Trip Reports

Elbrus 19th - 31st July '14

Elbrus 4
Trip Report

Written by Leader Matthew Parkes, August 2014

North or South, East or West?

When you decide to climb Europe's largest summit you are faced with several important decisions. Firstly, do you climb from the more popular South side, utilising the various huts and uplift methods, or do you climb from the more remote North side? If you choose the latter as our Jagged Globe team did then you will face bigger challenges, but in return you will be rewarded with the satisfaction knowing that you climbed from bottom to top under your own steam, and in a picturesque remote mountain environment. The second decision presents itself later on in the expedition.

This was to be my second visit to Elbrus, the last was with Richard Parks for the final leg of his record breaking 737 Challenge. I was looking forward to retuning to the mountain with a Jagged Globe team.

A fully subscribed expedition met on the 19th July at London Heathrow to catch a flight to Moscow and then onwards to Mineralnye Vody. On arrival we were met by Konstantin and Boris, two local guides working to support Jagged Globe teams this season. From here it is a short taxi ride to the hotel in Pyatigorsk, which means 'five mountains', named after the five peaks that overlook the town. Pyatigorsk is one of the oldest spa towns in Russia, originally founded in 1780 and renowned for the medical benefits and relaxation that over 50 local springs provide. After a long journey and a good local meal, consisting of meat Shashlik cooked over a bbq, we all spent the rest of our time preparing for the drive to BC the following day.

Since I was last on Elbrus in 2011, there have been some developments to the North side of the mountain. One of these is a big improvement to the road that carves its way through the grand landscape en route to the base camp. This makes the journey shorter and more comfortable, although the Russian UAZ vehicles, affectionately know as a 'loaf' due to their external similarities with loaf of bread, are more than capable of a rougher path. Another improvement is BC itself, we were greeted with an excellent mess tent complete with good food, always a winning combination when you have a huge mountain to climb!

There is some load carrying on Elbrus North route due to the lack of any form of uplift, unlike the South side. The previous group found the distance from BC to the North hut to be quite challenging especially when carrying all of your personal equipment. With this in mind I had decided to consider a few changes to the itinerary. After a short discussion with Konstantin and Boris we had decided on a tentative plan. The following day was to be an acclimatisation walk to Mushroom Meadow. The area gets its name from the eroded rock formations dotted across the hillside. Instead of just doing the walk, we decided that we would treat this day as a load carry day, packing crampons, harnesses and axes ready to leave in a cache above the meadow. The team set off in good weather and enjoyed the trekking through the countryside with Elbrus towering above, constantly reminding us of the challenges that lay ahead. Instead of stopping at the meadow we climbed even higher with our loads to 3450m, arriving in a lunar landscape. The aim of this was to cache our loads for collection and gain extra acclimatisation, because the following day we planned to move to North Hut a day ahead of schedule. The aim of this approach was to give the team an extra day of rest in between big climbs, spend one extra day at altitude and reduce the number of load carry days, allowing the team to be in a better position for summit day when it came round. Having achieved our aim we descended back down to BC for another excellent soup and evening meal.

The following day saw the team preparing all of their loads for a big carry to North hut. Everyone set off fully laden for the climb back up to 3450m, collecting our remaining items from the cache and making the last push to 3800m. after negotiating a particularly challenging scree slope on the last section of the climb we were relieved to arrive at the hut. On arrival we were greeted by our chef armed with bowls of fresh soup. Arriving in North hut a day early allowed us a spare day to rest after the hard work load carrying yesterday. Putting this day to good use we had a short lie in followed by breakfast and a few hours glacier training to 4000m. Everyone found this a useful refresher, especially as you spend all of your time climbing Elbrus as a rope team and it is vital that everyone works well together.

Dealing with the change in altitude well and following a short rest the next big day had arrived. The team set off at 6:00am for a climb to lower Lenz Rocks at 4800m. Making good progress, at first in reasonable weather, the conditions changed quickly. Leaving the final stage of the climb to be completed in conditions similar to that of a Scottish winter season. Visibility was poor and descent was in whiteout conditions. This weather gave everyone a taster of what Elbrus could throw at us and answered a lot of valuable questions when it came to personal equipment on summit day.

A good rest today gave Konstantin, Boris and I a chance to review the weather. Unfortunately we could see that we only had one good day of weather left before poor conditions arrived on the mountain. With this in mind we decided to head for the summit the following day. With the team briefed on the plan it was early to bed that afternoon, breakfast at 11:00pm and a departure at 12:00 for our 2000m climb to the summit. We climbed as three rope teams making good progress to the bottom of Lenz Rocks in just under 4 hours. As dawn broke the team climbed at similar pace through the rock section on the East flank to arrive at upper Lenz Rocks 5180m at about 8:00am.

It is now at this stage in the expedition that you need to make the second decision, East or West. Elbrus consists of two summits, the West is the highest peak but by only approx 21m. When you climb from the North side, on the current route, the West is further away due to the fact you have to cross the saddle to reach the final stage of the climb. You need to be going strong at this point to continue to the West, if not then the East is a more reassuring option.

We had a feeling that the weather may change sooner than expected, so we split the teams into two. The faster group would go for the West Summit with Konstantin and Boris and I would climb with the other team to the East summit. The teams split and we set off for the East peak which I had not climbed before. Its fair to say that the East summit was harder and further away than expected, especially having climbed so much in altitude already. The team found it tough but managed to push on to reach the summit at about 12:00. By this stage the weather quickly deteriorated, so we chose to descend the mountain without delay. After 40 minutes of descent we were hit by a storm that swept in quickly, engulfing us in blizzard conditions. We were soon joined by an electrical storm to liven up an already exciting descent. Having navigated by GPS throughout I was hoping to follow these points back down the mountain. Unfortunately my GPS had suffered some form of malfunction, maybe due to the storm and was giving me very bizarre readings. Having established that this should be ingnored we pushed on down to find the top of Lenz rocks, a good reference point in such a scenario! Here we put up the group shelter so I could try to assess exactly where we were, as well as get a break from the storm. After about 20 minutes, it was clear to us that nothing was calming down, so I decided to continue our descent using the rocks and a second Garmin from Mark. I radioed Boris and Konstantin to let them know I was ok but having to descend with a damaged GPS. We got no reply from the other team, probably due to the weather so we pushed on. At times visibility was extremely poor to the extent you could not see the ground in front of you. Our descent was reassured by the odd rock popping out of the mist to guide us in the right direction. Suddenly Konstantin spoke over the radio, asking if all was ok. He confirmed that they had made the West Summit and were battling down in the difficult weather, currently at 4800m. A quick glance at my altimeter and I was able to confirm that we were at 4900m, hopefully just above them. We quickly pushed down and got a brief glimpse of a rope team ahead. We rejoined as one and pushed down to the lower end of Lenz Rock where there is a good rest spot. Here emergency shelters were crawled into again and the team endured some really strong winds and blizzard conditions inside the shelters. As things died down we all emerged looking like snowmen for the final descent. The weather improved below the rocks and we all greeted by some welcome sunshine. A great result for the team given the length of the climb in difficult conditions. 5 climbers 1 guide on the East summit and 4 climbers 2 guides on the West.

A successful trip in challenging conditions. All made great fun by two great local guides, Konstantin and Boris and a great team of determined climbers. « Previous report | »

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