MAI Central Tourism Section opened the mountain season with hiking in the Western Caucasus

“Only mountains I have not been yet to, are better than mountains” – the members of MAI Central Tourism Section went to conquer the heights of the Western Caucasus at May holidays. 35 people, organized in four groups, climbed Mount Gentu and crossed the Blybsky Pass. Behind the scenes, this route is already known as MAI’s – few people go there, but for tourists from MAI, traveling along it has become traditional already. Eight running days, a backpack weighing 22 kg and 10 km of ascents and descents by feet: Nikita Spitsin, the participant of the hike, MAI graduate and employee, told about overcoming heights up to 2600 meters and, first of all, overcoming himself.

“The mountain season in MAI was opened by our hike of the first category of difficulty. And although this is the easiest of the sports routes, it is still quite difficult to overcome it - it is not a picnic,” Nikita smiles. “It is more effective to climb the mountains once than to go to the gym for a whole year. I went there to enjoy the most beautiful views and also for a sports load. Such trips also test people well: under normal conditions, a person is alone, but where he overcomes himself, he opens up in a completely different way. You're tired on the first day, the other eight are just walking.”

In MAI Central Tourism Section the main thing is the enthusiasm of its participants and the head. For many years the section has been led by the graduate of MAI Institute No. 3 “Control Systems, Informatics and Electric Power Engineering”, Master of Sports of international class in mountain tourism - Andrey Lebedev. He describes the average day of the tourist as follows:

“In the morning the attendants got up with early, cooked porridge, then, as soon as it was a little light, they woke up the others. Everyone eats, collects backpacks and went – 45 minutes we go, 15 minutes we rest. After three transitions it’s time for a snack. When six or seven crossings are over, we set up camp and rest”.

Preparation plays a very important role – everyone should get basic skills, safety is everything. MAI Central Tourism Section organizes mountain school every autumn: the mentors tell to the listeners how to dress properly, eat, follow the route, behave in various situations. In the park, beginners train to walk in “climbers” – devices with sharp spikes that are attached to shoes, and they also learn to “hack” – to cling to the slope correctly, if they fall. The skills are trained during weekend hikes in the Moscow region. The route to Genta is complicated because of its isolation: there is no exit along the valley, and therefore you can only get out through the pass. But this does not frighten the tourists.

“The lack of civilization is just one of the reasons why it is worth going to the mountains. You can take the phone, climb the highest mountain and try to catch the connection, but there will be no connection, because it is not there at all. That is a good digital detox, especially in our time,” says Nikita Spitsin. “You feel unity with the world, nature, you can't get it on the sea beach at the height of the season or on kebabs in the suburbs. Moments in the mountains are remembered for a lifetime.”

On the way, tourists are waiting for meetings with wild animals: they observed yaks, the mountain goats. They also found traces of a bear. But, fortunately, didn’t meet the bear himself. The weather conditions might also play a cruel joke.

“Because of the weather, we had a problem with navigation: sometimes GPS failed. We walked for a long time to the point where we planned to set up a camp. There was such a slope that it was impossible to sleep and not roll down. There was no another way out: after completing the route of the day, we begin to level the slope with ice axes and a shovel to put up a tent. In another place, the river, indicated on the map turned out to be frozen, we had to melt snow in order to eat, drink and warm up,” Nikita shares. “But all the difficulties are worth experiencing the main feeling: you were capable, reached, overcame yourself.”