Day 6 - Summit of Cumrichi

Today we are heading up to summit of Cumrichi, the highest trekking peak in the vicinity and a frequent pre-Elbrus climb. As usual is it up early and after quick breakfast we head off to summit. Breakfast is instant noodles which are really good on mountains - even when you have them for most meals! The ascent itself is really enjoyable with a mixture of trekking, scrambling and some easy climbing.

Start of the ascent

There is a lot of loose rock and scree which is pretty dangerous when climbing as a group and especially when the route often goes up gullies! On a few occasions we stop whilst the people at the front kick all the loose rock down the slope before the rest of the group come underneath - we manage to cause a couple of impressive rock slides like this! The weather a bit of a mix but mainly low cloud with a strong sun behind it - which is a worry as it is very easy to get burnt through it.

As we get to the summit we hit the snow line which is great as it makes the peak feel like a real summit. Once there we congratulate each other, admire the view and take photos whilst trying to avoid tumbling down the steep crumbly sides of the summit ridge.

 

Starting our descent back to camp

We have a good lunch of (and you've probably guessed it) bread, cheese and sausage on the way back down having stashed our supplies at a sheltered spot on the way up. We pull into camp to pack up where we get some clear(ish) skies for about the first time up here and a chance to appreciate the view including our first sighting of Elbrus itself before we start our descent.

 

The twin peaks of Elbrus

The weather remains clear and the descent is really hot given the strong sun, absence of cloud cover and shelter from the wind. A few of us decide to press on as there is a river at the bottom of the valley and that should give us enough time for a quick dip before the others arrive and we head back to Cheget.
The first part of the plan works well as we get to the river in plenty of time and in real need of cooling down. However we have not appreciated that the water is freezing. I manage to get in up to my knees for a minute or so by which time they are turning blue and really rather painful so we decide just to wait under some trees in the shade instead. Shortly after this some Russians turn up to wash in the river and merrily strip down to their swimming costumes and bikinis before plunging in - quite luckily for my self-esteem they are all laughing about how cold it is and don't stay in for that long but it was still very impressive.
We decide that what we really need now is a beer and that there is a bar about 10 minutes walk back towards where we are meeting the van which is probably too far for anyone to be keen to head there and bring us all back drinks so we decide to head off leaving a helpful sign for the rest of the group when they reach the valley floor:

The beer is excellent and cold and we also meet a group of Russians who are holidaying there for a bit of chat and some rather poor jokes. After a bit the rest of the group arrive and not having seen our sign (we are still not quite sure how they could miss it - the above photo is not that great) aren't too pleased with us having headed off to the bar but this rapidly turns into appreciation with our forward thinking when we hand over the cold beers that we have got for them!

We finally tear ourselves away from the bar and head back to the hotel - the others have been giving us good reports on the hotel food recently so we decide to give it another go. Unfortunately, the good run has come to an end and it is back to the unappetising Soviet stodge but we are too tired to head out instead. After that we repack for Elbrus and off to bed to try and recover from last night before we hit the mountain.

The real issue that has arisen is the considerable range of abilities, fitness and strength in the group. This is likely to cause problems for the summit bid in two main ways. Firstly some people will be walking far too slowly and therefore people may well get too cold leading to a risk of not making the summit. Others may need to turn round at some point and each time this happens one of the guides needs to accompany them. Therefore a second turn around will mean that the whole group will need to head back as we only have two guides. There is a bit of a discussion between a few of us and the guides and we conclude to do the acclimatisation walk from the Barrels in a couple of days and see how things go.