The highest mountain in Russia, a natural monument, one of the largest extinct volcanoes in the world, the Mecca of the pilgrimage of Russian and not only climbers and just a very, very beautiful mountain - this is the minimal set that comes to mind when talking about Elbrus. This ice beauty hides the hot breath of a fiery abyss under its ice - after all, Elbrus, in fact, is an extinct volcano. Or just asleep? There is still no consensus among volcanologists so far.
Mountain structure
To the question which mountains in Russia are the highest, any student will answer: “Caucasus”. This is a chain of mountain ranges stretching in the south-west of the country. And Elbrus is the highest point of these mountains and, accordingly, in Russia. The highest mountain is located in the Lateral Range of the Greater Caucasus. At the same time, on the border between Karachay-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria.
In addition, Elbrus is one of the highest mountains on Earth, in Russia, which at the same time is also a volcano, occupying an honorable fifth place in height, yielding only to the volcanoes of Aconcagua (6.96 km), Lyulyaylyako (6.723 km), Kilimanjaro ( 5.895 km) and Orizabe (5.700 km).
From a geological point of view, it is an extinct volcano, with two peaks at a height of 5,621 kilometers (lower) and 5,642 kilometers (upper), interconnected by the so-called “saddle”, ascending above sea level to a height of 5.3 kilometers. Both peaks of it are typical volcanic cones. There is also a third cone (in the west of the mountain) - it is much lower and, due to its antiquity, is almost completely destroyed by weathering processes.
Like many other volcanoes, it consists of a rocky base rising 3.7 km above sea level and the actual volcanic cones formed as a result of the eruption of lava, which add to Elbrus about two more kilometers in height.
The snow line of the mountain is located at an altitude of 3.5 kilometers. Above this mark only snow, ice and bare, frostbitten, icy rocks.
Fire-breathing mountain
As already mentioned, Elbrus is the largest and highest mountain in Russia, capable of spewing lava flows at the same time. But is it a sleeping volcano or extinct? Strictly speaking, volcanoes are considered extinct only in those cases if no information about their eruptions has been preserved in historical chronicles. In the case of Elbrus, everything is a little different. The last eruption was around the fifties of the New Era.
The periods of maximum activity of our volcano are, according to scientists, 220, 100 and 30 millennia old.
Extinct or not?
Despite the fact that the sleeping volcano Elbrus has not erupted for almost two millennia, we have no reason to consider it completely extinct. Moreover, geologists believe that the volcano is on an ascending branch of development, which means that it is quite possible that it will declare itself. Let's hope that more than one millennium will pass before this moment.
The history of the study of Elbrus
Despite the fact that for the first time in historical chronicles, the highest mountain in Russia appeared already in the so-called “Book of Victories” describing Tamerlane’s campaigns - it indicates that the great commander climbed the mountain to pray, Elbrus underwent serious scientific study, only starting from the nineteenth century.
In particular, the coordinates and (fairly accurately) the height of a snow-covered volcano were determined by Russian scientific researcher V.K. Vishnevsky, and the first research expedition took place in 1829. It was attended by several Russian pundits, in particular Lenz and Meyer, accompanied by local guides and a detachment of Cossacks of a thousand people.
Despite all the efforts made, the scientists were not able to climb to the very top - only the young and acclimatized to mountain conditions conductor K. Khashirov was able to do it. It is interesting that another conductor who participated in this expedition was A. Sottaev, later 9 times he conquered the top of the mountain, and the last time he did it in the hundred and twenty-second year of his life!
Fighting over the mountain
Mount Elbrus is not only the highest mountain in Russia, not only the subject of the steady aspiration of thousands and thousands of climbers from around the world, but also a real monument to Russian history, a monument to its greatness and unconquered courage. Few people know how fierce fighting went uphill for this in the Great Patriotic War, first partially captured by the Nazis, and then liberated by Soviet troops.
Hitler paid much attention to the capture of the Caucasus Mountains, which are of crucial strategic importance for the retention of adjacent territories. Mount Elbrus, among other things, the Nazi leader attached great esoteric importance. He believed that with the capture of this peak, and along with the entire Caucasus (the highest mountains of Russia), the USSR would lose part of its spiritual power.
To capture and hold the highest mountain in Russia, elite units of the Wehrmacht were allocated - Hitler's peculiar "mountain special forces" - Edelweiss alpine arrows. The Nazi military operation of 1942 was successful, the height was captured, as a sign of this, German climbers set the flags of Nazi Germany on both peaks of Edelweiss.
The battle of the NKVD units and Nazi mountain shooters, which took place on September 28, 42 in the area of the so-called "shelter of eleven" (height 4.13 kilometers), rightfully went down in the history of World War II as the highest mountain battle. Until now, climbers sometimes find the sad consequences of those events - the frozen corpses of dead soldiers.
However, military success soon betrayed Hitler, and the Nazi military units were knocked out of occupied places already in the winter of 1942/43, and in February 1943 the Soviet climbers, having removed the enemy flags, hoisted red banners on the highest points of the mountain.
The highest point of the Caucasus
Elbrus attracts the views of climbers around the world. Climbing routes of varying difficulty are laid here.
Rather gentle in the lower part, slopes above 4 kilometers acquire significant steepness - up to 35 degrees. From the point of view of climbing, the eastern and southern slopes are more accessible.
Elbrus today. "Shelter 11" and other interesting places
Currently, both on Elbrus itself and in its environs, the tourist infrastructure is actively developing.
On the southern slope there are two pendulum cableways - Elbrus-1 and Elbrus-2, with a length of 1.9 and 1.8 kilometers, respectively (lift time is 12 minutes), the Elbrus chairlift that takes tourists to a thousand meters in the same 12 minutes, and the VL-500 towing road, over 5 minutes overcoming 500 meters of the road.
At an altitude of 4.2 kilometers, the famous "Shelter of the Eleven" is rebuilt again (after a fire) - a place claiming to be the highest mountain hotel. A little less interesting shelter called “Barrels” is located a little lower.
In 2008, Elbrus won a place of honor among the seven wonders of the Russian Federation by voting.