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Our News:
April 19, 2013 - Slight change of 11 day tour itinerary.It was planned to have a hike in some side valley on the day 4. However all interesting routes for such hikes are within border zone and require permit. There is a big chance (almost certainty) that such permit will not be recieved for many people in groups. We change the itinerary: on day 4 groups move to Base camp and that gives additional day for high altitude acclimatization or reserve day for summit attempt in case of bad weather.April 17, 2013 - Warning!: May holidays in Russia. Correspondence problems.About holidays:
There are May holidays in Russia.
April 30 - business day Correspondence:
Every year at the beginning of season in April-May-June we have huge correspondence. Our answers may have delays because of many
messages in queue. Please do not rely on last minute bookings and questions - write/ask/request beforehand. April 02, 2013 - Price for car transportation from/to MinVody has been changed.Price for car transportation from/to MinVody has been changed. It was 3300 Rubles before, from now it is 3500 Rubles.All confirmed requests will be arranged at old price. All new requests will be calculated with the new price. March 22, 2013 - Summer flights timetable and additional services update.We've updated 'Additional Services' and 'Important Info' web pages for 2013 season.Now we can accept additional services requests such as hotel and transfers in Moscow and airtickets. Also group transportation time boundaries for the arrival and departure days were finally set according to the summer flights timetable. March 10, 2013 - News and forecasts on upcoming season.About skis: At the moment snow cover is not good for downhill skiing in Elbrus area. Normally good snowfalls start in March and March is a good month for downhill skiing but at the moment snow cover is not comfortable for skiers. Note that strings above are about downhill skiing and ski touring below 4200 m. Higher slopes of Elbrus are always icy in winter and ski climbs are not possible in winter, probably until mid or even end of May. About lifts: Lifts are functioning. There are 2 modern legs and one old leg of lifts (one by one). The 3rd modern leg is under construction and are planning to be ready by the next ski season. It will take people to about 4000 meters, i.e. higher than old one now. About huts: There is almost certainty that there will be no permanent electricity at Barrels huts in summer season. It was one of their noticeable advantages before other huts. Sounds it will have same 'partial' electricity for some hours per day (powered by local engine) as other huts. After absence of electricity is confirmed by our groups we will reduce the cost for the Barrels huts for Lite Package customers and will refund the extra payments if any. At the moment the declared price for the Barrels is 700 Rubles per person per night. It will be 500-550 without permanent electric power. Paperwork: National Park says that there will be National Park permit/fee in summer season (1000 Rubles). As soon as our customers are really forced to pay we will inform you and start to include that cost in our Lite Package. There is no official information yet (and probably it will never be announced officially) but Border guard says that there will be no official term for processing border zone permits anymore. Before the processing time of border zone permit for foreigners was 2 months. It sounds that this will not make processing time shorter but releases authorities from any responsibility i.e. nobody guarantees you will have the permit even after 3 months. Ski-touring in the area (which is mostly within border zone) were risky regarding border zone permits even before but now it becomes VERY risky because having no permit ruins the ski-touring itinerary totally. I have no idea how companies will collect ski-touring groups being exposed to such risk. September 27, 2012. Dates of PUBLIC tours departures are published.The dates of PUBLIC tours (8, 10, 11 day programs) are set for 2013 and published. We do not offer public Ski-Touring programs in March-April of 2013. That is because such programs require border zone permit for each participant. Official term for processing of such permit is 2 month i.e. we are forced to stop the sale 9 weeks before the tour departure. This limitation works not good for public tours. However we are glad to offer ski-touring programms on PRIVATE basis for groups or individuals. The only limitation is that a request must be settled and confirmed at least 9 weeks before the tour starting date. The prices and Application forms for PUBLIC tours are not ready yet and will be finally set and published in October. After that we start accepting requests. Prices for PRIVATE customized are ready in common at the moment and such tours may be calculated on request. There are vacations in our office until mid October. We check the correspondence regularly but our answers may have significant delays until that time. August 14, 2012. Climber has been rescuedNot guided party (5 of 7 people people, 'Lite Package' tour from Pilgrim Tours) made attempt on August 13 from South (from the Barrels huts). The weather was bad and 4 climbers have returned from the Saddle. One climber proceeded with the climb. He did not return by the end of 13th.Pilgrim Tours rescue party (Anna, Michael, Edik) started from the Barrels at 2 am on the 14th and after some searching found the climber on the North slopes after the Saddle at about 5 am on the 14th. Now the climber is at the Barrels huts again absolutely exhausted. That is common situation when people miss the correct direction and descend to the North. This climber is reasonable and lucky. He did not descend after he missed the way and was walking around one place all the time to stay warm.That was reasonable decision. He was lucky that there were our people at Barrels that time and they were ready for rescue operation. Please do not take chances. Do not climb alone during bad weather. Visibility is the key on Elbrus. If you miss the route you are in big danger. May 25, 2012. Possible problems with Western Union paymentsWestern Union started to ask additional information about beneficiary when one tries to send money. More than it was necessary before. They do not like many payments to one person. We do not have many people specially for receiving money from Western Union. It sounds the transferred amount exceeded their limits and they are