|
|
Our News:
May 17, 2022 - All programs for foreigners in 2022 have been cancelled.Finally we are forced to announce that all our programs for foreigners in 2022 have been cancelled.It becomes pretty hard to reach Russia from abroad because of lack of international flights and problems with obtaining visa. Also international bank payments to\from Russia were blocked on the Western side and we can not accept payments and make refunds. Visa, Master, American Express, PayPal also suspended the transactions within/to/from Russia. We do not intend to leave the business and will be waiting for any turn to better in future. Probably in 2023. January 19, 2022 - Lite Package page has been updated for 2022 season.- Lite Package page has been updated for 2022 season.January 18, 2022 - Dates and prices for 2022 season are setlled and published.- Dates and prices for 2022 season are setlled for 8-day program and published. Yuo can sign up through our Application form.- Lite Package will be updated later. - 10 day programs are turned off for 2022 (see the previous news post here). January 10, 2022 - We start updateing the web site for 2022 season.We start updating the web site for the new 2022 year season.Lite Package and 8 day tours will stay same. However uncertainty with common situation with travel business forces us to suspend the processing of 10 day program. This program is much less popular and there were not many people even during pre-Covid years. International travel is not in good order yet and we can not count on many customers in 2022. That is why we suspend the 10 day programs for 2022. If everything goes more or less good in 2022 we will turn 10 day programs on later in 2023. Alternatively in this season customers will be able to extened their 8 day program on the spot.
September 04, 2021 - Current situation, list of availble countries means also the list of countries from where your arrival flight can come.Our customer reprots that he could not come from Netherlands because Netherlands is not in the list of availble countries. He was stopped at the passport gates after he arrived in Moscow in spite of having visa and citizenship of alowed country. Please check the list of countries from where you can come, This list works regarding the point from where one comes not regarding citizenship in the passport (if you received visa in another country).
List of countris from where people can come (at the moment, this may be changed at any time, please check this with Russian Consulate in your country). August 22, 2021 - Current situation, list of countries.
About vaccine passport for COVID 19.
There are no demands regarding any vaccination. The only demand is to have negative Covid test within 72 hours before arrival (airlines check this).
List of countris from where people can come (at the moment, this may be changed at any time, please check this with Russian Consulate in your country). August 02, 2021 - Current situation: First arrivals.Finally visa processing started in some countries and first climbers come both for public and private tours. First climbers arrived from India, Germany, USA. We expect people from Hungary and Sweden shortly. All our public programs will be run even if there is just one member signed up. We do not cancel public periods, they are guaranteed departure tours with fixed and published itinerary and price. If you are interested please contact Russian Consulate in your country if they accept visa applications for processing. E-visas seem to be suspended in 2021 while standard processing (paper visa) becomes available in many countries. Situation with COVID in Russia and Elbrus area looks stable. There are no any special restrictions or limitations. If one comes he can travel without any limitations. May 14, 2021 - About current situation with international travel and Elbrus travel:
Common rules about tourist arrival in Russia.
- Officially people are allowed to come from those countries which currently have air flights to Russia. About situation in Russia and Elbrus area.
We are ready to meet customers. We do not have a forecast how this may be with COVID restrictions but they are only for international travel. Here in Russia and Elbrus area we do not have noticeable covid
restrictions and all hotels are fully booked by Russian tourists for summer. All personnel who works with tourists are vaccinated as well as vast majority of tourists.
February 10, 2021 - Information about visas:At the moment Russian Consulates do not accept visa application for processing. That is why people can not have visas to enter Russia. Consulates promise they start processing visas in April. If so there will be sufficient time to receive necessary visa before our programs start in mid May. Situation may be different in different countries. THE ONLY REAL CURRENT INFORMATION IF/WHEN ONE CAN COME MAY BE GAINED FROM THE RUSSIAN CONSULATE IN YOUR COIUNTRY. Please always contact them when you make planning. NEW THIS YEAR - ELECTRONIC VISAS. Starting from now people from many countries can apply and receive visa COMPLETELY ON-LINE. There is no need of visiting Consulate, using visa agencies, making bookings and having "invitations". You just apply, pay and have the paper.
