We got into the Elbrus adits on the way back, not very successfully, but nothing special was to be expected from them. Such a wealth of minerals, as in Adygea. Abandoned uranium galleries in the village of Nikel not here. Although there are quite a lot of finds in museums from here.

Not far from Karachaevsk in the direction of Khurzuk, a couple of kilometers before the village, near the road, lies a stone - the Karchi stone. Karcha (Karcha) - the progenitor of the Karachay-Balkarian people, the mountain Tatars, as the Russians called them in the old days. Here on this stone he liked to sit. Now there is a small memorial where locals like to come.

Mountain at the confluence of Khudes and Kuban

The village of Elbrus... Elbrus is still far from here, but it can be seen from here among the mountains in good weather.

The weather was not very good, a cloud was creeping up from Elbrus.

Behind the usual exit to the river is a bridge with a gate. The car was parked next to him.

Let's go look for a ditch

Here is the first portal!

Dive into the underworld...

It ended very quickly.

We go further past the cows under the wires of the power line. There are no supports for power lines here, the wires were attached directly to the rocks.

Abandoned administrative building. Silver-lead ore began to be mined here under the tsar, in Soviet times all the ore was chosen, and until the 90s a training base functioned here.

Now everything is abandoned, except for one room with a pipe - there, probably, a shepherd lives.

The entrance to the adit was blocked by rows of barbed wire...

However, the fence is not to protect against unfinished diggers-stalkers, but from cows. We calmly entered the dungeon.

And they found that the lantern was not charged at home!

And there is no spare. Didn't go far. There is dirt underfoot, pieces of iron in the walls and ceiling. And generally sad. Nikel is more interesting, although far from the road.

However, there were some surprises. We left the adit under steam - hail began to fall on the street, it became cold ...

First they went...

Then they hid under the bushes.

But where is it! Hailstones fell penetrating! With a feathered egg each. And so for five minutes.

Finally they ran to the car, drove it to the village and hid under a poplar.

Gradually the hail became smaller and set off

The mists walked through the valley

Memorial in the dark.

We spent the night at the edge of the field. In the dark, a Zhiguli with a horseman drove up. He carefully approached us to ask - he thought that we were stealing corn. In the morning, the owner himself drove up to us. We talked a little. Loans are given, but they must be repaid and officials demand kickbacks. Such is the agribusiness in the Caucasus.

Not far from highest point Europe - Mount Elbrus - there is a village of the same name.

Where is the village of Elbrus located?

Elbrus is one of the peaks of the Caucasian ridge. The Elbrus region stretches around, which includes the few villages of Adyl-Su, Tegenekli, Terskol, Baidaevo and Elbrus, which receive tourists. All this is the most beautiful territory of Kabardino-Balkaria.

The village of Elbrus is located on the Baksan River in the Baksan Gorge. Its GPS coordinates are N 43.15, E 42.38. The village lives according to Moscow time.

Tourists are most interested in the opportunity skiing, so you need to know that the village of Elbrus (KBR) is located at a distance of 15 km from the famous peak, named among the 7 wonders of Russia. located directly on the highway that leads to the famous mountain.

How to get there?

If there is a road ahead from afar, it makes sense to use air travel. There are airports in the cities of Minvody and Nalchik, from which it will not be difficult to get to the village of Elbrus, as well as to others. settlements Elbrus.

The distance from Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria, to the village is 130 km. Theoretically, buses run from Nalchik to Elbrus, but there is a nuance: national color. It is necessary to personally agree with the drivers of tiny minibuses in advance so that they take fellow travelers with them. Therefore, it is easier to find a car traveling in the same direction on Internet resources by offering to pay for gasoline, or take a taxi.

The road by car or taxi takes at least 2.5 hours, and it should be borne in mind that there are many traffic police posts and video surveillance cameras on the highway. However, the route is not overloaded with traffic, only cows, which calmly walk along the road and do not pay attention to passing vehicles, create interference.

From airport to mineral waters you will have to do an even longer journey - 3.5-5 hours.

The path to the village goes through mountains and passes, however, due to the optical effect, it seems as if the road runs down. The quality of the asphalt pavement on the road to Elbrus is good.