going to block our courier.Please do not use cash transfers if it is possible. Standard bank wire transfer is much more preferable. If you still wish to send instant small payment by cash transfer use MoneyGram instead or WesternUnion. Our payment details page has been updated accordingly. May 15, 2012. Some updates: Flights and other informationThe flight timetables on Info pages have been updated. Information about Elbrus area. - Yesterday our first PUBLIC (scheduled guaranteed departure) summer group came and started the program. We consider the SUMMER season has been started. Everything is ok and stable in the area and South side is open for tourists. - The weather is rather warm in common. Every night there are small snowfalls and at the moment Elbrus became covered with snow. Big icy areas are absent. Sounds like the snow cover now is permanent for the summer. People with skis can rely on skiing the summit up and down. - There is no electricity at the Barrels huts now. That lasts for some months. Permanent electricity, outlets and electric heaters was one of the main advantages of the Barrels huts, other huts never had this. Only some small nearby huts had electric power from the Barrels huts but now they obviously also have no electricity. We were promised the electricity will be turned on in mid May but at the moment it is still absent. We will inform everybody when it is fixed. There are gas heaters in huts so it is warm enough inside, however the possibility to recharge cameras and other devices is absent. April 27, 2012. Information about May holidays in RussiaThere are May holidays in Russia.The exact itinerary is pretty complicated (see below) but in common that means business life is virtually paralyzed from April 29 to May 10. All official procedures (visa support, payments and other) will have delays. Russian Consulates may also have vacations. April 28 - business day April 29 - holiday April 30 - holiday May 01 - holiday May 02 - business day May 03 - business day May 04 - business day May 05 - business day May 06 - holiday May 07 - holiday May 08 - holiday May 09 - holiday May 10 - business day March 22, 2012. Summer flights timetable is availableSummer flights timetable is available and is published on our Info pages. Sorry for the delay, airlines changed their information often and we were forced to wait until they show more or less fixed information. It sounds that is the final edition. However some small changes may happen so please check your flight information again before departure.We also give direct links to reservation pages of airlines (in English) so everyone can easily choose, check the price and book tickets on-line. Public tour Info page. Lite Package tour Info page. Private Full service tour info page. February 15, 2012. Our on-line Currency Exchange Calculator does not workOur prices are in Russian Rubles. These prices are still on our web site and there are no changes. Our web pages automatically receive the rates from the Central Bank web page and calculate the amount in USD and Euro. Our web hosting provider in USA changed some settings recently and now exchange rates may not be updated automatically on our web pages. On-line currency calculator does not work as well. We are in contact with the provider and are trying to fix this problem somehow. Sorry for inconvenience. Hopefully this will be fixed soon. You can use the direct information from the Central Bank web site: http://www.cbr.ru/eng/currency_base/daily.aspx
February 15 rates:
February 16 rates: January 07, 2012. Email server crash and New Year Holidays.There is a long period of New Year holidays in Russia. Business life is virtually absent from December 30 till January 10 or even later. Our email server and computer databases crashed on January 4 and databases was damaged. The latest backup was of December 20th.This means: 1. There will be delays with correspondence until everything is fixed (hopefully by 10th) 2. If we corresponded with you between December 20th and January 4 these emails and other data have been lost. If there was important information (requests, pricing, confirmations) please forward all your and our messages to us and we will make proper updates in databases. We are very sorry for inconvenience. November 02, 2011. Our programs for 2012 are published.There are: Public regular guaranteed departure programs. Everyone can join our group. - 10 day South/North route program periods. They replace our 8 and 11 day South route tours. Initially we plan the South route because it is more comfortable, safe and with better success rate. However there is no certainty that the South route will be open on any period. 10 day term allows as to move initially assumed South route to the North route. That is not possible for shorter period because North route requires more days because of long approaching/leaving. - 12 day Elbrus climb and Ski-tour program periods. They are same as before, same dates and prices. These tours allow to spend a week for ski-touring in the valleys around Elbrus and climb Elbrus then. - 11 day Elbrus North route program periods. This program is for the North route initially and exclusively. There are 2 periods now. - Lite Package offer for independent climbers/tourists. That is still same paperwork (visa, permits etc) and logistic support with possibility to order additional services (accommodation, guidance). The range of possible additional services and their price depends on the route - South or North. And of course we offer Private tours which may be run specially for your group/party. They may be run on any date and may have any itinerary, route and number of days. October 29, 2011. Elbrus area is open.Yesterday the Plenipotentiary of the President of Russia in the South regions of Russia declared all closed areas including Elbrus South area to be open for tourists.Officially that is starting from November 1 but actually there is free access even today. Now all Elbrus routes and areas are accessible for tourists and climbers. Authorities promise there will be no such "total" long closing anymore. In case of a problem only limited territories may be closed for some time. That gives hope for future because Elbrus area itself always was safe before. October 24, 2011. Elbrus area may be opened soon.Today the leader of the region (Kabarino-Balkaria Republic) promised that Elbrus area would be open by November 01. That is the first definite information from authorities on the matter for several months. This gives some hope to us.