Main features are:
How electronic visa affects our tours and paperwork.
Most common question: If we do not have visa how can we book air tickets far in advance to have better tariffs?
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Consular department page regarding Electronic Visas. January 05, 2021 - Application forms have been updated for 2021:
Application forms have been updated for 2021. September 30, 2020 - Dates and prices have been updated for 2021:
Dates and prices have been updated for 2021. August 05, 2020 - Update:
People report that many Russian Consulates still do not accept visa applications. July 23, 2020 - Update:- At the moment all facilities (lifts, hotels, cafes, shops) in Elbrus area are open and functioning normally without any limitation. There are no changes in our programs, dates, prices. You can make a request and it will be confirmed and provided if you manage to come. - On July 15th Russian regulator announced that there is no need of 14 day quarantine for foreigners coming from abroad if they have a kind of official paper that they are not infected. The paper must be issued not earlier that 3 days before arrival. We do not have any idea who can issue such a document in your country and do not have any evidences yet. If you wish to try this please contact the Russian Consulate beforehand. Probably they can suggest something. - Flights within Russia go normally but international flights are pretty limited, although exist. - Also many countries even formally do not allow travel from/to Russia at least before August. There is no forecast if they allow such travel in August or September. They just announce the release or not. I suppose (but not sure) the Russian side may keep same limitation for visitors from these countries in return. Please call to Russian Consulate beforehand to check. In brief: It looks like if one has really great motivation he has a possibility to come. Pick up the paper, find a flight (probably expensive and with changes) and you are in Russia and can climb. However this obviously looks too complicated for an average tourist. And of course - call to Russian Consulate first to check how things go. We can not have current precise information for every country, only the Russian Consulate in your country can provide this. June 24, 2020 - Update:At the moment formally the hotels in the Elbrus area are still not allowed for accommodation because of quarantine. Lifts do not work. Tours are possible but with some adjustments. Russian tourists come (not many though) but foreigners are totally absent. Hopefully in July-August things turn to better. We extended the season until October 02 (added two eight day periods) Those customers who wish to delay the tour but still wish to climb in this season can use the later periods. We still can not make refunds. Paperwork with our bank is still suspended. May 20, 2020 - Update:At the moment the hotels in the Elbrus area are not allowed for accommodation because of quarantine. Therefore there are no customers for all other services such as lifts or huts and these facilities are closed as well. The tours are not possible because of this limitation. We expect in June the hotels and huts will become available, the lifts will be turned on. Local flights and trains in Russia are available even now and the schedule will be updated/added for June. Since June 01 we consider the tours are possible. There is "available" notification for public tours. There will be still problems with international arrivals but those customers who manage to come will be served.
May 12, 2020 - Update:Some limitations regarding business were cancelled but a lot of them still stays same as before. Officially booking in hotels is not allowed until June. In practice many small hotels ignore restrictions as well as other businesses.
I'm still sure tours will be possible in June regarding situation in Russia itself and the Caucasus mountains. At the moment
the limitations regarding businesses become lower and lower. Bookings at hotels become possible starting from June 1 and therefore
tours may be processed even officially.
