{"id":71,"date":"2012-10-13T15:38:34","date_gmt":"2012-10-13T15:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bob-kerr.com\/?page_id=71"},"modified":"2012-11-01T17:09:48","modified_gmt":"2012-11-01T17:09:48","slug":"mount-elbrus","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bob-kerr.com\/?page_id=71","title":{"rendered":"Mount Elbrus"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Height: 5642m<\/strong><\/p>\n

Location: Russia, Europe<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mount Elbrus is the highest mountain on the European continental plate and is the fifth highest of the Seven Summits<\/a>. Mount Elbrus, the highest mountain in the Russian Federation, is 18510ft high (5642m) and more than four times the height of Ben Nevis in Lochaber.<\/p>\n

Ascent<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ascent date: 23rd August 2006<\/strong><\/p>\n

I joined a\u00a0climbing team alongside\u00a0fellow Scots Graham McFadyen\u00a0and John Cuthbert.<\/p>\n

Our\u00a0successful ascent of Elbrus was the result of seven months of careful planning and preparation.\u00a0The planning and preparation had to be done correctly otherwise the outcome could have been fatal. Elbrus is located in southern Russia between the Caspian and Black Seas. The UK foreign office strongly recommend that UK citizens should not visit the area.<\/p>\n

Travel is not advised to the area because of local terrorist activities, political activities, nearby uprisings and ongoing wars.\u00a0Examples include the blowing up of Beslan school, killing over 300 people in September 2004 (only 90 miles away); the ongoing Chechnya situation (only 120 miles away); the Georgian rebels (during acclimatisation treks the team were within 250 yards of the Georgian border); aircraft and public transport attacks in Moscow (one example,\u00a02 aircraft simultaneously exploded leaving Moscow in August 2004); and the recent activities in the Middle East (e.g. Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, etc).\u00a0Despite the obvious danger, if an expedition is played right, then it is possible to have a safe outcome.<\/p>\n

Local English-speaking Russian guides were contracted to lead the expedition and make all of the necessary local arrangements (e.g. hotel\/hut bookings, organising expedition permits, liaising with the local mafia and local authorities, etc. and they facilitated the international logistics (e.g. invites to Russia, Russia Visa Support, etc.)<\/p>\n

With my previous experience, I found the equipment preparation and physical training fairly straightforward.\u00a0However, Graham and John were new to altitude mountaineering.\u00a0Both had to undertake vigorous equipment selection and testing to help with a good outcome.\u00a0With a hard goal of summitting Elbrus in mind, John worked exceptionally hard on his physical fitness.\u00a0He managed to lose two stone in weight and improve his aerobic fitness greatly through multiple ascents of Ben Hope, Ben Griam Beg, and many other local hills.<\/p>\n

Even after lots of careful planning and preparation, getting to the summit of Elbrus is not guaranteed for anyone.\u00a0This makes an ascent of Elbrus even more satisfying as the outcomes were uncertain.<\/p>\n

The local weather conditions can hamper ascents (e.g. strong winds, lightning storms, extreme cold, heavy snow, etc.) and nobody knows how they will perform at altitude until they are there (every time at altitude is different for everyone and good acclimatisation is essential).<\/p>\n

Part of the excitement of mountaineering is the unknown and dealing with problems when they arise.\u00a0For example,\u00a0my flight to Moscow was delayed, resulting in missed connections, due to the UK terrorist activities of 10th<\/sup> August.\u00a0I had to get rerouted to Moscow and then had to deal with the Russian lost baggage authorities who spoke no English, when\u00a0my equipment was not loaded onto the plane in an Eastern European airport.<\/p>\n

John and Graham had the same original flight itinerary as\u00a0me, but departing two days later.\u00a0They also had flight delays and learning from\u00a0my experiences, they managed to get rerouted on aircraft with their luggage.\u00a0The end result was luxury first class flights for them from Amsterdam to Moscow in a new Aeroflot airbus at no extra cost.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I met John and Graham\u00a0in Moscow and we\u00a0flew together on a dodgy old internal Russian aircraft.\u00a0It was the sort of aircraft that creaked at every movement, the internal walls of the aircraft were freezing and heavy carbon deposits were seen behind the engines.\u00a0Despite\u00a0our reservations it was still the safest method to travel the 1500 km south to Mineralnye Vody.<\/p>\n

Upon arrival in southern Russia,\u00a0we met up with two other mountaineers who also aspired to ascending Elbrus.\u00a0Combining our efforts helped to reduce the overall expedition costs.<\/p>\n

The two other mountaineers were John Sanderson (a retired county planner from Sheffield) and Stavros Zenios (the vice chancellor of the University of Cyprus).\u00a0Both had previously ascended Kilimanjaro<\/a> in Africa and John Sanderson had been defeated on Aconcagua<\/a> in South America due to heavy snow storms.<\/p>\n

