OTHER Trip Report 08/31/2010

Peak(s):	Mount Elbrus - 18513
Date Posted:	08/31/2010
Date Climbed:	08/20/2010
Author:	ossie322

Elbrus South Face and Ski Descent
Date: August 20th 2010 Mount Elbrus: 18,513 feet Crew: Myself (Ossie322), Jonny, Andrew, Bella Elbrus, taken last June by Jonny Though I am a native of Colorado, in March of this year I moved to the city of Nalchik () in the Russian North Caucasus Mountains. This also happens to be the home of Europe's highest mountain, Elbrus. The two hour drive from my apartment to the base of Elbrus offers me plenty of opportunities to visit, but not until late August did it truly work out for a summit attempt. I also had really wanted to ski, and so had to decide whether an off-season attempt was worth it (most ski attempts are done in June). At the end of the day I decided that I would rent some skis at Elbrus and give it a shot. My friend Jonny and I had been trying to assemble a decent size climbing team of locals and other ex-pats, but on the eve of our trip we had only a 4 man team. Day 1 - Tuesday August 17th 2010 We arrived at Elbrus and jumped on two trams and small single chairlift that must have been built 40 years ago. The price of this is currently 600 rubles (about $20) and drops you just shy of the Barrel lodges. We were also forced to buy $30 park passes at the top of the first tram. This is a special fee only for those mountaineering above the barrels, but it is always hard to tell if these fees are legit or not. If you speak Russian well you may succeed in talking them out of it, but in the end we got tired of arguing and paid. The weather was completely socked in, and was expected to be dreary Tuesday until Thursday, clearing up for Friday and Saturday. Saturday the 21st was our target summit day. For the moment we just wanted to drop our packs and start acclimatizing, (read: doing nothing but hydrating) but as I have learned very well, things in Russia rarely go according to plan. The barrels were full today and we had made back-up reservations at a small trailer "10 feet away from the barrels". Of course, 10 feet away from the barrels really means 1000 feet up the mountain, but at least they hooked us up with a complimentary snow-cat ride up to around 13,500 ft. These trailers are new this year and except for space considerations (it was quite small) were actually considerably superior to the barrels. Anyone who has ever used the barrel restrooms or fought the tour group kitchen staff for use of the "community" kitchen would have found the brand new restrooms and spacious kitchen here worthwhile. The only other major disadvantage was the lack of heater, but good sleeping bags in a small room made this a non-issue. After a game of Catan and several cups of tea we nodded off to sleep. Day 2- Wednesday August 18th After scoring another free snow-cat ride down to the barrels, we set out for a day hike up to the rocks at 15,000 feet. At least Andrew and I did. Jonny had gotten sick over the night and was still recovering when we started. Our fourth friend Bella stayed with Jonny in case he got worse. Andrew grabbed his snowboard and I my skis and we made our way up in dense fog. Several times on this hike I became very discouraged for our chances of every summiting, as visibility would drop to about ten feet or so from time to time. Thankfully, the wands that are used to mark the route for each year's race to the summit were still in place, so navigating was a piece of cake. We reached the rocks and sat down for a while as we prepared to ride down. The snow conditions here were pretty bad; featuring a mixture of slush and that hard breakable crust that makes you work hard for every turn. Even so we enjoyed our descent and were happy to see Jonny climbing up as we descended. He was apparently feeling great and anxious to get to higher elevation, as was Bella. Upon their return we polished off the day in style with my wife's homemade stew and a game of Settlers of Catan! Day 3 - Thursday August 19th We woke up Thursday morning to our first clear view of the mountain's twin summits and, filled with energy, prepared for one last hike up to 15,500 or so. Summit day was Saturday and we were in agreement that Friday should