what is particularly impressive is that once the materials were delivered on site by helicopter all other kit and food has been carried in on foot or ski. Given that we were 5 hours drive followed by 1700m climbing from the nearest B&Q the hut was surprisingly comfortable and the food plentiful. Tuesday was our first acclimatisation day from the hut, we skinned to 4400m in pretty mixed weather to suck some thin air and make a skinning track for our summit attempt. The forecast had promised a good day for Wednesday but didn’t go any further so we decided that we had better give the summit a go in case the good weather that looked like it was building didn’t hold. We got up just before 2am and were on the skis heading into a cold wind by 2.30 on the track to 4400m that was still there from the day before, skinning this section in the dark felt good but as we gained height and the air thinned the pace slowed. We didn’t feel too bad as we passed the height of Mont Blanc but by 5000m we all felt the weight of our skis.
The route took us to the saddle (about 5300m) between the East and West summits where we changed skis for crampons. We met the first teams coming from the South side at the saddle, it felt odd having had the whole north side of the mountain to ourselves to suddenly have to share with the 40 people climbing from the south side. The last effort to the summit has a steeper section which was hard wind packed snow, we probably could have skied it but it felt much easier in crampons. This soon gave way to final easy summit slopes, after 9 hours of effort we gasped our way onto the summit. The view was superb with snow and ice giving way to brown and green hillsides to the north and the main Caucuses chain to the south. We didn’t linger in the wind on the top and were soon back on the skis leaving the crowds behind us; we descended back to the solitude of the north. I wouldn’t call the ski a classic descent with lots of sastrugi, wind pack and crust to contend with but it did allow us to get back to the hut in 2 1/2hrs from the summit to warm soup and sleeping bags.
The next day the weather stayed fine so we relaxed at the hut soaking up the view and the sunshine. Friday morning dawned snowy and a bit miserable we could have been looking at the view from the CIC hut on Ben Nevis. The bad weather had left us a few inches of fresh snow which gave us our best descent of the trip to the edge of the snow where the skis went back on the sacks. A few hours walking had us back at the road for the terrifying drive back to civilisation. We felt justly proud of our achievements having climbed the mountain with no mechanical help from 2000m to the summit at 5642m in just 5 days, we all felt privileged to have climbed Elbrus from the North side which gave a great feeling of solitude and remoteness which doesn’t exist on the South side of the mountain.
The Caucuses have been the subject of a foreign office advisory notice for some time now; I have made 2 trips to the area and have found the people welcoming and friendly. The mountains are great offering limitless ski touring possibilities. It is possible to get travel and rescue insurance so let’s hope the FCO will see sense and open the area to visitors from the UK in the future.
Team; Bruce Goodlad, Kate Scott, Tamsin Gay, Alison Culshaw, Alexey Shustrov and Uncle Nick.
Mount Elbrus on skis from the North from Bruce Goodlad on Vimeo.