Altin and Yolanda’s flight from London to Moscow were on time but the two hours to get from Moscow international airport to the domestic airport proved insufficient. After contemplating using the services of one of the many dodgy taxi drivers that pester you the second you set foot in the arrival hall they opted for the safer but much slower free bus that operate at the airports. After a cramped and bumpy ride they arrived with 10 minutes to spare before the check in closed. Here we see the interior from the TU-137, extremely worn down and old fashion…Note the overhead luggage storage, a simple netting shelf! The carpet on the floor was sliding around and you could see the broken plywood boards underneath it.

When they got of the airplane Altin could not resist the temptation to take a photo of the old airplane they had just arrived in. A lady from the airport staff started shouting and pointing at him when he did this and he quickly put the camera away...One the bus that took them from the airplane to the old knackered hangar stopped they had their first meeting with the corrupt police force that guards the airport. An officer stopped them and asked for their documents. Fortunately he could not find any ‘problems’ with the documents and let them pass.

Two hours after Altin and Yolanda arrived Marco’s airplane landed and they went straight to the minibus from Pilgrim Tours that would take them to Terskol. Now it was Yolanda’s turn to take a nap after being awake for more than 26 hours, an impressive thing considering the bumpy Russian road we were traveling on! We were lucky and did not get pulled over in any of the numerous army checkpoints that exist along the road to Terskol.

The driver stopped next to a small park in a rundown town before Terskol to get an official entry stamp in our visa documents for our stay in the area. Here we see the relics of the old Russia. While we were waiting an old poor lady came over to our car and started to beg for money gesticulating that she was hungry…You can’t help wondering if they don’t miss the times when the statue was created when everyone was guaranteed at least a minimum of support from the state.

Our driver was a robust Russian guy that didn’t speak any English but was friendly and nice to us. We communicated by sign language and basic words, “pipi” seem to mean the same in Russian as English and he stopped the car to allow us to visit the trees next to the road and take this picture.

We arrived without any problems at the MBS hotel where the lovely Tatiana from Pilgrim Tours greeted us and showed us to our room. The room standard was very basic but had all the necessities and was well cleaned.

After unpacking our bags we went outside to have a look around the area. When we got out from the hotel we bumped into Mattias and Maria from Sweden that we had arranged to meet here. We got to know them when we climbed Aconcagua earlier in the year and it was great to see them again after almost seven months. They had arrived a few days earlier and had just come back from a four day trek around Syltran Lake.

We run into another couple from Sweden later that day. They were on their way back home after a failed summit attempt the previous days. They had been trapped in their tent above Priut 11 for a few days because of severe storms before they did a summit push. Unfortunately they were forced to turn back before the saddle because of cold and strong winds.