be for rest. Right as we were heading out the door for our acclimatization hike we received a text message from friends in Nalchik. The forecast had changed and Saturday would now be snowy, cold, and worst of all overcast. The only option was to change our summit bid to tomorrow. The good news was the forecast was for clear skies, but the bad news was that 40 mph winds and -8 wind chill were in the mix. Yippee. Well, we decided that cold and windy was better than waiting around till early next week and canceled our day hike in order to rest for tomorrow's summit attempt. Another day to wait around and drink tea, but at least we had good books and Settlers of Catan (Who doesn't love this game?). Andrew's culinary prowess was also showcased today when he spent 4 hours making us gnocchi topped with two different sauces. We ate like kings and retired at 9pm for the alpine style(early) wake-up call. Day 4 - CLIMB (Friday, August 20th) Climbers traversing the massive south slopes at sunrise The moment we began climbing at almost 4 am we were barraged with 35 mph winds pelting us with ice and snow. Though the wind chill was -8, we were actually plenty comfortable while we were moving. The major annoyance of this section of the climb was the direction of the wind, a steady west to east (climbers left to right) and the fact that my skis were functioning primarily as sails. Though we hoped the wind would subside as the day progressed, in actuality it became the most significant challenge of the ascent. As we traversed left under the east peak the wind became an exact headwind, which sent several climbers in front of us home demoralized and with severe windburn. Still...it wasn't tremendously cold unless you stopped for long periods and so we trucked on, reaching the saddle at approximately 8:30 am. This is the view onward from the saddle, though not taken on this day The very encouraging thing about this view was that unlike the rest of the mountain which contained hard satstrugi, ice-crud or worse snow, this face was a haven of pure powder and would at least make the descent memorable. It was also the steepest part of the climb, traditionally considered right around 40 degrees, but I bet it is slightly under. Andrew took a bit of a break in the saddle while I decided to keep going. All my experiences at high altitude have taught me to continue moving if possible, no matter how slowly. I just find a lot of stopping and starting drains my energy. I still felt pretty great, and it wasn't painful at all. My body just seemed to work slower than normal, and at about 18,000 fee I began to ask myself why I could only seem to take 5 or 6 steps at a time. Turning the corner onto the summit ridge was a slap in the face. The gusts of wind here were the worst I have experienced anywhere. If I say 50 mph I might be low-balling, but I'm fairly sure I wouldn't be exaggerating. I was having a very difficult time keeping my feet, and with only a short push to the summit, I was somehow considering dropping my skis and walking to the summit without them. My most trying moments of the climb came when I spent about 5 minutes fighting just to stay on my feet, but not able to take a real step forward. Finally I was able to push on and scolded myself for almost giving up on a ski descent from one of the seven summits. The last several steps were my hardest but I strolled onto the summit at slightly before 10 am. There were four of us summiting within 5 minutes of one another. We had seen 3 others descending from the summit slightly earlier, but other than that it seemed that we had arrived before the vast majority of the hundreds of climbers on the route today. Sweet! We celebrated with some quick photos and some hot tea courtesy of a friendly Russian who was very jazzed to have made the summit. Summit pic with Ushba in the background Another view of Ushba, said to be one of the world's hardest to climb Unfortunately, things got slightly unpleasant here for two reasons; The first was that Andrew was getting AMS and did not wish to stay on the summit due to his need to vomit a few times. As well as being extremely nasty for Andrew, this meant that I lost my cameraman for the ski descent, and I didn't realize