Dombai is a unique mountainous corner of the North Caucasus. Photo trip. Moussa achitara View of Elbrus from moussa achitara

Descent from Musa-Achitara. Dombay. March 2003

It was in Dombai in late February - early March. We come with Sanko to the mountain, well, everything, we think, we are tired of these rolled slopes, let's go to the virgin lands. We find the cafe where we were advised to contact about the escort in order to carry out the so-called freeride with a guide. And this Abrek Khafizovich (a fictitious name) says, they say, he has no time today, someone comes there, well, he sits further and thumps in the company of his abrek-khafizovichs.

And this pleasure costs 100 bucks per group, in a group there are about 10 people. Well, we, frustrated, went home. Vacation ends, the weather may not be good.

It turns out that a guy is behind us from the cafe.

“Let’s go,” he says, “with us, yesterday we went with a guide, and today we are going by ourselves in a group of 5 people, join us, we have walkie-talkies, phones too”

Well, we certainly agreed.

It was not possible to agree with the ratratnik. Therefore, we climbed on the fifth line, and then on foot to Musa-Achitara. It took about 40 minutes to climb to the top.

Such crazy views opened up there, it was breathtaking: Elbrus, the main Caucasian ridge, Dombay-Ulgen, Ine peak is completely different from above, Sufruju tooth, Belalakaya, Sulakhat, Semyonov-Bashi.

We took pictures, went traversing along the ridge. Shoes slide over stones that are not visible under the “fluff” - it’s scary: on the right, the slope is 50-55 degrees, if you fall off, you won’t catch on, on the left, the wall is also steep.

And now, the last pimple before descending into the Gonachkhirskoe gorge is shown in this photo. After him on the left - down!

This descent had everything except avalanches - soft-soft “fluff”, two natural jumps of 2m and 5m, the loss of a snowboard by a girl, a tolerable forest with trees lying across the slope, a hard backcountry with stones and jumps and, of course, a snack with cognac - a real freeride.

First, we drove for a long time on the virgin lands, because the snowboarders took pictures of everyone for a long time, we had to wait for everyone. We jumped from a 2-meter springboard - a buzz! Then the girl Lena drove ahead and stopped to wait for the others. I roll up to her, and she stands, unfastened the board from her legs (it’s a pity there are no ski stops on the boards). The board, then, slowly, as if saying goodbye, slides down. I’m like yelling (that’s right): “The board! .. the board is leaving!” But all in vain: behind it there was immediately an inflection, there was only a trace, barely noticeable.

Then one of the boarders decided to jump from a 5-meter springboard. I accelerated a little and at the last moment, at the very moment of separation, changed my mind. It spun him hard. Turned over a couple of times and fell on his head. But due to the rotation, he saved his neck. I got up as if nothing had happened and moved on.

Denis, our leader, went in the footsteps of the snowboard that had left, after a few bends he found it (it got stuck in the bushes). There was already a forest. We all had joys: no need to bring the girl down in incomprehensible ways. She and her boyfriend sat on the same board and with difficulty crawled and slid to the place where the snowboard got stuck.

The forest with large and small bumps passed quickly and cheerfully, overtaking and cutting each other. After that, they had a lunch in the sun, which consisted of snickers, nuts, dried fruits (dried apricots, prunes, raisins) and cognac.

Then came the hard backcountry. Through logs and over stones, very steep (in the literal sense) and narrow, and even trees around - you can’t accelerate, and even without acceleration there was enough extreme.

Skis and boards have probably aged a year, if not more, but you won’t get such incomparable pleasure anywhere except on freeride. This is not like “watching the paint dry” or riding on packed tracks.

We went down all wet from tension and pleasure!

Then we got out onto the road, in some places thawed to asphalt. The boarders went on foot, and we, the skiers, went skating along the road. Under the slope, in general, they simply pushed with sticks. We got to the main road leading to Dombay, voted, stopped the UAZ for fifty dollars and drove to the village.

The sun was already setting.

Moussa-Achitara- the most visited mountain above the village of Dombay. To its top from the village there is a cable car - a chairlift and cabins. In winter it is a place for skiers and snowboarders.

