I was astounded to read that 48 people died on Elbrus in 2004 alone. The weather can change at the drop of a dime and the mountain attracts many novice climbers hoping to top the highest mountain in Europe. The death rate has gone from an average of 10 to 20 per year to 5 to 10 in more recent years. The day we climbed, we had bright blue skies, but as you can see here, the weather changed drastically and some of the climbers that day got caught in horrendous weather, resulting in epic descents.