Tour of the village with a mountain name

The village of Elbrus is small, only 3 thousand inhabitants live in it. You can walk around the village in half an hour. First, go along Elbrusskaya street, then from the street. Musukaev, turn onto Lesnaya, leaving Buka lane aside, and through Shkolnaya Street again exit to Elbrusskaya. That's the whole village.

But infrastructure rural settlement quite modern:

• there is a kindergarten and a school;
• there is a hospital and a stationary point;
• house of culture;
• mosque.

Of course, there are cafes and shops in the village, where tourists can easily find everything they need for relaxation and climbing.

Village administration: administration

The head of the administration of the village of Elbrus manages life ski resort solving everyday tasks. The local administration employs 38 people, of which 3 are deputy heads of a rural settlement. In the structure of the village administration there are 5 departments (education, culture, land use, finance, economics) and 1 committee (for physical culture and sports).

The administration is located in Tyrnyauz and works according to the standard schedule from 9 am to 6 pm.

Note to the tourist: housing

Those who come to Elbrus not for the first time know that it is much more profitable to rent accommodation near the famous peak, for example, in the village of Elbrus. You can choose simple and inexpensive accommodation on the territory of camp sites or which are located both in the village itself and nearby in the Adyl-Su gorge.

Teachers and students of the Kabardino-Balkarian and Moscow state universities, as universities have their own recreation centers. There are also camp sites "Elbrus" and "Green Hotel".

5 alpine camps near the village allow you to relax inexpensively in a tent.

There are hotels of various categories in the village of Elbrus, boarding houses and even a children's sanatorium.

Hotel "Maral" offers 2- and 4-bed rooms with bathrooms. Meals are not included in the room rates, but you can prepare your own meals in the shared kitchen. The hotel is located in a pine grove in the Adyl-Su gorge.

Room categories: apartments, deluxe, deluxe and standard offer guests of the ski resort in Sky hotel Elbrus. Each room is equipped not only with a bathroom, but also with a mini-bar and a flat-screen TV. Buffet breakfast is included in the rate, and in the evening you can relax in the restaurant or order food to your room.

In addition, the hotel has a children's playground, a spa complex, billiards and a ski school.

From the village you can easily get to the ski lifts on the glade Azau or Cheget without overpaying for accommodation.

Unique natural beauty

Where the village of Elbrus is located, the beauty of the mountains is simply breathtaking! The village is located in a valley, stretching along a narrow ribbon. The height above sea level in the village is 1775 m, this helps to adapt to the height painlessly.

The village is surrounded by a range of peaks covered with snow even in summer: Gubasanty, Irikchat, Donguz-Orun and others. Many rivers fill the air with freshness, and pine forests- coniferous aromas. Noisy waterfalls, deep, even during the day, dark gorges, forest paths overlooking alpine meadows- all this can be seen by going for a walk around the settlement.

All this extraordinary beauty is national park"Prielbrusye", in the center of which is the village of the same name Elbrus, a photo of which can be found on the Internet. Having admired the expanses and snows, you will certainly want to visit here and see everything with your own eyes.

Attractions nearby

There are many interesting things in the Elbrus village itself. There are laboratories that are related to National park"Prielbrusye".

You can admire the beauty of the harsh mountains if you go hiking through the Adyl-Su gorge along the Adyl River. On the other side of the village there is a picturesque gorge Irik-Chat, which ends with a powerful waterfall. Along the same gorge, tourists climb the glacial plateau, reach the Dzhily-Su spring or climb from the eastern side to the top of Elbrus.

Narzan springs come to the surface near the village. However, there are especially many of them in the Narzan Glade near Chegem, where even the stones have a strong reddish tint due to the abundance of iron compounds in the water. There is a silver narzan spring in the village of Neutrino, the taste of the water is soft and gentle.

In the neighboring village of Tegenekli there is a museum dedicated to Vladimir Vysotsky, because it was in these places that the famous film "Vertical" was filmed.

In the village of Tyrnyauz, the local history museum opens its doors to visitors. More than 2700 exhibits tell about the nature of the region, its defenders during the Great Patriotic War, about the conquest of Elbrus.

Well, and, of course, the main attraction of the region is the handsome Elbrus, proudly towering over the Caucasus. Its western peak rises to 5642 m above sea level. cable car raises tourists to the mark of 3800 m, from where a stunning panorama opens.

