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ELBRUS SKITOUR + AZAU GORGE - 10 days
The given 10 days ski-tour program offers acclimatization before Elbrus summit using tents and mountaineering.
The programme will let admire an interesting object of the nature - the Large Azau glacier. It is situated in the steep gorge and the largest of Elbrus region glaciers. Last century it is retreating fast, leaving huge masses of dead ice.
The Best time for this skitour programme is May - the beginning of June.
Short description of the tour
Day 1. Meeting in Min Vody airport. Transfer to Prielbrusye. Accommodation in hotel on Azau glade.
Day 2. Skiing over the Elbrus slopes. Prepare for the two-days hike.
Day 3. To the Large Azau glacier - till glade "Sand Hotel" (2700m) - bivouac.
Day 4. Climbing to the pass "Echo of the War". Lunch and descent to hotel on glade Azau.
Day 5. Climbing to tourist's hotel "Gara Bashy" (3800 m) by cable-ways "Elbrus" and "Gara-Bashi".
Acclimatization hike till base "Priut 11" (4200 m). Returning to Gara-Bashi.
Day 6. Climbing for acclimatization to Pastukhov's rocks (4800 m). Returning to tourist's hotel "Gara Bashi".
Day 7. Climbing to a top of mount Elbrus. Skiing down to Gara-Bashi.
Day 8. Spare day for climbing. Skiing down to Azau glade.
Day 9. Free day. Skiing over the Elbrus slopes.
Day 10. Departure to Min Vody.
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The brief description of the tour
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1st day. Arrival from Moscow (St. Petersburg, Munich etc.) to Mineralnye Vody airport. Meeting and transfer to Prielbrusye. Accommodation in hotel on Azau glade, dinner.
The road from Min Vody to hotel takes about 3-4 hours.
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2nd day. Skiing over the Elbrus slopes. Prepare for the two-days hike.
(the Azau glade - the Large Azau glacier - "Sand Hotel " -the pass "Echo of the War" - the Azau glade. Expansion - 14 km, duration - 2 days).
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3rd day. To the Large Azau glacier - till glade "Sand Hotel" (2700m) - bivouac.
The river Baksan starts a bit higher than Terskol vil., from the coalescence of the Gara-Bashi
and Azau rivers. In the steep gorge situated an interesting object of the nature - the Large Azau glacier,
the largest of Elbrus region glaciers. Last century it is retreating fast, leaving huge masses of dead ice.
You, probably, heard, that an ice is slowly flowing from a feed area of a glacier downwards, into the glade,
where it melts slowly. If a mass of the melt ice is filled with a falling snow the glacier begins to retreat.
If an accumulation of snow is slowed down, the glacier starts to retreat. If thus an ice flow does
not reach the end of an ice tongue, the ice on it ceases to move, becomes dead and can be carved
out from an alive, current ice. Thus a new, shorter tongue will be formed. All this can be seen
on the Large Azau glacier.
The route to the Azau valley starts from the Azau glade. Not reaching 200m till the first
constructions on the Azau glade, we turn from a highway to the river, in a pine forest.
On the path along the river pass the lower station of the Elbrus cable-way.
It remains on the right on a course, on the ridge of the moraine covered with a forest, left
by the receded Large Azau glacier.
It is possible to go down to the bank of the river even from a ski-lift along the
steep path or going aside from it forward to Elbrus.
The forest is thinning out from a hillock an entry opens into the Azau gorge,
clenched from both sides by vertical rocks. Their colour differs hardly: there is a border
here among dark effusive rocks of Mt. Elbrus and lighter rocks of the Main Caucasian Gorge.
In the gorge on the right above the path raise the hexahedral columns from dark with white impregnations
of diabase. The columns resemble tubes of an organ by something. In cloudy weather, when the black
colour of the rocks is specially saturated and the waves of the gray mist cling to the stone columns,
the picture gains a fancy tint. In this moment above Baksan there can be a sun, and the far sky,
getting light blue between a fog cover and a gurgling river, completes the picture.
Not far away from the entry into the gorge from the Small Azau glacier a flow is broken as a waterfall.
Soon the gorge extends. A waterfall is seen ahead, by which the Large Azau glacier is descended
from a plateau Hotu-Tau. One should keep here a little further from the slope: stone falls
are frequent here.
In 1,5 hours of a walking from the Azau glade we cross over the spring, flowing out from a lake under
the Small Azau glacier. The lake lies on a moraine highly above them.
