It all started very blissfully ...

We left Krasny Karachai, spent the night at the confluence of the Malaya Marka and the Marka river.

The next day we climbed the Malaya Marka valley and got the Green Lake. It was an easy walk through the flowering meadows.

But in order to go even higher along the moraines and talus slopes of 45 degrees, we had to overcome ourselves. When we reached the Toguzkel pass (3230 m), we saw gray clouds floating in our direction. We had to descend to the Azgek River to an altitude of 2420 m. And we made almost all this way under the downpour, seeing the Azgek lakes only in passing.

The awning and tents were set up in the pouring rain. There was a stormy wind, which by the middle of the night broke my trekking poles, which supported the structure of the awning. Fortunately, in the morning the rain stopped and the awning was no longer needed.

By lunchtime we reached Teberda and soon reached Dombai, where we recovered from the tests we had passed. We didn’t know yet that was just the small stuff....

Closer to lunchtime on the fourth day of the journey, we set off for the Muruju valley.

Poachers are clearly more frequent here than tourists. We did not see any bears or wild goats... But we were amazed by the blossoming motley grass! It's incredible here! I hope that cattle grazing here will remain prohibited and the flora will retain its original diversity.

In the evening we came to a comfortable camp under the Alpine birches near the Muruju River. We stayed here for 2 nights. We used the day to go to the Muruju lakes and have a good rest before the main challenge of this trip.

On the sixth day, we woke up before sunrise. We went out as soon as the sun came out from behind the mountains. And immediately we faced the challenge of climbing 45 degrees slope, overgrown by high and very wet grass. Fortunately, after an hour and a half, the grass became lower and had already dried out under the sun. A view of the Muruja lakes began to open ...

After about an hour of tedious ascent, when we were at an altitude of about 3000 meters, the phrase arose in the team: "Wait, are we paid for this?" The last spurt - and everyone understood why we tortured our bodies like that, lifting them 1060 meters up...

This is panorama of the upper reaches of the Nazalykol river. It reminded me the Himalayas. And when we went down there, my comrades felt like they were in the Ergaki National Park in Siberia.

Having approached the glacier, we were already thoroughly exhausted, and we had yet another pass to cross. The one that we have already overcome was 1A (3302 m), and we had to go through Nazly-Ryndzhi (3389 m), this is already 1B category. And the weather began to deteriorate... One of the comrades had a strong feeling that we were going to Mordor.

With our last bit of strength, we climbed the pass. More hardy comrades went to the pass bypassing - along the snow cornice. I no longer had the strength and I stormed it head-on. It was not safe, but fast. The stones that I clung to with my hands staggered and threatened to fall. I had to balance. Neither arms nor legs could find a stable support and here the skills of Contact Improvisation came in handy...

It was severe, difficult, but in my soul there was a glimmer of hope for a good rest in a tent by a quiet lake - somewhere over there, beyond the pass. But having ascended these 3389 meters, I lost hope - I saw only snow fields below, they were melting so intensely that rivers literally flowed along them and beneath them, here and there huge boulders of stones fell into the valley, freed from the grip of the ice. The lake below was surrounded by snow, it was already getting dark and even before we could not reach it before dark. The only thing that gave me strength was the impossibility of showing despondency in front of my comrades.

They went down by huge boulders 1-2 meters in size on a slope of 35 degrees. Many boulders were alive and some even rolled down. We were to be extremely focused... It was already 12th hour of walking.

We went down to a calm, level place. Here, under the snow, there were only stones and no water. Stones falling from the slope could not roll down here - so it was completely safe place. After listening to the opinion of each member of the expedition, I decided to set up a camp right on the snow. We faced a difficult night, but it was unsafe to move on in the dark with our level of physical and mental fatigue.

I prepared the most delicious food we had and even got out the most delicious sweets stored for a special occasion...

How was it possible? July 15th is the very middle of that incredibly hot summer of 2021! In the morning there was a feeling that we did not sleep. Although, of course, this is not the case, it was just that the cold did not allow me to plunge into the deep sleep phase. It was necessary to constantly change the position - to move the cooled bottom up. We weren't ready for a sleepover - our therm-a-rest mattresses are fine, but regular mats with a layer of foil would have come in handy.

But in the morning the sun came out. And it gave us strength. We went down to the Daut Valley to about 2500 meters and here it was already real summer, green grass, a beautiful river ... It was paradise - a reward for yesterday's challenges!

That day there was a measured lunch and an easy walk along the beautiful path along the river Daut.
The next day we were in Karachaevsk.