Elbrussky is located 35 kilometers from Karachaevsk, up the Kuban Gorge, above the confluence of the Khudes River into the Kuban River. The village covers an area of ​​149 hectares. The local nature pleases the eye with its pristine beauty: around the mountains, covered with deciduous and mixed forests, alpine meadows with a motley carpet of herbs. In spring, all the slopes are covered with flowers. rich and animal world, bears, wolves, jackals, lynxes, foxes, hares, wild boars, chamois, squirrels are found here. The village is relatively small - the population is 242 people. The climate is typical highland.

Story

Above the confluence of the Khudes River into the Kuban, the buildings of the Elbrussky mine flicker along the road. The extraction of silver-lead ore began here in 1891. The products of the mine were once exported to England and France. Ore mining continued until the last quarter of the 20th century.

Khudes Gorge has long been known for the richness and variety of ore minerals: silver, gold, lead, chromium. In the 50s of the 19th century, outbuildings for a mining enterprise were built. In 1887, the entrepreneur Tomashevsky concluded a lease agreement with the Karachay Society on mutually beneficial terms. Tomashevsky received the right to mine lead ores, build roads, build dams and buildings necessary for industrial purposes. Use coal and construction timber. After 24 years, all this was to remain with the Karachay Society. Mine "Elbrus", starting from late XIX century, served as the main replenisher of the public treasury. With the proceeds from the lease of this mine, not only Karachay, but also neighboring Cossack and other mountain communities, by the time of the revolution, were able to maintain their mountain schools in the villages, if not significant in size. The Khumarinsky post office functioned on the same funds, teachers invited from central Russia, as well as hospital and pharmacy workers, were supported by these funds.

Industrial development of the deposit began in 1891. A plant of two shaft furnaces was built to smelt lead from ore. During the year of operation, when ore was mined from 6 veins, 2 million 300 thousand poods of ore containing 40% lead were prepared for treatment. But the overspending on exploration and trial operation forced Tomashevsky to leave the business and look for the possibility of creating a joint-stock company, which was created in the summer of 1893. It was called "Elbrus". Its authorized capital was estimated at 18 million rubles, but the money was only on paper. In fact, the shareholders hesitated: in their opinion, “if millions really “rest” in Karachay, then they will not run away anywhere, and if there are none, then the later the money is lost, the better” ...

Only in 1895, work was resumed, but the fall in lead prices led to this. That a year and a half later, the mine was again closed and abandoned for 15 years.

In 1907, the joint-stock company transferred its rights to the English industrialist George Wilison, however. Without resuming its work, the mine was returned to the joint-stock company "Elbrus", whose administration, finally. It was possible to hand over the mine to English industrialists - the Joint-Stock Company "Mining Society of Mount Elbrus", whose board was in London. An attempt to resume work at the mine and expand its activities with the assistance of the British failed. Without starting mining in Karachai, in 1911 he betrayed the mine to the sister of Alexander III V.F. Romanova. As a result, both the mine and all its buildings were in her hands. It was possible to resume work only in 1915, at the height of the First World War, when the demand for lead increased sharply. In 1916, Romanova sold the mine to the Moscow capitalists brothers Kuznetsov and Ganshin. After the revolution, the mine was nationalized.

Exploration work was carried out at the mine from 1930 to 1950. In 1950, the construction of a housing stock for miners began and an organized recruitment of workers was announced. From 1952 to 1954, industrial and cultural facilities were built: an enrichment plant, a hospital with 25 beds. Seven-year school and club. The settlements of Khudes, Shkolny, Yuzhny were built. At the same time, the village of Polyana was being built up the Kuban, which to this day is the administrative center of Rudnik.

From 1907 to 1975, the mine produced 510 thousand tons of lead and zinc concentrate. In August 1976, the mine was liquidated, according to official version due to the unprofitability of production, but ore dumps still contain tungsten, molybdenum, cadmium - almost half of the periodic table. In 1977, it was re-profiled into the base of educational practices of the Moscow Mining Institute, in 1985 a preparatory department of the MGI was opened in the village, applicants lived in the village for 8 months and passed the entrance exams here. But in 1995, the MGI base was closed.

