Horse on the glacier on the way to Bethlemi Hut
Kazbek
is a beautiful and relatively easy mountain. I do not mean technical
difficulties, but the organizational ones - cheap tickets to Georgia,
you don't need any special permits, guides, etc. For this reason, many
people choose Kazbek as their first five-thousand peak. Still, you must
remember it is an alpine peak. You can't compare it with lower, easy
going peaks. You need to prepare adequately. You need to increase your
body efficiency and get necessary knowledge about the mountain (study
map of the mountain, plan the route, learn what is the altitude
sickness), prepare necessary equipment (tents, ropes, crampons). You
need to be in a good shape, especially if you plan to make a popular
peak attack from the Bethlemi Hut. The altitude difference is close to
1.5 kilometres, from 3560 to 5033 meters in one way, and you still have
to come back, right? That's why many unprepared ones is out at 4400
meters. What if you marginalize the preparation. Rescue taxi will not
come for you. When the weather conditions are bad, the rescue team will
not go out to the mountains for death to rescue tourists. Still, many
have not come back from the Kazbek. It is, because their bodies could
not be found. It's good to do it in a smart way, so you can tell the
story to your grandsons afterwards.
Kazbek
Arrival and the first camp
Georgia has good and
cheap flights operated by low-cost airlines. You can make it even
cheaper if you combine two backpacks into one bag to the plane. Only you
need to remember about the weight limit. The planes touch down in
Kutaisi. Some of them are there at dawn. From Kutaisi to Kazbegi is 340
km. In economic trip you travel by small buses called marshrutka. In
expensive, but much quicker way you can rent a taxi for approx. 150 USD.
The driver will take you directly to the Kazbegi.
There
is exhausting walk from the town to church Cminda Sameba. It is a ery
beautiful place. Many tourists come here to see only that church. You
can rent a small 4x4 bus to take you up to the church. It's not so
expensive. Next, only walking up in the mountains. On the way to the Bethlemi Hut, there is many local guides with horses. Probably you can rent
such horse to carry your backpacks to the Bethlemi Hut. We set up the
first camp at 2900 m. It was before the glacier terminus. Despite the
heat at the bottom, here it's cold at night at this attitude. Note, the
route from Kutaisi 125 m to almost 3000 m above sea level or what worse
immediately to the Bethlemi Hut, what is 3653 m is dangerous. The
altitude difference would be 3 kilometres in one day! One person in our
team suffered from the altitude sickness.
The first camp on the way to Kazbek
The second camp and the Bethlemi Hut
The
weather is perfect, no clouds at all. At the night we can see stars on
the sky. Above the Kazbek peak is visible the Big Dipper / Plough. There
is also visible the light from the Bethlemi Hut. At dawn is breakfast
and breaking up the camp. We set up our camp next to the bigger team.
They had to wait already for one week for better weather conditions. We
have perfect weather at the very beginning. Halfway to the Bethlemi Hut
we reach the glacier terminus. Local guides with horses and dogs seem to
walk easily on the ice. They have four legs, we only two, so we put on
crampons. It is the first contact with the glacier on that mountain. We
don't have any problem on that part, but we need to watch out for the
crevasses.
We make a longer break in the Bethlemi Hut (3653 m). After debate we decided to split the team. Half of the team stay here with the colleague with symptoms of the attitude sickness. Second half continue to set up the second camp a bit higher. Next day, in the morning we all meet at breakfast in the second camp. Despite numerous suggestions the sick colleague did not walk down to compensate the attitude sickness. Hopefully aspirin helped him. It has the property to attenuate the blood. So, it helps to get the oxygen from the air when there is less than usual. I'm not a doctor, it is only my personal deductions. The second camp was set up at about 3800 m. All the time was wind, so we had to cover our tent with stones. In the morning everything was under the thin layer of snow. Soon, the second part of our team arrived and we ate the breakfast.