About common situation in Russia. The illness itself does not cause noticeable problems and there are not many people affected especially in regions such as Caucasus. On the other hand there are extraordinary limitations coming from the government. People do not understand this, this ruins small businesses and private people also encounter problems. Complaint from people are really rising and I do not think that government will be able to stand this more than within May. In June the restrictions definitely will be simply ignored by people and small businesses and no any police can prevent from this. April 29, 2020 - About quarantine:
Officially the quarantine is extended until May 11. After this we expect gradual release of limitations within Russia. April 24, 2020 - About refunds and payment details:We can see the payments from customers on-line (with some delay though). To send money or even to check the correctness of your bank details in case of a refund we need to visit our bank office but we all have quarantine here. As soon as the bank office becomes accessible we will process the payments. I suppose(hope) this will be within a couple of weeks. April 17, 2020 - Corona virus, current restrictions:At the moment officially all restrictions (quarantine) both in Moscow and in Elbrus area are until April 30. There is no other official information or a forecast. March 25, 2020 - Corona virus, our planning and travel restrictions:There are no official travel restrictions in Russia for May and later yet. Hopefully things turn to better by that time. Here in Russia we do not have noticeable trouble regarding the disease itself but only limitations for better protection. The limitations may end same fast as they were introduced. At the moment we work same as before and are planning all the summer activity and tours same as always. If there are any further travel restrictions in future, well, we will be forced to follow. Until this we are ready to go. If you wish to cancel a reservation please inform us beforehand, to avoid NoShow case. Our cancellation policy does not depend on the reasons for cancellation, just let us know if you do not intend to come. Thank you. March 17, 2020 - Corona virus and our planning:As you know the international travel is almost paralyzed at the moment. We do not see any real epidemic evidences here in Russia (above a standard seasonal flu level) but the World gets crazy and we also have quarantine. Probably this is necessary. To our mind published statistics (even worldwide) at the moment does not show a real reason for such madness. I do not know how this works. Probably authorities know something more or this is an extension/feature of entire economical crisis. On our level of informing we can not make any forecasts. Probably everything will return to normal situation in a month probably not. We work same as before and plan all summer activity same as always while bearing in mind that, yes, things may change. December 29, 2019 - New Year Holidays in Russia:There are traditionally long New Year holidays in Russia from December 30 till January 13. There are some business days inside this period but actually all business life if paralyzed during that period until 13th. Regarding bank payments this may mean that even if money come on the December 30 some most likely we will receive bank notification about this only after the January 13th. Same is with all other formal procedures in Russia. Ordinary things like correspondence should go while probably with some delays. November 21, 2019 - We start accepting reservations for 2020:Starting from today we accept reservations for 2020 for all kinds of our tours.
If you need a visa to come to Russia please note that Consulates do not accept visa applications earlier than 6 months in advance. Visa support (invitation) from us should be fresh when you apply. October 09, 2019 - We have after season vacations until mid November:We have after season vacations until mid November. Before that time simple questions and messages will be answered somehow but any formal paperwork such as confirming reservations for 2020 will be processed only after mid November. October 03, 2019 - Dates and prices for 8 and 10 day public tours in 2020 have been published:Dates and prices for 8 and 10 day public tours in 2020 have been published. We will start accepting reservations for 2020 after mid November. May 23, 2019 - We do not sell air tickets anymore:
Because of some new (for us) regulations and taxes we are forced to give up from offering air tickets Moscow-MinVody both for private customers and
tour companies, sorry. April 09, 2019 - May Holidays in Russia:There are May holidays annually in Russia. In the 2019 officially the vacation days are from May 01 to May 05 and from May 09 to May 12. Regardless on the formal business and vacation dates, the business activity in Russia and Consulates traditionally becomes almost paralyzed for the whole period from May 01 till May 12.
Please plan your applying for visa in Russian Consulate accordingly. It is better to call them in advance to check their real business dates within this period. Processing of visas will be delayed for sure but they can at least accept papers. March 26, 2019 - Bank payments are available:
We start accepting bank payments to our bank account in Russia. Because accepting payments requires some paperwork with bank on our side we do not put the bank details right on the web site for everyone's reference. This is just to avoid unexpected payments from unclear sources. Customers sometimes pay from not personal accounts without any tour specific details and we can not determine the sender and purpose of payment fast enough. We are still working on the card and PayPal payment possibilities. February 06, 2019 - Payment details:
Because of a new age of financial (and other) relations in the world we were forced to close our account in a bank in Europe. European banks do not wish to handle accounts of non EU residents. We start accepting payments to our Russia based accounts. This does not affect the details of payments much - they are same simple
and may be in USD or EUro or Rubles. At the moment we are trying to make the procedures easier for all.
This is the only new feature. We just do not accept payments until everything is settled because we do not wish to have problems with
our bank if an unknown person pays a hundred of USD from unknown account without a visible reason and previous notification.