From Mineralnye Vody, the mountaineers travelled by road for 200km to the Baksan valley in the Caucasus mountain chain.\u00a0We were glad not to be driving ourselves in this area as the driving standards were appalling and the maintenance of vehicles was substandard.\u00a0We often saw motorists doing overtaking maneuvers directly in front of us resulting in sudden braking and swerving to avoid head on collisions. More than half the vehicles would have failed a MoT due to corrosion, collision damage, etc. During the expedition, not one of the minibuses that we used had an unbroken windscreen and one of the vehicles had gun shot holes through it.<\/p>\n

The Baksan valley runs parallel with the Russian and Georgian border.\u00a0There are a number of gunning placements along the valley and we routinely noticed that the guns had been moved, aiming at new unknown targets.\u00a0We had been informed that the Baksan valley is the most important and best developed valley in the Caucasus mountains.\u00a0This was partly because of the mineral wealth located near Tyrnyauz (molybdenum was mined here for incorporating into steels used for Soviet tanks) and partly on account of brave mountaineers spending money in the area attempting Mount Elbrus.\u00a0In all of\u00a0my international travels\u00a0I had never seen such a dilapidated area.\u00a0Hundreds of buildings were lying abandoned and falling down.\u00a0Tonnes of rubbish littered the streets.\u00a0The people looked poor and unhappy.\u00a0The only exception to this were the individuals driving around in Porsches or Toyoto Land Cruisers with tinted windows wearing black suits, black shirts, pointy black shoes and dark shades.<\/p>\n

It appeared like most of the people had not adapted to life after communism. Most people seemed to have their one task in life and when asked a question outside their remit they did not want to respond. It was a strange culture to experience.<\/p>\n

Having safely arrived in the Baksan valley, at a height of 2000m, the gradual process of acclimatisation could begin. Two acclimatisation treks had been planned to help\u00a0us adapt to the altitude before attempting the highest mountain in Europe.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The first trek involved walking up the Adyl-su valley to an alpine meadow campsite at 2450m.\u00a0This involved walking towards the Georgian border.\u00a0There was a border check point in the valley, however, for some reason the solder who was meant to be at the check point could not be found.\u00a0We all found this to be very strange and our Russian guide, Vladimir Zubashkov, commented that he had never seen this check point abandoned before.\u00a0We proceeded with caution, hoping not to upset an armed soldier.<\/p>\n

Having spent a night sleeping at 2450m and being eaten alive by vicious mosquitoes,\u00a0we continued up the valley and onto the Jankuat Glacier.\u00a0All of the team members were roped together for ascending the glacier towards the Jankuat Pass at 3480m altitude (Georgian border with Russia).\u00a0During the ascent multiple crevasses were walked around, stepped over, avoided or jumped across.\u00a0Ascending the glacier relied on stable snow bridges to cross the crevasses.\u00a0On a few occasions we were all worried about the quality of the snow bridges, especially as the snow was turning to slush and we were having to jump crevasses of at least a metre wide with potential falls of 20 or so metres into them.\u00a0Good ropework was essential to ensure the team\u2019s safety on this terrain.<\/p>\n

We\u00a0had a very unnerving few minutes when a huge rockfall came down a nearby slope and we were uncertain whether it would career down the glacier in our direction. Thankfully it disappeared down a crevasse away from us leaving a plume of dust rising into the air.<\/p>\n

We\u00a0continued up the glacier towards the Georgian border, however, we were stopped just 250 yards from the pass by a large bergschrund and, had we been able to get across the gaping chasm, then there would have been a short pitch of ice climbing to do (which we were not equipped for on this occasion).\u00a0Hence\u00a0we descended the glacier again and headed back out along the valley.\u00a0The final part of the walk out was in a thunder and lightning storm.\u00a0 No border guard was passed on the way out either.<\/p>\n

The second acclimatisation trek involved four days of walking and three nights of wild camping.\u00a0The first day was up baking hot mountain slopes to one of the largest lakes in the Caucasus mountains (Syltran Lake) at a height of 3210m.\u00a0This was a very long, demanding day which was excellent training for the long pull up Elbrus (about 1600m of ascent done in temperatures above 30\u00b0C in the shade and we had no shade!).\u00a0We were only challenged once during this phase of the trek for our paperwork.<\/p>\n

The next day involved crossing the Syltran Pass (3500m), descending by the Mukal Valley, crossing fast flowing glacier fed rivers without the luxury of bridges and walking up the Mkiara Valley to camp at 3100m.<\/p>\n

