5642m of altitude is nothing to joke with. We had 2 weeks and decided to take our time in order to minimize any problems and enjoy the summit day.
Here is how it looked like, day by day (or roughly so):
Day 1: we landed in Mineralnye Vody from Stockholm via Moskva with Aeroflot, and took directly a taxi to Baksan Valley (3-4h drive depending on the driver...). We found a cheap hotel in Cheget.
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| Mineralnye Vody airport backstage |
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| taxi to Baksan Valley! |
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| most of the cars drive on real gas! |
Day2: After registering our visa at the post office in Terskol (unexpectedly fast) and our plans to the mountain rescue services (very nice people, that were impressed by our great map of Elbrus, impossible to find in Russia) (Anders bought that map from a map store in Stockholm, but originally it is from climbing-map.com) we took the lift up to Malyj Cheget (3700m) for an acclimatisation hike. Me and Anders did not stay very long, only a few hours, since we wanted to take the lift back down to do some shopping, find gas for our stove and put the next base camp in Azau. Lena had more time up since she didn't have to register and went for some adventures with her skis on the icy slopes (which turned not a great idy in the end!).
We found a camping place by the lift station behind a never-finished building. Azau is not easy place for camping! We dined in a nice restaurant where we encountered a drunken couple that went on wild dancing in a caucasian style, that was lots of fun.
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| Malyj Cheget is next to Georgia |
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| Baksan Valley seen from Malyj Cheget |
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| the chair lift, authentic! |
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| base camp in Azau |
Day 3: Lena and me hiked up to Bochki (Barrel Huts, 3700m) whereas Anders decided to take the cable car up. That was a bit of a relief for us since he could then take up a few kilos from each of our backpacks. I guess we were left then with only 20-25kg to carry up 1500m. The dust road up in the bright sun under the cable cars was not the most fun part, we were sweaty, but at least it was not too painfull and we could pause at every cable car station (Staryi Krugozor and Mir where we had planed to camp but which turned out to be a gigantic construction field for the new cable car that will take skiers a bit upper than Barrel Huts, to be opened december 2015).
In Bochki we could put up the tent just a bit up of the chair lift. The place looks like a dump with metal everywhere. The snow started just from there up, but it was pretty warm.
We had a nice meal in the restaurant owned by Azamat (he seems to rule over all the snowcats and snowmobiles as well). The altitude started beating us in the head, at least me and Anders. I recovered pretty fast whereas Anders was feeling pretty bad for the 3-4 coming days.
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| nice waterfall at Staryij Krogozor station |
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| the old cable car to Mir |
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| on the way up! |
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| the chair lift from Mir to Bochki |
Day 4: Since we had jumped one base camp, we decided to stay in Bochki one more night. We just went for a small hike up to see the new LeapRus fancy hotel and get a bit more acclimatised. It snowed/rained a bit in the evening, so it was quite nice to stay at the restaurant.
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| camping by Bochki |
Day 5: We relocated our base camp to Priut-11. Actually we hike a bit higher on the right cliffs, just above the mountain rescue station, at about 4120m. This is where we stayed for the whole time. Finding a good spot for our 3-person tunnel tent higher up was not an easy task so we gave up and took acclimatization hikes instead. There was running water (melting glacier ice) not too far away that we boiled, toilets where just a bit lower by the rescue team, and finally we could start eating up all the dry food that we carried uphill!
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| moving base camp! |
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| on the way to Priut |
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| 30kg each? |
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| installing last base camp |
Day 6: I went up to about 5200m whereas Anders and Lena, not feeling great due to altitude, stayed at the camp. Altitude quicked me in the head from 5000m upwards, my brain started dissociation and I found myself talking to people as if it was another person talking. The hike up was pretty demanding in the burning sun, 4 hours uphill, and snow was melting like crazy. I started to feel a bit scared for the summit day... also, knees where hurting quite a lot. Lena went up as well a bit later during the day.
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| super warm! |
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| view from 5050m platform |
Day 7: We thought to take a snowmobile up to the 5050m platform to stay there and acclimatise a few hours. Lena skied down to Bochki to get 2 snowmobiles, but the dropped us by the low end of Pastukhov Rocks, so we had to hike up the last part again. Lena and Anders could drop onto a snow cat for the last part. Anyway, we could stay up there for a while, but it got cold and I went for the quick option of getting down sliding on my but (very fun except for being wet in the melting snow in the end).