Attractions:

The floodplain forest with sea buckthorn buckthorn is a natural monument, located in the vicinity of the village. Elbrus;

In the vicinity of Elbrus and on the slopes of the neighboring Dautsky Range, archaeologists discovered ancient adits, smelting furnaces, copper ingots, stone hammers, which indicates that these places have been inhabited since antiquity;

The Upper Kuban seismic polygon is located in the village of Elbrussky, since 2008, video monitoring of geochemical processes associated with the activity of Elbrus, which is an unextinguished volcano, has been carried out here.

14.02.2011 2 5672

Mukhtar Kochkarov,
Karachaevsk

...Ay the foot of Elbrus
In the narrow gorge, among the rocks
The peaceful village is located -
"Elbrussky" is named after the mountain!

Welcome to the village of Elbrus! I would like to introduce you to my village and its history. To do this, we must get acquainted with the history of the Elbrus mine, which was one of the largest enterprises in the mining industry of the nineteenth century.

The exploitation of the silver-lead deposits of Karachay, in particular the Kuban-Khudessky site, according to the testimony of the famous geologist N. Barbot-de-Marni, was carried out in remote antiquity, and in prehistoric times. Exploring the deposits, he found traces of ancient developments. The scientist wrote: "In many places, in the so-called Kuban-Khudessky ore area, one can still see ancient irregular-looking and shallow workings laid at the outcrops of ore veins. During clearing, they were found in the mass of dumps containing pieces of abandoned poor ore, numerous stone axes and fragments of pottery. Mining was reproduced, apparently, by the fiery method, since the walls of the workings everywhere bear traces of their firing, after which the cracked rock was beaten off with the help of stone axes.

Another author, O. Karapetyan, points out that "the Karachay silver-lead mine was also developed in very ancient times, ancient excavations serve as evidence of this ... Long ago, semi-wild peoples came here and chipped off pieces of ore with stone hammers, smelted in specially prepared clay pots and carried away the mined metal with them. Stone hammers and fragments of clay pots are still found in these developments. The ancient inhabitants also used copper ore deposits in these areas. "

Engineer Kondratiev discovered between Kart-Dzhurt and Duut "two points where once there were forges, one on the slope to the Duut, the other on the narrow top of the dividing ridge between the Kuban and Duut."

Copper smelting was also carried out in the Bagyr-kulak beam (copper gorge), where three copper veins were found. There were adits from 3 to 10 arshins long. The ore deposits of the Upper Kuban attracted special attention after the construction of a wheel road between the village of Batalpashinskaya and Bolshoy Karachay. One of the first to draw attention to the Karachay deposits of silver-lead ores was Lieutenant S. Chekalin. In 1861, he sent K. Sham-Ogly to Karachay to survey the location of silver-lead ores. Convinced that the industrial development of silver-lead ores is possible, Sham-Ogly turned to the local authorities with a request to allow him and Lieutenant Chekalin to conduct development in partnership. Sham-Ogly was officially allowed to "investigate the deposit of silver-lead ores discovered by him in Karachay with permission to search for various ores in general on the state lands of the Kuban region."

It turned out that the lands where silver-lead deposits were discovered belonged to Karachay Urusov. The issue of ownership of land for many years did not find a solution. As a result, the opening of the mine was delayed. In 1866, an entrepreneur, process engineer Tomashevsky, having collected all the information about the ore content of the region and its environs, carried out prospecting work. In 1889, Tomashevsky was issued a certificate with permission to carry out exploration work for silver-lead ores. A year earlier, he signed lease agreement with the Karachai society, having previously bought up all applications for the development of certain ore veins. For further exploration, a major engineer, a full member of the Mineralogical Society, was invited Russian Empire A.D. Kondratiev. After a preliminary inspection, he gave a reasoned opinion confirming the value of the deposits. 17 ore-bearing veins were identified. Detailed reconnaissance was carried out at 4 points where adits were laid: one near the Dzhalan-Kol tract and three in the Tokhtaul-Chalgan area.

Industrial development of ore at the Elbrus mine began in August 1891. By this time, preparatory work had already been carried out, the necessary buildings had been built. For the smelting of lead, a plant was built, which was supposed to produce 2,000 pounds per year. In August 1892, the first smelting was carried out, and on the very first day 130 pounds of lead were obtained. At that time, Islam Pashaevich Krymshamkhalov, an artist, educator and public figure Karachay. I. Krymshamkhalov took an active part in the study of ore veins of the mine. in the paper" North Caucasus"He published the article "The New Wealth of Karachay", in which, promoting the wealth of the Karachay mountains, he noted the need for their reasonable use. At the same time, the Ossetian poet Kosta Khetagurov, who was exiled to Karachay for revolutionary democratic activities, worked as a clerk at the Elbrus mine. .

