Topic: Elbrus

[Taimi]

As i already said, packing took me very little time. The last night i spent at my friends place from where the journey was about to begin. We had some visitors and we slept only about two hours. This was also deliberate because in the bus we would have plenty of time for sleeping.  07.07 am there was a little champagne for those who gathered so early. The busses left at 9.00. Most people seemed excited though i felt completely normal. Only at some point after waking up i realized - my god I'm going to spend three days in a bus.

The three days lasting bus trip to Caucasus was quite uneventful. Soon after crossing the border the landscape changed. The beautiful forests and beautiful cozy willages were replaced with underwood. Landscape was empty and dull. Every now and then some little poor villages. The road was narrow and bumpy. There was nothing inviting in the energy of this landscape.

Because of the events that took place here in March, everyone was prepared for problems with Russians. In previous years the others said there had been very many problems with Russian police. They stopped the busses very often and made up all kinds of reasons to get money from the travelers. Non-existing penalties and so on. We thought this time it would be even worse. But this time we crossed the border fast and during the trip we were stopped only few times and these were also just for checking documents. We made jokes about how the Russian police doesn't respect us anymore. Due to this we arrived early, the sun hadn't set yet, so we could see the valleys we drove through. It was beautiful. Some others said that in the previous years they had mostly arrived in the dark. Also the weather during the bus trip was perfect. It was cloudy and not too hot which was also luck. I thought i would start to write down the events and feelings i had, even had a notebook for that, but i only wrote few lines in the bus and that was all. I was a little worried about feeling so normal and hoped it would change. There was very little excitement.

Mostly we lived in the valley which was about 2000 meters above sea level. Already there i started to have the old breathing problem occasionally. The next day after arrival we made a walk to the nearby hill. This was to start the acclimation. I don't know how high it was, maybe about 3000 m. It was a few hours walk along a road. Most people went fast, i was in the end taking it easy. I enjoy more walking alone than with a group. Occasionally the ascent was quite steep and the hight made me wheeze even though i went very slowly. I suppose my lungs or heart are not in perfect shape. Also the ascent was hard for the knees and the descent was even worse. But this was just the beginning. I really started to feel reluctance against ascent and descent during this journey. The views were great though. But now that i look at the pictures, they seem so pale.

We could also see Elbrus from the top of this hill.
Also we saw the mountain called Cheget that we were about to climb the next day.
There was a beautiful waterfall along the road that was called The Virgins Hair or something like that.

[erik]

AI really started to feel reluctance against ascent and descent during this journey.

You mean you don't like climbing at high altitudes any more?

[Taimi]

You mean you don't like climbing at high altitudes any more?

I think it has already passed  For now.
Thought at first it was a little depressing just to walk uphill for hours and hours. I suppose for those who have done much training, it wasn't a problem at all. For some it seemed very easy. So my conclusion is that if i start to train more, it will be much easier next time 

[erik]

I think it has already passed  For now.
Thought at first it was a little depressing just to walk uphill for hours and hours. I suppose for those who have done much training, it wasn't a problem at all. For some it seemed very easy. So my conclusion is that if i start to train more, it will be much easier next time 

Women!  They constantly change their mind!
Yeah, these anaerobic training sessions...

[Jennifer-]

Im pleased you are sharing your adventure here with us R, I hope your senses found the excitment you were seeking. 

Pushing our physical limits is always a worthy challenge in hindsight... yet at the time.. its easy to find yourself saying.. what the hell am I doing here?

The pictures youve provided thus far ( I do hope there are more    ) are stunning! 

[Taimi]

Pushing our physical limits is always a worthy challenge in hindsight... yet at the time.. its easy to find yourself saying.. what the hell am I doing here?

Yes, at some moments i though why the hell am i doing this, but then again i noticed i'm also good in forgetting the hardness of physical efforts.

[erik]

Interesting, how green area ends so suddenly at one point!