Mount Mussa-Achitara (Dombay) - cable car, peak height

The height of Moussa-Achitara is 3012 meters. Its name is translated into Russian as "Moussa's cry". There is even a legend about it:

Once Moussa stole a large herd and without difficulty drove it along the gentle slopes of the mountain to the very top. The joy of gain had already taken possession of him, but suddenly he saw that on the other side the mountain was rocky and had no descent, and then Moussa fell to the ground and wept.

Moussa-Achitara cable car

The main reason why the peak is actively visited is the cable car, which allows you to climb from 1577 meters (the height of the lower station in the village) to 3012 (the upper station) in 20 minutes. From here you can take a 4-seat chairlift almost to the top.

The cable car from the village rises to the very top Moussa-Achitara. In clear weather, even Elbrus is visible from it. And as you climb, a picturesque panorama of the Dombay glade opens - Dombay-Ulgen, Ine peak, Sofruju tooth, Belalakaya, Semenov-Bashi and other peaks of the Main and other ridges. Views of the glaciers, especially Dzhuguturlyuchatsky and Alibeksky, open from here.
From the 3rd and 4th lines it is good to admire the views of the Dzhuguturlyuchat waterfall, which originates from the glacier of the same name.

From a height of 3012 meters, you can see a view of the opposite side of the ridge - the valley of the Gonachkhir River and the peaks that cover Arkhyz.

In winter, dozens of ski slopes open on the slopes of Moussa Achitara. Almost all Dombay webcams work here.
There are other attractions on Moussa-Achitara:
The inscription "I love Dombay" against the backdrop of the Main Caucasian Range.
Hotel "Plate". Appeared on the slope in 1979 as a test sample. Operates only during the winter season. Since 2017, Plate has been raised to a height of 2500 due to the construction of a new cable car line.
Numerous cafes and souvenir shops.

Panoramic passes, purest mountain lakes, mighty waterfalls - all this gives you Dombay! Dombay glade, located at an altitude of 1600 meters above sea level, is formed by the connection of three gorges - Alibek, Amanauz and Dombay-Ulgen. It is called only the heart of the mountains - it is surrounded by them from all sides. In summer, fog descends into the valley, carrying cool air infused with the aroma of alpine meadows, which you want not only to inhale, but to drink in big sips...

Many poets in their work sang the beauty of Dombay. The famous poetess V. Tushnova wrote the poem "The Road to Klukhor" in 1952:

Summer does not last long in the mountains, Here the ice breathes cold early...

We left in the morning, before dawn, up the Teberda.

Thousand-year-old rocks humped from moss, gray-green;

And stones with oily foreheads stick out of the water.

Like fans, fountains of spray are noisy, white...

Cast silver blocks float up with a rumble from the mist,

And on the wave, a steep takeoff takes off, the body tilted,

Trout - the creation of mountain rivers - in hot specks of fire.

Dombay is one of the modern recreation and sports centers, located in the southern part of the Teberdinsky State Reserve. The village itself is isolated from its specially protected area, and for ecological and educational tourism, corridors are laid along popular routes. Perhaps there are not many places with such natural resources as the Dombay glade. Everything that attracts numerous tourists and climbers is concentrated on a small area. The modern village of Dombay is a ski center with numerous ski and equipment rental centers. The land of Dombay is unique and the protected regime of the territory is designed to preserve its wealth for people. Each of the Dombay gorges is a special world, unique and beautiful.

The word "dombai" "means" bison in Karachay, "once in the forests of Dombai, whole herds of mighty giants roamed. And now the abundance of sunny days and the presence of mineral springs have created Dombay a well-deserved reputation as one of the best mountain-climatic ski resorts.

