Trip Reports

Elbrus - 16 to 28 July '16

Written by Leader Rob Wymer, August 2016

£So Rob, have they built that new hut yet?£ £Nope£ £Ah, so it£s still 1,900m of ascent and 21km on summit night?£ £Yup£ Silence£££ £Don£t worry, you£re already fit so by then you£ll also be nicely acclimatised and the bad weather will have blown through!£

Well, I was half right...

It was a good omen that upon my arrival at Heathrow the team had already arrived or were just arriving £ our teamwork and organisation were shining through already and were to remain an important part of our eventual success. Apart from Martin that is. Martin decided that as the person living closest to the airport, he could afford to leave it a little late. Well, a lot late. Well, in fact miss the flight. I guess while we had two night flights he did have another night in his own bed at home, but boy did he have to play catch-up when he arrived the next day! Anyway, after arriving in Pyatigorsk the rest of us settled in and freshened up before heading out into the hot sunny weather to mooch around the amazing market and have lunch, before checking and sorting kit, and seeking out last minute essentials. Our hotel appeared to be the tallest structure in town and was also up on a hillside, so the views of Elbrus from our balconies were already breathtaking, although it did look a long way away. When Martin caught us up that evening, we scooped him up immediately and struck out to another restaurant for our last meal in town. The following day the weather was again clear and bright and we drove out towards the mountains, our private bus negotiating some extremely big and lengthy climbs and descents along the way. Sitting towards the front, I noticed the stealthy use of the handbrake to help with the downs, but was baffled what the extra switches were that were flicked on the uphills; they didn£t appear to make much difference anyway.

We arrived at an area of thermal springs that were very popular with local tourists for their healing powers, laced up our boots and threaded our way through the bathing hordes and set off en route to Base Camp. It was a pleasant walk and crucially, with it, our acclimatisation had already begun. The repeat offenders in the team from last year£s Elbrus attempt testified to the fact that Base Camp was somewhat larger than then and we soon settled into quite comfortable surroundings. Then it rained. Next day was an acclimatisation walk up to the amazing Stone Mushroom Meadow. This was accompanied by the start of our never-ending bout of joke-telling! There were some corkers, Tommy Cooper would have been proud! Normally, it£s my jokes that are the best/worst but this time I was being given a run for my money! It rained again. A lot. Then the thunderstorm started and we legged it back down. Still, the walk was interesting, the rocks fantastic and the acclimatisation was under our belts. It had worked too, because the next day when we retraced part of our route it definitely felt easier. We carried on higher, passing alongside the glacier, encountering some loose scree and tricky blocks along our way, before eventually arriving at the High Camp. Lunch was soon to arrive and we moved into a tin hut that was to be our home for 5 nights. Again, it was testament to the team£s good nature, efficient organisation and can-do attitude that we operated out of our hut successfully, on time, and with sound mountaineering skills throughout the period we spent there.

Our first night on high was a stormy affair, with very strong winds, rain, sleet, snow and thunderstorms. In fact it was still so windy come dawn that we found it difficult to move around camp without being blown over. I put our glacier skills practice on hold for the morning and thankfully after lunch the wind had diminished ever so slightly but enough for us to strap on our spiky-feet and rope-up in order to refresh the drills and gain some more important height before hurriedly returning back down to our shed as the thunder rang out once more. Fortunately the next day it wasn£t quite so windy and so Lenz Rocks was our objective for more acclimatisation. Back up the glacier we went, passing our previous high-point and on we climbed. Pete started to really feel it today, and Kat did her best to totally dehydrate herself but nevertheless, we soon found upon looking back that the view down matched the altimeters in confirming we£d climbed a significant way. Back to the huts for more food, jokes and card-playing for the evening and also the following day, while we rested in preparation for the summit push. The winds were unabated and we chatted to a group that had set out 24 hours before we£d planned to, and had been turned back by the strength of them. Hmmm, how would we fare the following night? Sadly, at this juncture Pete£s bout of man-flu increased and John£s throat infection prevented them both from climbing higher this year, but they both supported the rest of us as we nervously prepared for our attempt.

Despite the many claims of probably not being able to sleep beforehand, I was the only one awake when my alarm went off at 11:45pm on summit night. We swiftly dressed, ate a good breakfast and kitted-up. Shortly before 1:30am we set off up the glacier once more into the inky darkness, retracing our steps again, but this time crampons were scratching and biting into the frozen snow and ice of the glacier as we climbed. Headtorches lit just our own little pool of reality for several hours as we tackled the relentless slope, but we made excellent time to Lenz Rocks. However, after resting at that point we struck out round the corner onto the long traverse and into the teeth of the gale. The going became much harder, the wind threatening to knock us off our feet and making progress much more difficult than before. It was exhausting and the coming of the dawn was a much-needed boost to morale as we switched off our lights. On and on we went, the Saddle never seeming to get any closer, and the icy wind causing us to cover every inch of skin and making communication difficult, unless you yelled right into the ear of the recipient. Some 10 hours after setting off, we did make it to the saddle and collapsed into various heaps of restfulness, trying to keep the snow from being blown into gaps in clothing. Lisa S had been struggling latterly and was ready to call it her high point. However, one of our Russian guides suggested an extended break for her and £see how she is£. A quick rearrangement of rope teams and we were off again on the final push to the summit. Disappointingly steep is how I£d describe the penultimate section! Eventually though, we crested a rise and saw the summit for the first time! We also saw Kiril £encouraging£ Lisa S onwards towards it! Yay, go Lisa! Spurred on by what we saw, it seemed no time before we were all arriving at the summit at approximately the same moment, almost exactly 12 hours after setting off. Phew! It was brilliant to be there, but the winds suddenly increased more and I urged the team to quickly take the photos and escape downwards.

It took us 5 hours to return to our little shed at High Camp, and when we did we were all utterly spent. Some went straight to bed, the rest tried to force some food down before heading the same way. We£d done it thank goodness, and it felt good! Really good. We were incredibly proud of our achievement the following day when we prepared to descend to Base Camp, and also relieved at our fortune and tenacity when we heard that another team had been repulsed by weather the night after we tried it. Thereafter, it was back to Pyatigorsk for pizzas, beers, wine and shopping £ and a lot of well-earned quiet smugness. I knew as soon as I met them at the airport that as a group they were a special bunch. Experience, ability, tolerance and humility in abundance, along with that essential fundamental £ a sense of adventurous fun; this was what carried them through to the summit in fine style, and made them such good company too. So, many congratulations to Lisa B, Katrina, Bethan, Richard, Lisa S, Chris, Martin, Ben, Alan & Harry on their reaching the summit of Elbrus, and to the team as a whole for their individual and collective parts in making this such a successful and enjoyable expedition.

Rob Wymer
Jagged Globe Expedition Leader

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