The water in the spring is weakly mineralized. It smells of sulfur in air - it is breathing the
sleeping volcano of Mt. Elbrus.
A bit lower along the glade the river receives a tributary on the right flowing from the glacier Chiper-Azau.
Some more hundred of meters, and the path comes up against the black wall of dead ice on the tongue
of the glacier. From an ice the river breaks free with a fairing.
We can mount along the rocks along a talus and a moraine onto the glacier. It is necessary to be cautious:
under a flake of rocks and clay there is an ice. Pieces of native sulphur are found there. It's dangerous to
go higher because of the hidden cracks.
Look around. Here a spring rings, directly along the glacier flows a small river, stones breaking
away from the faults rustle. Sometimes in a thickness of an ice something is creaking: the glacier
lives and moves.
Having mounted the glacier, we cross it along the border of an alive and dead ice to the
right coast, where a slope the moraine the path is visible, and go along the morain in the
direction of the tributary of the Azau river, flowing off the glacier ChiperAzau. Having turned
into the glade of the tributary, we mount the sand-pebble terrace with the tracks of bivouacs
and transparent springs. This place is called "Sand hotel" (2700 m).
The rise from the Azau glade demands about 3 hours.
From "The Sand Hotel" in the upper reaches of the glacier there are visible two similar summits:
the right - Azaubashi, the left - ChiperAzau. From the Azaubashi up to the "Sand Hotel" a rocky
ridge, ending with a pyramid-shaped summit above the glacier Large Azau. To the left of it there
is situated the pass "Echo of the War".
Three hundred meters west starts a herbaceous slope leading to a small green terrace with a
spring and tracks of bivouacs. Here it is possible to stay for a night. From a terrace both summits
framing the pass "Echo of the War" are visible.
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4th day. To the pass "Echo of the War". The rise to the pass from a bivouac
takes 2,5 hours, a descent - 1,5.
Taking in account that by evenings the weather often gets to the worse we should go on ascending from
the "Sand Hotel " not later than 12 a.m. Starting to the pass in the morning we'll have to plan an early
exit from bivouac place (at 7 a.m.), to be in time in Azau.
Having left on bivouac all the things and taken warm clothes and skitour equipment we start an ascent along the
spring up to the snow tongue. We go along the snow tongue carefully stamping the steps.
Into the ready steps the legs put smoothly to keep steps for the going behind. The torn off step
is covered by snow and then it is stamped again. For the snow tongue short scree leads to the pass.
On a broad saddle the memorable boards to the defenders of the Caucasus are set. By the pass is a
small lake. Behind it is strengthened a huge ice field covered with furrows from thawed water -
the Hotu-Tau plateau. Above it rises the two-headed Elbrus. At the far end of the plateau is a
lowering of the Hotu-Tau pass. Behind it the Baksan gorge with snow ridges above the
glades of the rivers Irikchat and Kyrtyk are visible. An arc skirting the "Sand Hotel " is viewed
completely, opposite it, in a deep circus, there is the Chegetkara glacier, more to the right
is a broad snow saddle of the Chiper pass, closer are the passes ChiperAzau and Azau.
The descent is carried out along an ascent way. Downwards on the snow we go facing to
the glade, deeply driving in the heels and leaning on the alpenstock. It's impossible to follow
each other: the broken away can knock down the others going below. At the breakdown you
shouldn't frighten, move down by legs, braking with a alpenstock. Be careful at an exit to the
glacier Large Azau and at the descent from it, don't drop rocks on the people going below.
For a skiing down to Azau from a night place is required 2 - 2.5 hours.
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5th day. Climbing to tourist's hotel "Gara Bashy" (3800 m) by
cableways "Elbrus" and "Gara-Bashi".
From the Azau Glade up by the aerial tramways "Elbrus-1" and "Elbrus-2" and the chair-cable lift
"Gara-Bashi". Accomodation in camp base "Gara Bashy", dinner.
Training hike till base "Priut 11" ("To the Shelter of Eleven"). From Gara-Bashi
to the "Shelter of Eleven"
the path is made over the snowfields. The marking sticks mark the path. The motion direction is the north.
Don't deviate of the path because the glacier on which the path is made has many crevasses covered by snow.
The path comes to the Shelter of Eleven. Its altitude is 4,200 meters above sea level.
From here you can see the wonderful views of the mountains of the Central and West Caucasus.