In January 1893, Tomashevsky applied to the Ministry state property with a request to allow the establishment of a joint-stock company "Elbrus" for the exploitation of the Karachay silver-lead deposits. Alexander III July 9, 1893 approved the formation of a joint-stock company "Elbrus". On April 7, 1894, the first founding meeting of the joint-stock company "Elbrus" took place. Major General D.A. Zinkeln was elected Chairman of the Joint Stock Company.

Since the spring of 1895, the joint-stock company energetically began to exploit the Karachay deposits of lead and zinc. Ore was mined manually and mechanically. In 1895, 38.4 thousand poods of ore were processed at the mine. The enriched ore was sold in the markets of Russia and abroad. The ore prepared for sale was taken out on carts and horses to the station. Nevinomysskaya. The mine produced 1 million 200 thousand kg of raw ore in a short period of time. In 1896, 260.38 running fathoms were covered by reconnaissance.

In 1896, as a result of a sharp drop in the price of lead, the mines of Spain stopped working. Offering a large number of lead trading house Grolman, joint-stock company "Elbrus" decided to use the difficult situation in the international market. For the fastest delivery of ore to foreign firms, it launched a great job. As a result, all the funds were spent, and there were none left to continue the work. The joint-stock company applied for loans, but to no avail. In 1897, the Elbrus mine was closed. The mine administration, convinced of the impossibility of obtaining a loan from the government, decided to transfer the mine to foreign capitalists. In 1907, the joint-stock company betrayed its rights to the English industrialist George Wilison. However, without resuming work, the mine was returned to the joint-stock company Elbrus. Finally, the administration managed to hand over the mine to the English industrialists, the joint-stock company "Mountain Society of Mount Elbrus", whose board was in London. An attempt to resume work at the mine and expand its activities with the assistance of the English "Mountain Society of Mount Elbrus" failed. Without starting to work in Karachai, in 1911 it transferred the mine to the entrepreneur V.F. Romanova (Aleksandar III's sister), acting on behalf of the administration of the former Elbrus joint-stock company, as a result, after a three-year break, the mines and all the buildings were in his hands .

First World War accelerated the process of providing assistance to the Elbrus mine. The tsarist army needed lead, zinc, copper, which could come from the mine. The tsarist government allocated funds, and Romanova built a lead smelter and expanded the production of lead and zinc. Thus, the Elbrus enterprise, according to the definition of the Ministry of Trade and Industry, became "the first and only lead producer."

In 1916, Romanova sold the mine to the Moscow capitalists brothers Kuznetsov and Ganshin, who operated the mine until the Great October Revolution. After the revolution, the mine was nationalized and passed to the people. In 1918, work at the mine was stopped. At the end civil war in the country, the government took up the restoration of industry. Before restoring the mine, it was necessary to carry out research work, which was carried out in 1928. Having completed geological exploration work, the mine transfers all its property to the jurisdiction of the Karachay Regional Executive Committee.

The further growth of the national economy of the country makes an increased demand for non-ferrous metals, and already in 1930 a geological exploration party was created, which carried out work from 1930 to 1932. In 1937, a control audit was carried out, which gives a shift towards the resumption of the mine (Conclusion of engineers Wolfson and Medvedyuk). Since 1939, geological exploration parties were created, which carried out survey work until 1950.

In 1950, by the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, work was resumed on the exploitation of the Elbrus field. Having received permission and funds from the Ministry of Non-Ferrous Metallurgy to conduct mining operations, the established administration of the mine launched the construction of a housing stock. An organized recruitment of workers was announced, mainly the labor force that arrived at the mine was from the surrounding villages of Stavropol, Krasnogorskaya, Dzhegutinskaya, as well as due to the arrival of military personnel from the ranks of the Army. The engineering and technical staff was mainly sent according to the order of educational institutions.

