Elbrus Resort
Elbrus Resort

The Elbrus All-Season Tourist and Recreational Complex (ATRC) is located in the Elbrus region of the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic and has been a popular destination on Russia's tourist map for over half a century. Tens of thousands of athletes and winter sports enthusiasts from around the world flock here. They are drawn by the high-altitude observation platforms, ski slopes, snow park, hiking eco-trails, and the opportunity to climb Elbrus, the highest mountain in Russia and Europe. Elbrus boasts the highest cable car in the country, at an altitude of 3,847 meters. Its uniqueness is confirmed by the Russian Book of Records. The resort boasts a well-developed infrastructure: 19.5 km of maintained ski slopes, 7 ski lifts (including 3 modern gondola lifts), over 65 km of nature trails, and approximately 800 accommodations of varying comfort levels. The resort offers skiing opportunities even in spring and summer. The ski season continues until July, with training camps for regional and national Russian alpine skiing and freestyle teams, and all-Russian alpine skiing competitions taking place.

Nearly half a million guests and the longest ski season ever: Elbrus closed its ski slopes.

The 56th winter season was the longest in Elbrus's history, lasting 247 days, 23 days longer than the previous record set the previous year. A total of 490,000 people from all regions of the country visited the resort during the 2025/2026 ski winter.

The season at Kabardino-Balkaria's main resort also kicked off with a double record: Elbrus opened skiing first in the country and for the first time in its history, on November 1st. The previous early starts were November 7th in 2021 and November 8th in 2016. Following tradition in recent years, the Elbrus season ended on the first weekend of July: skiers could ski until July 5th.

"It's important for us that the number of skiers on Elbrus' slopes continues to grow. "Over the course of the season, skiers and snowboarders accounted for 54% of all resort guests—222,000 people hit the slopes, an 8% increase from last winter. This figure also includes inclement weather, which this year intervened during peak season periods—the New Year and February holidays—and resulted in the cable car closures being significantly more frequent than last year," said Khasan Timizhev, Executive Director of Kavkaz.RF.

The past season at Elbrus was marked by the opening of a new ski area in the resort's eastern sector at altitudes of 3,300-3,500 meters, in addition to the existing slopes. This area includes two modern cable cars and six slopes totaling 5.2 km. This means 23 km of slopes were available for skiing during the season. Another innovation was night skiing on the Krugozor-Azau slope, for which the 2.4-kilometer slope was equipped with 54 light masts. Nearly 17,000 skiers tried night skiing during the season.

This season, Elbrus became the first ski resort in the North Caucasus to introduce cashback for payments through the Fast Payment System (FPS): when purchasing a ski pass on the resort's official website and paying through the Fast Payment System, guests received a 10% cashback refund to their card. A loyalty program was also launched for resort guests, allowing them to pay for purchases with points with no limit on the amount deducted.

Since July 6, the Elbrus resort has fully transitioned to summer tourist mode: cable cars are operating, taking guests to the Garabashi station at 3,847 meters above sea level. More than 65 km of eco-trails are open. The mountaineering season is also ongoing at the resort, and the Liprus high-mountain hotel is open for climbers.

Kavkaz.RF is the unified development institute for the North Caucasus. Under the direction of the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, the company builds and develops resorts, manages tourism and recreational special economic zones, creates conditions for business development in the region, and fosters a favorable investment climate. Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak oversees the North Caucasus Federal District within the Russian Government.

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