The Teberdinsky-Dombai region was rated as an exceptionally promising mountain climatic resort. In Soviet times, the creation of a sanatorium-resort base in Teberda was started. Dombay developed as a center of mountaineering. The first ascents to the peaks of the region were made at the very beginning of the 20th century. Most peaks are conquered in 30 years. At the same time, the construction of climbing camps on the Dombay glade begins. In 1936, the Recreation Center for Scientists was built - a magnificent wooden building with a fancy tower, which has become a symbol of tourist Dombai. At the end of the 1930s, mountain tourism and mountaineering in the region became unprecedentedly popular and massive. At the same time, Dombay was formed as the main ski base of the USSR. The best skiers in the country trained here.

In the 1950s, Dombai began to revive, the first unpretentious ski lifts were built. In the 1960s, skiing gained immense popularity, and the number of tourists grew at the speed of an avalanche. Dombay begins to develop rapidly. New hotels, boarding houses, alpine camps are being built. In 1970, the first stage of the cable car to Mussa-Achitara was built, then another and another ...

Through all the gorges, bubbling and playing, clean transparent rivers rush. They break out from under the glaciers in noisy streams, break down from the rocks with waterfalls, rush furiously in canyons, snake silvery ribbons in the valleys, freely walk along the wide floodplains until they join Amanauz, Alibek, Dombay-Ulgen, join Gonakhchir and become one full-flowing Teberda. All this diversity of vegetation, wildlife, glaciers and peaks, the uniqueness of the nature of these places caused the creation in 1936 of the Teberdinsky State Reserve, in which the Dombay site is given a special, very important place. If you look to the right, you can see the Dzhuguturluchat massif (3921 meters). In translation, its name means - "the habitat of the tours" or "the pasture of the tours". The Dzhuguturluchat glacier falls down from the massif, as well as a small waterfall, so close and at the same time distant. The cone-shaped Ine Peak (3409) (“needle”) is located nearby. Peaks Small Dombay (3800), Dombay-Ulgen (4047), the main peak of the Western Caucasus, can be seen at the end of the Dombay-Ulgen gorge. The Chuchkhur Pass, located to the left, connects the Dombay-Ulgen massif with the Mussa-Achitara mountain. The Chuchkhur River, fed by 3 glaciers (the largest Chuchkhur), falls from it with an extremely beautiful, powerful waterfall.

Dombai glade, intermountain basin at the foot of the northern slope of the Main Range of the Greater Caucasus (at an altitude of 1620m), at the head of the river. Teberda, on the territory of the Teberdinsky Reserve. Alpine, sharply broken, steep ridges with bizarre spiers, needles, peaks rise above the Dombai Polyana; the highest point is Mount Dombay-Ulgen (4046m).

Dombay is considered to be the land of legends and the sun. Hundreds of legends have been composed for centuries on the land of Karachay. Hence such poetic names of rivers, lakes and peaks: Sulakhat - a sleeping girl, Amanauz - a dangerous gorge, Tumanlykel - a foggy lake, Belalakaya - a striped rock, Dombay-Ulgen - a dead bison, Ine Peak - a needle, etc. It is unique in its own way and the history of this land. Dombay lies among the rocky peaks, where the melt waters of glaciers give rise to mountain streams that carry their streams to the blue Teberda. Even in ancient times (I millennium BC) there was a mountain line between the possessions of the Colchians in the south and the Scythian-Sarmatians in the north. Later (4th-13th centuries), the southern slopes of the mountains were occupied by the Abkhazians, and the Alans appeared in the mountain gorges of the Kuban. The ancient Greeks of Miletus founded the first colonies on the Black Sea coast, and trade routes ran through the mountains. One of the most important was the road through Kluhor near the eastern limits of Dombai, which was later used by caravans of Roman, Genoese and Byzantine merchants.

The Tatar-Mongol invasion brought death to the Alanian state, pushed many of the tribes of Ciscaucasia into the mountains. In the mountain gorges of the Kuban and Teberda, on the basis of the thinned Alanian population and the Turkic-speaking Kipchaks (tribes) who came here, the Karachay people arose, which has survived to this day as the indigenous population of these places.

It is difficult to describe the feelings experienced by a person who has been here for the first time. I suggest you plunge into the world of eternal ice, trimmed with a white border, and turbulent rivers rising to the very clouds of sharp spiers, jagged ridges and pristine wildness of nature, clear lakes and enchanting waterfalls.