If this happens we probably adjust our plans and offers for the 2012 season a bit. October 14, 2011. 10 day Elbrus program for 2012 has been publishedWe introduce the new program for 2012 season. That is 10 day Elbrus 'South or North' program. The dates and itinerary are published although prices are not ready yet. Also some additional information will be added a bit later. This program has two alternate itineraries - South side route and North side route. Initially we are going to run South side route itinerary. However it may happen that South side route is not accessible by any reason as it was in 2011 season. In that case the South route program may be replaced with North side route one. September 09, 2011. The remaining 8 day and 11 day tours have been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area. August 26, 2011. 17th 8 day tour and 10th 11 day tour have been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area. August 21, 2011. 8 day Elbrus tour, period August 26 - September 02 has been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area. August 09, 2011. 8 day Elbrus tour period 15 and 11 day Elbrus tour, period 9 have been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area. August 05, 2011. 8 day Elbrus tour, period August 12 - August 19 has been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area. August 03, 2011. 11 day Elbrus tour, period August 10 - August 20 has been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area. July 29, 2011. 8 day Elbrus tour, period August 05 - August 12 has been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area. July 27, 2011. 11 day Elbrus tour, period July 31 - August 10 has been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area. July 22, 2011. 8 day Elbrus tour, period July 29 - August 05 has been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area. July 17, 2011. Our offers on the NorthMost big Western operators canceled their big groups for the season, we also canceled many our big groups on the Elbrus South side. For a group of 3-8 people there must be additional guide (who is also a porter and cook because one guide can not arrange "full service" for many people alone). July 15, 2011. 8 day Elbrus tour, period July 22 - July 29 has been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area. July 14, 2011. 11 day Elbrus tour, period July 21 - July 31 has been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area. July 09, 2011. 8 day Elbrus tour, period July 15 - July 22 has been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area. July 06, 2011. Flights timetables on the tour pages were updated.Aeroflot airline finally launches their direct flights to MinVody. There are 3 flights, will be added starting from different dates before end of July. Aeroflot flights go on different days of a week, often but not daily. In average it adds 2 flights a day which makes 9 flights a day in total. The destination is popular. Although the mountains are closed for visiting there are several resort towns nearby on the plains and hotels there are fully booked. July 05, 2011. 11 day Elbrus tour, period July 11 - July 21 has been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area. July 01, 2011. 8 day Elbrus tour, period July 08 - July 15 has been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area. June 28, 2011. Information about our plans for this seasonThere is still no access to Elbrus South area both formally and physically. Our plans regarding the tours are: 1. Public South side (standard) tours both 8 day and 11 day will be canceled if there is no access to South side one week before departure. We can not mechanically replace public tour from South route to North route on the spot because of several reasons. For 8 day tour that makes simply insufficient time for the climb for most participants. For 11 day group number of days is sufficient but not all people from groups agree to change the itinerary. 2. Former members of public groups (as well as new customers) can order a private tours from the North on same or other dates.. 3. We offer 11 day North tour with same dates for South 11 day group members if the number of people in the group is more than 5 people. We contact every member and if 5 people agree we will arrange a private full service 11 day Elbrus North tour for them on same dates and for same price. 4. We do not offer such (regular) possibility as in point 3 for 8 day tour members because of too short program. However those who definitely want that can request a private tour individually. A private tour may be run for any number of days. 5. Lite Package customers can change their request and we will arrange transportation for them to Elbrus North side. Also that is possible for new Lite Package customers, we accept initial requests for the Elbrus North side. June 24, 2011. 8 day Elbrus tour, period July 01 - July 08 has been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area. June 17, 2011. 8 day Elbrus tour, period June 24 - July 01 has been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area. June 16, 2011. 11 day Elbrus tour, period June 21 - July 01 has been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area. June 10, 2011. 8 day Elbrus tour, period June 17 - June 24 has been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area. June 05, 2011. 11 day Elbrus tour, period June 11 - June 21 has been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area. June 03, 2011. 8 day Elbrus tour, period June 10 - June 17 has been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area. May 27, 2011. 8 day Elbrus tour, period June 03 - June 10 has been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area. May 20, 2011. 8 day Elbrus tour, period May 27- June 03 has been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area.We are forced to inform customers about canceling the 8 day Elbrus tour period May 27-June 03. May 13, 2011. 8 day Elbrus tour, period May 20-27 has been cancelled.There is still no access to Elbrus South side area.We are forced to inform customers about canceling the 8 day Elbrus tour period May 20-27. May 10, 2011. 