Эльбрус с запада

Winter ascent of Elbrus from the west. During the January holidays, a team of athletes from our club, consisting of Daniil Iordansky, Roman Evlanov, Ivan Kovalev, and Oleg Kuzkin, completed a winter ascent of Elbrus from the west via the route via Utyug! Besides the route, we experienced the typical conditions of this time of year: gale-force winds, snowstorms, and fog. Lack of communication and up-to-date weather forecasts, equipment failures, constant struggle with cold and fatigue—and yet, absolute beauty: a bright moon over the camp, the silence of nighttime ascents, and crystal-clear blue ice. The route is beautiful and athletic. Besides the less-than-pleasant approaches, it offers several pitches of steep ice and kilometers of snow-and-ice slopes. The expedition lasted 12 days, and the ascent itself took 19 hours from camp to camp (from 3900m to 3900m).