at the time how sad it would make me to not have any photos skiing the top face, but C'est la vie. The second - and perhaps more comical - reason is that I STILL do not have an AT ski setup, which meant changing from mountaineering boots to ghetto rental boots at 18,513 ft and in steady wind. I was prepared to do this, but underestimated how miserable it would be, especially considering that the blowing snow during the ascent had completely filled both of my ski boots. Scooping snow and then jamming my foot into one freezing ski boot at a time took the better part of 15 minutes, but for 6000 vertical feet of descent, you have to agree this was a good trade. This would be the highest ski descent that I had ever done, and I was a bit nervous pushing off of the summit. I assumed that the conditions would be bad with the exception of the big face underneath the summit ridge, and so I vowed to cherish the top section. I traversed slightly higher then the ascent route and stopped when I was satisfied with the snow conditions, then I let the skis rip. This was pure bliss; So much so that I didn't even realize that the wind had changed directions and I was sending a little extra spray in the direction of the main climbing line. I apologized, changed over to the other side and finished the bottom half off with some soft, floating, powder turns. The upper face: climb in BLACK, ski in RED About three quarters of the way down I decided to straight line it to see if I could get all the way around the slightly ascending traverse and onto the massive main face of the eastern peak of Elbrus. I only made it about three quarters of the way around and consequently had to do a little bit of poling to reach the point from which I would descend close to 5000 vertical towards the barrels. I had seen my friends Jonny and Bella resting at the very bottom of the saddle and waved to them as I flew by. As it turns out Jonny's Camelback had leaked out all of his water and he was waving at me to see if I was able to give him any. It is a good thing that Andrew was also descending, because he and a team of Dutch climbers were able to give him a liter each and make it possible for his climb to continue. The rest of the descent was grueling. The ice-crud mixed with a hard breakable crust was making this quite a chore and not nearly as fast as I would have liked, but that is what you get for skiing off season. Skiing down the massive south face, Ushba covered by snow on my lens Eventually I reached the slushy snow of the bottom snow cat track and eased into the barrels. You would have thought I was Ed Viesturs by the reaction of the Russian tourists walking around. Several people asked me for pictures and said things like "wow " (a real mountaineer). It was pretty funny, especially because I was sporting the world's worst ski setup and skiing the off-season crud. I jumped into my barrel and fired up the stove for some tea at 12 pm, making it a round trip of eight hours. Andrew showed up about an hour later and even though he looked like death (suffering from AMS) he had enjoyed a fast descent complete with plenty of glissading and a little bit of vomiting. We made the sad realization that we would have to stay one more night at the Barrels because Jonny and Bella wouldn't be down for several hours (The top lift closes at 3 p.m). Still, we were more than happy to stay the extra night because they made the summit and returned safely; All four of us were very happy the next day to descend and make our way back to Nalchik. Thanks for reading, if you are looking for more costs of doing this mountain independently, see the list below: Prices as of 2010 -Lodging on Elbrus: $15-$30/per person per night(Barrels costs $21) -Lift Ticket for all three lifts: $20 -Taxi between Elbrus and Nalchik: $35 per taxi(room for 2-3 with gear), Min Vody is farther and has to cost a bit more. -Food: This can be done on almost any budget. My food was easily less than $100. -Ski rental was about $10 bucks a day. -Parks Pass- $30 This is of course not an exhaustive list, but if you want more information about Elbrus let me know and I will try to help. Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Elbrus South Face and Ski Descent

