Speed Climbing Elbrus

Check out these two videos of the Elbrus Speed Climbing competition. The annual event, which traces its origins back to the Cold War era Soviet Union, is essentially a race up the highest mountain in Europe. This year the race was won by Denis Urubko, who topped out in just 3 hours, 55 minutes.

The mountain itself is 5642m (18,510 feet) in height, and is an extinct volcano located in the Central Caucasus just South-West of the Russian city of Kislovodsk. It served as a training ground for Soviet climbers and mountain soldiers at the height of the Cold War, and receives a lot of traffic now because of it's status as one of the Seven Summits.

Enjoy the videos. Ain't YouTube great!






Thanks to ExWeb for the heads up on these.