Elbrus

One of the Seven Summits

Beautiful. Remote. Devoid of climbing infrastructure.

 

Long used almost exclusively by Russian climbers, the routes up the Northwest and Southwest Faces of Elbrus are destined to become the premier routes on the mountain for experienced alpinists.

The Problem and the Opportunity at Elbrus

The remote Ullukhurzuk and Ullukam Valleys at the bases of these routes have no climbing infrastructure. The valleys are populated by the Karachay people, who are not ethnic Russians, but rather Sunni Muslims descended from the Kipchaks, a nomadic Turkic people from Central Asia who settled in these high mountain valleys in the late Bronze Age. Unfortunately, the people living in these valleys have few economic opportunities outside of farming and raising livestock. Due to the poor local economic prospects, the youth are moving away and this ancient culture is at risk of being lost.

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Our Inspiration and Plan

Inspired by the film The Porter and the new UIAA Mountain Worker Initiative, we are partnering with the local villages to build a mountain tourism economy that is respectful of the local culture and that they will own and run themselves. Climbers will gain access to true alpine routes on Europe's highest peak and the Karachay people’s homeland will gain new economic vitality.

Elbrus-Russia-Kukurtlu-Glacier

The first phase of the project was completed in September of 2021. This consisted of meeting and discussing the project with the residents of Khurzuk and other stakeholders in the area, as well as a climb of a seldom attempted route on the SW side of Elbrus by Matthew C Johnson of the Sustainable Ascents Foundation (SAF) and Aleksandr Eliseev from mountainguides.pro. Matthew and Aleksander were joined on this climb by Aleksandr’s son Andre. Additional climbing and trekking opportunities in the area were also investigated. Further discussions and explorations were conducted in September 2021 by Matthew C Johnson and Mark Higton (also from SAF). Alexandr Eliseev then joined them for a climb of a new variation on the SW Route.

The second phase, including the filming of a documentary in the villages and on the NW Route, was supposed to take place in June of 2022, but due the political tensions surrounding the nearby Russia-Ukraine War, this phase will be delayed until summer 2025.

In the meantime, a small group from SAF (Matthew C Johnson, Christine LeJeune and Deniz Yilmaz) did manage to travel to the area in July of 2022. They held further discussions with interested locals (thank you for your help Osman!) and Matthew, Deniz, Aleks and Pavel Chernov (also from mountainguides.pro) climbed the NW Route as far as the Western Plateau, where they turned back due to weather. This portion of the route included 8 pitches of steep ice and snow on the glacier below the plateau. The route turned out to be even more beautiful than expected and hopes are high for this route becoming a major draw on this side of the mountain.

While there are existing security warnings for the North Caucasus region, the valley that we will be operating in is, and has been, peaceful. Again, we will be arriving as guests, with our ground team preparing the way.

Timing and Concerns

  • Matthew C Johnson

  • Nathaniel J Menninger

  • Gregg Kane

  • Mark Higton

  • Sibusiso Vilane

  • Mostafa Salameh

  • Sergey Baranov

  • Alexander Eliseev

  • Fernanda May

  • Fernando Lessa

  • Murilo Gimenes Lessa

  • Julianu Lorne

  • Damien Verriest

  • Hezron Kule

  • Andrew Slate

  • Christine LeJeune

  • Berk Deniz Yilmaz

  • Pat Corden

  • Rob Kyte

Sustainable Ascents Foundation

The Sustainable Ascents Foundation (SAF) is the official nonprofit corporation handling all of the business activities related to the Elbrus4Alpinists Project. The SAF will carefully manage all donations to the project and use these funds to establish a sustainable, locally led and locally owned alpine tourism economy. The SAF will provide business expertise and mentoring to the villagers while overseeing the construction of climbing huts and other infrastructure improvements. The SAF will also create an online presence and reservation system for the villagers, who will then self-manage the business and collect and keep 100% of the economic proceeds. Additionally, the SAF will partner with responsible organizations to facilitate development and tourism related work as well as scholarly research in the region.

Please support our work.

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Join our team

If you believe that you have something to contribute to this project, or would like to partner with us to do work or research in the area, we'd love to hear from you. Contact project organizer Matthew C Johnson directly at m.johnson@elbrus4alpinists.org.