8 day Elbrus tour, period May 13-20 has been cancelled.Sorry to inform that we are forced to cancel the 8 day Elbrus tour, period May 13-20. In spite of the hearsay about opening the area the situation stays same. The area is closed. Optimism drops down again. Some people write us that some local operator guarantees the access. The operator lies. They can not give a guarantee to get through posts. At the moment (May 10) there is a certainty that no foreign tourist will be allowed to come through posts. Russians may get through in some cases after some struggle with police officers, but not a foreigner. Nor negotiations nor "friends in local government" or something can help with any certainty. A serious operator can not give a guarantee in such situation. If some operator promises that means he is trying to save their season by exposing customers to risk. Changing South side to North side at the moment is not possible. Some operators tried to run that when they were rejected to go through posts but that gives only frustrated customers. North side is very different in comparison with South side in May and requires another kind of tour - more days, skilled and motivated members. May 06, 2011. Waiting..Through hearsay the Elbrus area may be open in some days. There is no official declaration (same as no declaration about closing) but police officers on the road say the area may be open very soon. We were planning to make a decision today regarding our public 8 day Elbrus tour which starts on the May 13. At the moment (May 06, 13 pm) there is still no normal access to the area. Some possibilities to come exist already but very dependable on current police shift, their mood, time, presence or absence of their bosses and other reasons. Still may not be recommended to come from abroad to try how that really works in your case. However that is much better than a week ago and raises some hope. A dozen of skiers even may be seen on the slopes. May 01-09, 2011 May holidays in RussiaThere are May holidays in Russia from May 1 to May 9. Formally there are 2 holidays - May 1 and May 9 with some non business days each but traditionally almost all business and official life in Russia is paralyzed between April 30 and May 10. There may be delays with correspondence and especially with formal procedures such as visa support. Also there may be same holidays in Russian Consulates worldwide. April 22, 2011 Information about cancellation policy.This is to clarify the cancellation and refund procedures and fees for this season. For many years our cancellation policy in common is as follows: In this year there is a possibility that some (or even all) tours may not be run because of closing the area. Here is the information about procedures and fees for this year. They are not worse than it was before so we do not violate the agreement but require some explanations and clarifying. - If the area is closed a week before departure we will inform the customers about cancellation of the tour. Why we do not refund full amount if there is no fault of a customer? Because of two reasons: Recommendations: April 18, 2011 Elbrus area became closed yesterday.As we wrote before Elbrus area was not closed and tourists could come for skiing. At the moment there are about 20 foreign skiers/climbers in the area, all of them came within last week. On Sunday (April 17) police stopped to let tourists come. At the moment only local people who live in the Elbrus area are allowed to go through the police posts while going up. No check or any limitation if a car goes down. There are still no known events which can explain such a restriction. Also there is no official document with such prohibition. Generally speaking there is still a kind of declared "counter-terrorist operation" in the area since February after terrorist attack. That does not necessarily means any real battle but within the rules about this operation authorities can introduce limitations regarding access to the area. We have no idea for how long it may last as well as we have no idea about the reason of this. It sounds that is a policy regarding the area - not regarding terrorists. Changing of this policy is unpredictable (for us) because has no concern with actual situation with terrorist attacks or other visible events in the area. Region may be closed until next week, until May or until New Year - nobody knows. Local people and local authorities are constantly and desperately asking Federal authorities to let people come but at the moment the prohibition policy wins. Recommendations : The possibility of opening (and probably closing again) always exists. There is no official document but it looks like a command from a very high level official. The command may become different any time. Once again: all this headache is not because of new terrorist attacks or any new danger for tourists but a kind of Federal politic games or reasons. That is why we can not estimate but only can see the current situation as it is. April 11, 2011: - New longer term for OVIR/UVIR registration.Every foreigner must be registered in Migration Department upon arrival in Russia in common and in every new region he stays for some time. April 08, 2011: - Flights timetable is updated. Warning about late flights.The timetable was updated. 3 flights by Aeroflot airline appeared. They are confirmed only by May 17th but hopefully they were extended for the whole season later on. Starting from April 01, 2011 police does not allow to come/leave the Elbrus area at night - from 21 pm to 06 am. The road is closed at night. DO NOT BUY AITICKETS FOR LATE FLIGHTS. Our regular transportation will leave by 17 pm and there will be NO MEETING FROM LATER FLIGHTS until this limitation becomes void. Also we can not transport you to the earliest flight as we can not leave Elbrus area before 6 am. March 17, 2011: - Flights timetables are published but some flights are still not confirmed:We published the summer timetable but flights from/to SVO are still not confirmed and not cancelled yet. Timetable on public tours pages: Timetable on private tours pages: The timetable on above pages is obviously same but the pages may have some other differences according to the different programs. March 12 , 2011: - The delay with summer flights timetable:Our 'additional services' pages and forms (to order hotels, transport in Moscow and local air tickets Moscow-MinVody) are not updated for 2011 season and we do not accept such 'extras' requests yet. February 24 , 2011: - Information about current situation in the area:We publish current information on our web site.
Please visit New section on our Forum.
January 26 , 2011: - Expedition in AndesOur team is leaving for expedition in Andes (Mt. Aconcagua and around). That is not a commercial affair but a kind of training to improve our service in Elbrus area. Between January 26th and February 20th there may be delays with correspondence because of lack of qualified personnel in our office, although the correspondence still should go somehow. We are back at the end of February. In January-February we do not have big correspondence, most people order after March so we are sure this does not affect interests of our respected customers. thank you for understanding.. October 15, 2010: - Dates and prices for 2011Dates and prices for 2011 season are set and published on the web site.
