Adventure with a Purpose: Mt Elbrus 20016 - The build up - the mountain #trek4choc #trek4kidzwithcancer

Elbrus. its happening, a life long dream about to start.

My journey is to walk, adventure and climb 1 million metres for the plight of children in South Africa, this is one of the mountains on my quest. Why well simply for me it is something that burns deep within my soul. Something I don't fully understand yet, but something I just need to do, it both overwhelms and consumes me in a positive way, I believe fully that this is my purpose on this earth and I am both privileged and grateful to know this. I work as an Advanced life Support Paramedic and Officer for the City of Johannesburg Fire dept in the inner city slums and squatter camps of Johannesburg and over the past 17 years grew tired of witnessing babies and children dying of starvation, malnutrition, illness and disease and wanted to make a difference. This is the only way I know how and this is my journey. If you don't understand that's okay, its my journey not yours and if I have to explain it to you, you will never understand!

https://www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/adventure-with-a-purpose-trek4choc-mt

image credit Google

So where and what is Elbrus?

Elbrus is actually a twin volcano found in Russia in the breathtakingly beautiful Caucasus mountains. It forms a rather imposing barrier to both people and animals wishing to cross from Europe into Asia.The mountain range has huge glaciers and sheets of ice which made their way down from the Arctic to the northern shores of the Caspian Sea during the last ice age. Because of its twins peaks you need to make sure that you climb the right one, stories of summiteers on the wrong peak abound.

This was our brief on our mountain adventure from Sean Disney - Adventure Dynamics International

http://test.defusiondesigns.co.za/Adventure%20Dynamics/Mount_Elrus.pdf

http://www.adventuredynamics.co.za/

Image credit google:

"The Caucasus has always been a formidable barrier to people and animals crossing from Europe to Asia. This would have been even more so for the original people in the area between 100 000 and 50 000 years ago as this was during the last ice age. Huge glaciers and sheets of ice made their way down from the Arctic all the way to the northern shores of the Caspian Sea.

These Neolithic people found shelter from the extreme cold on the shores of the Black Sea. The Caucasus offered a barrier from the freezing Arctic winds and the temperate winds from the south made the foothills of the Caucasus an almost ideal location. Paleolithic cave sites as well as Neolithic and Bronze age artifacts have been found all along the shores of the Black Sea

Since the very first historical records tribal wars and political unrest have troubled the area around the Caucasus. Between the 8th and 6th century BC the main tribe was the Colchis people who due to their advanced economy and favorable geographical position attracted the Greeks who colonised the Black Sea coast. It is believed that this is the area where legends such as the Golden Fleece sought by Jason and Argonauts were first recorded. This story originated due to the prosperity of the Colchis people who used to recover alluvial gold by letting the gold dust settle onto the submerged fleece of a sheep.

Caspian Sea - Image Google

The area was then overrun and controlled by numerous civilisations in the following centuraries. The Persians in the 6th and 5th centuries BC, and then in 330 BC Alexander the Great and his invading forces crossed the Caucasus in search of the disposed Persian king Darius.

In 324 AD the Roman Empire expanded from the south and reached as far as the Caucasus. The Seljuks or Turks from central Asia then overran them in 1055 AD. The Mongols then invaded the Turks between 1212 and 1223 and their reign for more than a century caused the gradual decline of the once prosperous civilization due to the heavy taxation they levied upon it. The Mongol reign eventually came to an end when Giorgi V came to power and stopped paying the taxes and drove the Mongols out of his country.

The Ottoman Dynasty began to collapse in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the area became a battleground for European countries until the Russians assumed control in the 19th century after a series of wars with Persia and Turkey. The people of Georgia and Armenia, then predominantly Christian accepted Russian hegemony as protection from Turkish persecution. In Azerbaijan, Dagestan, and the historic region of Circassia, the people were largely Muslim and they bitterly fought Russian penetration and were pacified only after the Shamyl uprising.

Black Sea - Image credit google

During the Second World War the Germans, desperate for fuel, put all their efforts into pushing across the Volga river to the rich oilfields of the Caspian Sea. Their forces managed to occupy all the territories north of the Baksan Valley and were gradually taking the mountain valleys in the Western Caucasus. On the 14th August 1942, a unit of the German Alpine division "Edelweiss" crossed the four thousand meter high Khotiutau Pass from the west and unexpectedly arrived at Priut 11. The Germans suggested to the few occupants of the hut that resistance was useless and offered them a chance to move out unhindered, after a short consultation they took up the offer! Soon the swastika was flying on the summit of Elbrus. However by the winter of 1942 the Germans were finally repulsed and routed from Stalingrad and the Volga. Their forces withdrew from the Elbrus area in January 1943 and by mid-February the Soviet flag was re-established on the summit of Elbrus where a memorial with a machine gun and ice axe now stands.

