Dombai

I have homework to do: to describe thoughts and emotions evoked by some article of my possession. It is a very hard task, as I can't find such an article. Almost all my articles left in Russia. But I have some pictures of the past. Here: a yellowish photo of a little cabin, covered by snow.

1956. Four of us, students, were awarded two weeks in Dombai, famous skiing resort in Caucus mountains. Those two weeks remain in my memory as the happiest in my life. Life in the USSR was, in general, gloomy. People were poor and hungry, struggling for survival. The luck of four of us was hard to overestimate.

First, we came by train to the town of Batalpashinsk, from which we had to take a bus to Teberda and from there a shuttle bus suppose to bring us to the camp. We hadn’t traveled much by ourselves, so we were excited to see different people, different customs.

On the town square we spotted a guy selling ice-cream. He had a box hanging on the belt over his neck with some cones on the top of the box. We delegated one of us to buy some. While we were waiting on the side, our friend obviously got into trouble. We came over to him and he told us that he gave a 100 ruble bill for the four cones, expecting 80 rubles change. But the seller refused to give it. We were lucky as there was a policeman in the square. We turned to him for help. The policeman asked the vendor: "Why you didn't give them the change?" "I didn't and I will not give it to them on principle", he answered and started to put the cones inside his box.

Then he just left, leaving us without our change and puzzled. We didn't even have the opportunity to learn such interesting principles. The policeman shrugged his shoulders and left as well.

We came to the camp and were put in a cabin, all four in one room. Then we got instructions for tomorrow’s training, were given our skis, boots and costumes. After formalities were finished we came for dinner. It was included in the service. That was another surprise. We had more than enough food! And sugar was free on the table!

I don't remember meals but breakfasts. Rice or mashed potatoes, a small piece of sausage, 20 grams of butter and coffee. We started to figure out how sweet coffee should be. Somebody put five teaspoons of sugar, some twelve. After a few days everybody agreed that nine was optimum.

The training was great. We enjoyed it from the first minute to the last, four hours a day. The hardest was to compact fresh snow on the track. We had to ascend by sidesteps about an 800 meter slope at least twice before it was possible to ski. There weren’t modern facilities – ski lifts, tamping machines, etc. But it was a delight for us anyway.

The surrounding mountains were gorgeous. Covered by dazzling snow, sharp peaks were so beautiful! No surprise that about each of them were songs which we learned from veterans and sang with them together. The air was so clean that the slightest impurity was intolerable. Once, the tank of the electric generator was refilled and some diesel was spilled on the ground. For a couple of days we could smell it from kilometers away.

The stars in the night sky were so big and bright! If you didn't see them in the mountains you missed a spectacular view. It evokes indescribable emotion. The falling snow was another miracle. It was relatively warm, snowflakes were huge, maybe an inch in diameter, or even larger. With no wind they fell slowly vertically. You could watch them individually from high above, flowing down to the ground. The last couple of days it was unusual snowfall – thick and continuous. Telephone poles were concealed under it. Our marvelous vacation was finished, but we were unable to get out. Even a tractor couldn't come through from Teberda. We were advised to go by skis. We didn't mind. To walk 20 kilometers took us a whole day. We were exhausted, but happy.

When the time came to buy tickets for the train to go home, I couldn't find enough money. We sat down and thought hard what to do. But happened another miracle. We had to return our equipment and clothes, and I absent-mindlessly checked the pockets. Somehow I have not done it before. To our delight I took out of it a 25 ruble bill, just what I needed for the ticket. Somebody who was wearing it before me forgot it. We hadn't enough money left for food and for the couple of days that we spent on the train we didn't eat, but it was a minor problem. The whole adventure was unforgettable. That is why I have kept the old picture for more than 50 years.