We will start accepting requests in mid November. Before that we are glad to discuss and even to price a private tour but we start to confirm both private and public reservations only after mid November. THE PRICES FOR ADDITIONAL SERVICES ARE NOT UPDATED FOR 2011.They will be updated in March 2011 as always after we have certain pricing from partners in Moscow. In 2011 season we are planning to accept local flight tickets requests. The airfares and summer timetable will be set by airlines in March.. August 19, 2010: - Dates and prices for 2011Dates and prices for 2011 season will be set and published on the web site in October (probably in late October). Private tours will be run on any dates according to a request. We begin to accept reservations for all tours (both public regular departure tours and private customized ones) after dates and prices are published. However all above is about OUR service - Elbrus tours. August 06, 2010: - About fires, smoke a flight.There are fires in central part of Russia because of extremely hot summer. That is a real problem. Here are the answers to most frequent questions: 1. No, there are no fires in Elbrus area and fires do not affect our programs. You can check situation at the airport regarding cancelled or delayed flights on-line. Reload web pages and wait more if there is no connection, there are too many requests and this make sites work unstable. July 19, 2010: - Border zone permit problems.Border guard office does not issue border zone permits. They do not reject the applications but simply delay issuing the permits. Officially they have right to make a decision within 40 days. At the moment all permits we have were sent to border guard office before May 30. There is no certainty how that will work in future but we are now changing our itineraries and programs to avoid border zone at all. It is simple because we have only one day (half day hike) in 11 day itinerary within the border zone. All other programs will not have changes. We strongly recommend the private tour participants (both guided full service tours and the independent Lite Package tours) do not rely on the border zone permit and do not plan any activity within the border zone. That are all side valleys to the South from the Baksan main valley. Names of the valleys are: Adyl-Su, Adyr-Su, Usengi, Shkhelda, Donguz-Orun. No need of border zone permit and no problems with climbing Elbrus from all sides, staying in the Baksan valley, visiting valleys to the North from the baksan valley, hiking the Mt.Cheget. April 30, 2010: - May 01-10 Holidays in Russia.There are May 01-03 and May 08-09 Holidays in Russia. Actually this means that business life in Russia is virtually paralyzed from April 30 to May10. Most official departments (including probably Russian Consulates in other countries) have holidays. We will stay in touch these days but our correspondence may have delays and there may be delays with processing official papers such as visa support. March 19, 2010: - Flights information and Important Info page were updated.There are some changes in flights timetable for summer 2010. Also the 'Important Info' pages were updated according to common changes with flights, and situation with hotels and airports. 'More Info' pages in each tour itinerary were updated accordingly. March 14, 2010: - Prices for additional services (extras) in 2010 season are set.Prices for additional services (extras) in 2010 season are set and published. Since this time we accept extra service requests through the Order forms. March 01, 2010: - Ski tour and Mt. Elbrus period 1 (March 31 - April 11, 2010) is sold out .Ski tour and Mt. Elbrus period 1 (March 31 - April 11, 2010) is sold out. We achieved maximum accommodation capacity in Adyr-Su valley lodge. February 18, 2010: - Aeroflot airline flights change.Aeroflot just have changed some their flights (to/from MinVody) numbers and Terminal. Normally International flights come to Terminal F.
Using Terminal D gives some advantage because one does not need to use a car or bus to get from International Terminal F to Terminal B or back. December 04, 2009: - A misprint has been fixed.There was a misprint in one our 8 day public tour departure date. A departure date was 04 of September but must be 03 of September. Fixed. Please note: 7 nigh/8 day tours are exactly Friday-Friday tours. September 19, 2009: - About 2010 season programs and offers.Dates and prices for 2010 season will be set and published on the web site in October (probably in late October). We will accept booking after publishing dates and prices. However all above is about OUR service - Elbrus tours. Prices for additional services (hotels and transport in Moscow, airtickets if we decide to offer this) will be published after we have them from the hotels and other contractors i.e. in March. Only after this we start accepting this "extra" reservations. July 07, 2009: - National Park permit.There is National Park in Elbrus area. For the last 5-6 years National park demands a fee for permission to visit it. There were disputes in courts about legality of this local document and in most cases courts said the demand was illegal. In 2008 season the national park suspended this activity and people could visit National park without permits and fees. June 14, 2009: - Border zone permit problems.Border guard office brings more and more problems to tourists in the area. Before it was easy to get a border zone permission. Starting from this year border zone permit application has even more points to fill out than Russian entry visa application. Moreover the new regulation says that people must apply for border zone permit 60 days in advance. Fortunately Elbrus itself is not within border zone and no need of border permission to climb it. However visiting mountains to the South from the Baksan river (valley) may become questionable. Because this new regulation appears in June, officially there is no time to get permits for the period until mid August if border guard office still insists on 60 days. At the moment situation is as follows: Border guard office returned all our applications for all groups (because they do not have necessary details according to new regulation) and we begin to send new application forms with these details. We will see how that works. If border guard office processes them fast customers will have border zone permission. If not - there will be no permissions this season and we will be forced to change the itineraries of groups in order to avoid the border zone. *As we have questions again and again probably the explanation above was not clear enough. Here is a clarification: Border zone permit has no effect on Elbrus climb itself. The only difference may be that we will be forced to change valleys for hikes in our standard tours. That affects only 11 day tour and only one day of the itinerary - Adyl-Su valley hike. If we have no border zone permit we will arrange a hike in another valley. June 04, 2009: - Big demand report.In spite of the crisis we encounter a big demand for our public tours for this season. Two periods are sold out and some other periods have just a few seats left. If you wish to place an order it is better to sign up and pay deposit far in advance. May 01-10, 2009: - May holidays in Russia.There are May holidays in Russia from May 1 to May 10. Although really that is May 1-3 and May 9-10 business life in Russia