We will inform all the customers when the payment becomes possible and convenient. January 31, 2019 - Lite Package page has been corrected:There was incorrect information about the hotel service. It gave the price and said 'no meals'. The correct edition is same price but 'bed and breakfast'. Now fixed, sorry. January 23, 2019 - Lite Package page has been updated for 2019:Lite Package page has been updated for 2019. There are some changes of prices and conditions. Since this time we start accepting requests for the Lite Package and now we can confirm the reservations. January 14, 2019 - We start 2019 season programs:
We are again in office and start normal correspondence. November 15, 2018 - Web site problems.
There were and still are some problems with our web site. Our web hosting provider in USA has updated their software and this completely ruined our web site.
It took time to determine what is wrong, especially because the provider also has problems with the update and their support was not available online for a long time. October 25, 2018 - Vacations until NovemberWe have after season vacations in October and our office is closed until November. Sorry for the delay in correspondence. October 08, 2018 - Prices for 2019
Dates and prices for public 8 and 10 day tours have been published on the web site. On-line Application Forms have been updated and ready for signing up. August 10, 2018 - Payments
We were forced to close our current bank account in Latvian bank today. There are new regulations in Europe and the banks do not wish to work with non-residents. We will start accepting cards soon but at the moment we can not accept small deposits and therefore we do not require them. You can make reservation, have our visa support and come without a deposit. For the next some weeks the only option for payment for private persons is the payment on the spot when they come. Companies can sign up a formal agreement and pay to our Russian bank in USD or Euro. Sorry for inconvenience. The problem with payments will be settled within a month. In the 2019 season we will accept cards, Pay Pal and bank transfers. August 03, 2018 - About payments
We intend to close our current bank account in Latvian bank by August 12. After this we will accept USD, Euro and Rubles to our Russian bank. However at the moment payments to our Russian bank require some additional paperwork and is not convenient for accepting small deposits. If you wish to make a deposit please do this before August 10 to the current bank account. If you wish to make a big payment (over 1000 Euro) please contact us and we will advise the new bank account details. In other cases we will accept cash upon arrival as always. We will start accepting cards soon but there is no certainty when this becomes possible. Most likely in September. In 2019 season we will accept cards and will use the new bank account for larger payments. We are sorry for current inconvenience. Some maintenance is required to make payments more convenient in future.
July 11, 2018 - Road, electricity have been fixed
The road is ok more or less and Elbrus area is accessible from airport without big problems. Electric line has been repaired. July 06, 2018 - Things are not that bad..Today our group started from MinVody and reached Elbrus area. The road is bad but possible if there is no heavy rain. Saying in common the traffic is unstable but exists. Still no good electricity and gas in the area because lines were broken. July 05, 2018 - Weather disaster, bridges destroyed.Bridges between Tyrnauz and Terskol were destroyed this night because of weather (warm weather with rains). Also electric power is interrupted in the area. No lifts, no light. There is no chance that bridges may be repaired within next several days. We have 25 clients to return to airport tomorrow and no idea how this may be done.
We can not meet people and can not deliver them to Elbrus area tomorrow on the July 6th.
UPDATE:
UPDATE-1: UPDATE-2: UPDATE-3:
April 13, 2018 - May holidays in Russia + some updates.There are May holidays annually in Russia.
Regardless on the formal business and vacation dates, the business activity in Russia and Consulates traditionally becomes almost paralyzed ffrom May 01 to May 09. Please plan your applying for visa in Russian Consulate accordingly.
It is better to call them in advance to check their real business dates within this period. Processing of visas will be delayed for sure but they can at least accept
papers.
Today some pages were updated for 2018: Important Info pages (sumer timetable), Equipment for rent (prices), History of tours (2017 season was added). January 16, 2018 - Lite Package page has been updated for 2018.Lite Package tour page has been updated for 2018 and we start accepting reservations for 2018. There are no prices changes in comparison with 2017. October 16, 2017 - Resevations for public tours in 2018.We start accepting reservations for 2018. Reservations are possible for guided private tours and public guided regular departure tours.
Reservations for regular departure public tours should be made through Application forms (point of left menu on every proper tour page).