[Taimi]

The ascent to the Cheget started with a cable railway. Then a little walk along the car road which also made me wheeze, but i stayed at the speed which was perfect for me, so i didn’t get tired. We arrived to some plateau where the road ended. Everything seemed under control, i felt good, we made a break. But then the real climbing started. We had to ascend from a really steep hillside with unfixed rocks and after that the rockclimbing started mostly along the mountain crest. This was even a little dangerous, the rocks were unfixed, the hillside was steep and you wouldn’t have wanted to slip there. On the pictures though this steepness is not so visible. This i think was the most interesting part of this journey. Because of the danger i felt excitement. We climbed slowly and thanks to that i didn’t get too tired. We didn’t reach the highest top of this mountain because it would have been too dangerous and we didn’t have time either. The top that we reached was about 3500 meters above sea level. Also from this top Elbrus was visible. Then the descent started. First there was a rocky hillside with large snow areas which was also steep. Snow was fun though it was also dangerous. It was slippery and i mostly skied down on my legs, the speed got quite high occasionally. But in the end of the snow there were sharp rocks. We had to stop the speed before rocks. Some went on their buts but i didn’t want to wet my pants. That was a good idea because some people hit the rocks under the snow with their buts. After that the real hell started. The endless descent from a steep grass slope. At the end my legs were really shaking and i was totally tired. But down there there was a cold refreshing creek. I thought now it’s over and we can walk back to our camp to have a sauna. Yes, we did walk around the mountain for a while on a horizontal road, but i didn’t realize we also have to descend from the hillside which we had ascended with a cable railway in the morning... There was a car road which went down, but it seemed to make such big rounds so me and few other girls decided to go almost straightly down from a little walking road. This was again totally steep mostly and my knees were totally through in the end. But down at the end of the road there was a little bar awaiting with a cold beer. After a beer and a coke i felt almost normal again. Though the next day some muscles of my legs really hurt.

[Taimi]

Few more pictures from Cheget.

[Taimi]

The next day it was a day for rest. This was called active relaxation. We were supposed to have a practice in crossing a mountain river. First person had to cross the river with the help of  a stick, keeping the balance in the current. Then he fixed the ropes to a tree so that others could follow holding from the rope. In any other circumstances this would have seemed really exciting to me, but i was very tired of the efforts of two earlier days so i decided to skip this. At the moment i can’t actually believe that i really skipped it. Well, luckily i think it wasn’t too dangerous, the river was only about few meters wide and everyone crossed it safely.

Instead i decided to go back to the the camp alone, to get a rest from all the other people too. I took a few pictures of butterflies on the road.

[Taimi]

Butterflies.

[Jahn]

Thank you Rubina,
some really great and lovely pictures. I especially like the one with the horses and those butterflies, like in a discussion with each other.

[Taimi]

I have noticed something weird that started during this trip. Sometimes when i sleep and wake up suddenly, somehow my body starts trembling or shaking. It's almost like heart beating very strong and fast and my body shakes in this rhythm. But it's not actually my heart beating, it would be too fast and today i checked my pulse during this, it was normal.

[Taimi]

The day after active relaxation we made out first ascent to the slope of Elbrus. First cable railway to the hight of 3800, then a little walk to the hight of 4200. This walk took place already in the snow and was quite easy compared to the previous walks. It was much easier to walk in the snow though it was in a higher altitude and we had big backpacks along. Throughout the whole journey i thought i can’t get too tired because i have to spare some strength for the final ascent. Here we also used the crampons already. The weather was warm, some people even went in shorts. We arrived to the rocks where we put our tents. These were called The Saviour Rocks because the camp of saviors were there. Right after the arrival i felt good, even though fast movements made me dizzy and it was an effort to walk uphill. Only after a few hours the hight started to have an effect. I started to have a headache and sickness. I felt really weary and didn’t want to do anything. Tried to sleep for a while, but it seemed to make things worse. Then i woke up and started to move around and take photos. More experienced people suggested that moving around would make me feel better. Well, it didn’t make me feel better. But at least i didn’t throw up like some others did. By the evening i felt already better and the night passed without a headache. During the whole journey i shared a tent with two fellows. The tent we had up there was smaller than the tent at the basecamp. At some point at night i started to feel claustrophobic between them, wrapped in the sleeping bag and woke up in fear not realizing where i am. In the morning they also said i had talked in sleep. Something about men and bitches. Don’t know where that came from...

In the morning we woke up exactly during the sunrise to make an ascent to the hight of about 4700 meters where there were The Pastuchova Rocks. I went alone again. I was very tired already in the beginning. For the fastest it took about one or two hours. After about four hours almost everyone had passed me. I was just staggering there with very little steps, taking photos, thinking about going back all the time. I reached the beginning of the rocks, but from there on the ascent started to be very steep, so i decided to go back. I felt totally tired, sleepy and unwilling to do anything. I thought how the hell i am supposed to climb to the top if i’m so tired already there. Also i thought people must be totally crazy wanting to climb a mountain. Then we slept in the tents for a while and later came down to the base camp again.

[Taimi]

Few more photos from the slopes of Elbrus.