Ascent of Mt Elbrus

After we did prepare ourselves nearly four month to go to Elbrus and after another week in Baksan valley, finally it was time to climb Mt. Elbrus.
We got up at 5 o’clock in the morning on Sunday the 13th July. After packing our tent and our sleepingbags we headed for breakfast. And we were so damn lucky. We got our favourite Baksan-Valley breakfast: semolina pudding.
Two small mini busses were already waiting for us and after storing our bags on the cargo area of the Second World War truck, we spilt up into the Spanish Group and the International Group to make our way to the cable car.
What ever it was that came to the minds of our to mini bus drivers, we don’t really know. But it seems they were really keen to try everything they could to get us and themselves killed. They took every chance to overtake each other as often as possible. Surprisingly, we reached the cable car, still alive, believing we already managed the most dangerous part of our journey.
This feeling lasted for about 5 minutes until we actually saw the cable car. You wouldn’t be allowed to step into a cable car like this, if it was standing on the ground. A lot of rust and a noisy, squeaky sound when it started, that made you feel to run away. But we even survived the two cable cars and now we really got over the most dangerous part of our ascent.
However we still had to catch a one man chair lift before reaching the 3800m mark. From that point we had to walk. But with our heavy backpacks even the 200m in altitude would have been hard work. We got the chance to get a snow cat, which carried up our bags. Ansa and I wanted to carry our bags at first, but the ascent “By fair means” was already destroyed. So we joined the others and gave away our bags.
Alexander went up with our bags and the snow cat and awaited us after everyone managed the 250m altitude difference at their own speed. We still had to carry up the bags another 100m. Now we realised how much hard work it would have been to carry them up the whole way.
We reached our camping spot and pitched up the tents in a nice circle with a cooking space in the middle.
After a short tea break we, group International, decided to take a little stroll up to the Pastukhova rocks. Ansa, Anita, Pedro and I only went up around 200 to 300m altitude difference. Matt, Matt, Konrad and Ansgar went on until they reached the Pastukhova rocks. Matt (NZ) did take his skies with him to ski Mt Elbrus and gave it a first try this afternoon. We were a little bit, or even a little bit more, jealous.
Mt. Elbrus is a volcano. This means it was unbelievable hot sitting on the black stones. And the sun was shining. After we reached our camp again, we tried to enjoy the sun, but that was absolutely impossible. It was much too hot without a shadow, so we crept in our tents. When a tent is situated in the sun, it gets really hot inside as well. So we tried to get rid of nearly all our warm clothes and tried to sleep a little bit.
At about 5 in the evening we decided to cook our delicious 2-min pasta meal. We were really lucky. Anita had bought some mushroom soup. We added the soup to the pasta to get some taste.
After cooking the tea for the next day we crept into our sleeping bags to get some rest.

My new down sleepingbag is really thick, my mattress wasn’t. Through it I felt the cold creeping up from underneath. But I had a bigger problem. After having a sore throat a couple of days before, I felt that I was getting a really bad cough. Nevertheless I got some sleep until the alarm clock woke us at 1 am.
There was still light. And it was warm inside the new down sleepingbag. After a while I had a dreamless sleep and was astonished when the alarm clock rang. So I had to get up and the night was really relaxed even it was in the highest altitude. It was not very cold but very dark. The moon was not visible, it was cloudy, somewhere was a thunderstorm, and lightning could be seen. I had the best breakfast ever: a snickers bar and some tea. It took ages until we started. But at 2 am we really left.
I was quite surprised how warm it was. I had always thought I would need my down jacket in the morning. My cough was still really bad and I got a bit scared if I would be able to climb Elbrus today. We had an amazing breakfast of snickers bars and nice warm tee. The night was cold enough that the snow was frozen this morning. So we put on our crampons, took out our beautiful big mittens and were ready to start.
In the evening the guides had told us that we were going up to the Pastukhova rocks as one big group. They were giving the speed, so none could start too fast and get exhausted. The first few steps were really hard. I was coughing a lot. I was tired. It was still so dark and I thought I would never reach the summit. At this point I was really angry because I felt really fit besides this stupid cough.