September 30, 2017 - The 2018 year dates and prices.We have published the dates and prices of 8 and 10 day Public tours. The prices in Russian Rubles stay same as in 2017. How much this is in USD or Euro depends on the exchange rate on the moment of payment. Private full service tours as always may be run on any date. The price of a private tour depends on dates, number of nights and number of people in your private party. This will be calculated on request. Lite Package (basic partial service) is availble from May 17 to September 21. The Lite Package web page will be updated for 2018 soon. September 09, 2017 - Temporary road is ok.
Temporary road works and our groups go up adn down normally. September 05, 2017 - Area becomes accessible.
Temporary road is ready. September 02, 2017 - Mudflow news update.
There is no problem with safety and no danger inside the area. The problem is only with the road and accessibility. The question now is only with new arrivals. One our 8 day group was scheduled to come yesterday (September 01). At the moment they all are in hotel in MinVody and we will be trying to use helicopter to take them to the area. If this fails (because is not allowed by authorities) we will be forced to cancel all reservations in September because of no access to the area. The final information will be sent by email to all customers and published by the end of this day - Saturday, September 02. Update: Access to Elbrus area is possible. WE DO NOT CANCEL OUR TOURS. Today our 8 day public group managed to get to our hotel in Elbrus area from MinVody. Some parts of the road were repaired for vehicles and one part should be walked. The group walked about 1,5 hours. Update: The damages are big and on 7 parts of the road. However the efforts and activity of rescue and repairing teams are amazing this time. It was very good organization of evacuation by helicopters and repairing teams work hard and are very effective. The main problem was that the road was damaged in several parts for 20 kilometers. Too far for walking around. At the moment some parts of the road have been repaired for temporary use of not heavy vehicles. There is still no access to the area for cars but walking became possible. The walking distance is not big, less than 2 kilometers but has some steep parts. It is not a big problem if one has one backpack but is a hard job if one has a couple of big suitcases. The speed of repairing is so significant that now we expect that there will be a car access to the area probably in a week. That will be a temporary road for not big cars but this will fix all our problems with transportation. September 01, 2017 - Big mudflow destroyed the road to Elbrus are.Big mudflow destroyed the road to Elbrus area at 02:05 am today. At the moment there is no possibility for groups to come to Elbrus area and to leave it. We suppose that the area will stay inaccessible at least until tomorrow. At the moment there is no forecast when the road may be repaired.
Update (15:00 Moscow time) April 21, 2017 - Equipment for rent page has been updated for 2017.
Equipment for rent page has been updated for 2017. The samples of prices for hiring equipment in 2017 season. April 14, 2017 - May holidays in Russia.There are May holidays annually in Russia.
Regardless on the formal business and vacation dates, the business activity in Russia and Consulates traditionally becomes almost paralyzed from May 01 to May 09. Please plan your applying for visa in Russian Consulate accordingly.
It is better to call them in advance to check their real business dates within this period. Processing of visas will be delayed for sure but they can at least accept
papers.
April 04, 2017 - Some pages have been updated for 2017
'Additional services' pages for all tours are updated for 2017. Some prices were changed. January 26, 2017 - Current situation with web site, updateEmail boxes are ok.
January 23, 2017 - Current situation, updateEmail boxes are fixed and work good.Some emails were missed. If you corresponded with us within January 09-19 period and do not have certainty if your message was received please send it again. Hundreds of messages were accumulated during the period of problems with email server and it takes time to sort everything out. Sorry for the delay and inconvenience. Web server/site is better but still not good. Menus and links are ok but pages with calculations such as 'Application form' pages and some other still do not work. January 19, 2017 - Email boxes are ok..@pilgrim-tours.com email boxes are fixed and work good.Some emails were missed. If you corresponded with us within January 09-19 period and do not have certainty if your message was received please send it again. We are sorry for inconvenience. Web server/site is still not good. Please use direct links below. Thank you for your patience. January 19, 2017 - Links to pagesWeb site does not work correctly on the 'new platform' (see the news below). Menus with links are absent on the web pages.Here below are the direct links to pages.
8 day tours.
'Application form' for the 8 day tour:
10 day tours.