Date: August 20th 2010
Mount Elbrus: 18,513 feet
Crew: Myself (Ossie322), Jonny, Andrew, Bella

Though I am a native of Colorado, in March of this year I moved to the city of Nalchik () in the Russian North Caucasus Mountains. This also happens to be the home of Europe's highest mountain, Elbrus. The two hour drive from my apartment to the base of Elbrus offers me plenty of opportunities to visit, but not until late August did it truly work out for a summit attempt. I also had really wanted to ski, and so had to decide whether an off-season attempt was worth it (most ski attempts are done in June). At the end of the day I decided that I would rent some skis at Elbrus and give it a shot. My friend Jonny and I had been trying to assemble a decent size climbing team of locals and other ex-pats, but on the eve of our trip we had only a 4 man team.

Day 1 - Tuesday August 17th 2010
We arrived at Elbrus and jumped on two trams and small single chairlift that must have been built 40 years ago. The price of this is currently 600 rubles (about $20) and drops you just shy of the Barrel lodges. We were also forced to buy $30 park passes at the top of the first tram. This is a special fee only for those mountaineering above the barrels, but it is always hard to tell if these fees are legit or not. If you speak Russian well you may succeed in talking them out of it, but in the end we got tired of arguing and paid.

The weather was completely socked in, and was expected to be dreary Tuesday until Thursday, clearing up for Friday and Saturday. Saturday the 21st was our target summit day. For the moment we just wanted to drop our packs and start acclimatizing, (read: doing nothing but hydrating) but as I have learned very well, things in Russia rarely go according to plan. The barrels were full today and we had made back-up reservations at a small trailer "10 feet away from the barrels". Of course, 10 feet away from the barrels really means 1000 feet up the mountain, but at least they hooked us up with a complimentary snow-cat ride up to around 13,500 ft.

These trailers are new this year and except for space considerations (it was quite small) were actually considerably superior to the barrels. Anyone who has ever used the barrel restrooms or fought the tour group kitchen staff for use of the "community" kitchen would have found the brand new restrooms and spacious kitchen here worthwhile. The only other major disadvantage was the lack of heater, but good sleeping bags in a small room made this a non-issue. After a game of Catan and several cups of tea we nodded off to sleep.

Day 2- Wednesday August 18th
After scoring another free snow-cat ride down to the barrels, we set out for a day hike up to the rocks at 15,000 feet. At least Andrew and I did. Jonny had gotten sick over the night and was still recovering when we started. Our fourth friend Bella stayed with Jonny in case he got worse. Andrew grabbed his snowboard and I my skis and we made our way up in dense fog. Several times on this hike I became very discouraged for our chances of every summiting, as visibility would drop to about ten feet or so from time to time. Thankfully, the wands that are used to mark the route for each year's race to the summit were still in place, so navigating was a piece of cake. We reached the rocks and sat down for a while as we prepared to ride down. The snow conditions here were pretty bad; featuring a mixture of slush and that hard breakable crust that makes you work hard for every turn. Even so we enjoyed our descent and were happy to see Jonny climbing up as we descended. He was apparently feeling great and anxious to get to higher elevation, as was Bella. Upon their return we polished off the day in style with my wife's homemade stew and a game of Settlers of Catan!

Day 3 - Thursday August 19th
We woke up Thursday morning to our first clear view of the mountain's twin summits and, filled with energy, prepared for one last hike up to 15,500 or so. Summit day was Saturday and we were in agreement that Friday should be for rest. Right as we were heading out the door for our acclimatization hike we received a text message from friends in Nalchik. The forecast had changed and Saturday would now be snowy, cold, and worst of all overcast. The only option was to change our summit bid to tomorrow. The good news was the forecast was for clear skies, but the bad news was that 40 mph winds and -8 wind chill were in the mix. Yippee. Well, we decided that cold and windy was better than waiting around till early next week and canceled our day hike in order to rest for tomorrow's summit attempt. Another day to wait around and drink tea, but at least we had good books and Settlers of Catan (Who doesn't love this game?). Andrew's culinary prowess was also showcased today when he spent 4 hours making us gnocchi topped with two different sauces. We ate like kings and retired at 9pm for the alpine style(early) wake-up call.

Day 4 - CLIMB (Friday, August 20th)

Climbers traversing the massive south slopes at sunrise

The moment we began climbing at almost 4 am we were barraged with 35 mph winds pelting us with ice and snow. Though the wind chill was -8, we were actually plenty comfortable while we were moving. The major annoyance of this section of the climb was the direction of the wind, a steady west to east (climbers left to right) and the fact that my skis were functioning primarily as sails. Though we hoped the wind would subside as the day progressed, in actuality it became the most significant challenge of the ascent. As we traversed left under the east peak the wind became an exact headwind, which sent several climbers in front of us home demoralized and with severe windburn. Still...it wasn't tremendously cold unless you stopped for long periods and so we trucked on, reaching the saddle at approximately 8:30 am.

This is the view onward from the saddle, though not taken on this day

The very encouraging thing about this view was that unlike the rest of the mountain which contained hard satstrugi, ice-crud or worse snow, this face was a haven of pure powder and would at least make the descent memorable. It was also the steepest part of the climb, traditionally considered right around 40 degrees, but I bet it is slightly under. Andrew took a bit of a break in the saddle while I decided to keep going. All my experiences at high altitude have taught me to continue moving if possible, no matter how slowly. I just find a lot of stopping and starting drains my energy. I still felt pretty great, and it wasn't painful at all. My body just seemed to work slower than normal, and at about 18,000 fee I began to ask myself why I could only seem to take 5 or 6 steps at a time.