Crevasse on the glacier
The glacier on the way to Bethlemi Hut
We make a longer break in the Bethlemi Hut (3653 m). After debate we decided to split the team. Half of the team stay here with the colleague with symptoms of the attitude sickness. Second half continue to set up the second camp a bit higher. Next day, in the morning we all meet at breakfast in the second camp. Despite numerous suggestions the sick colleague did not walk down to compensate the attitude sickness. Hopefully aspirin helped him. It has the property to attenuate the blood. So, it helps to get the oxygen from the air when there is less than usual. I'm not a doctor, it is only my personal deductions. The second camp was set up at about 3800 m. All the time was wind, so we had to cover our tent with stones. In the morning everything was under the thin layer of snow. Soon, the second part of our team arrived and we ate the breakfast.
The second camp before night
The second camp in the morning
The third camp under the peak
It is the the most dangerous part. On one side,
falling rocks, on the other side is the glacier with crevasses. The
rocks really go down, we could see and hear them from time to time. We
walked on the glacier, so the rocks are far enough away from us. We
passed already 4000 m, we can feel it. Every move is three times more
tiring. We walked slower, ponderously, we felt tired all the time. We
can't act too fast, because shortness of breath may be dangerous when
there is not enough oxygen in the air. A thick fog covered the glacier.
We tied up each other with a rope. GPS and footsteps after previous
teams helped us to find a proper direction. Finally, we reached the
Plateau. The third camp was set up at 4422 m on the glacier. We were in
an open space. We had to flat the area under our tent. At that attitude,
this easy exercise is not easy any more. It requires a lot of effort
from us. The weather improved. It was sunny, without any wind. A few hundreds meter below was another camp. They had few tents. It looked like
we are on the highest level than any other team.
On the way to Kazbek, the rocks fall down here
Peak attack
In the morning, we were woken up by other teams
walking near us to the top. They were attacking the peak directly from
the Bethlemi Hut. We were already at Plateau, so we didn't have to wake
up in the middle of the night to be able to come back. We ate a
breakfast without any rush. We attacked the peak in light style. We took
only what is necessary: crampons, ice axe, small portion of food, etc.
The peak attack is on a steep hillside. Footsteps of previous teams
helped, but the crampons seemed to be still necessary.
On the way we passed next to a dead dog. Later, this dog got up and walked with other teams that were giving him food. This dog spent a night at 4500 m, on the ice, on the steep hillside. I think people shouldn't give food to that dogs, because it may kill them. This one was lucky. He had enough power to survive and the wather wasn't bad. We had a perfect conditions for the peak attack. Very sunny, no wind. The visibility is even better than ideal. On Friday, September 16 at 10:50 am we reached the top. At that time many other teams reached the top as well. They also want to have an usage of the perfect weather.
Views on the way to Kazbek peak
On the way we passed next to a dead dog. Later, this dog got up and walked with other teams that were giving him food. This dog spent a night at 4500 m, on the ice, on the steep hillside. I think people shouldn't give food to that dogs, because it may kill them. This one was lucky. He had enough power to survive and the wather wasn't bad. We had a perfect conditions for the peak attack. Very sunny, no wind. The visibility is even better than ideal. On Friday, September 16 at 10:50 am we reached the top. At that time many other teams reached the top as well. They also want to have an usage of the perfect weather.
On the Kazbek peak
On the Kazbek peak
Going down
Descent from the top was much
quicker than going up. This time, you get more power with every meter,
because at the same time there is more oxygen. On the Plateau we broke
up the camp and went back. We decided to make it more comfortable - we
slept in the Bethlemi Hut. We didn't want to set up again the tent.
Living conditions are better than few years back. They put windowpanes.
Next day, without any problem and relatively quickly we went down to the
Kazbegi village. We had incredible luck with the weather conditions. We
could reach the top without any breaks. Much faster than it was
expected. The additional time we used for sightseeing Tbilisi.
The
Kazbek peak was reached in the alpine style. We took minimal amount of
equipment. We did it in a small team, without returns, practically
without acclimation. This style is not a style for everyone, because it
is very intense. Our four person crew of four sporty and strong guys who travelled tens or hundreds of kilometres in mountains in different
conditions. We were very well physical prepared, so we could do it in
that style.
Kazbek
Something on the way to Kazbek
This something is ombrometer
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