The third day of the second trek involved a long ascent up a glacier to the Irik Pass (3750m).\u00a0Our Russian guide was not comfortable on this glacier as the last time that he had been on it he had fallen into a crevasse. On this occasion we managed to get to the pass without incident. A very steep descent on scree then followed and we progressed to the third nights\u2019 campsite within sight of our prime objective Mount Elbrus.\u00a0Another intense thunder and lightning storm kept us awake for most of that night. During the fourth day we rapidly descended down to the valley to collect our cold weather clothing for our ascent of Elbrus.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The following day we then proceeded up the lower slopes of Mount Elbrus to stay at a mountain hut at 4060m altitude.\u00a0This was the highest that we had been throughout the expedition and we were all beginning to feel the significant altitude (e.g. slight breathlessness when ascending stairs in the hut too quickly).<\/p>\n

To aid acclimatisation, after having slept at 4060m, a short walk up hill to the top of the Pastuchova Rocks was undertaken. This took the team up to 4800m i.e. less than the height of Ben Hope from the summit of Elbrus. The team then rapidly descended back to the relative comfort of the hut to sleep and prepare for a summit attempt the next day.<\/p>\n

At 1:30am, local time, on Tuesday 22nd<\/sup> August 2006 the decision was taken not to ascend Elbrus that morning due to an overnight thunder and lightning storm that had deposited more snow on the upper reaches of the mountain. This resulted in a well earned rest day for the\u00a0team and helped to aid acclimatisation by just living at 4060m.\u00a0 Some other mountaineers decided to ascend Elbrus this day and in the end they were lucky with the weather.\u00a0The Swedish mountaineer, Fredrik Strang, reached the summit as part of his world record attempt on the Seven Summits<\/a>.\u00a0He is aiming to do all seven summits in under 195 days.\u00a0 He had already climbed Everest<\/a>, Denali<\/a> and Carstynsz Pyramid<\/a> before jetting into Europe to do Elbrus.\u00a0His website<\/a>\u00a0contains up to date information on his record attempt.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday 23rd<\/sup> August 2006, at 3am local time (midnight in the UK), we set off for our summit attempt.\u00a0The air was bitterly cold with a light breeze blowing.\u00a0This resulted in a wind chill temperature of about minus 15\u00b0C.\u00a0Both John and Graham experienced very cold hands during the ascent and had to borrow additional gloves from\u00a0fellow team mates. It was very important that no-one should get frostbite during the ascent.<\/p>\n

There had been even more fresh snow deposited during the night and lightning storms could be seen happening nearby below the altitude that we were climbing at.\u00a0Progress was slow at this altitude and we were significantly hampered by the deep accumulations of fresh snow. It was noted that a 2-3 inch layer of wind slab had built up on top of more than a foot of loose powder snow. We had some concerns about potential avalanches occurring on the slopes upon which we were now climbing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Our spirits rose when we saw the sun beginning to rise and illuminate our world.\u00a0As the sun rose, the temperature rose marginally and the shadow of Mount Elbrus could be seen across the Caucasus mountains.<\/p>\n

After over 9 hours of battling through deep snow all five of us summitted Elbrus, the highest mountain on the European continental plate (5642m, 18510ft).\u00a0From the summit, the shape of this dormant volcano could be clearly seen and we were able to look down on the mighty peaks of the Caucasus mountains.\u00a0We also saw that there was a bank of storm cloud moving rapidly in our direction so after a few happy summit shots we all descended as quickly as our bodies would allow, to the relative safety of our hut.<\/p>\n

Having successfully reached the roof of Europe we then descended to the Baksan valley for a celebratory dinner and a few refreshments (including a small amount of Russian Vodka).\u00a0The team parted company in the valley and\u00a0John,\u00a0Graham and I\u00a0travelled back to the UK using similar arrangements, but having a stop off in Moscow to sample some Russian culture and historical sites (e.g. Kremlin, Red Square, etc).\u00a0Overall it was a highly successful expedition that,\u00a0at times, was stressful and it gave us an amazing experience of Russian culture.<\/p>\n

Media and online coverage<\/strong><\/p>\n

Interview with Myrddyn Phillips<\/a> – YouTube<\/p>\n

News coverage<\/a> – Caithness.org website<\/p>\n

News coverage<\/a> – Northern Times website<\/p>\n

Relative Hills of Britain website<\/a><\/p>\n

Ascent photos<\/a> – Facebook<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Height: 5642m Location: Russia, Europe Mount Elbrus is the highest mountain on the European continental plate and is the fifth highest of the Seven Summits. Mount Elbrus, the highest mountain in the Russian Federation, is 18510ft high (5642m) and more than four times the height of Ben Nevis in Lochaber. Ascent Ascent date: 23rd August […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":39,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-71","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bob-kerr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/71","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bob-kerr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bob-kerr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bob-kerr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bob-kerr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71"}],"version-history":[{"count":38,"href":"https:\/\/bob-kerr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/71\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":700,"href":"https:\/\/bob-kerr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/71\/revisions\/700"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bob-kerr.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/39"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bob-kerr.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}