We started. Anja had a bad cough, I was scared if she was doing well. I only thought that I shouldn’t start too fast, my old problem. But the guides started in a slow speed, so I just followed them. I didn’t realise how we gained altitude. Finally the guides looked for Pastukhova rocks, there should be a short rest. Anja didn’t look good, her eyes were glassy, her coughing bad. We drank tea and ate a chocolate bar.
When we reached Pastukhova rocks we had a short rest. Ansa and Ansgar looked into my eyes, they were glassy and both seemed to be a bit scared. But well, I felt all right. After a delicious bit of an Isostar banana bar we started again. First we stuck together as a group, but shortly afterwards our guide Valeri told us, that we were allowed to follow our own pace from now on. Ansgar and Matt (GB) took of and everyone else followed. The wind became a little bit stronger, so I asked Ansa to take out my ski glasses for me. At this time Ansa was walking with Pedro, who didn’t feel very good.
I wanted to get my warm mittens, but the others set off again. So I followed them at the end of the row, the mittens in the backpack. But it was too cold, so I paused again to get my mittens. I lost the group and tried to catch up with the others. But it was not possible to speed up just for a few metres and afterwards continuing in their speed. After a while I caught the end of the row again. I felt quite good. I met Pedro at the end of the group.
After going on I caught up with the rest off the group. Ansa followed, a little bit behind. The crossing along the slope of the east summit started and the group split up. Matt (NZ) was always walking a few meters in front of me. When he took a break to drink I decided to catch up with him, but couldn’t follow his speed afterwards. The way was still quite steep and you had to walk in a nice, slowly and steady pace so you wouldn’t have to stop for breathing. Ansa was a couple of meters behind me, but following.
The group split up. When Valerie and Sergey had a break I met them and Anja. We drank tea. It was cold. I was cold. I continued a few metres behind Anja, Pedro followed. I counted to two and set the next step. Always the same. After a while I had to stop to breathe and to drink tea. Pedro stopped as well. He didn’t seem to be in good condition, but he assured me that he was fine. It was already sunny, but not where I was. It was windy. I was freezing and I tried to continue in a slow, but constant pace. Anja was a few steps in front of me, but I lost her more and more.
While walking I realised that I needed a little break to drink something. But I saw that the way became more flat in front of me and I decided to go on a little bit more. Shortly afterwards the way made a turn at some rocks. When I reached the rocks, Matt (NZ) just went on again and I sat down to eat a little bit and drink some tee. While sitting there one of our guides overtook me and I followed him shortly afterwards. At this point, the way was nearly going downwards and I felt really good again, until I crossed the corner to the saddle. I really had to ask myself why the hell I was walking up their when I saw the way up from the saddle. It was so, so steep. Ansgar and Matt (GB) were sitting on the slope in the sun and I looked forward to reach that point after walking in the shade the whole morning.
I continued my way. After a while I realized that I lost Pedro. My guess became true: he didn’t feel well. I saw him sitting in the snow. There were already a lot of altitude metres between us, I didn’t want to loose them again and I saw that Anatoli was with him. So I continued my way. But my motivation was really bad: I was so cold, I didn’t feel my feet and also my fingers were frozen. I sat down once again to drink tea. And I took out my down jacket. But it was not so easy to do it. I continued my way on my own. I lost Anja, I didn’t see her anymore, behind me there was just Anatoli. The top was in the sun and seemed to be so near. But I knew that it wasn’t. I didn’t know where I was and what time it was. I doubted if I was able to continue. I just wanted sun, even with the down jacket I felt like an ice block.
When I reached the saddle I met with our guide Anatoli (II) again and he joined me. The first few meters were still alright but when it became steeper walking up became really, really hard. Mt Elbrus is climbed quite often, so there are little red flags to mark the way. The space between them is at the most 10 meters. I started to walk from one flag to the next, stop, and breathing, next flag, stop and breathing. I saw Matt (NZ) in front of me struggling as much as I did. That gave a little bit of comfort because I knew it was the same for everyone walking up these last 200m altitude difference from the saddle to the top. At the upper part of this slope Matt stopped to rest and I had the chance to catch up with him. After a mouthful of tea we went on together.
