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Hi,

I'm going to Elbrus in 2 weeks and plan to climb it unguided I understand there are fixed ropes near the summit, is this true? But was thinking of buying a GPS just in the case the weather turns bad or cloud/fog move in. Can anyone recommend a good TOPO for the Elbrus region. I was looking at the Garmin gpsmap 64s but I cannot find a TOPO map for Elbrus for the device (I live in Czech Republic so the one on sale here comes with Europe recreational and TOPO for CZ only). Can anyone suggest if there is a decent map for it for use on Elbrus?

I will climb the South route, hopefully it will not be too busy this time of year I believe that July to September are the busiest. If anyone has any other advice for doing this climb unguided it would be good to hear

Thanks!

Tony

Hi, I'm going there on the 23rd of June via the north route.
I am using DeLorme inreach explorer for quick navigation. GPS files are many and can be found on google.
I suggest either that or a Garmin (maybe the new garmin inreach explorer!).

For printed maps, google Soviet Military Maps!

Cheers

Thanks for the reply! Good luck with your climb - I might see you o the summit!
In the end I got a Garmin 650 on loan but I have not been able to find any maps. I have found some people who have uploaded their waypoints from their climbs which I think I can import into the device. (I only got it today so learning curve) but I can't find a map to display the waypoints on. The maps loaded basically have a huge blank area where Elbrus should be. The nearest town marked on it seems to be NalChik. I suppose we can just navigate to the waypoints with the compass but I would feel much more confident if I could see a representation of the mountain so I had a better idea of where we are - plus if the tracking goes a bit off, as I heard it sometimes can - this would be much easier to notice with the map visible - better than finding out by walking into a crevasse!
If you know of any maps could you send me a link?

Thanks!
Tony

Hi there

I'll be going to Elbrus end of June as well but with a guided group so route finding wouldn't be required (I hope!). I use a phone app called Gaia GPS on all climbs regardless. I found this GPS track for the South Route:
https://www.gaiagps.com/datasummary/tra ... uestaerial

Good luck

Hi!

I climbed Elbrus unguided in September 2015. We chose the East Route, along Askeryakol Lava Flow (Irikchat valley) and descened via the normal route (South). We used phone app Locus and downloaded maps from MB maps Europe. It worked fine.

For the normal route there were some fixed ropes on the last part of the climb, above the col between the summits. We didn't use it. If you have some questions, feel free to ask.

Good luck.
Jacek.

For getting maps on your Garmin:
- Google "Elbrus map", go to pictures and download the relevant ones as .jpg
- Use google earth to orient to the map (map overlay - google around to find out how to do this - it is easy )
- Save map and import to Garmin

With some experience you can get an accuracy of approx 5-10 meters (depending on how good your map is). That combined with waypoints should be fine for orientation.

Have a good trip.