From various places in Russia and foreign countries, people come here to gain unforgettable impressions, admire majestic and uniquely beautiful panoramas.

Skis are standing by the stove,

The sunset fades behind the mountain

The month ends March

We'll be going home soon.

Hello gloomy days

Mountain sun, farewell!

We will keep forever

In the heart of this region.

We are escorted with you

Proud handsome Erzog,

We are waiting with you

Haze of distant roads.

And so the circle ends

Remember, hope, miss!

Snow flags of parting

Posted the old Dombay!

This song by Yu. Vizbor became a real anthem of Dombay.

Nature royally endowed this area with its bounties. Hundreds of thousands of years were needed to ensure that as a result of the titanic struggle of the elements, the granites of the earth were exposed on the earth's surface, and the powerful layers of ancient gneisses and crystalline schists rose up. The epochs of mountain building and glaciation, the epochs of marine transgressions and tectonic faults changed, the rivers cut their channels into the wrinkles of mountain folds, laying the future valleys. The sun and wind, frost and water, huge glaciers and universal storms gradually destroyed the stone armor of the mountains, creating a modern sculpture of the Caucasus. In the confrontation between the mighty forces of nature, Dombay was born. Its proud peaks were illuminated by the flames of the raging craters of nearby Elbrus, known to the ancient Greeks as a fire-breathing mountain.

This land keeps many secrets of the past. In the Teberdinsky valley, as well as in the Dombay glade, there are still the remains of an old agricultural culture. In the lower part of the valley you can find areas, now overgrown with forest, where the ancient inhabitants of the mountains - the Alans - grew bread. Here you can find the remains of paved roads, foundations and collapsed stone walls of ancient buildings.

During the clearing of construction sites in the Dombai glade, many bronze and iron objects that belonged to the Alans were removed from the soil. A burial ground was unearthed on Pikhtov Cape, where skeletal remains, a bronze chain, glass beads and ceramics were found. Below the tourist center "Solnechnaya Dolina" a cave burial was found.

It is in this land of amazing beauty that I suggest you go.

I, unfortunately, visited only the top of Musa-Achitara. Moussa Achitara is a modern ski Mecca. It is its southern slopes that are covered with a network of chairlifts and streaked in winter with traces of skis and snowboards. This ridge is considered the best observation point.

The name of the mountain Mussa-Achitara means lamentation of Moussa. Guides and guides love to tell a legend about how the thief Moussa stole a huge herd, drove it up a gentle slope to this mountain and was about to start counting money from its sale, when he saw that on the other side the mountain was rocky and there was no way back here. Then he sat down and wept.

The Mussa-Achitara Ridge is located separately, parallel to the Main Caucasian Ridge. Therefore, throughout its entire length, from any place, an exceptional view of the south, north, east and west opens up.

When you take the cable car up the mountainside, you can see the majestic and at the same time formidable view of the Main Caucasian Range. Having passed two queues of the chairlift or one queue on the new "trailer", you find yourself in the zone of subalpine meadows. It is at this station that the famous hotel in the mountains "Flying Saucer" or simply "Plate" is located. It was very popular among tourists during the Soviet era. Thrill-seekers could comfortably spend the night at an altitude of more than 2000 meters. And I decided to have a bite to eat here, and I did the right thing, it was very tasty.

Rising even higher, from a height of more than 3000 m, you can admire the panorama of the Alibek valley, rare in beauty and size, the Amanauz river gorge, the peaks of Dombay-Ul-gen, Bu-Ulgen, Dzhuguturluchat and Peak Ine, Belalakaya, Tooth Sufruju, Sulakhat, as well Dzhuguturluchatsky waterfall.

From the last station of the cable car, which rises to a height of 3200 m, knowledgeable tourists can be captured against the backdrop of distant Elbrus. From this point Elbrus is almost unrecognizable. I invite you to see it all with your own eyes.

The peak of Mussa-Achitara is considered the center of ski holidays in Dombay. Its slopes are indented with slopes and ski tracks. Moussa-Achitara attracts both beginner skiers and professional athletes.