Anatoli overtook me. I asked him, how far it was to the saddle, but he didn’t answer my question, he just told me that I should walk on, and it will turn out well. He was quite fast. I was demoralised. I didn’t know where I was, I just saw Anatoli going too fast for me, there was no one in front of me and behind me there was no one as well. I was freezing everywhere. I thought about going back to the sun, but that meant that I lost a lot of metres in altitude that I gained so painfully. What should I do? I had no motivation to do anything but the cold told me to decide. I turned around.
The clouds were moving in but I could see three people in black clothes at the saddle and was quite sure Ansa was one of them. Walking with Matt made it a little bit easier. When he started walking again after a break of breathing I could tell myself: Come on, go on otherwise he has to wait for you and you don’t want that. So I kept moving. Because of the clouds it wasn’t possible to see more than a few meters and we had no clue where the top was. The slope became more flat again and after a short while we met Ansgar, who was coming down from the top. He told us, that we had only another 15 min to go. That gave us a little push. Now we met Sergey, Matt (GB), two of the Spanish guys and Konrad by and by. It was quite flat now, only the last 10 meters to the top were a bit steeper again. These last ten meters were quite hard work, but then we reached the top.
After a while I met Anita, still in the shade. I thought about trying it once again with her, but then I realised that I went down a lot of metres already. I was not motivated enough to try it. And I was still freezing and wanted to reach the sun. So I continued my way down, alone. When I reached the sun I felt warm although it was still very windy. I thought about Anja: She will be quite disappointed if she gets the news. Nevertheless it was my decision and at the moment I was satisfied with it.
It was really cold at the top. So the first thing I did, after hugging everyone of course, was to take out my down jacket. Viatli and Anatoli were with us at the top and we took some pictures with the UIAA flag. We had a look around. The clouds were still there, but not too bad. It is an amazing feeling to be so far above everything else around you. But nevertheless, the top wasn’t a very cosy place. So we took off again to make our way down.
I lost altitude quite fast. I just wanted to be down at the camp again. I met a lot of other people that tried to climb Mt. Elbrus. At the Pastukhova rocks I took a short rest to get off my shoes and to warm my toes which I still didn’t feel. The big toe was hurting. I continued the descent and soon I arrived at our camp, where I got hot tea and Alexander was scared about my cold feet. I just laid down in my sleepingbag and caught up the sleep of the night.
Matt skied down so I walked back to the saddle by my own. I was still quite sure Ansa was behind me and I’m going to meet her quite soon. I met a lot of people of our group that were climbing up but no Ansa. In the saddle I caught up with Konrad and we descended together until we met Ansgar, Matt and with them was Anita. She had turned around and told me that Ansa had done so too. I was really, really sad. I was so happy that I had reached the top and so proud, and at the same time so sorry that Ansa hadn’t done likewise. I walked down a big part by my own, wondering how Ansa was doing, why she made the decision of turning around and even being angry with her that she had made the decision to turn around. When I met her at the camp she was quite happy and absolutely content with her decision. So I had to be, too.

Back at the camp (11 am) we had some tee, some instant pasta and a bit more sleep. We knew the last cable car went down at about 4 pm and we instantly hoped everyone would be back by that time, so we wouldn’t have to spend another night up here. At around two o’clock some more people arrived and we started packing, although we were still missing 5 people. They reached Anatoli on his mobile and he told them that Pedro was feeling very ill and they were moving quite slowly. We started walking down to the chair lift at 3pm. The snow cat was going to pick up the 5 people and bring them down to the lift. At the cable car we had a little fight with the cable car guy. He didn’t want to let us through. One part was already at the Valley Station and when we arrived there as well they were already drinking their first beer. So we joined in, waiting for our mini busses to pick us up again. The missing 5 people of our group joined us, all quite well.
Around 8 pm we arrived back at our camp, tired, but happy.
(Pictures will follow)