Elbrus is growing: Kavkaz.RF is developing the resort's mountaineering segment.

A conference entitled "Current Safety Issues in Adventure Tourism in Russia" was held in Moscow. Alexey Elin, Advisor to the General Director, delivered a presentation on behalf of the development institute. The event brought together key industry players: resort managers, mountain guides, climbers, rescuers, and representatives of insurance and assistance companies.

The conference aims to create a safer and more sustainable environment for adventure tourism in Russia and to facilitate the exchange of experience between industries. The organizers dedicated the first part to presentations, while the second was dedicated to expert networking to develop key points. Following the conference, the organizers announced the decision to make the conference an annual event.

The Caucasus, the region home to virtually all of the country's highest peaks, including Elbrus, dominated the agenda. Alexey Elin discussed the progress of the Elbrus resort's modernization, including what has been accomplished and what is planned for the coming years. He noted that the resort isn't directly involved in climbing, but de facto supports the mountaineering industry: it provides infrastructure such as cable cars and the Liprus high-mountain hotel, builds an alpine village at an altitude of 3,900 meters, and restores the legendary Priyut 11 high-mountain hotel at an altitude of 4,100 meters. Furthermore, the resort's team promotes the historical heritage of the area—it was here in the 1930s that Soviet mountaineering was born.

Conference participants particularly noted the work of the Elbrus rescue service. In addition to ensuring safety on the ski slopes, the resort's rescuers, in emergency situations, collaborate with the Elbrus High-Altitude Search and Rescue Team of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. The recent helicopter evacuations of climbers from the Shkhelda and Bezengi walls were also discussed—cases that confirm the critical importance of professional rescue work at high altitudes, the availability of appropriate equipment, and the need for voluntary insurance policies covering sports risks.

A separate topic of discussion was the introduction of a permit system, climber insurance, and the establishment of rescue stations on the north face of Elbrus. The Kavkaz.RF team is conducting this work jointly with the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, the Elbrus National Park, and the Government of Kabardino-Balkaria.

"By the next mountaineering season, we intend to work with the professional community to develop a system for route permits and insurance—these are long-overdue issues. But we are approaching this carefully. It is important for us that any innovations are justified and do not create barriers for the industry," noted Alexey Elin.

The conference was organized by Save Pro Life, an online travel insurance service. Presentations were also given by representatives of the Russian Mountain Guides Association, the Russian Mountaineering Federation, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, tour operators AlpIndustry-Tour and Elbrus Expert, the Heliaction helicopter company, the UAL mountain club, the Savitar Group assistance company, and the Grebni travel club.

The Kavkaz.RF stand at the KIF will creatively reimagine the infrastructure of the Mamison resort.

The plywood art pieces on the large mountain range will feature not only artifacts from the Mamison Gorge but also domestically produced cable car equipment, including the country's first detachable clamp, a control and automation cabinet, and software from the Ruslet company. The stand was developed by a team of contemporary artists from the newnow association, whose main goal was to connect industrial development and natural beauty through art.

"People come to the mountains hoping to escape the digital world. That's why we're prioritizing 'physics' in our exhibition—ammonites from Elbrus, sand and shells from the Caspian Sea. Even the texts are printed simply on plywood, so nothing distracts from the essence. We'll invite visitors to listen to Mamison's voices, recorded during a research expedition to the ancient village of Lisri, and also to create their own summer route calendar." On the mornings of April 28th and 29th, we'll be organizing a mediation session for the exhibition and booth for KIF participants. Its goal is to help them look at investment projects and the region's economic development holistically and from a new perspective," explains Tatyana Baeva, Communications Director at Kavkaz.RF.

Investors will also have plenty to do at the booth: Kavkaz.RF's own lecture hall will host presentations of new products from the team—the construction company Kavkaz-Engineering, the Association for the Development of Human Resources of the North Caucasus Federal District, the career portal, the Certification Center for Cable Car Systems, and the investment hub. Participants will also be able to learn about the main ideas of Kavkaz.RF's new strategy through 2030, which is currently in the final stages of development.

