UK Mountains Walking, Mountaineering and Equipment Reviews
Elbrus Day 1/2 Flight and Travel to Piatigorsk

The drive down to the airport went smoothly, I arrived early of course which was fine as my 'meet and greet' were there to take the car, the guy even had a trolley waiting for me which I thought was a nice touch.

Other team members started to arrive and we soon checked in, although the self-check in was an impressive fail - allowed me to enter all of my details, then said I had to go to the check in anyway! We had some food at the 'pub and dining' which was pretty rubbish; chips were cold and the toasty not very tasty.

The flight left about on time at 22:45 and I tried to sleep without much luck. They served some food which was okay at best. I think I managed to sleep after that but it is hard in a seat.

Moscow airport was interesting. We arrived in a small part of it and went in search of coffee, finally exiting through Customs to find some. Going back in was the usual security hassle and then we discovered we were flying out of Terminal 'B' which was a long walk up and down several floors and a train ride! Handy Hint Number one: Don't underestimate the time it takes to go from one Terminal to another and double-check your ongoing ticket. Luckily we had plenty of time.

View from the Hotel in Piatigorsk

Another wait - I know, I'll read my Kindle - disaster! My books haven't downloaded. Connecting to the free Airport WiFi failed to do anything useful. Finally I solved the problem by linking to the WiFi with my phone then using that as a HotSpot. All books now downloaded.

The flight to Mineralyne left at 7:45am and arrived just after 10am. Mineralyne Vody is hot, very hot! Our hosts and other team members met us at the airport and after some minor faff, we were whisked away to the hotel in Piatigorsk about 30 minutes drive.

Check-in was reasonably straightforward and I was soon making my room into a bomb site. Bored with that I decided to take a walk. Just out of the hotel and up the hill was a nice walk and a huge statue of Lenin. I continued past a War Memorial and up to a waterfall before turning back to the hotel as it was approaching lunch-time.

We were taken to a small restaurant by our Russian host where we enjoyed some time trying to understand, then order lunch. I went for a pizza and lemonade. The lemonade turned out to be Pear Juice but even so it was very nice.

What passes for Lemonade in Russia

From there we took a walk up to a high view point via a very nice church, then made our separate ways back down to the hotel for a 4pm kit check. I took most of my important kit down, not realising Stuart, our leader wanted to see everything. Ho Hum, 'it's in the room' cane the regular reply. I've definitely got it all.

Back to the room to resort it for tomorrow. It seems we are allowed 10kg porterage but we can take extra for an extra cost of around 200 Roubles/kilo. I'm pretty certain I will be taking advantage of that offer.

This evening we were out around 7pm for dinner and were taken to a Russian version of a Tapas bar. The food was awesome but I wasn't even a bit hungry so it took some effort to eat anything. What I had was incredible. Handy Hint Number 2: Don't have a big lunch on day one!

Bedtime was just after 8pm, it had been a very long couple of days. I slept like a baby until 6:30am.

Weather Report: Very hot in Piatigorsk. Shorts and T-Shirts all day and evening. Cloudless sky, mild breeze.

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