After a really good sleep I got up ready to start organising my equipment.  Having packed the night before I was nearly ready to go but needed to organise my drinks.  Two water bottle with orange ‘effervescent’ tablets in them and a thermos of mint tea.

Whilst organising my drinks, by heating the water up in a kettle first to make sure it was clean, I had a very hearty breakfast which would set me up for the day.  Ryan, a South African climber who arrived late last night and was sharing my room at the lodge, was also in the final stages of preparing his equipment whilst having his breakfast.  Ryan was getting on well with me and Ron – it looks like the three of us will group together when the Elbrus climb starts tomorrow.

At 09:00 everyone was ready and we started walking towards Mount Cheget.  This would be an acclimatisation walk but also a good test of fitness.  Along the way we passed yet more remnants of the Soviet era and arrived at the town of Terksol at 10:15.

We boarded cable cars and were quickly transported to 2500m where we were met by our first border guards.  We were near Chechnya, close to the Georgian border, and the guards made it clear we weren’t welcome.  Even so, we had the right paperwork so they had to let us through.  The group started climbing at a brisk pace despite the oxygen levels becoming noticeably lower.  However, we kept pushing on and reached the summit at 12:15

Everyone had made it and was pleased with their fitness.  The cloud cover started to clear and we were treated to some good views of Elbrus.  What a magnificent view it was!

Ron gave everyone some Schnapps, which is apparently a German custom, and we started taking some photos of the spectacular views across the Caucasus range, Georgia and Asia.  Soon afterwards a team of South African climbers reached the summit and before we knew it we were having a party on top of Mount Cheget!  Almost like school kids we swapped our energy bars and snacks and tried each other’s drinks.  Great fun!

The time came for us to start the descent.  Just after 13:00 we bid the South Africans farewell and made our way down at an incredible speed.  Within 30 minutes we were back at our cable cars heading towards Terksol once more.

All the cloud coverage had gone now and the cable car ride down into the Baksan Valley was a pleasure.  Having arrived in Terksol we were shepparded straight into a café for lunch which was consumed at an incredible rate.  Ron, Ryan, and I also tried Terek beer with our lunch, which was very nice indeed.

To complete our preparations we headed for an equipment hire shop.  I was fine as I had all the kit I needed.  Others were hiring boots, which to me is always a risk.  Two climbers in our group had lost their luggage and had to hire all their equipment.  One of the couple, Vincent, had even resorted to wearing his girlfriend’s knickers!

Having stocked up on 10L of water we headed back to the lodge to organise our equipment for tomorrow.

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