'Application form' for the 10 day tour: Common links:
Equipment list:
Payment terms and conditions:
Visa questions and answers: There are also some other features which do not work such as currency calculation and calculation in common. We are trying to find the reason and fix this as soon as possible. January 18, 2017 - There are problems with email and web server.Our American hosting and domain provider (Verio.com) migrated/migrates to new platform (I do not know what is this).Our mail and web site server crashed heavily on January 09-10 and still does not work properly because of the 'migration'. The 'pilgrim-tours.com' web site may be not accessible at the moment and will be definitely seen again within 36 hours after the global announcing on DNS services. Try to reload the browser if you do not see the web site.
There are more problems with 'pilgrim-tours.com' email web server. Mail boxes were removed as a result of the migration and
now the Verio specialists are trying to restore the emails. This may take a couple of days as well.
We are very sorry for inconvenience. November 16, 2016 - Weather disaster. Period of freezing rains. Problems with correspondence, sorry.There were 1-2 weeks of of bad weather. Rain and cold wind generated much ice on trees and wires. Many trees, power and Internet optic wires were damaged in many places of the area which caused multiple local and common blackouts. At the moment main problems with electricity were fixed more or less although there are still gaps for further repairing/improvements. Internet is very slow and unstable because it comes via distant mobile phone tower which suffers from same problems with electric power. Our correspondence was paralyzed for more than a week and there may be still problems for a week or so. We are very sorry for problems with correspondence. It looks like we receive all messages but can not process replies normally. If you do not have an answer please send the message again just in case.November 15, 2016 - Public tour requests.The Application Form pages for 8 and 10 day Public scheduled tours are ready. We start accepting requests for these tours for 2017 season. November 07, 2016 - Public tour prices for 2017 have been published.Public tours prices for 2017 have been published. October 31, 2016 - Public tour dates for 2017 have been published.Public tour dates for 2017 were published yesterday. Prices will be set and published soon. Sorry for the delay, we are waiting for prices from some local contractors. Hopefully we will have them by the end of the week. July 15, 2016 - Visa support details has been changed again.Visa support details changed and information in Consulates will be updated on July 18th. The new host (inviting company) is 'Expo-Tour'. If you did not apply successfully for visa before July 15th please let us know and we will send the new edition of visa support. You should use your the new edition of visa support and new details. If you applied and are waiting for visa please let us know and we will send the new edition of visa support. Inform the Visa Center or Consulate that you wish to replace the visa support with a new one. Consulates accept such change without problems and in vast majority of cases this does not make procedure longer. Because this is for the second time within a month this requires more explanation:
Special license (not tourist one) is required to send visa support (invitation).
We do not have and do not wish to have our own license for visa support because this is very specific and risky business. We use service of specialized visa companies. Again: visa support and visa support issues do not have any relation to processing tour in the mountains. This may be compared with air ticket. We can arrange the ticket as a service additionally to our Elbrus tour. However we can not control the airline and if the flight becomes cancelled by airline the only thing we can do is to buy another ticket from this or another airline. Yes, we are very sorry about the problem but this is out of our control. The only thing we can do is to replace the ticket.
