How I didn’t climb Kazbek

The idea to climb to the top of Kazbek belonged to my brother, I simply supported it. Moreover, in 2011 we went trekking to the Annapurna base camp, where it was quite difficult, but very interesting and beautiful. We were able to say with confidence that that Nepalese trekking was an “ordinary walk,” as dad claimed, only after descending from Kazbek.

I was not mentally prepared for the climb; I was not at all able to appreciate its complexity. Of course, the website describes what we do on the first, second and remaining days, and provides a list of recommended equipment. But there were no big red letters visible: “Luka, you will sleep in a tent for the entire 7-10 days of the trip, you won’t see as much soul, every day you will take a backpack of 17-20 kg and walk up the stones, glacier or loose ground (when a steep slope is strewn with small stones and dust and all this disappears from under your feet), etc.” As our instructor Sasha said: “a hike is a lot of hardships” - and it’s true.

By the way, all this time Sasha was like a mother to our group of 7 people - he bought the necessary products and cooked for us every day, gave his sleeping bag to warm up in the evening, and our thermoses were always filled with hot tea.

Even if you are not mentally prepared for such a hike, and physically it is really difficult for you to walk with a load, do not forget to take your sense of humor from home, otherwise you will sour and die on the second day. If you don't have a sense of humor, borrow it from your friends. If you don't have friends, don't go camping).

If you don’t go on this adventure, you will never see a snowy mountain peak surrounded by hundreds of stars, the sun lighting it up with pink light, lilac sunsets in the mountains, a criminal group of semi-wild animals and other natural wonders inaccessible to any city. And if you don’t face your fears, don’t overcome them right there on the spot; You may not overcome it, but at least look them in the face.

On the first day, the realization came that it simply wouldn’t happen: from 1750 meters to 2200 meters to the Gergeti Church with full equipment: tents, warm sleeping bags (designed up to -13, but I would take it even warmer), crampons, ice axes, harnesses for walking in a bundle. While we were attaching all this to the backpack, it was fun: we laughed at the cats, dad’s joke: “if you hack yourself, kill your friend,” I asked: “Mom, do you want an ice ax?”

When the Backpacks were first put on their backs, many tensed, but still smiled. When we started going up, the first thing to stop was breathing - it became intermittent and frequent. The only thought in my head sounded like this: “When will we arrive, when will it be possible to take off the backpack and not put it on again?” The main thing is not to immediately answer yourself that in 7-10 days, then you will be upset))

Many people told me that in the mountains I would be able to think about life, answer serious questions, but apart from thoughts about where to put my foot, how long to walk, and how soon dinner would be, almost no thoughts arose. My head was empty of everyday worries, work and even hygiene issues.

All the water along the way was very cold, and at 3600 every night it turned into ice. But it was clean and tasty. After 3000, all the water is a melting glacier, so it is advisable to add a little salt or lemon to it, otherwise you won’t get drunk, and it also removes salt and minerals from the body. A hot shower became a dream already on the second day.

On the third day I put on a hat and took it off in Tbilisi at +29C.
In the mountains, you think about the mountains, what rock to put your foot on, where to stick your trekking pole. I don’t want to discuss any life topics; it’s very quiet there. You can talk about the upcoming day of getting up, dinner, listen to Sasha’s tons of stories about hiking. All.

Perhaps you can compare the feeling of taking off a backpack with just taking off high-heeled shoes in which you walked for several hours in a row. Nice relief. And so several times during the day, during each rest and in the evening)

We climbed to the weather station at 3600m for 2 days so that acclimatization would take place correctly. We spent the night at the Gergeti Monastery with cows grazing around at 2200 and in a green meadow at 3000, then walked along the glacier and climbed up the loose ground. As soon as the sun set, it became cold. We put on our warmest clothes, sometimes wrapping ourselves in a sleeping bag on top. One night the wind bent the tent towards our awake bodies with gusts of 20-50 m/s.

My mother and I stayed overnight in the weather station building on bunks. And dad, Borya, Belka, Dasha and Sasha spent the last two nights on the “crosses” (the place where the assault camp is set up, altitude 4000). The iron roof of the weather station made such sounds that it seemed that we, together with the building, were already sliding down the cliff towards the glacier. It's scary. It turns out that when there is an extremely strong wind, the poles are removed from the tent and everyone inside pulls the tent over themselves from above, holding it with their hands - we thought that this was exactly the case with the guys at 4000. It's good that no.

In general, life at the weather station is a different story) it consists of several rooms with bunks, a small common kitchen, a reception room for the station duty officer and, most likely, the meteorological room itself, where all the equipment is located and weather indicators are taken.

