On Tuesday, September 4th, I did my first shakeout cruise. My acclimatization hike from the hotel near the market in Cheget, up to the barrels, from 6800′ elevation to 12,300′ elevation. Roughly 5400′ of elevation gain over 7.3 miles. Reverse that for the return home. I walked up the access road from Azau to the Barrels.
…the long gravel road that weaves under the gondola and tram lines. There is actually a lot going on up there with several huts, some full time lift and power line workers, so that supply trucks, huge military or mine style trucks with 5′ tires run up and down this road all day. That’s both good and bad, since they simultaneously pack down and chew up the road surface, and the overall grade or angle is determined by the lowest common denominator of the trucks. Sadly, I generally dislike loose gravel in sand, so despite averaging a good time overall, I was not really happy. There were spots that felt like one step forward and two steps back. — from “Elbrus, My Waterloo” – publishing October 2012
It was long, hot, dusty, but it was a great sense of accomplishment to go somewhere that most American climbers never ever go. This is roughly equivalent to the Cheget Peak hike that most guide companies do in the first day or two of the itinerary. Only they usually go up the chairlift to get a thousand meters in before hiking.
KPICASA_GALLERY(ChegetToBarrelsHikingOnElbrus)
just to correct one thing on your site they are not the 7 highest summits on the globe,by a long way there are thousands higher than them and more difficult.
Thanks, it’s hard to find a ten-word phrase that adequately sums up the various ways to describe them. Issues related to exactly what is considered a geo-political or geo-physical continent, or tectonic plate, or shallow part of an ocean or sea, and whether something is a bump on a ridge, or a peak with measurable prominence, etc. etc. etc. It’s all so difficult sometimes.
I do appreciate your concern, and while there are probably a million bumps on thousands of ridges much much taller than poor little Kosciusko, there really aren’t many higher than Everest as far as is currently known.
Hats off and accolades to those who’ve climbed the Fourteen 8,000’ers – the truly highest known peaks of the entire planet, all contained within a very narrow band of geography, and may millions of armchair mountaineers everywhere strive to read and comment on all the blogs and books about their heroic deeds.