June 26, 2016 - Visa support details changedVisa support details changed on June 23.Consulate database should be updated to the new name and details of the host (inviting company). There was: 'LINK-TA' Now its is: 'Express-Voyage' If you did not apply successfully for visa before June 22 please let us know and we will send the new edition of visa support. Everything will be same except from this change. If you applied and are waiting for visa: There is no certainty how this works in the Consulate. Many people applied before and receive their visas now. Some of them report that it is ok but some of them say that Consulate asks for the new edition. We do not have sufficient information to estimate on what this may depend. Please inform us and we will send the new edition. Do not specially inform the Consulate about the change but have this new edition on hand in case Consulate asks. June 13, 2016 - Elbrus National Park has introduced the entry feeElbrus National Park has introduced the entry fee. This may be called a permit or a ticket. At the moment there is no certainty how this will work. Most likely that will be same as 4 years ago - National Park officers will check the 'ticket' and suggest to buy it on the spot if one does not have it. The fee is not big - 1200 Rubles per person for the Elbrus climb regardless on the number of days or 50 Rubles per day per person just for staying/hiking in the area. There will be no additional cost for participants of our full service guided groups. Lite Package customers will be required to pay the fee additionally because it was not included into the package in this season.May 20, 2016 - Our huts have been moved to new higher location.There is a new lifts leg which now goes higher than the Barrels huts. We moved our huts (wagons) from the Barrels location to the higher location right nearby the upper lifts station. Now our huts are at 3850 m. I think we can call them 'Pilgrim' huts. There are still huts at the Barrels spot and we are going to use them as well if customers wish this or there are no vacant places in Pilgrim huts. New location have both advantages and disadvantages. As for me I prefer the Barrels spot because I think that this altitude is optimal for acclimatization on Elbrus. On the other hand lifts go higher and it looks stupid not to use this advantage. Photo of the huts and lifts station. May 11, 2016 - Correspondence traffic jam in MayAfter Russian May holidays we have huge correspondence flow and our answers may have delays, sorry. All messages will be answered. Obviously May-June tours correspondence will be processed first so if your tour is in July and later most likely there will be 1-2 day gap before we answer.April 21, 2016 - May holidays in Russia are coming!About holidays:There are May holidays in Russia. Our correspondence will go more or less in normal way during the holidays but any official formal activity such as preparing or changing visa support and other procedures will be impossible. Also the Russian Consulates may have same days off or even do not operate at all from April 30 to May 10.
April 29 - business day March 21, 2016 - Information about flightsSummer flights timetable on 'Important Info' pages has been updated. The 'Important Info' pages are different for different kind of tours and are available through left menu on every tour page. Information about arrival and departure terms and conditions on these page was adjusted a bit accordingly.March 04, 2016 - Holidays in MarchThere is '8th of March' holiday in Russia.The period from March 4 to March 9 are days off in Russia. All formal procedures such as visa support are not possible before the 9th of March. There may be same gap in Russian Consulates in other countries as well. January 22, 2016 - Some common features of the new season:1. There are still same paperwork and regulations as before:- No National Park fee (it is absent for the last 5 years). - Any kind of visa is ok to come the Elbrus area. Regardless what was written in your visa support (invitation) if you are in Russia you can come. Elbrus area mentioning in your voucher may be useful but definitely is not essential. - Areas and valleys to the South from main Baksan valley are border zone (border with Georgia) and to come there one needs border zone permit. No problem to apply, no any fee but official processing for foreigners takes 2 month. This means if you want to visit those areas someone (a person or a tour operator) must apply for the border zone permit for you in a local border guard office at least 2 months in advance. Elbrus itself and the Baksan valley are not within border zone and do not require the permit for visiting. - Registration in the area is necessary same as in other places. There is no special regulation for Elbrus area. Normally hotels are responsible. One can do this either through hotel or tour operator. -Migration card is essential paper. You will find this paper on a table before the passport control gates, fill it out (just 3-4 strings), show at the gates and keep it in safe place and show at the gates again when you leave Russia. 2. Because of noticeable fall of Russian Ruble which makes traveling abroad more expensive for Russians and because of new kind of fashion to travel within Russia there are (and there will be) much more Russian tourists in the area. The demand is very high and most good facilities may be fully booked in advance. Also prices in Rubles become higher. The price in USD or Euro becomes lower though.
3. There is a new leg of Elbrus line lifts. The upper station is at about 3840 meters.
There are 2 Elbrus lines. They are virtually parallel. December 07, 2015 - Lite Package page has been updated for 2016:The Lite Package page has been updated and we start accepting requests for 2016.November 06, 2015 - Application Forms for public tours in 2016 are ready:The Application Forms for 8 and 10 day public tours in 2016 are ready. We start accepting requests and everybody is welcome to sign up the form and to join our group. We guarantee the departure on the published dates.November 02, 2015 - Prices for public tours in 2016 are ready:The prices for public tours in 2016 has been published.We will start accepting reservations within a week after the on-line Application Forms become updated. October 21, 2015 - Dates for public tours in 2016 are ready:We are in contact again after our after-season vacations. Sorry for delays with correspondence.