Turning the corner onto the summit ridge was a slap in the face. The gusts of wind here were the worst I have experienced anywhere. If I say 50 mph I might be low-balling, but I'm fairly sure I wouldn't be exaggerating. I was having a very difficult time keeping my feet, and with only a short push to the summit, I was somehow considering dropping my skis and walking to the summit without them. My most trying moments of the climb came when I spent about 5 minutes fighting just to stay on my feet, but not able to take a real step forward. Finally I was able to push on and scolded myself for almost giving up on a ski descent from one of the seven summits.

The last several steps were my hardest but I strolled onto the summit at slightly before 10 am. There were four of us summiting within 5 minutes of one another. We had seen 3 others descending from the summit slightly earlier, but other than that it seemed that we had arrived before the vast majority of the hundreds of climbers on the route today. Sweet! We celebrated with some quick photos and some hot tea courtesy of a friendly Russian who was very jazzed to have made the summit.

Another view of Ushba, said to be one of the world's hardest to climb

Unfortunately, things got slightly unpleasant here for two reasons; The first was that Andrew was getting AMS and did not wish to stay on the summit due to his need to vomit a few times. As well as being extremely nasty for Andrew, this meant that I lost my cameraman for the ski descent, and I didn't realize at the time how sad it would make me to not have any photos skiing the top face, but C'est la vie.

The second - and perhaps more comical - reason is that I STILL do not have an AT ski setup, which meant changing from mountaineering boots to ghetto rental boots at 18,513 ft and in steady wind. I was prepared to do this, but underestimated how miserable it would be, especially considering that the blowing snow during the ascent had completely filled both of my ski boots. Scooping snow and then jamming my foot into one freezing ski boot at a time took the better part of 15 minutes, but for 6000 vertical feet of descent, you have to agree this was a good trade.

This would be the highest ski descent that I had ever done, and I was a bit nervous pushing off of the summit. I assumed that the conditions would be bad with the exception of the big face underneath the summit ridge, and so I vowed to cherish the top section. I traversed slightly higher then the ascent route and stopped when I was satisfied with the snow conditions, then I let the skis rip. This was pure bliss; So much so that I didn't even realize that the wind had changed directions and I was sending a little extra spray in the direction of the main climbing line. I apologized, changed over to the other side and finished the bottom half off with some soft, floating, powder turns.

The upper face: climb in BLACK, ski in RED

About three quarters of the way down I decided to straight line it to see if I could get all the way around the slightly ascending traverse and onto the massive main face of the eastern peak of Elbrus. I only made it about three quarters of the way around and consequently had to do a little bit of poling to reach the point from which I would descend close to 5000 vertical towards the barrels. I had seen my friends Jonny and Bella resting at the very bottom of the saddle and waved to them as I flew by. As it turns out Jonny's Camelback had leaked out all of his water and he was waving at me to see if I was able to give him any. It is a good thing that Andrew was also descending, because he and a team of Dutch climbers were able to give him a liter each and make it possible for his climb to continue.

The rest of the descent was grueling. The ice-crud mixed with a hard breakable crust was making this quite a chore and not nearly as fast as I would have liked, but that is what you get for skiing off season.

Skiing down the massive south face, Ushba covered by snow on my lens

Eventually I reached the slushy snow of the bottom snow cat track and eased into the barrels. You would have thought I was Ed Viesturs by the reaction of the Russian tourists walking around. Several people asked me for pictures and said things like "wow " (a real mountaineer). It was pretty funny, especially because I was sporting the world's worst ski setup and skiing the off-season crud. I jumped into my barrel and fired up the stove for some tea at 12 pm, making it a round trip of eight hours.

Andrew showed up about an hour later and even though he looked like death (suffering from AMS) he had enjoyed a fast descent complete with plenty of glissading and a little bit of vomiting. We made the sad realization that we would have to stay one more night at the Barrels because Jonny and Bella wouldn't be down for several hours (The top lift closes at 3 p.m). Still, we were more than happy to stay the extra night because they made the summit and returned safely; All four of us were very happy the next day to descend and make our way back to Nalchik.

