Good luck. Schedule in some extra days in case of bad weather!

I've been in touch with a few people and trying to get a small team together. When you are you going?

Fletch wrote:

Alpinist wrote:I've been in touch with a few people and trying to get a small team together. When you are you going?

First two weeks of June with Pilgrim. When are you guys thinking of going?

June is the worst month of the year for me at work. I'm planning Elbrus for either late May or July. Still trying to firm up the plans (and team).

Alpinist wrote:I'm planning Elbrus for either late May

Take your skis.

Pilgrim will answer all your questions about Russia, that`s why you pay them.

Still looking for partners for Elbrus in July. (Pilgrim Lite package.) Anyone interested?

Alpinist wrote:Still looking for partners for Elbrus in July. (Pilgrim Lite package.) Anyone interested?

I could be, my work schedule is not confirmed until April, then I can start planning trips for the rest of the year.

radson wrote:

Alpinist wrote:Still looking for partners for Elbrus in July. (Pilgrim Lite package.) Anyone interested?

I could be, my work schedule is not confirmed until April, then I can start planning trips for the rest of the year.

Radson, I'll check back with you in April. Hopefully I'll have a couple more people lined up by then.

Hi guys,

I'm planning an ascent of mount Elbrus as well in july. But the rescent situation in the region isn't that great.
There have been some terrorist attacks the last week in the Elbrus region. More info on the following link:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/02/ ... LX20110221

Does anyone have experience with these kind of situations? What is the best thing to do? I've been planning this trip for over 2 years and the last thing i want to do is cancel but this news is making me ill!

greetz

Not sure what exactly you've been doing in the last two years, but it seems like an awful long time to plan such a trip.

Either way, the situation in the border region is never very good. I was there in 2009 and 2010 and though 2010 was a little better, it remains a slightly more difficult place to travel. I suggest you to get in touch with Pilgrim Tours and either use one of their group packages, or their Lite Package. Either way, you will receive all documents and information to get to the mountain and back, which is very helpful in Russia.

Pilgrim offers group tours to climb Elbrus from all sides. They also do traverses, so I'm guessing they'll have no problem in helping you in your N-O ascent.

Lol, two years ago it started with the idea of climbing Elbrus. The planning itself, thank god, is shorter!

We booked the lite package with Pelgrim and that's going fine. It's just hard to tell how dangerous the situation really is.

Don't worry about it too much. Mineralnye Vody is a small airport and the drive to Elbrus is safe enough. We travelled to Adler in 2009, which was fine and to Pyatigorsk in 2010, where there were two large terroristic attacks while we were there. If you let your life being led by fear, you won't go far. Just enjoy the experience .

Fletch wrote:http://www.alpinist.com/doc/web11w/newswire-terrorism-elbrus

Ok, that is disturbing. Then again, when we were there, suicide bombers blew up 3 police officers a block away from where we having a drink (Pyatigorsk) and there was a car bomb (30KG of TNT) in the main shopping street (our hotel was 500m further) a day later. So this kind of violence is not new to the area, but seems to now have gotten closer to the mountain.

There are terrorist attacks all over the world these days, so I'm not sure you should be stopped by it too easily. If I were you and things don't get worse, I'd still fly in to MinVody and then just get on the mountain a.s.a.p..

We've had Russian military checking our papers at the bottom of the mountain in Terskol before, but I can't imagine them closing the mountain. Apart from that, it's a big mountain and they can't completely fence it off. We walked up from Cheget last year and came up from close to the planetarium (who's been there will know it). This takes you about as long as the normal route, but you do walk over a glacier that is less well travelled - when the weather is good, this shouldn't be a problem to do unroped. I think there's plenty of options to not let the trip go to waste in the event that they close parts of the mountain.

Obviously, if you go with a group from Pilgrim, I'm not sure how flexible they will be in bypassing the military. In any case, I wouldn't use those cable cars. The people operating them aren't very friendly in my opinion and hey, you are there to CLIMB the mountain, right?

Things are definitely heating up in that area. There was another attack on Weds...

The Associated Press and news outlets in Russia are reporting a police officer dead and six wounded after a gunfight Wednesday near the Mt. Elbrus ski area. Last weekend, masked gunmen attacked a van of tourists near Mt. Elbrus, killing three and injuring two, shortly before an explosive damaged lift equipment and officials found an explosive-packed car in a tourist-heavy area, according to news reports. Source

As if that wasn't bad enough, read this report.

Law enforcement agencies carried out airstrikes and mortar bombings in a hunt for militants on the slopes of Europe's highest peak, but it remained unclear Wednesday whether any insurgents were killed, Interfax reported.

An Investigative Committee representative said one officer was killed and six others were injured during a clash in Kabardino-Balkaria but denied earlier reports that three to five militants were killed, saying no information was available on militant casualties.

A shelter stocked with food, firearms, explosives and police uniforms and capable of housing eight people was found on the slopes of Mount Elbrus, a spokesman for the National Anti-Terrorism Committee said