is nearly paralyzed for the whole period. Visa support may be delayed because of visa service holidays, Russian Consulates may be closed. In Elbrus area (as well as in other tourist areas in Russia) May holidays mean overbooked hotels and huts, crowds of people everywhere and high prices along with bad service. March 24, 2009: - As always we have huge correspondence begins from mid March.There may be delays with our correspondence because of many requests and messages from our customers. Correspondence flow normally rise in mid March and rises until June. Starting from mid March we guarantee our answers within 3 business days only. Most likely simple questions will be answered on the same or next days but messages which require any special processing (different official confirmations, calculations, visa support etc) may have 2-3 days delay. For example confirmation of receiving payment may be sent in a day after actual receiving because that requires several procedures - receiving information from bank or WU courier, inserting this info into our database and finally sending formal confirmation of reception. February 18, 2009: - Order forms for Additional services and Lite Package are updated for 2009..Prices for additional services are set and published on our web site. Order forms for Additional Services and Lite Package are updated for 2009. Since that time we accept the Lite Package orders and Additional services (extras) for regular departure public tours - through the proper forms. November 26, 2008: - Application forms for Standard 8, 11 and 12 day tours are updated for 2009..Application forms for Standard regular departure 8, 11, 12 day tours have been updated for 2009. Since that moment customers can sign up and we accept and process orders. October 07, 2008: - Dates and prices for 2009 are published.There are no changes in the itineraries, 8 day tours still stick to Friday-Friday term, dates for 11 day and 12 day tours stay same. North side climbed starts a day earlier. Prices are about 10 percent higher according to current money inflation processes. The only one big change is that from that moment all our prices are fixed in Russian currency (Rubles). Tours may be paid in US dollars or Euro as well according to current Central bank of Russia exchange rates. The current (today's) equivalents in USD and Euro are to be automatically published on the page right near the fixed cost in Rubles. August 19, 2008: - Our tours in 2009.There will be same kinds of tours in 2009 as in 2008. The exact dates of departures and prices will be set and published in October. Starting from January 2009 it will be possible to book them through our on-line forms. 8 day tours will still stick to Friday-Friday terms. We do not expect big changes in dates of other tours, most likely they will stay same as in 2008. Rise in prices may be up to 10 percent according to average common money inflation level. Changes in prices may be not same in all periods, some of them may rise, some stay same. Everything will be settled in October after we calculate the final results of 2008 year season. August 09, 2008: - Conflict in Ossetia..The conflict does not affect Russian territory itself and especially Elbrus area. All our tour will be run. It even makes local political situation better. In this conflict all local Caucasian nationalities took Russian part against Georgia so we do not expect even political struggle. Russian army in the Caucasus obviously will not allow any fight on Russian territory and this conflict will stay conflict on Georgian territory behind the Caucasus mountains. That is pretty far and several high mountain ranges protect the Elbrus area. (There is other Georgian territory nearby but that territory is not under full control of main Georgian government although there are no rebels there. Just an isolated by mountains region with very poor and not ethnically Georgian population.) We do not expect any changes in Elbrus area except children from South Ossetia in local hotels (according federal program to help refugees) and more visible presence of border guard. May 01, 2008: - May Holidays in Russia.There are May 1-4 and May 7-9 holidays in Russia. These long holidays is a kind of tradition in Russia and that paralyzes any business activity between April 30 and May 10. Our correspondence will have delays on this period and any activity where a 3rd party involved (visa support, hotel reservations etc) becomes possible only after May 10. April 01, 2008: - Airlines offer enough possibilities to reserve tickets.We decided to refuse from reserving air tickets . On March 30 all timetables and prices are settled and all airlines now offer reasonable on-line reservation and either receiving airtickets at the airport or even using e-tickets. The market now seems to be developed fairly enough. We do not a city agency with huge reservations and have no real advantages for reserving airtickets or their price. That is why we decide to refuse from this service for individual customers. We still can accept orders from companies-partners, while arranging a full package for their groups. Aeroflot airline: www.aeroflot.ru/eng February 12, 2008: - Additional service pages and Order forms are ready for 2008.Additional services and their costs are set and published. From now we also accept "extra" (besides the Elbrus tour service) orders. This is the new edition so there is a possibility that forms may work incorrectly because of any mistake. In this case please let us know. December 02, 2007: - We are back from Nepal.Our correspondence had big delays. We were on our after season vacations (expedition in India-Nepal) and our office was closed for more than a month. Now we are back and the paperwork will be processed. Sorry for the delay. November 02, 2007: - The problem with web site and email servers has been fixed.The problem with servers has been fixed and now both web site and email work correctly. However there may still be delays with correspondence because our team has "after season" vacations until mid November. October 29, 2007: - Some problems with web site and email servers.For a couple of weeks we have problems
with our web site and email address because of moving our US based
server. The hosting customer support there is not fast and we
can contact them from Russia only at night (12 hour time zone
difference) and our people still have after season vacations.. The web site itself is still available at http://198.173.232.209/ We are very sorry for this delay. If you wrote us anything for the last couple of weeks and did not receive an answer please contact us by THIS gleb@umail.ru address. This is our "reserve" address and it is ok now.
September 21, 2007: - Dates and prices for 2008 season scheduled regular departure public tours are set and published.Dates and prices for 2008 season scheduled regular departure public tours are set and published.August 27, 2007: - Dates for 2008 season scheduled regular departure public tours are set.- Private Guided tours (for only your party) may be ordered and run on any date and have any schedule. - Lite Package tours are available on any date within March 30 - April 30 and May 09 - September 26 periods. - Scheduled Guaranteed Departure Public tours in 2008 dates. Everyone can join a group on these dates. A tour will be run for the same price if at least one person signs up. Here are the dates below.
