Elbrus Race Records

Elbrus Race posted a new article [HERE] about the conclusion of the 2013 event, with the records as they stand. Remember that these aren't sanctioned by a Skyrunning Federation or whatever, though they might be a bit faster than the ones they've established as records.

Todd Gilles and 3rd Place Trophy

RE: Classic Race: Among the athletes, who run Classic route (the route from Barrels refuge till 5000 m) the winner was Valentin Vergiljush (who was the Winner in International Elbrus Race in 2009). The second was Russian Alexander Popov, the third was American Todd Gilles. 

And if you recall, the Polish team talked to me about how my blogs helped them with training and logistics..

RE: Extreme Race: The great result showed also Polish athletes Daniel Choinacki (he became the third in the race) and Blazej Lyjak. 

Polish Racer with 3rd Place Trophy

An interesting statistic from the Extreme Race results of Kilian Jornet and Russian Vitaly Shkel:

showed the great surprise: in the extremely hard fight the both athletes reached the finish line at 5000 m simultaneously, with the result 2 hrs 37 min 06 sec.  The average speed of their climb was 16 vertical meters gain per 1 minute! (16 meter is more or less altitude of standard 5-stores house – so try to walk by ladder to 5 store within 1 minute  and repeat it 173 times!!!)

For our purposes we'll convert that to 960 VAM.

That's a great training goal. Sustain 1000 VAM for 3-4 hours.

Now for the Records, another worthy goal:

There’re actual Elbrus records, set in International Elbrus Rаces:

[Extreme] Andrzej Bargiel (Poland)  from Azau to West Elbrus top showed the result 3 hrs 23 min 37 sec (2010)

[Female Classic] Svetlana Sharipova (Kazakhstan) has established the women's record at the route from the Barrels, which lasts till now: 3 hrs 21 min 29 sec. This is so far the absolute female record in speed climb of the highest point of Europe from the Barrels. (2006)

[Male Classic] Anton Proshenko (Russia)  on Barrels-West top route showing time 2 hrs 28 Min 02 sec! (this is so far the absolute speed record ascent on Mount Elbrus from Barrels). (2012)