This unfortunately was not the end to the conflict in the area and there are permanent scuffles and shows of force between the Georgian Republic and Soviet forces, as well as ethnic clashes due to the numerous and varied local people in the area. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, demands for smaller, ethnically based nations in the Caucasus, both in Russian North Caucasia and in the newly independent nations of Transcaucasia, have given rise to a number of disturbances and armed rebellions.

Georgia - Image google

The climbing history of Mt Elbrus is bound up in the political history of the area and most of the Caucasus was out of bounds to westerners until the Russian military conquest was completed. At the end of the 19th century the famous Russian army topographer Andrei Pastukhov made several attempts at reaching the summit. His inability to readily acclimatise defeated his initial attempts, but the rocks at 4960m, near where he was forced to camp on one of his attempts were named after him in memory of his contribution to the knowledge of the mountain.

The first scientific expedition to the area was 1829 and was conducted by the Academy of Science of Russia. They approached from the northern side and during this expedition the local guides Killar Khashirov and Akhai Sottaev and a Russian academic E Leng reached the saddle. Killar continued up to the summit of the East peak at 5621 meters.

During the Golden Era of mountaineering between 1854 and 1865 there was a spate of first ascents in the Alps and about 180 Alpine peaks were climbed for the first time. The reason why the Alps was so popular was the ease of access and the well-established mountain inns. The Alps soon became overpopulated with climbers and many of the purists began looking to the Caucasus for pioneering mountaineering. In 1868 the first English expedition approached Mt Elbrus from the South. The expedition consisted of the leader Douglas Freshfild as well as Kukker and A Murr.

Brian Long - photo credit

In 1929 a small hut was constructed at 4160m and was called Priut 11 (the refuge of the 11) after the name given to their tent by a group of 11 scientists who had earlier used this site as their base. The name stuck, and in 1932 a forty-man "Priut 11" was constructed at the same site. In the following year a small hut was constructed at "The Saddle" between the two summits at an altitude of 5350m. The huts were soon overwhelmed with climbers as the next few years were to be the golden era of Soviet-style mountaineering for the masses.

the famous barrels - photo credit google

The inevitable happened eventually in 1936 when a huge group of young and inexperienced Komsomol members tried the ascent Elbrus in winter. In winter the winds blow all the loose powdery snow off the higher slopes of the mountain leaving the large areas of exposed ice. Descending in good weather conditions one of the group slipped and knocked over one after another member of the party like skittles. Many "climbers" died that day sliding and rolling over the icy slopes to smash themselves on the rocks of Pastukhova.

In the period 1959 to 1976 the Elbrus cableway was planned and built section by section. The final section from Station Mir to Priut 11 was never completed although a chairlift

google images

which works intermittently takes visitors as far as Garabashi at 3800m from where snow-cats may be available to take them higher. The cable car has opened up the lower southern slopes of the mountain to skiers, who often ski above Garabashi late into the summer.

Now the burnt shell of Priut 11 stands surrounded by piles of rubbish, below it is the "bombed out" shell of the fuel store. You can still find it easily by following the tottering line of electric cable posts. You can also still visit the toilet which has survived. Few people actually stay at the Priut as it from an era passed, and a new hut is in the process of being built.

Standing on the border between the temperate mid-latitude and the subtropical climatic zones, the Greater Caucasus accentuates this climatic difference by impeding the movement of cold air masses from the north into Transcaucasia and, conversely, that of warm air masses into Ciscaucasia from the south. The main climatic peculiarities of the region are related to altitude and the dominant westerly airstream. The weather is dominated by the warm and humid conditions from the Black sea but adjacent ridges and mountains moderate the influence of northerly and westerly winds on the climate of the valleys in the Elbrus region.

Priut 11 - photo google

Spring and summer are mainly dry warm and clear, but thunderstorms are quite common in early summer. Autumn and winter are cold, dry and clear but warm dry winds from the mountains can cause thaws lasting several days that are often followed by huge snowfalls that increase avalanche potential. By the end of winter snow cover can be 60cm in exposed areas and up to 3m in protected areas. Below 2000m winter lasts from December to February, and above 2000m from October to April. Due to the heavy snow from winter and the potential for thunderstorms early in the season the climbing season is from June to August.