The first director of the mine was Fomenko, and the chief engineer was Nikitin. From 1952 to 1954, industrial and cultural facilities were built: an enrichment factory, a hospital with 25 beds, a seven-year school, and a club. The settlements of Khudes, Shkolny, Yuzhny were built. At the same time, the village of Polyana is being built up the Kuban, which is the center of the residential facility of the mine. Most of the shops, a nursery, a kindergarten and since 1956 an eight-year school are concentrated here (from 1953 to 1956 a seven-year school was located in the village of Shkolny), as well as a club, a bathhouse. As of 01/01/1952. The population of the mine is 1200 people. At the time when the Karachays were deported, the village. Polyana was renamed to the village of Magaro and was part of the Georgian SSR.

In 1957, with the return of the Karachay people to their native places, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the village of Magaro was renamed the village of Elbrus. According to the 1959 census, the population of the mine was 1570 people from 14 nationalities. On August 30, 1976, by order of the head of the Urupsky GOK, Chernikov, the mine was liquidated. According to official data, due to the unprofitability of production.

Since 1977, the settlement Elbrus becomes the base of educational practices of the Moscow Mining Institute. Students of the Moscow State Institute of 1-2 courses practiced at the base. The settlement became a student town, life was in full swing here. Since 1985, a preparatory department of MGI has been opened in the village. Applicants lived in the village for eight months and took entrance exams right in the village. But perestroika came and the MGI base was closed in 1995.

But in spite of everything, life in the village goes on. The Elbrussky settlement is located in the Kuban Gorge, 35 kilometers from the city of Karachaevsk. Our village is located on the banks of the Kuban River, in a very beautiful place. The village is surrounded by mountains covered with forests and meadows. The vegetation of our region is very rich.

Of the trees we grow: pine, maple, oak, aspen, birch, alder, linden, ash, hawthorn, mountain ash, bird cherry. And a lot of mushrooms grow under the trees: boletus, boletus, rows, chanterelles, mushrooms, white, mushrooms, pale grebe, fly agaric, false mushrooms. Shrubs: hazel, barberry, gooseberry, wild rose, sea buckthorn, raspberry, currant, juniper. We grow a huge number of herbs and flowers. In spring, all the slopes are covered with flowers, first snowdrops bloom, then violets, blueberries, tulips, irises, carnations, bluebells, forget-me-nots, and so on until autumn. We also have plants listed in the Red Book of Russia: hazel, snowdrop, Caucasian lily, Caucasian peony, Caucasian belladonna, lily of the valley, euonymus and others.

We have a lot of medicinal plants: oregano, coltsfoot, wormwood, yarrow, dandelion, St. dope, chickweed, cinquefoil, buttercup, lungwort, mint, chamomile and others.

The animal world is also rich. Bears, wolves, jackals, lynxes, foxes, hares, wild boars, chamois, squirrels are found here ... From birds: eagles, magpies, woodpeckers, goldfinches, sparrows, jays, tits, bullfinches, rooks, jackdaws, cuckoos, starlings .. underground to predict medium and large earthquakes.

Since 2008, the village has been monitoring geochemical processes associated with the activity of the Elbrus volcano.

Just below the mouth of the shallow and often muddy Khudes (1200 m), a bridge is thrown over the Kuban. On the right bank nestled a village of identical wooden houses under tiled roofs. From here begins the road along Khudes. The closely shifted slopes of the valley are covered with dense forest (deciduous in the lower part). Near the road laid by the river, only occasionally come across clearings. However, the bottom of the gorge is well lit (the left side is not too steep), and forest herbs bloom everywhere. After 3 km, the road, having met a clamp, passes to the open left bank. Ahead you can see the rocky peak of Elmez-Tyobe, in the white veins of the couloirs, and to the left of it - the snowy fields of Elbrus. We return to the right side to the farm. After another 1 km, behind the spring, there is a cozy clearing under beeches, where cars of the townspeople stop on weekends.

An important event of the Caucasian War of the 19th century is connected with these places, the result of which was the annexation of Karachay to Russia. Near the river, on the surrounding slopes and on the ridge separating Khudee from the Kuban, in October 1828 a battle broke out between the detachment of General Emanuel (the detachment penetrated Khudee from the northern plateaus of Elbrus) and the Karachay militia.

