Mount Elbrus, the highest point in Russia and Europe, attracts ordinary and sports tourists like a magnet. The ordinary tourists want just to see the mountain peak, and the sports tourists definitely want to conquer the peak. But Elbrus does not allow everyone to approach it, the mountain peak is majestic and it ‘sees’ everything even while ‘sleeping’.
When we arrived in the city of Mineralnye Vody (Mineral Water), we took a taxi at the airport and, of course, we got to know a lot of useful and interesting things from the taxi driver on our way to the city. He talked about the tourists’ everyday life and life hacks used by travelers, but the most unusual thing for us was the pronunciation of the name of Mount Elbrus. Both in Russian and English, the accent in the name of the amazing sleeping volcano is on the second syllable - Elbrus. But local people call the Mount they are proud of some other way - Elbrus, with a stress on the first syllable ‘E’. Tracing the etymology of the mountain peak shows that ‘El (al)’ means ‘God’, among Muslims it is ‘Allah’. The Kabardians and the Balkarians, as well as all the peoples of the North Caucasus, including the Cossacks (Terek or Kuban Cossacks), put the accent on the first syllable in the word Elbrus. In the North Caucasus, the song ‘Beautiful Elbrus, Mighty Elbrus in a white hat’ has long been the anthem of these regions.
And now, I would like to tell you about the trip itself. From the point of view of tourists, the Elbrus region is a unique place with its mountains, ski tracks, and stunning nature!
It takes three hours by air from Moscow to the Mineralnye Vody Airport. The taxi driver explained us why people usually get to Mount Elbrus through Mineralnye Vody, and not through Vladikavkaz or Nalchik: there are about twenty flights a day from Moscow to Mineralnye Vody, one to Nalchik, and a couple of flights to Vladikavkaz. Therefore, although Nalchik and Vladikavkaz are a little closer to Mount Elbrus, most travelers fly to Mineralnye Vody. In addition, the federal highway goes to the Elbrus area through this city, the highway is excellent, is takes just about 2.5-3 hours to travel there by taxi, the taxi fare is around 5 thousand rubles by a Yandex car.
We were surprised that the weather changed very quickly in the mountains, even during such a short three-hour taxi journey. It was cloudy, then sunny, then it started raining. What struck us most was the extraordinary phenomenon when a large cold cloud floated in front of us near the mountains, over ravines, trees, houses, villages, and everything it touched looked as if covered with ice. At first, we thought it was just frost that covered all surfaces, but we took a closer look and saw that it was ice, like in the fairy tale The Snow Queen. We see such ice after a freezing rain, but when you watch the process of cloud silvering, it is very amazing!
We stayed at the hotel in Terskol - this is the next-to-last small town on the way to Mount Elbrus. We booked rooms at the Terskol Star hotel. We were allured by the cozy wooden houses and the price per room, because in the small town of Azau that is even closer to Mount Elbrus, the prices are many times higher. Upon arrival, we were delighted that the location of our temporary accommodation turned out to be incredibly advantageous because the windows of the houses overlooked the surrounding mountains and a mountain river. And most importantly, there is an eco-trail Mount Cheget - Azau just three meters from the hotel, and a walk to the first ski lift in Azau along this eco-trail is 6 km. By the way, when the valley is still covered with snow, tourists can ski the way back to the hotel down the hill directly along the trail. We walked, enjoying the mountain air, pines, and birch trees.
The mountain skiing season in the Mount Elbrus area lasts until May, as experienced tourists say. We were there in March and discovered Mount Elbrus not only as hikers, but also as mountain skiers. We decided in advance that we would not carry ski equipment for a few-day stay in the mountains, but would rent it the Mount Elbrus area. We really found everything in Azau we needed for mountain skiing. We were pleased with the local rental center where friendly and cheerful guys offered us everything we required - on favorable terms. For example, we chose our skis and snowboard not on the day of skiing, but the day before, thereby saving valuable time for mountain skiing. It was also very good that we could leave the equipment overnight in the rental center’s room for free, so we didn’t have to carry it to the hotel in the evening and to the ski lift in the morning. It’s a pity, we did not remember the name of the rental center we liked, but it can be easily found: if you look at the road going down from the village of Azau, the rental center is on the right hand, and there is a coffee shop with delicious coffee inside the center.
I would like to say a few words about the ski slope infrastructure. We were surprised that there were really a lot of people on the ski lifts platform and the queues were quite long. I would like to give you an idea about the prices: a two-day ski pass costs 5 thousand rubles. There are also many tourists without skis who come just to go up and down the hill; they also buy a ticket, but a one-time ticket, its price is different. Tourists should keep in mind that the first two sections of the ski lift operate until 4 p.m., the last one - until 3.30 p.m., so the tourists who come in the afternoon do not have enough time to get to the Garabashi station that is at the maximum height. This should be taken into account, especially when people come to the mountain on a guided bus tour. In this case, it is better to have some additional time and keep in mind that at the top, they may need to wait for clouds floating near the mount to have a chance to enjoy the view of the ‘saddle’ of majestic Mount Elbrus.
The tourists that were on the ski lift platform told us that people going to ski in the area of Mount Cheget (neighboring Mount Elbrus) and descending towards the border with Georgia intentionally or by mistake should have a special pass issued in advance at the gosuslugi (Public Services Portal of the Russian Federation). Getting it is free, but this pass is required in the border areas, in a restricted border security zone.
The mountains in this area are powerful and majestic. It is well known that Mount Elbrus is 5,642 meters high, but few people know that the mountain has two peaks, the western one (5,642 meters) and the eastern one (5,621 meters). The closest ski lift station on the way to the famous peak is the Garabashi station (at the height of 3,823m). During the snow season, there are several ways for tourists to climb up higher than Garabashi - on foot as far as they can go, and also by snowcat or snowmobile, people should pay for this service. Many people go there just to take photos, to check whether they have a mountain disease.
As for mountaineering (not just mountain skiing), the experienced mountain-climbers prepare thoroughly for effecting an ascent of a mountain. When climbing Mount Elbrus, they first adapt to the mountains, go on radial hikes, live for several days at a rather high altitude in barrel houses, like Diogenes, and go to the top only with a guide and wearing crampons. On the day of the ascent of a mountain, they start at 3 a.m. to have time to return before sunset. Such an ascent requires preparation, and this was not our case.
We were lucky to have nice weather when we were on Mount Elbrus. The special smell of the ice that thawed during the day, the mountain river and streams helped us smell the spring in the air. And although it was rather cold at night, there was no wind during the day, the sky was amazingly azure like it can be in the mountains only, and the sun was bright and cheerful. The sun is strong in the mountains and it reflects from the snow, so travelers should use sunscreen, lipstick and wear sunglasses, which is important.
We also went to the Maiden’s Braids Waterfall along the hiking trail. We just left the hotel and followed the signs along this eco-trail; we did not need a guide for such a hike, tourists can go along this trail on their own. And the eco-trail is very picturesque!
When we got up very early in the morning to travel to Mount Elbrus and went through all the airport procedures and had a long difficult trip, it seemed that spending just several days near Mount Elbrus was not worth going through such difficulties, but having visited Mount Elbrus in the heart of the Caucasus Mountains, we are now sure that it was worth it! We really want to go there again!