Day 8: Rest day! We planed to have the summit day on the next morning, but in the end the weather forecast was not great so we changed our plans. Doing nothing during a whole day is quite boring. There is not much stuff to do around besides talking to your tent neighbours and visiting the mountain rescue crew, drink some tea and eat more nuts...
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| cosy tea drinking with the rescue team! |
Day 9: Since that wasn't a summit day, we had to find out something to do! We decided to have some glacier travel hike just down by the mountain rescue hut. We carried the rope up, so we had to use it at least once, right? We crossed a few snow-covered crevasses, that was a bit mentally challenging I must admit... walking on the bare ice part felt much safer! Nice experience, and also we got to see how our basecamp was on overhanging rocks that kept falling down on the glacier... one day that whole since might just collapse!
Day 10: Super crappy weather, snowy and windy. We hiked to the top of Pastukhov Rocks to get acclimatised again. It was pretty cold (actually just -1 but it felt like -10) but I really enjoyed the weather, it was easier than under bright sun! After returning to the base camp I felt restless and went for another hike to ask for some books from the danish crowd at LeapRus but I didn't see them around so just walked around and took some pictures!
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| a bit chilly isnt'it?! |
Day 11: Rest day.... In the evening the static electricity raised dramatically, we heard the air vibrating ("les abeilles", the beys, in french!). I had only read about it in some stories of people getting struck by lightening, so I threw all the metal stuff, ice axes, ski poles, crampons etc out of the tent. Anders' hat had a few metal rings that went sparking. We ran down to the Diesel Hut where a guide told us he got stroke 3 times by static electricity! It was snowing quite a lot, we went for some tea at the rescue station in order to wait and see...then it got better and we decided to sleep in the tent anyway. Apparently, the rocks canalize the electricity, so that's maybe not the smarted camping site in case of bad weather!
Day 12: Rest day... I felt like crap. The wind was pretty violent the whole night so that the tent was shaking and I couldn't sleep. I managed to finally fall asleep by 6am for a couple of hours but then I felt bad the whole day. Lena was full of energy and started to clean up all the garbage left by previous people (quite impressive what people can leave behind...). Fortunately we had planed the ascent for the night to come so we went to bed super early! Our ukrainian guide Kirill had come up with his wife and camped on the rocks with us.
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| garbage picking... |
Day 13: Summit day! Finally! Perfect weather conditions, well acclimatised. It was worth waiting for that in the end... but next time I'll bring along a very thick book with the tiniest paper ever...
The ascent was pretty slow, Anders had to pause quite often in order to get enough oxygen in, but we all made it together to the top! Lena had planed to ski down from the saddle so I sled down almost the whole way on my but (that was really cool and pretty efficient!). In the end she didn't ski down. Anders was left behind and appeared at the base camp many hours later. The guide had left him behind, thinking everything was ok, but in fact he got struck by altitude sickness pretty bad. Lena had planed to move the camp and party in Bochki but planed turned out pretty differently! While packing her stuff, Lena dropped her sleeping bag on the other side of the cliffs in the crevasse field!!! As stubborn as she is, she decided to go for it alone and had to run back due to massive stone fall. Well, one big gift for the mountain it turned out to be... we where offered some vodka at the rescue station, while Anders was recovering in the tent. Since camping was now out of question for Lena, we went happily drunk down to Bochki for more party and sleeping at the hotel under Azamat's restaurant. Anders was going to join us the next day. After vodka, konjak and beer mixing, I felt asleep on the table even before Lena could start singing on the guitar... a long day...!
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| Lena singing Visotsky |
Day 14: some f***g russian guide took my ice axe. Couldn't find it while packing. By chance, Lena saw the guy by the chair lift and got it back!... While waiting for Anders, we chilled in the sun drinking tea and singing Visotky songs on the guitar, and then we hiked down to Azau all together on the slippery dust road! The taxi driver in Azau took us to a very nice campsite with fairytale huts in Cheget, "Zapovednaia Skazka". Super cheap, with a shower (a shower!!!!) in pine trees by the river. Yes, a fairytale.... And we had our best party meal ever with loads of local wine, met a crowd of russian people and went on partying for late in the night! hurrah!
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| Zapovednaya Skazka |
Day 15: Last presents at the market place, then passed by the Visotsky museum in Tegenekli (no worth it...actually only a mountaineering museum in the name of visotsky) and headed for a hotel in Baksan. Very crappy town, super hot, in the middle of huge corn fields. Lena went to Mozdok by taxi to honour victims of the chechen war.
Day 16: Taxi back to Min.Vody and 3 flights back home to Sweden! My bag didnt' follow...well well, less to carry home ;) bye bye Russia!
