dee-tours
 Kavkaz Rossija 24 hr to Min Vody Aeroflot don´t have the best record, so we were a little nervous about this flight. They started by leaving an hour late. What would have happened if we were an hour late? Anyway we still had time at the other end to catch our connecting flight. That flight was two hours late. In Moscow we get the usual interference from taxi drivers. Sherimetvo 1 (international) & 2 (domestic) terminals are quite separate. We have one determined taxi driver who gets his rate down to E20 for a supposed 20min ride. The normal rate is E1 for 5km. So at 6 in the morning we check to see if buses are running. This is a little difficult as there´s no info desk and no one speaks english. The taxi driver tells us "no bus. you be late for plane". The bus desk opens and fortunately he speaks the lingo. Free bus every 20mins, takes 5min to domestic terminal. At the domestic terminal we met some ötsies (austrians). They paid E40 to transfer to the domestic terminal! At the domestic terminal we try to sleep a little. Try to get info on the flight but none is coming. Fortunately meet friendly english speaking russians who tell us of the flight delays. Friendly or english speaking is hard to come by here. Their facial expressions are quite different to what we´re used to. Not too many smiles, no looking at you, very reserved. However very genuine. Probably the complete opposite to America. Maybe that was what the cold war was about. Security at the airports is heavy. You even have to take your shoes off for xray. However as we find out it gets heavier down south. As the plane is late and it´s still early in the day, quite a few of the Russians have quite a few voddies and congac. A bit of singing gets the officials offside. They think all russians should be quiet. For the most part they are particularly so. The flight is smooth and enjoyable. I think it´s a Russian plane - strong and sturdy. On landing an artic truck takes us 100m to the terminal. The baggage claim area is small and old. The locals are locked out until all baggage is claimed and baggage tickets checked. Igor spots punters We get the usual interference from taxi drivers. Fortunately Igor our guide spots the foreigners and saves us from the hassle. He´s been waiting over 2 hrs so we have to change our itinarary. We have a taxi waiting and we immediately have our papers checked by the army. Taxis are usually ladas, we´re travelling in style we´ve got a volga. But like most russian cars it doesn´t burn clean and the smell of fuel and fumes comes wafting in. The volga is amazing in its ability to run on 70 octane petrol. 70-80 octane petrol is real cheap. But all the cars smell like they have a petrol leak. 3 hours later we´re in Azau Place. Not sure how much that taxi ride cost. There´s 2 ski fields near here both with a respectable lack of grooming. There´s also not too many lifts to clutter the landscape. Apres ski is quite a bit more low key than Europe thank god. The food here is pretty hearty. Everything is full fat. At least you know your heart is still beating. Hitchen is our first tast of Kavkaz (Caucasian) food. 1/3 pasta, 1/3 potato, 1/3 cheese deep fried to look like pancakes. This should keep us warm in the Russian cold. Anyway you should never trust a skinny cook. Adyr Su valley From Azau Place we drive just outside the national park border to the turn off to Adyr Su valley. Then a short drive to the vehicle lift. This magnificent feat of engineering lifts all vehicles including horses about 50 vertical m (see photo). At the top of the lift is an army border (with georgia) post check our papers which have been registered on the way into Azau then again on the way out. The soldiers looked like they´d had a long hard and boring winter camping at the top of the lift. Even their dogs were surprised to see people. Except the dogs were also happy to see people. 4 hrs walk and skinning and we were at the hut. This is normally an hour by bus. When we arrive our cook is the only one there. It´s a big but nice austrian style hut, except with the token dead machinery and derelict buildings surrounding it. The area´s popular for climbing in summer, so there´s 2 big camp grounds and 2 large huts in the area. Our hut has superseded the old hut which was smothered by an avalanche. of course the remains are still there. The new hut is between 2 avo paths. The out house i doubt will be there much longer. Nothing here is intended for ever. 2 hrs after our arrival our food arrives on horse back. It´s pretty hard on the horse which sinks up to its knees in the snow. Horse snowshoes could be big here. It´s nice not to have the ringing of machinery or the intrusion of a goods lift. That is until the generator starts. The next morning we wake to the symphony of the generator. I didn´t want to sleep in anyway. Expecially when full on cooked brekkies been prepared. It´s snowed 10cm overnight and it´s still snowing. We start skinning toward Mestia pass. Igor uses GPS to navigate. It´s pretty unnerving not knowing the surrounding terrain. We don´t have a map so our trust is in Igor. We hear large naturally released avo´s - level 4 danger. Igor seems pretty laxed as we cross an avalanche path. Igor has huge snow balling on his skins so I take teh lead. It´s hard to what´s in front of me let alone the crevasses