We lived in a room with six guys from the Urals and ten Hungarians. Bunks are knocked down two-story beds made of boards covered with a ten-centimeter layer of foam rubber - you put a sleeping mat on it, a sleeping bag - the bed is ready) the main thing is that it is dry and windless. The kitchen is hung with flags of different countries with inscriptions, wishes, a lot of advertising on the walls, and on the tables and under them - dirty dishes (you come into the kitchen with your gas burner and food and cook lunch and dinner, make tea.

The higher you rise, the more noticeably the processes in your body slow down. Sometimes you are downright stupid - you can sit and look at the landscapes, out the window. My mother and I once watched a picture: in front of a weather station there was a tent city, five people were standing near one of them and just looking at it. We couldn’t see whether they were talking or not, it looked simple: they were staring at the tent, and we were staring at them from the window)

When it gets dark, you see from the window how people with flashlights on their foreheads walk around the town, many of them choose a larger stone to hide behind to relieve themselves. These people look like real lunar rovers - they move slowly, the lantern is on, the landscape around is rocky...

We called the local toilet "Ellie's house." Like in the fairy tale about the Wizard of Oz, remember? During a hurricane, the girl Ellie and her dog Toto flew from Kansas straight to the magical land of Oz.

Our toilet was made of stone with a wooden floor and an impressive hole in the floor, through which you could see a sheer cliff (this is in addition to everything that can be seen in the toilet). Entering it in windy weather, you feel like that same Ellie, who is now flying away with the house to Tbilisi along with all its contents. Both funny and scary)

I made the decision not to climb after the acclimatization climb to the glacier at 4200. When we returned, my head ached unbearably. My entire forehead and temples were pounding. This knock reverberated through almost the entire body. She was saved relatively quickly by Nemisil.

I didn't want to repeat this. I would have had enough strength to climb, but I decided to save my head and stay at 3600 with my mother. And I was also scared. It’s one thing to go with a group of unfamiliar people, and another thing to go with your only family. You worry about them as much as you worry about yourself.

But we went to visit ours on our own at 4000 in powdery snow. By the way, the snow there is not beautiful, light, fluffy, but grain that hits you in the face at a speed of 5-10 m/s. We went to the assault camp for tea.

None of us ultimately climbed to the top of Kazbek.
Everyone had a fever the evening before the ascent; in the morning they came down to our station. Gornyashka (altitude sickness) manifests itself differently in everyone: headaches, high/low blood pressure, vomiting, and even irritability and fits of anger.

As I say: if I had a tail, I would wag it with joy. I was so glad that dad, Bori, Belka, Dasha and Sasha returned. And I was glad that we were going down.

We descended much faster than we ascended, leaving gasoline at the top and food supplies diminishing. For the first time during the entire trip, I felt that my backpack had become a little lighter.

We walked to the Gergeti Monastery for 5.5 hours. Since we descended a day earlier than planned and spent the night in a tent, our hostel in Tbilisi was occupied. I had to come to terms with this and spend another night in a warm, cramped space.

During dinner, a shepherd dog, an Alabaika, came running to us, such an affectionate and playful girl. She smelled deadly - line and milk at the same time. She stayed overnight at the entrance to the tents. This infection barked every half hour as if someone was attacking us, a snarling bark with a guttural growl. It sounded scary.

So I lay in the tent, staring at the ceiling: my brother was snoring on the right, a loud cough was heard on the left, the dog was barking like crazy, it was a so-so night. At some point, something began to break into the tent. Something more than a dog bursting with barks. At this point even Borik could no longer stand it and woke up. The first question I asked was: “Where are the ice axes?” I was ready to leave the tent only with him in my hands. Sasha was already shouting at someone on the street. It was already a little light outside and horses were grazing around us. Has a horse ever tried to come into your tent?

We no longer had the strength or desire to sleep, we wrapped ourselves in sleeping bags and watched our own Georgian Discovery channel: dogs chase horses, horses chase dogs if they lie in one place for more than 15 minutes. The cocky horses were caught... I was glad that the horse only “gently knocked” on the tent, and did not sit on it somewhere from the side of the head.

As soon as we got down and grabbed our gear, we ordered wine, khachapuri and a Georgian salad of fresh vegetables from the cafe. This is an adventure that you can’t watch on TV, you can only experience it. And that's cool.

It is important who you go to the mountains with, the human essence is strongly manifested there - you can become closer, but you can separate forever.

Since returning, I’ve already dreamed 3 times that I’m in the mountains, going up and down, and it’s always beautiful and difficult.

Vysotsky was right when he said that only mountains can be better than mountains. Sometimes I just want to go to the sea:)

Luka Lobareva, September 2017.