May 29, 2007: - Our answers may have delays because of huge correspondence in May - June.Every year in May and June we have huge correspondence with customers. Also that time our big work in the mountain begins. All this causes delays with our correspondence and paperwork. Please do not rely on last minute bookings and questions. Although delays may exist they may not be more than for 3 BUSINESS days. If you have no answer (or any reaction from our side) after 3 business days that means we did not receive your message or our answer was not received by you. In that case do not hesitate to send us new message through web form and think about the settings of YOUR email box or probably giving us ANOTHER ADDRESS (in any of free public worldwide email services such as hotmail.com or gmail.com). Please do not repeat your messages before 3 days term. This causes more jams for the common correspondence flow and what is worse may put the processing of your messages to the end of the line again. January 30, 2007: - A new long-expected offer: Elbrus from the North. In 2007 we start offer a new guaranteed departure public tour. Elbrus climb from the North. We had many requests about this, we had private customized tours there and now we offer this for everybody. Dates are fixed and everybody can join the tour. We set only one period for 2007. Depending on this season we probably offer several periods in 2008. 11 day Elbrus from North tour page January 29, 2007: - A small photo album about ski tours. A small photo album about our winter ski tours was added. Link is on the 12 day ski-tour page. January 27, 2007: - Some changes in the web site and the booking procedure.There are some changes in our booking policy and on our web site pages. 1. Some cosmetic changes in on-line Order Forms, they may make filling out forms more easy and understandable.2. Some slight price changes in additional services. From now we separate different airlines in our booking forms. 3. Booking procedure in regular departure and customized tours has been changed. Now we require to start and finish Elbrus booking before we accept further booking of Additional services (Moscow, airtickets). 4. We begin to make more connections of the Site and this Forum. THe FAQ sections and News section will be moved from the site to this Forum. The links in menus will point here. October 31, 2006: - Our office and correspondence will be opened again after "after-season" vacations on November 2..Our team has after summer season vacations in Tanzania for climbing Kilimanjaro and our office will be opened only in November 02. We have computers along with us but it appears that there are problems in Tanzania with GPRS Internet mobile connection so we can not hold correspondence from there..All your messages were received, stored and will be answered as soon as it becomes possible starting from November 2. We are very sorry for the delays. September 14, 2006: - Dates for guaranteed departure 8, 11, 12 day tours are published.We finally set dates for guaranteed departure tours in 2007. Prices are not set yet but we do not expect big changes. Also there will be some slight changes in the Conditions. As soon as all details are set they will be published. At the moment only dates of departures are set. Dates are available either from every 2006 tour page menu or by following these links: September 13, 2006: - All problems with web and email servers have been finally fixed.Our Web Forum has been repaired. All email addresses are functioning. Since this moment we consider there are no communication problems. September 08, 2006: - Email address is ok.Major contact email address problem (with *pilgrim-tours.com addresses) seems to be fixed. From now all our addresses work properly. However to be on safe side please for a week send copies of messages to alternative address ( gleb August 09, 2006: - Forms are ok now.We set the redirection to another email account on our Forms. Now Application forms, Extra service Forms and Message Form send messages to a functioning email address. Thus you can use Forms without problems. If you have no answer from us for some days please resend it through Send Message page. August 09, 2006: - problems on our servers.For some days we experience problems with receiving emails. This is the problem of our US based ("Verio, inc ") hosting company and we can not do anything with this but to wait until this is fixed. June 12, 2006: - airtickets prices have been risen.Prices for airtickets for the summer season rise and from this day the starting price of airtickets is 250 Euro for Siberia flight S7-1213/1214. MI - **** flights (Kavminvodyavia airline) are even more expensive and if you stick to a MI - **** flight be prepared for 280-300 Euro costs. As always paid reservations still have old price, unpaid reservations will be recalculated, new reservations will be calculated according the new price.June 04, 2006. - Additional service changes.From now the LP participants have same additional service in Moscow as full service customers. Order form has been changed accordingly and there is an access to Additional service page now (left menu). June 01, 2006. - Transportation service adjustment.People have too big gear along. Car drivers in Moscow refuse to take more than 2 people in a car because in other case there is a lot of gear on the seats inside the cabin. We are forced to return to our previous years policy - a car may be confirmed only for 1 or 2 people. 3 people are required to order a minibus. Same situation with big groups. We offer now 14-seat bus for 3-8 people, 19-seat bus for 9-12 people and for 13-15 people there is a 30-seat bus with luggage space. Drivers in the Caucasus are not so strict and we still confirm 3 people in a car. There are no options besides one kind of minibus in the Caucasus so we still offer 10-seat bus for up to 8 people. If there are more people in a group they have to add another bus or a car. April 15, 2006. - Hotels rise prices.Izmailovo hotel have risen their prices by about 45%, Cosmos hotel have risen their prices by 10%. Other hotels also rise prices almost every new week. The problem is that hotels require us to pay the difference even for already confirmed and paid reservations. Reservations for August that were paid in January now must be paid to hotels again according to new prices. This obviously makes early reservations useless and our hotel reservation business senseless and unprofitable both for us and our customers. We will make a decision about the situation soon and inform those customers who already paid for this service. Probably we will be forced to give up from accepting hotel reservation requests for Moscow at all. April 15, 2006. - New Web Board is published.Web Board was not available for a long time because of permanent massive "spam" attacks. Now it is opened again on a new engine and besides of "Forum" there will be "knowledge base" and "Frequently Answered Questions" sections. Unfortunately to prevent spammer bots from automatic posting we are forced to insist on registering and signing in before you can post messages. October 06, 2005. - All regular departure tour dates and prices for 2006 are published.There are some changes in comparison with 2005. - All standard itineraries content only the Caucasus days. Those people that want Moscow service and/or airtickets from us may order that additionally without limitations. Also our changing/cancellation policy about Moscow service becomes more flexible in ALL tours. In 2005 8-day participants were not allowed to order anything besides Caucasus part. - Note, that prices in Russia go higher (10-20% per year in Russian Rubles) although exchange rate with USD or Euro stays same. That is why prices go higher in other currencies as well. - There are 3 kinds of regular departure tours from now (once again ALL itineraries normally contain the Caucasus part only): - Most prices for ADDITIONAL services are not set yet because we still have no prices from our partners, hotels and airlines. The prices will be published as new information becomes available. September 28, 2005. - 8-day tour dates and prices for 2006 are published.- There are big changes in our policy about 8-day tours in 2006. From now we accept orders for Moscow service and airtickets which was impossible in 2005. September 20, 2005. - Season is over. Results.- This season we hosted more than 700 people from dozens of countries from Japan to Brazil. - Our new itineraries, dates and costs for 2006 season will be published on this web site by October 1, 2005. - Many thanks to our customers who chose us. We always do our best to improve our service and your opinion is very valuable. Do not hesitate to share your thoughts about our service with us and with other people. Good features should spread and bad ones also must be known.
