Blogs from Caucasus, South, Russia, Europe
July 21st 2011
In other words, Elbrus was excellent! Summited the 5642 meter mountain Monday morning at 10:15 am local time after a quite arduous 1800 meter (6000 feet) ascent from the not so high camp at 3800 meters. Brief synopsis: Day 1, July 13 - Harrowing 3 hour drive from Kislovodsk to north route base camp at 2200 meters. Day 2 - Carry a load to "high camp," sleep at base camp. Day 3 - Move to high camp and sleep there. Awful camp. Day 4 - Acclimatization hike to Lenz Rocks at 4700 meters. Day 5/6 - Rest day then wake up a little after 01:00 Monday morning to clear skies and a nearly full moon, get dressed and wolf down some oatmeal chased with tea. Bolted from camp around 02:15 and barely stopped on the 8 ... read more
August 24th 2010
....by the rivers of Babylon, where we sat down. Ehr we wept, when we remembered Zion..... The train that carried us away from Berlin had a ghostly feel not unlike the chariot that carried Jonathan Harker away from the Bistritsa pass in the opening chapters of "Dracula". Prior to this we had travelled in European luxury in the hands of typical Deutsch Bahn comfort, but the transfer ride from the glassy, modern Berlin central station to the Kiev connection told a different tale. Drunks sat about mumbling to themselves, security was nonexistant and the air around us filled with the unmistakable sound of Slavic tongues. Goodbye Europe, Hello Bloc. The faces of those around us also changed from the virtually post-ethnic intelligentsia of the worlds most developed countries to the pure bred, blue eyed stare of ... read more
Skiing in Dombay and Meeting the Karachay
Published: March 11th 2010Europe » Russia » South » Caucasus
March 11th 2010
Arrival Getting here is a challenge in itself, the nearest train stations are Mineralnye Vody and Nevinnomyssk which are a 4 hour and 3.5 hour drive respectively. Once at the train station you can start bartering for the cost of the taxi fare to Dombay, if you're lucky there will be some other people on your train going in the same direction and you'll be able to share the cost. Or you may be even luckier and meet an Armenian driver who went to English school, Victor's English wasn't great but with our Russian and his English we had a good chat for the four drive. We agreed on 3000R for the drive eventually but expect to pay 3,500R, Victor started by charging us 4,000R. We chose to go to Mineralnye Vody because from our research ... read more
June 13th 2009
The best thing about working on Russian deals is making friends who are willing to show me around their beautiful and fascinating country. Trips to Moscow and St. Petersburg were a great start but last weekend we went further off the beaten path to visit the relatives of a friend in the remote Caucasus Mountains, as far west and south as you can go in Russia before reaching Chechnya and the Georgian border. We flew from Moscow to Mineralnye Vody (literally, "Mineral Water") which is adjacent to the town of Kislovodsk whose claims to fame are mud spas, hot springs and natural healing waters. For centuries people have been coming to Kislovodsk (which translates as "Sour Water") to drink its sulfuric waters (bottled by the Narzan company) in the hope of curing a variety of ailments. ... read more