Thanks for reading, if you are looking for more costs of doing this mountain independently, see the list below:

Prices as of 2010
-Lodging on Elbrus: $15-$30/per person per night(Barrels costs $21)
-Lift Ticket for all three lifts: $20
-Taxi between Elbrus and Nalchik: $35 per taxi(room for 2-3 with gear), Min Vody is farther and has to cost a bit more.
-Food: This can be done on almost any budget. My food was easily less than $100.
-Ski rental was about $10 bucks a day.
-Parks Pass- $30

This is of course not an exhaustive list, but if you want more information about Elbrus let me know and I will try to help.

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Comments or Questions

pioletski	Yeah!! 8/31/2010 4:56pm Hey Ossie, I remember you talking about doing this when we skied Castle and Conundrum. Looks like a great experience, glad to see you got out there. Thanks for sharing the story!
Zambo	Just Awesome!! 8/31/2010 6:51pm Hey Johnno, we sure miss you guys around here, but glad to see you got this in; I was with Ben when you texted him after, so sweet! Hope the whole fam is doing well and congrats on the soon to be new addition! Love ya dude! ps: that sunset chain pic is amazing...
taylorzs	Nice 8/31/2010 7:23pm Looks like a fun descent!
nomadelmundo	awesome 8/31/2010 8:45pm I was looking to do this within the next 5 years with a tour group for ~ $2000. So this is doable without sherpas, huh?
climbing_rob	Nice!!! 8/31/2010 9:14pm We missed you by a day; we arrived at the barrels on Saturday the 21st, summited on the 23rd. Maybe we crossed paths in the little town at the base of the lifts (Asal?) You did it a much smarter way: w/ Skis. We walked, a 6000' death march on the way down!!! Funny place, Elbrus. Ugly trashy base area, but a gorgeous mountain and views of the Caucasus across the valley, especially that glorious Ushba. Friendly people.
benners	Very Cool! 8/31/2010 9:50pm Congrads Jonno on a safe and successful trip! Skiing one of the Seven Summits is an awesome accomplishment. Love the Settlers games in between climbing days, as well as the alpine rental setup and switch over at 18,500'. Having said that it's good to hear you've got an AT setup in the works though, you're gonna need one for this upcoming spring! Say hi to the wife and kid(s) for me, and hi to Hutch too! Talk to you soon buddy. P.s. Can't wait to come out and crash your place, we'll have to drag Hutchy and his board back up there .
COBuckeye	Congratulations 8/31/2010 10:02pm JonO, congratulations on the summit and the descent. When we talked about a week before the attempt you didn't mention you were going to try to ski, but very cool, and a huge accomplishment. We are praying for you and your family, can't wait to see you! ps - I just finished acquiring the last pieces of my first AT setup (sans boots) so you will have to show me around in the spring!
Winter8000m	NICE 9/1/2010 2:30am Congrats!!!! Great view of Ushba
weissea	awesome, man 9/1/2010 6:08am very cool trip. envy.
kaiman	All I can say is wow! 9/2/2010 2:30am Great trip report and excellent photos. Congrats on skiing off one of the high seven. Ushba sort of looks like two Capitol Peaks pushed together.
ossie322	Thanks for the comments everyone 9/3/2010 12:24pm Ben, Matt, Jason, Zambo- Miss you guys and climbing with you. Get out here and we can climb this sucker together! Rob- Didn't I meet you on Saturday in the morning? You were with that team from the CMC and some others from Washington right? Glad to hear you had a good trip. Nomad- definitely can be done for way cheaper than with a tour group but make sure all your documents are in order because they don't mess around with that here. Also, climb of Ushba anyone?
Carl	Nice ski descent! 5/2/2011 2:23pm Sweet climb and ski. Glad to see things seem to be going well for you. Would like to get back to Russia sometime. We'll see. Keep up the good work! Ushba looks sweet.

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