Further, the road will change banks two more times until it starts a smooth ascent to the right slope over the rocks approaching the river. At the exploded cliff, a fork in a hundred meters above the water. To the left and upward through a sparse forest, a rolled path to the pastures of Bechasyn is removed. The road to the sawmill zigzags down to the meadow, beyond which Khudee takes the left tributary - the river. Chuchkhur. The thinner one flows out of a winding wooded gorge, the Chuchkhura valley looks like a continuation of the main one, but the slopes close closer. It is convenient to stop at the confluence (1400 m, 16 km from the Kuban).

The road crosses the Khudee bridge, through the rocky gates on the cape approaches Chuchkhur and moves to the left bank. A kilometer and a half later, by the river, piles of logs are stacked, next to them there are several sheds. This is a sawmill operating all year round. Trucks come here for the forest hundreds of kilometers away. Wires run from the engine to the houses small village, located at the confluence of the left tributary of the Chuchkhur - the river. Elmez-Yoube-Kol. Both gorges are filled with mixed forest (pine predominates near the sawmill), skidding roads scatter along the slopes. On one of them you can climb to the big lake. Khorlau-Köl (Khurla-Köl), hidden over the left side of Elmez-Töbe-Kol near the border of the forest (M87).

Our path lies further along Chuchkhur. The old road, collapsed in places, goes mainly along the right bank, but for a distance of 6 km it gets out three times for a short time, bypassing the rocks, to the left bank, and there are not bridges everywhere (although the fords are shallow). Near the river there are thickets of alder, beech, birch. The narrow winding valley is poorly blown, there are many horseflies. At 7 km from the sawmill we pass the ruins of houses, after another 1 km - a destroyed dam. In the middle of the last century, a small power plant operated here. And even earlier there were mills on Chuchkhura, they were seen during his trip to Karachay in 1907 by a member of the Russian Mining Society V. A. Shchurovsky.

Soon the right slope becomes bare, and on the left the forest stretches for a long time. 2 km from the dam, in the right-bank gully, a kosh sheltered. The road begins to climb the slope in serpentines. It can be seen that, having risen, she goes on horseback for several kilometers to the purple mountain bared with remnants. There are abandoned adits, a chain of pillars is noticeable near the red scree. We need to continue to move along the valley, which will be called Chomart-Kol above (the short source of Chuchkhur remains on the left along the movement, not reaching the purple mountain).

The gorge narrows. The trail, crossing the river several times, winds among the stones in the bush. Ahead is shown for a short time the white cap of Elbrus. Three kilometers from the lower kosh, climbing through the last undersized forest along the left slope, the path leads to a 20-meter waterfall (2300 m). Near the kosh, to which a horse trail descends from the grassy left-bank ridges, going through the lane. Chomart from Khurzuk. There is a bridge over the waterfall, two hundred meters from it on the right bank there is another kosh. Nearby, a trickle of narzan is knocked out. From here, the road rises up the slope to the adits, which were mentioned earlier (the road goes further to Bechasyn). From the first zigzags, a view of Elbrus opens up.

To per. Burun-Tash remains about 9 km. The path continues along the valley, but for the first 2 km we move, bypassing the canyon on the left slope: first we climb along the mentioned horse trail past an abandoned drilling rig, then we traverse gently sloping grassy-scree terraces over the gorge. Coming down to the river Chomart-Kol, the path runs in the grass, at short clamps it passes (shallow fords) from coast to coast.

The valley here is a trough left by a retreating glacier. After 4 km we reach a pebble field at the confluence of two sources of the river (2700 m): the left one flows from a scree cirque at the beginning of the ridge. Sadyrla (M86), right - from an old car under the lane. Burun-Tash, which is not yet visible. Gentle grassy and scree slopes lead to Burun-Tash; in July, snow can still lie under a wide saddle.

An amazing picture opens up from the pass in the east: Elbrus occupies half the sky, and the green plain of Irahik-Syrt stretches in front of the sparkling glaciers. In the west, the view is constrained by the spurs of the ridge. Sadyrla, you can see the lowering of the lane. Chomart.

A corral was built near a large stone on the pass - a shelter from the wind. Through a gently sloping rocky field and a meadow with deep gullies, we descend 200 m to the river. Kyzyl-Kol, originating from the nearest l. Ullu-Chiran. Crossing a powerful stream is not easy. It is better to walk (there is a path) about 2 km to the glacier, cross the tongue at an altitude of about 3200 m and get off the right bank to the beginning of the road climbing the Irahik-Syrt plateau. The way forward is described in