The both summits of Mount Elbrus are seen on the north. On
the east, southeast and south you can see the Greater Caucasian Range and its northern spurs. The ranges
of Svanetia (Gorgia) are seen behind the Greater
Caucasian Range, on the Southwest, behind the Hotu-Tau Range, the West Caucasus and its ranges
are seen.
After the rest skiing down to the Gara-Bashi along the ascent line.
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6th day. Climbing for acclimatization to Pastukhov's rocks (4800 m).
For the acclimatization effect there have to be two nights on altitude 4000m with climbing to Pastukhov's rocks (4800 m) on first day.
Skiing to tourist's hotel "Gara Bashi".
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7th day. Early morning climbing to a top of mount Elbrus.
The beginning of climb is planed in 2 a.m., in direction of the Pastukhov Rocks (4,800 m),
then to the saddle of Elbrus, here tourists have one hour rest and go to the
Western or Eastern summit. Skiing to a camp "Gara Bashi" more info..
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8th day. Spare day for climbing. Skiing down to hotel on glade Azau.
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9th day. Free day. Skiing over the Elbrus slopes.
In case of free day we can transfer to resort Nalchik - capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, with visiting of hot springs. Hotel accommodation 3* in park area. Evening excursion around the city. Dinner in the park.
Resort Nalchik |
Resort Nalchik |
Resort Nalchik |
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10th day. Transfer to Min Vody airport. Departure to Moscow..
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The cost of tour - 29,000 Rubles/per person, for a group from 3 persons.
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The cost includes:
1. Transfer Min Vody airport - Prielbrusye - Min Vody.
2. Accommodation in private hotel on glade Azau, according the programme 5 days.
3. Accommodation in barrels Gara-Bashi, according the programme 3 days.
4. Three meals a day (breakfast and supper in hotels, dinner - packed lunch).
5. All internal transfers.
6. Cable-ways on Elbrus (according the programme).
7. Qualified skitour-instructor for acclimatization and climbing.
8. Guides for climbing day, one guide for 3-4 persons.
9. Cook in base "Gara-Bashi".
10. Visa support, registration in OVIR, National Park, boundary permit.
The cost doesn't include:
1. Snow-tractor.
2. Equipment.
3. Insurance.
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The necessary equipment for skiers
(snowboarders use "snow-shoas")
| The personal equipment |
The group equipment |
| 1. Skitour boots |
1. The first - aid set |
| 2. Skitour Skis |
2. The electric torches |
| 3. Skitour ski-binding |
3. A rope |
| 4. Ski sticks |
4. Tents |
| 5. Crampons |
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| 6. Rucksack |
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| 7. The sleeping bag |
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| 8. Tourists rug |
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| Winter shedule 2012 | 8 days tours | 10 days tours | 8 days tours | 10 days tours |
| April | 14.04 | 21.04 | 28.04 | |
| May | 05.05 | 12.05 | 19.05 | 26.05 |
| June | 02.06 | 09.06 | | |
| September | 15.09 | 22.09 | | |
The costs of programmes per person in Rubles.
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Mount Elbrus
Climbing Elbrus south side
Elbrus North tour-11 days
About Prielbrusye
Prielbrusye map and hiking tours
Summer tours:
Fast climb - 8 days
Elbrus&Adyl-su gorge
Elbrus&Irik-chat gorge
Elbrus climb through gorge Terskol
Winter tours:
Elbrus ski-tour - 8 days
Skitouring in Elbrus region
Elbrus ski-tour&mt. Kogutai
Elbrus ski-tour&gorge Azau
Bezengi gorge
tourist camp Bezengi
Bezengi wall
North massif
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2011-11-22 10:51:58
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Lyana
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nalchik.ru/webcam/krugozor
webcam on second lift on Elbrus
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2011-11-22 10:01:17
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Lyana
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www.nalchik.ru/webcam/azau Here is Azau glade online. Its one working yet. Others will also work soon.
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2011-11-19 19:58:04
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Неизвестный
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Hi Lyana. Last year you had a link to some webcam, have they been dismounted??
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2011-09-04 14:27:52
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manuel
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I am interested in climbing Mount Elbrus in August 2011 and would like to contact people who have climbed Mount Elbrus to tell me about your experience, and people intending to climb it for next year, thanks (leunam1310@hotmail.com)
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2010-06-21 13:20:49
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Angel del Pozo
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Hi there, I am goint to the hotel on 6 or 7 july. And I need for my visa in Spain one letter from you with an invitation. It is really urgent
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