on the one side or the large steep snowfield above us. As we go on it gets steeper and igor gets shooting cracks. M checks the slope at 35 degrees. There´s a windlip above and more than 20cm of new snow. Not a good mix of statistics. And because we don´t want to be one we take off our skins and ski down. The skiing is great and we can just make out the slope. I´m keen to go up again but Igor´s already ordered lunch. Lunch is worth going back for when it´s salmon fillets and egg hors doevres - super. We spend the rest of the day sifting and learning Russian. There´s a nice feel to this valley. It´s still got a bit of wilderness left. During the day we´ve seen lots of chamois and grouse. Unlike Europe there´s no people. There´s not much conforming to the norm. It´s kind of frontierish. A day of avalanches The next morning it´s still snowing. So skiing is off for the morning. At 11ish the sun pokes its head through. Powder avalanches start everywhere in the valley. The mountain opposite is really good viewing. The whole thing is washing down like a waterfall. Two climbers (the only other 2 in the valley) drop in on their way out. They lost there tent in a n avalanche and are on their way to the mtn safety hut. After another gourmet lunch we get amongst the action. We decide to go up teh gumatchi glacier. On the way up we see a massive and fast powder slide. We´re safe on a morraine ridge. We decide not to go as far as Garavash pass as it´s too steep and conditions are dodge. The skiing down is good. A 20-25 degree slope - nice and safe. On the way back we get Igor to show us crevass rescue - russian style. Quite different to what we´ve seen before but it seems to work ok. Back at the hut we show each other tricks and talk pigeon english with the young maintenance guy. I try out Igor´s transceiver. An ortovox X1. I hope he knows how to use it ´cause it´s not the easiest. It´s 1/2 anologue, 1/2 digital. Why they didn´t just keep the F1, i don´t know. Igor draws us the entire Adyr Su valley, naming all the peaks in it. he has a great knowledge and passion for the whole Pre Elbrus national park. he and his wife won the Ukraine silver medal last year on Ullatau at the head of this valley. They had also previously won the Russian silver medal. Mestia pass and outa there Finally we sake to clear skies and settled snow. The snow by the hut is crusty but makes fast skinning. By the glacier the snow is soft and deep. Igor starts to slow down but bold as ever he crosses a 30-35 degree slope in level 3 conditions. We spread out for safety and all is good. We have 3/4 of an hour to do 1 1/2 hr trip. So i take the lead and go for it. Marianne stays behind and soaks up the atmosphere. Near the pass i wait for Igor. There´s a schrund on one side and crevasses on the other. He points me in the right direction. The very last 50m is dodgier then i´d ever want to be in again. There´s considerable wind loading. To the right 2 large slabs have gone on steeper ground - level 4. To the left is a wind lip and steeper slope just waiting to go. We ahve a narrow area maxing out at 30 degrees. Kids don´t try this one at home. The snow feels good until the las 10m before it flattens again. I get short cracks forming in front of me. I´ve now only got 5m till it changes. Igor waits back and i quietly go on. Amazingly nothing goes. Now we´re in Georgia. The mountains here are just as spectacular. The view is great and the light is bright at 3700m. We can see the valley near Mestia itself. Mestia is a town of amazing history and tight community. It´s tucked away in the hinterland of Georgia. Georgia has been raped and pillaged by every neighbour plus the arabs. Apparently during the Turkish occupation of Georgia the Mestia townsfolk invited the local general in charge to dinner. They tied him up and planned to shoot him. Because they all had to take responsibility for the shooting, they tied a piece of string to the trigger and every man in the village helped pull the trigger. They were completely ashamed of inviting someone to their last supper. Now they are trying to make up for it by being the best hosts to everyone who comes by. We cautiously traverse back down the steepest part of the slope. I generously let Igor go 1st. Nothing goes for either of us. The skiing is great and more relaxing on the degree slope and just as much fun with snow wafting over us. Back on the flat the snow´s still hard and fast. So we´re back at the hut on time for more gourmet food. A quick pack and we´re like a bald man - outa hair. 1 1/2 hr later we meet our Pilgrims Tour 4WD near the vehicle lift. Back at the hotel in Azau Place it´s shower, dinner and vodka of course. We´re absolutely KO´d. What a great day. Elbrus and snow cats Our next intention was to go up Elbrus. The program set aside 5 days for acclimatisation, bad weather days and finally a summit. Sucking in diesel fumes from the snowcats and dead industrial stuff put us off summitting. So we changed the program to take in some more serene areas. However in the meantime we got to 4700m and enjoyed the view from there. Georgi the barrels huts caretaker was the highlight of the stay there. A really good humoured guy with hell teeth. We also met our first person who spoke english as a first language and he was a kiwi. Gav´s a pretty hardcase guy with great mtn and