The highest mountain in Russia, a natural monument, one of the largest extinct volcanoes in the world, the "Mecca" of pilgrimage for Russian and not only climbers and just a very, very beautiful mountain - this is the minimum set that comes to mind when you say about Elbrus. This icy beauty conceals under its ice the hot breath of the fiery abyss - after all, Elbrus, in fact, is an extinct volcano. Or just asleep? There is still no consensus among volcanologists.
Mountain structure
When asked which mountains are the highest in Russia, any student will answer: "Caucasus". This is a chain of mountain ranges that stretches in the southwest 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, in the border area between Karachay-Cherkessia and Kabardino-Balkaria.
In addition, Elbrus is one of the highest mountainson Earth, in Russia, which is also a volcano, occupying an honorable fifth place in height, yielding only to the volcanoes Aconcagua (6.96 km), Lullaillaco (6.723 km), Kilimanjaro (5.895 km) and Orizaba (5, 700 km).
He, from a geological point of view, is an extinct volcano, with two peaks with a height of 5, 621 kilometers (lower) and 5, 642 kilometers (upper), interconnected by the so-called "col", rising above sea level by height 5.3 kilometers. Both peaks 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 kilometers above sea level and the actual volcanic cones formed as a result of lava eruption, which add another two kilometers to Elbrus 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, frozen, 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 dormant volcano or an extinct one? Strictly speaking, volcanoes are considered extinct only in cases where no information about their eruptions has been preserved in the historical annals. In the case of Elbrus, everything is a little different. The last eruption was around the fifties of Newera.
The periods of maximum activity of our volcano will, according to scientists, be 220, 100 and 30 millennia in the past.
Extinguished or not?
Despite the fact that the dormant 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 the 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.
History of the study of Elbrus
Despite the fact that for the first time in the historical annals the highest mountain in Russia appeared already in the so-called "Book of Victories", describing the campaigns of Tamerlane - it indicates that the great commander climbed the mountain to pray, serious scientific study Elbrus has been exposed only since the nineteenth century.
In particular, the coordinates and (quite accurately) the height of the snow-covered volcano were determined by the Russian research scientist Vishnevsky V. K., 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 in a thousand people.
Despite all the efforts made, the scientists did not manage to climb to the very top - this was only possible for a young guide, acclimatized to mountain conditions, Khashirov K. It is interesting that another guide who participated in this expedition, Sottaev A., subsequently 9 timesconquered the top of the mountain, and the last time he did it in the one hundred and twenty-second year of his life!
Fighting for the mountain
Mount Elbrus is not only the highest mountain in Russia, not only the object of the steady aspiration of thousands and thousands of climbers from all over the world, but also a real monument of Russian history, a monument to its greatness and invincible courage. Few people know how fierce battles went over this mountain during the Great Patriotic War, first partially captured by the Nazis, and then liberated by the Soviet troops.
Hitler paid much attention to the capture of the Caucasus Mountains, which are of great strategic importance for holding the adjacent territories. Mount Elbrus, among other things, the Nazi leader attached great esoteric significance. He believed that with the capture of this peak, and at the same time 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 - a kind of "mountain special forces" of Hitler - the Alpine shooters "Edelweiss". The military operation of the Nazis in 1942 was successful, the height was captured, as a sign of this, German climbers placed the flags of Nazi Germany on both peaks of Edelweiss.
The battle between the NKVD units and the Nazi mountain shooters, which took place on September 28, 1942, in the area of the so-called "shelter of eleven" (height 4, 13 kilometers), rightfully entered the history of World War II as the most high- altitude battle. Until now, climbers sometimes find the sad consequences of thoseevents - frozen corpses of fallen soldiers.
The highest point of the Caucasus
Elbrus attracts the views of climbers from all over the world. Climbing routes of varying difficulty are laid here.
Fairly gentle in the lower part, the slopes above 4 kilometers acquire a 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 vicinity, tourism infrastructure is actively developing.
On the southern slope there are two pendulum cable cars - "Elbrus-1" and "Elbrus-2", with a length of 1.9 and 1.8 kilometers respectively (lifting time 12 minutes), chairlift "Elbrus”, which lifts tourists a thousand meters in the same 12 minutes, and the VL-500 towing road, which overcomes 500 meters of the road in 5 minutes.
At an altitude of 4, 2 kilometers, the famous Shelter of Eleven is rebuilt (after a fire), a place that claims to be the highest mountain hotel. A little lower is an equally interesting shelter called "Barrels".
BIn 2008, Elbrus took a place of honor among the seven wonders of the Russian Federation by voting.