"Kavkaz.RF isn't an exhibition in the traditional sense. There's no time for prolonged contemplation; it's a space for quick reading. And yet, within it, a complex story must be told: about the location, the infrastructure, the resort, and the cultural layers." And here the challenge arose: how to capture the sense of Mamison's multilayered nature within a very organic, physical space. We quickly realized that a linear narrative wouldn't work, so we began thinking spatially. We presented the pavilion not as a stand, but as a fragment of the landscape. Not an illustration of mountains, not a decorative reference, but a structure you can enter. And the key metaphor here is a gorge, where you can't see everything at once, where the image is constantly fragmented, and there's no way to anticipate the final picture until you've completed the route. This is the main idea: the viewer becomes not an observer, but a participant in the movement," explain Margo Makarova and Ulya Savich, artists from the newnow group, the authors of the concept.

The Caucasus Investment Forum will be held from April 28 to 30 in Mineralnye Vody. Kavkaz.RF has been the event's general partner since its inception. The Development Institute is organizing five discussion sessions dedicated to the company's key areas of expertise: mountain resort construction and import substitution, development of special economic zones, personnel training and labor productivity, attracting investment, and working with creative industries.

In addition, agreements are planned for joint personnel training with the Rosa Khutor resort, cooperation with Headhunter, and the joint development of an investment hub with several banks operating in the North Caucasus Federal District.

Kavkaz.RF has begun construction of roads in the Caspian Coastal Cluster.

The roadway is 15 kilometers long. It includes four main streets parallel to the coastline and seventeen local streets perpendicular to the coast. This will ensure comfortable travel for tourists across the resort's vast territory.

LED lighting, road signs, and pedestrian crossings will be installed along the roads. The project will include 28 public transportation stops, and two entry checkpoints to the resort are also planned.

Particular attention is paid to rainwater collection. The rainwater collection system consists of sections of gravity pipelines from storm water inlets to main collectors located outside the roadway.

The project calls for the use of a special type of asphalt – stone mastic asphalt. This surface will allow the road to withstand sudden temperature changes, moisture, and heavy loads.

"Currently, construction workers are constructing the roadbed and the utility camp. Work is also underway to dismantle old utility lines and relocate them outside the development zone. We plan to complete the main phase of road construction in the fall of 2027. This is an important stage in the construction of the entire Caspian Coastal Cluster, as the presence of roads along the entire coastline of the future resort will accelerate the development of the entire project. Construction of a four-story service center is currently underway. Residents of the SEZ also plan to begin construction this fall. We expect to open the first resort facilities in 2027," explains Vladimir Lapukhin, Deputy General Director of Kavkaz.RF.

The Caspian Coastal Cluster is providing a powerful boost to Dagestan's investment attractiveness. Already at this stage of the project, 25 investment agreements have been signed. The total announced investment volume is 112 billion rubles. Of these, 16 are resident agreements for 18 projects, with a total investment volume of over 60 billion rubles. Five investment projects have received approval from the Russian Ministry of Economic Development for subsidized loans. The total amount of subsidized loans is approximately 16.5 billion rubles.

The project is being implemented as part of the federal project "Five Seas and Lake Baikal" of the presidential national project "Tourism and Hospitality." Construction supervision is carried out by the Federal Autonomous Institution "Roskapstroy," which is subordinate to the Russian Ministry of Construction.

Filming for another film project, "Epiphany," has concluded in the Elbrus region.

The team explored mountain tourism as a vibrant interweaving of people and meanings: riders with their passion for skiing, scientists with their meticulous attention to detail, and local residents with their boundless love for the place where they grew up.

During 17 days of filming, dozens of spectacular rides were captured, along with ice climbing lessons and overnight stays at a glaciology camp at 2,700 meters. Conversations with legendary veterans about how they've observed changes in Elbrus glaciers throughout their lives (30-40 years) and, concurrently, the changing culture of tourism were also captured.

The film will show how mindful mountaineering and tourism are becoming part of the region's cultural identity.

Editing is scheduled to be completed by the end of summer. Screenings will follow at festivals, in tourist clubs, at the resort, and online.