bike stories. In fact he´s invented the next generation of mtn bike. A 9kg downhill machine. We also have a good talk about the wilderness that is still left in NZ to explore. Something we´re been lacking in Europe. Our 1st ski tour after Elbrus was Cheget. Not a great one as it goes by the skifield of Cheget. Marianne decided to pull out of this one. This turns out a good decision because at the top it´s clouded in and the snow´s not that great. On a good day and taking the lift this would would have endless options availble for some great skiing. Beautiful Adyl Su We visit another beautiful valley about 10km out of Azau Place called Adyl Su Valley. It´s a good thing we´ve got the OAZ 4WD. Another Russian robust machine. This would be a great place to base oneself for ski touring. It starts at about 2300m and the mountains surrounding go up to about 4500m. Amazingly we didn´t have to show our passports to anyone but in summer you will, as there´s a summer border post there. The skin through the valley starts with a bouldery creek, then to the spine of morraine, then the flat green 'hotel', then to the flaking glacier. Lada sized ice blocks had been flaking off part of the glacier and slowly sliding up to a km downhill. Unfortunately the weather turned on us and turned around short of our goal. The spring weather changed again on our next ski tour. This time too hot. Kogutai pass is started near Cheget. You need safe conditions as there are terrain traps and steeper slopes. On our way up we saw the remnants of a couple of seriously big slides. By the time we were about to do a steep traverse it was nearly the hottest part of the day. So we turned around well away from the summit. The conditions were quite variable as we went from spring slush, to firm crust that needed ski crampons and then heavy fresh snow. This trip also took my faith away from using GPS as a route finder. It would have been more comforting for us to have had a map. Part of the problem with russian maps however is that the military put in purposeful mistakes so people don´t actually know where they are. American made ones are better. On our return to the bottom Cheget has turned into Chegnobyl - it´s having a big melt down. It´s about 20 degrees. Great for spring time cafeing. Skiing with Gav and Jas We had one day left in the area and Igor and I made big plans for a big day skiing on some big moutains with big slopes. This all depending of course on the snow stability. During the morning it rained making the snow pack heavy and dangerous. The mountain safety council forbid anyone to go outside skifield areas. Our plans were literally washed away. So we had a day on the Terskol (Elbrus) ski field. We skied with Gav and Jas (another Kiwi). The ski field´s got great volcanic and glacial terrain. Becareful of the crevasses and also rock and ice fall. We only managed 3 runs in the day as the lifts take an hour to get to the top. At least they´re long runs, over 1500m vertical drop. Just don´t talk too much or loud on the lift as a Russian weight lifter sized guy will politely tell you to hush up, eh Jas. We end our tour of the Causasus with traditional Vodka and congac. We have a lengthy and great yarn with a moscovite (George) and learn lots. Fortunately the next day is filled mainly with driving to Piat Gorsk. Unfortunately for Igor he has 14 Austrian to meet and take up Elbrus. During early communism Piat Gorsk was where political poets were sent to a concentration camp. These days it´s a bustling city with markets, mountains, hot pools and of course an oversized statue of lenin looking down on everyone. Moscow The airport looks kind of like thunderbirds on steroids. Then you get the general interference from the taxi drivers. Moscow´s not a particularly user friendly place. There´s no info office, no one speaks english, no one even seems to worry that you might even want something escept of course the taxi drivers. Any way we manage to get into town via bus and taxi for about 60 roubles each. There isn´t any budget accomodation in moscow and it´s worse when the rossija (Europes biggest hotel) and the only other central hotel are closed for rennovation. One place wanted to charge us NZ$140/night for a scummy room, shared toilet and shower in the hallway. We ended up a little further out of town with better but not good value. If anyone accidently ends up in moscow. The best thing to do is have a look at the tube. Built in the 30´s by Stalin to show communist might. It´s quite glamorous and real cheap. The moscow Kremlin and St Bas´s cathedral are also interesting to look at. You also get a bit of an insight into former times of oppression. This seems to continue to be expressed in the daily life of most Muscovites. Russia Is an interesting place with interesting history and masses of area to explore and real guenuine people. Hopefully the corruption and unevenly spread wealth can be corrected. At the moment people seem pretty non plussed about this. From what i understand it´s a major problem getting worse. Will also be interesting to see what they do as far as Kyoto agreement. They have a real different way of dealing with the environment. Anyway it´s a great place, especially if you want something a bit more wild than Europe. See you soon I & M
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