can anyone tell me, if they have recently climbed Elbrus, whether or not there were any safety issues, if there were trvel warning before they left for Russia etc. I recently booked a trip to climb Elbrus and it has since been cancelled. I am now looking to still go there but using someone else.

also, has anyone here used pilgrim tours to climb Elbrus??? What are they like??? I am now considering using them for the trip but i dont want to get ripped off or anything.

Cheers
Andy

Hi Andy,
I climbed Elbrus end of July 2008 and did not have any at all problems regarding any safety issues what so ever.
I live in Sweden and here the departement of foreign affairs last year in July did not encourage people to travel to the Elbrusregion, infact they did not recommend it at all. Although having read many reports and checked with people who recently had been there I decided to go. Pilgrim Tours offers a starting package called "Lite" which I purchased and which turned out to be excellent.
The lite package include assistance with all necessary paperwork, the invitation to Russia needed for the Russian visa, the climbing- and borderzone permits and one night hotel accomodation in Azau at the hotel immediately located just in front of where the Elbrus climb begins. In addition to this I added a taxi pickup from/to the airport of Min Vody where I arrived/took off to Moscow. The pickup worked seamless, the Pilgrim-representative in Azau, Tatiana, was very nice and helpful. The accomodation was clean, food was ok and there were no problems arranging additional nights etc. To prepay for the services Pilgrim Tours used a bank in Riga, to which I made a moneytransfer.
Two weeks after I left, the war in Georgia broke out so that was probably not the ideal time to visit this region.
I would not have travelled there during that ongoing conflict.
Anyhow, I had an excellent time, solo climbing Elbrus with no cables or snowcats straight from Azau, spending in total three nights on the mountain in a small, shabby hut (EUR10/night) close to Priut 11. This area of Russia was very interesting and in a way undiscovered. You will not be alone. During my first and second day I had already met lots of people from SE, NO, CH, FI, USA, NL, GB etc...
Cheers, André

hey Andre, thanks mate, very good info! I think I am going to do the 11 day thing with them as it includes some acclimatisation hikes on nearby Cheget Tau and about 4 days actually on Elbrus.
otherwise i will wait til next year and in the meantime climb Aconcagua in December 2009.

cheers
Andy

I'm planing to go to Elbrus in this summer using the same company "Pilgrim Tours" and maybe book the "lite" or "11 days" package. I think they are ok.

http://www.pilgrim-tours.com

Check the Caucasus page, there is a survey on security. http://www.summitpost.org/view_object.p ... _id=170909

Security issues should not prevent you from coming here. Our friends in the various ministries of foreign affairs, are talking a lot and usually don't know what's going on...
If you take the usual precautions and act in a civilisised way you will be good, especially if you travel with an agency.
The only really annoying thing (in whole Russia though) is the police

Have fun !

Hey thanks....I have booked the trip with pilgrim...they seem ok! will let you know all how it goes!
cheers
Andy

Hey there, yes they seemed quite good, but at the risk of this sounding like a commercial post.....i wont give info here:-) otherwise ill get kicked off! send me a PM and i will chat to you about the trip i booked.

cheers
Andy