Mount Elbrus is a peak located in the western Caucasus mountains, in Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia, Russia, near the border of Georgia. It is a stratovolcano that has lain dormant for about 2,000 years; it is the highest mountain in the Caucasus which belong to Europe, So part of the seven summits.

Mt. Elbrus (west summit) stands at 5,642 meters (18,510 ft) and can be considered to be the highest mountain in Europe. The east summit is slightly lower: 5,621 meters (18,442 ft).

From 1959 to 1976 a cable car system was built in stages that can take visitors as high as 3,800meters. There is a wide variety of routes up the mountain, but most ascents are made by the normal route which is free from crevasses. Though climbing Elbrus in the summer is relatively easy, It is renowned for its brutal winter weather, from avalanches to powerful winds.

Mount Elbrus Miracle

48 hours ago I believed there was little hope for climbing Mount Elbrus – Europe’s highest peak!

I am so so so happy to let you all know that I have had an ENOURMOUS stroke of luck!

At around 11.50 (I wasn’t wearing a watch so I’m not sure exactly!!)  This morning I reached the eastern summit of Mount Elbrus at 5642m

Only an hour after I sent the email out explaining my disposition with the weather, the meteorological station on the peak published the new set of forecasts for the following days. To our surprise it turned out there was a small weather window this morning

(And by weather window, I mean the winds were down to 45 from 50, and the temperature from -50 to -38!!! (which is almost unheard of in the summer on elbrus))

But nevertheless, it was still a window, which is exactly what we had been despondently sitting waiting for.

After numerous climbers going missing on Elbrus the last few days in the awful weather, I had decided to avoid the plan of a solo climb, and quickly started enquiring around for a guide or a team to tag onto.

As it turned out, this morning, was the 140th anniversary of the first ascent, by a British General and a group of locals. The descendants of these local men were planning on ascending Elbrus to celebrate the anniversary, and thought that it was particularly amusing to invite an English girl to join them to represent good old blighty in the team!

After dashing up to the base camp yesterday afternoon, hoping that perhaps a last minute ascent was possible, I set down to a short nights sleep, waking at 2.30 to leave  for the summit at 3.00. About 3 hours into the climb all the climbers realised that perhaps the report was  just a littlewrong, with hideously low temperature, strong winds and snow storms all setting in.

The rest of the team turned back, but having paired up with the best guide on Elbrus (stacking up over 200 ascents, first age only 10) I was convinced to carry on. I thought I was in safe hands until he pulled out his GPS in the middle of the snow exclaiming “oh, the batteries have run out!”

But, seriously he is a fantastic and renowned guide around these parts and had I not been given the oppurtunity to climb with him, I definitely would not have reached the peak.

We struggled for 9 hours to the summit through a very strong whiteout,  (which was for me, an extremely scary experience) and around 3 ½ hours to come down, also with no visibility.

I am very proud of this ascent in unbelievably difficult circumstances, Elbrus is a peak which I believed would be among the easiest, though has turned out to be the hardest so far, and I have been told the conditions today were worse than usually seen on Everest and Antarctic peaks.

After doing a bit of research today, I believe I am the youngest British female to have climb mount elbrus! And perhaps the most insane too!

… Now… down to finding  this challenge a sponsor!!