Traveling from Mineralnye Vody we pass from the semiarid steppe climate in the west and pass into the Greater Caucasus where temperatures decrease and the growing season becomes correspondingly shorter with an increase in altitude. More total precipitation falls on the mountain slopes than on the neighboring plains. Above an altitude of approximately 2000m , a westerly air current prevails, strengthening maritime influences and greatly moderating climatic conditions. As the Greater Caucasus stands at an angle to the westerly air currents, the heaviest precipitation, reaching a maximum of more than 4m, accumulates on the south and southwest-facing slopes. In the higher elevations, a cold, Alpine climate with high humidity prevails, and perennial snow cover shrouds the highest crests. Along the northern Black Sea coast, the climate is typically Mediterranean, with mild, rainy winters and dry summers. Lightening storms are prominent in the region but incident of lightening strike to humans has ever been reported on Elbrus. Other adverse conditions that are experienced on the mountain especially on summit day are high winds or complete white outs that make an ascent more challenging.

GEOLOGY

Somewhere around 25 million years ago during the Late Oligocene period there was a subsidence of the Earth's crust that created a huge lake within which vast amounts of sediment accumulated as hundreds of rivers emptied into it. This was known as the Alpine Geosyncline. As the depression filled with thousands or tens of thousands of feet of sediment the weight caused the earth to begin folding, crumbling and faulting. This was the beginning of the folded mountain range now known as the Caucasus. Structurally the Greater Caucasus are made up of an anticline or upfold which occurred at the edge of the Alpine Geosyncline, over many millions of years it has undergone much glacial erosion and uplift which has formed it into the range that stands today.

Mt Elbrus itself is a twin headed volcano situated on a vent that was created due to the folding of the earth. It has further been formed by heavy glaciations, which has left glacier cirques and elegant pyramidal surrounding summits. The area above 3000m is heavily glaciated with about 77 minor glaciers originating on Mt Elbrus itself. As is the case with most glaciated areas of the world the glaciers in the Caucasus are in recession, and have receded between 80m and 500m in the last 100 years. There are many glacial lakes in the area, which are small in area but are often very deep. Another interesting

feature of the area is the many natural mineral springs, which produce naturally carbonated spring water and are a sign of the volcanic activity in the area.

FAUNA AND FLORA

In western and central Ciscaucasia, steppe vegetation once prevailed on the region's rich black soils, but these areas now have been converted largely to agricultural land. Forest-steppe vegetation, with oaks and beeches dominate the Baksan Valley area and the higher ground of the Greater Caucasus. In the lower elevations of the mountains themselves, at altitudes between 2,000 and 3,000 feet, arboreal brushwood and broad-leaved forest predominates. On the Black Sea slopes of the Greater Caucasus and in the mountainous hinterland of the Kolkhida Lowlands, there are mixed forests of beech, oak, hornbeam, chestnut, and alder, with lianas and an evergreen undergrowth on terra rossa and yellow soils. At higher altitudes up to 2000m, both the Greater and the Lesser Caucasus support forests of oak, hornbeam, and beech on brown soils; these are superseded at higher elevations by forests of Caucasian elm and Nordmann fir in the west and southwest and, occasionally, by pine forests farther east. Feather grass and Needlegrass cover the black soil of the steppes on the lava plateaus and plains of the Armenian Highland. Steppes and tall-grass meadows are also widespread among the mountains of Dagestan. Above elevations of 2000m in the Greater Caucasus and in the Transcaucasian ranges, mountain meadow vegetation covers three successive belts: subalpine, alpine, and subnivean. Finally, at about 3000m begins the zone of glaciers and perpetual snow.

The fauna of the Greater and Lesser Caucasus includes certain endemic species, the West Caucasian and the Dagestanian mountain goat, or tur, the Caucasian black grouse, and the Caucasian mountain turkey, or ular--and even some endemic genera, such as the long-clawed mole vole. Other common mammals include the chamois, red deer, bear, lynx, and fox. Ciscaucasia's fauna is related both to that of eastern Europe and to that of Central Asia; the latter connection is evident in the Kura-Aras Lowland, which is home to the Persian gazelle, the long-eared hedgehog, the jerboa, and the jungle cat. The fauna of the Talish Mountains, which includes leopard and porcupine, is related to that of more southerly territories, while that of the Armenian Highland is related to that of Anatolia, with its ground squirrel, or suslik, and mountain jerboa.