The name of the mountain - Mussa-Achitara - is translated into Russian as "Mussa's cry". The indigenous inhabitants of Dombai have a legend that the thief Moussa once lived in these mountains. He stole cattle and transported it to other villages for sale.

Once Moussa stole a huge herd, which he wanted to transfer to the opposite side of the mountain. But after some time, the thief saw that the rise, along which he was driving the cattle, abruptly breaks down. The way forward was cut off, and he could not go back either. Then Moussa sat down and wept bitterly. The story of the unlucky thief gave the name to the summit.

Moussa Achitara height

The height of the mountain is 3012 m. You can climb it using a cable car. Most of the time the ascent will take place above the forest, so the tourist can fully enjoy the beautiful views of the green forests passing under it.

It is cold at the top of the mountain, so you need to bring warm clothes with you. The air here is fresh, fragrant, filled with ozone and the smell of fragile mountain flowers. These islands of greenery, interspersed with snowdrifts, seem amazing.

If the weather is good and the clouds are high, the mountain offers an impressive view of the glaciers that spread along the chain. From here you can see the highest peaks, the ridges of the upper reaches of the Kuban, the depressions of Teberda and Gonachkhir, and even the famous Elbrus!

In cloudy weather, the tourist will not be able to admire this splendor. Due to the fog, visibility is greatly reduced; sometimes you can't see anything at arm's length. However, poor visibility will be compensated by the view of clouds passing under the very feet of travelers.

Mount Mussa-Achitara, level 3008 m. - at the upper station of the Cable Car Dombay-2

About the installation site of this camera in Dombay:

The best skiing area is considered to be the vast southwestern slope of the Mussa-Achitara ridge (height 3012 m). Ski slopes start from a height of 3000 m, the total length is 20 km and they are processed by snow groomers. There are ski slopes for any level of training and the help of experienced instructors. In Dombay, there are “unbroken” mountain areas for extreme sportsmen, and calm skiing areas for beginners and the average level of training.

The word "dombay" means "bison" in Karachay, once whole herds of mighty giants roamed in the Dombay forests. Dombai is a mountainous territory in Karachay-Cherkessia in the Kuban River basin in the North Caucasus. From here in a straight line 65 km to the top of Elbrus and 60 km to the Black Sea coast. The southern border of Dombai is the Main Caucasian Range. The highest point is the top of Dombay-Ulgen, 4040 meters high. The connection of the 3 main gorges of Dombay - Alibek, Amanauz and Dombay-Ulgen - forms the natural center of the territory - the picturesque Dombay glade, lying at an altitude of 1600 meters above sea level.

Even in ancient times (1 thousand years BC) there was a mountain line between the possessions of the Scythosarmatians in the north and the Colchians in the south. Later (4-8 centuries AD), the southern slopes of the mountains were occupied by the Abkhazians, and the Alans appeared in the mountain gorges of the Kuban. Along the large gorge of Gonochkhir, through the Klukhorsky pass, an ancient trade route passed, along which caravans of Roman, Genoese and Byzantine merchants went. The Tatar-Mongol invasion brought death to the Alanian state, pushed many of the tribes into the mountains. In the mountain gorges of the Kuban and Teberda, on the basis of the thinned Alanian population and the Turkic-speaking Kipchaks who came here, the Karachay people arose, which has survived to this day as the indigenous population of these places.

Dombay is one of the modern recreation and sports centers, mountaineering, skiing and tourist Mecca of the Greater Caucasus. Currently, a whole tourist complex of 12 hotels is operating on Dombai Polyana. Cable cars are an important part of it. There are 6 lines of cable cars (although the 6th line is a cable car under construction, which was opened on December 16, 2006 only in demo mode), a pendulum cable car, a network of towing roads (200 - 600 meters long). The descent from the top of the Mussa-Achitara ridge can be carried out on a dozen options for trails of varying degrees of steepness, complexity and speed, which allows you to satisfy the tastes of both experienced and beginner skiers. Many hiking trails start from the Dombai glade.