The dates for public tours in 2016 have been settled and published on the web site. April 23, 2015 - May holidays in Russia are coming!About holidays:There are May holidays in Russia. Our correspondence will go more or less in normal way during the holidays but any official formal activity such as preparing or changing visa support and other procedures will be impossible. Also the Russian Consulates may have same days off. May 01 - holiday March 04, 2015 - Summer flights timetableWe have collected from airlines and published the summer flights timetable on 'Important Info' pages of the tours we offer. See the left menu point on every tour page. Also the list of airlines and the links to their reservation pages have been updated. For Public regular departure tours there is updated information about arrival/departure transportation.March 02, 2015 - Lite Package is ready for booking.Prices for the Lite Package and additional services in Elbrus area are set and published. Starting from now we accept the reservations of the Lite Package and local additional services. Additional services in Moscow are still not updated and will be ready in late March after we have final prices from our partners there. February 26, 2015 - Payment details page has been updated.Bank details stay same. We removed MoneyGram option and added WesternUnion option. Western Union payment to our bank account seems to be the cheapest and more convenient option for non European customers. December 01, 2014 - We start accepting reservations for 2015.
Application pages have been updated for 2015 and now we accept reservation for standard regular departure tours.
November 17, 2014 - Public groups PRICES for 2015 season have been published.Public groups prices for 2015 season have been published on the tour pages. Some pages may be updated soon regarding optional possibility to exclude some services from the full package. This will not touch the published full package price. We will start accepting reservations through Application Forms in late November. September 26, 2014 - Public groups DATES for 2015 season have been settled.Public groups dates for 2015 season have been settled and published on the tour pages. We will set and publish the prices for the public periods in late October. We will start accepting requests in November. September 19, 2014 - Public groups in 2014 season have been finished.
The final 2 public (regular departure) groups are leaving today. August 06, 2014 - Our messages may be blocked by spam filters.Many customers reported they did not receive our answers. This is because our messages were blocked by spam filters either by customer's email provider or in the email box. We can do nothing with this. If you do not see our answers check Junk folder in your email box first. If this does not help please write again and advise another your email address for receiving messages. Read our Contacts page for more information. June 09, 2014 - June holidays in Russia.There are holidays in Russia on June 12, 13. Any official formal activity such as preparing or changing visa support and other procedures will be impossible. Also the Russian Consulates may have same days off. May 01, 2014 - May holidays in Russia.About holidays:There are May holidays in Russia. Our correspondence will go more or less in normal way during the holidays but any official formal activity such as preparing or changing visa support and other procedures will be impossible. Also the Russian Consulates may have same days off. May 01 - holiday April 03, 2014 - 'Additional services' and 'Important Info pages' have been updated for 2014Prices for additional/extra services in Moscow and Elbrus area in 2014 year season have been set and published on the web page 'Additional Services'. Since this time we accept requests for these services.2014 Summer flights timetable was published on Important info page. Note that the pages are slightly different for different kinds of tours so we do not give links here. To see the correct information please follow the proper left menu item on exactly your kind of tour page. January 01-09, 2014 - Holidays in Russia.There are New Year Holidays in Russia. Russian Consulates in other countries are also have days off.December 10, 2013 - Lite Package page was updated for 2014.Lite Package page was updated for 2014. At the moment all regular prices for Elbrus tours and service in 2014 are published on the web site.July 18, 2013 - Cheget hike route becomes closed.A couple of days ago Border guard extended the border zone and route to Mt. Cheget became within the zone.Since that moment standard hike to Mt.Cheget (even along the ridge) is not possible. Border post is a couple of hundred meters above the upper lift station. We had that Mt. Cheget acclimatization hike in all our standard programs. Now we are forced to replace it with another hike - to Elbrus Observatory. The altitude of the Observatory is about same but on that way we can not use ski lifts. 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 received 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 programs 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 ( glebumail.ru) as well. 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. |
News | Our Tours | F.A.Q. | References | WebBoard | About us | Contacts | Search | Send message |