February 11, 2005 - Some changes / updates.- There are 2 new fields in our Application forms to fill out - the date of arrival in Russia and the
date of departure. October 01, 2004 - Dates and prices updated for 2005 season.- At the moment 8-day, 11-day and 12-day regular departure tours are set. Prices
stay same, departure dates for 11-day and 12-day tours are same. Dates for 8-day
tours are set to 2005 Fridays. Some words about the 2004 season:- There are about 15% visitors more than in 2003. The tendency is same as for the last 4-5 years.- Technical, physical skills and motivation of climbers (in common) go lower from year to year. Elbrus becomes a popular destination. However it is still dangerous mountain. 48 climbers died in the area this season. - Climbing success rate goes lower following the shape of participants. At the moment the rate is 85% for our 11-day regular tours and 84.3% for 8-day tours. Customized private groups have higher rate because people come as a team and have higher motivation to climb. Lite Package climbers in common have poor rate because they have no mountain guides (leaders). On the other hand some Lite Package groups with their own good leaders show very good rates. - This year we encountered problems with email. Spam and virus messages come to 95% of our correspondence - hundreds of messages a day and we just have no opportunity to read all the messages. Automatic filtering is essential. Please do follow the recommendations on our Contacts page. May 11, 2004 - Price correction of the Lite Package offer. There is a new registration fee in the area.The local authorities set the new national preserve registration fee for all people coming in the Elbrus area. The cost is US$ 20, (17 Euro) Because that registration is a must we include it into the Lite Package and therefore its price becomes 17 Euro higher. The price for confirmed and paid tours will stay same and we will not charge any additional payment. All new confirmations will include that fee. January 8, 2004. - Price correction of 11-day tours. From now all prices are in Euro.US Dollar purchasing power dramatically falls in Russia. Since March 2003 we considered Euro equal to US Dollar in most cases and accepted US$ payments accordingly, but now we can not ignore the process. All prices and payments since January 1, 2004 are in Euros. Any other currency characters may be seen on the web site and in our correspondence by mistake only. Sorry for the possible confusion we are hunting for bugs in our templates but still have some misprints. All direct customers who have confirmations from us and paid a deposit before today will pay the price they have in confirmations. New customers will see the new price within several hours (do not forget to 'Refresh' pages in your browser window). Sorry for inconvenience. December 20, 2003. - Peak Lenin tour is cancelledUnfortunately we are forced to refuse from Peak Lenin expedition in 2004. Sorry about this, we are very busy on Elbrus full season from April to October, tourist flow rises in the Caucasus and we simply are not able to send our guides somewhere else.
November 14, 2003. - Changes in 15-day standard itinerary.We replaced 3 days in Elbrus area with days in Bezingi region. This allows to see the most unspoiled region in the Caucasus with the highest mountains instead of spending time in one area. We consider this a big improvement. The tour price stays same. About the itinerary see at 15-day program page. September 14, 2003. - Tour dates and prices for 2004 are partially published.8, 11 and 15 day scheduled tours are published. Now there are 35(!) regular departure periods. Ski-tours scheduled tours (for March-May) will be published soon. June 20, 2003. - To our customers and correspondents.This year we have huge correspondence and a lot of orders processing in summer. This is something new for us and we can not answer and process orders enough fast because this is high season and almost all our staff is in the field. We simply are not meant to accept many orders in summer, sorry. At the moment we are even not able to answer half of messages from people. If you encounter a delay, just write one more message and most likely it will be answered hitting the 'answered' half of correspondence. Sorry about this. For the next year we will fix the problem but now it's too late for this season to change something. June 14, 2003Our regular departure group period # 2climbed Mt.Elbrus (5632 m) today. The 5 of 7 participants climbed the top. The weather was sunny and windy. June 06, 2003Our regular departure group period # 1 climbed Mt.Elbrus (5632 m) today. The 14 of 15 participants climbed the top. The weather was cold and windy although visibility was good. April 16, 2003Our new web site is ready. There will be some layout changes and some pages will be added soon but we consider the site to be practically ready and are glad to present it to our potential customers. We are planning to make translation into other languages within a month. Our former web site www.pilgrimtours.org is still available and will stay available as a mirror of this site. |
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umail.ru) as well.