SISI O'DRISCOLLhad always admired mountaineers, including her father. Then he invited her to climb Europe's highest mountain
A HERO AT high altitude is how I’ve always seen my dad, so I couldn’t believe it when he wanted to take me on his latest climbing adventure. I’ve seen all the movies – Vertical Limit, Touching the Void, Cliffhanger – and been in awe of the brave (or is it crazy?) people who venture to the mountains. The ice axes and crampons make them look as if they’re invincible. I never thought I too would one day do something like that. It wasn’t as extreme as falling down a crevasse at 7,000m, but I’m only 17, and climbing all 5,642m of Europe’s highest mountain is challenging enough.
My name is SiSi O’Driscoll, and I have just finished fifth year at Newbridge College in Co Kildare. I’ve just come back from climbing Mount Elbrus, in the Caucasus in Russia, with my dad, Fin, and his friend William Reilly. It’s my second of the seven summits – the highest peak on each of the continents – as I climbed Kilimanjaro with my dad last July. After climbing Africa’s highest mountain I thought Elbrus wouldn’t be too bad, but little did I know how different Russia would be from the rest of the world. The closest I’d been was watching James Bond films, and even I was smart enough to know not to expect any base jumping or knife fights.
We flew to Moscow, then took an internal flight 1,200km south to Mineralnye Vody, a crumbling industrial town west of the Caspian Sea, where I was once again going to suffer from culture shock. The four-hour ride to Azau, our base-camp village, brought us through old mining towns that hadn’t changed since the communist era, and many lovely views were now blocked by rust-stained power stations. You really began to appreciate the landscape and clear skies of Ireland.
When our minibus finally stopped I thought the driver was joking when he started to unload our bags. We were standing outside a building site. There was scaffolding around the front of the hotel, and when you walked in the smell of sawdust nearly choked you. Let’s just say it wasn’t five-star accommodation. To top it all off, Azau only had one bar – and it didn’t serve any soft drinks, chocolate bars or crisps. How was an Irish girl supposed to survive?
We spent two days in Azau, acclimatising on nearby peaks, before heading up to the barrels at 3,700m. These provide very basic accommodation for climbers on the slopes of Elbrus, and when I say basic I’m being generous, because these simple metal structures have no showers and only a rudimentary outside toilet.
After a few more days acclimatising, with day climbs to Priyut (4,200m) and Pastukova Rocks (4,700m), our mountain guide, Yuri, decided we were ready for the summit attempt. Elbrus is more than 1,000m higher than the peaks around it, giving it unpredictable weather. In June you can get stuck in snow storms as cold as minus 40. So it was a pretty big decision to be making – and it was only then, 3,700m above sea level, that I realised how right my friends were when they told me I was mad for doing this.
Fortunately for us, a suitable window in the weather was forecast. We set off at the lovely hour of 4am on summit day. The challenge was a seven-hour ascent on ice and snow, using crampons, ice axes, harnesses and ropes. At first it sounded like fun, and I thought it would be like being in a movie, but the movies never show how tedious it is to get all this gear on, let alone carry it up a mountain.
As dawn broke on that exceptionally clear morning we witnessed one of the most extraordinary things I’d ever seen: Mount Elbrus is so high compared with its neighbours that it cast a shadow in the sky.
Reaching the summit before midday, the temperature had increased from a numbing minus 25 to a relatively comfortable minus 10, and we had amazing views of snow-capped mountains.
After having to catch my breath and realise where I was again, unsure if that was caused by altitude or the shock of reaching the top, we took a few photographs and then admired the breathtaking vista.
Knowing that you were higher than anyone else in Europe or Russia made me realise what an amazing experience and achievement this was for us all.
We then started our four-hour descent back to the barrels. Eleven hours of climbing in snow and ice at altitude really helps you get to sleep, especially when you’d been having trouble the previous nights because of snoring by certain people in the dormitory-style set-up.
Next day back to Azau and a hot shower in our hotel, which was very nice indeed and much needed. After a night celebrating in the local bar we said our goodbyes to our guide and the rest of the group before getting a flight back to Moscow.
The Russian capital was completely different. Instead of walking into huts I got the chance to force my dad and William into Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacob.
Climbing Mount Elbrus didn’t just give me the chance to conquer the second of my seven summits; it also let me see how different a world Russia is from Ireland. It was an amazing experience that has made me keen to continue climbing peaks around the globe. Next on our list of the seven summits is Denali, aka Mount McKinley, in Alaska next year.