Caucasus Mountains the Gyumri-Vanadzor region of Armenia. Europe's highest mountain is Mount Elbrus in the Caucasus Mountains. Elbrus is higher than Mont Blanc, the highest peak in the Alps and western Europe at . The crest of the Caucasus Mountains usually is taken to define the continental divide between Asia and Europe for the region between the Black and Caspian Seas. The table below lists some of the highest peaks of the Caucasus. With the exception of Shkhara, the heights are taken from Soviet 1:50,000 mapping. The list includes the ten ultras (mountains of more than 1,500 m prominence) and all mountains
Mount Elbrus The Soviet Union encouraged ascents of Elbrus, and in 1956 it was climbed "en masse" by 400 mountaineers to mark the 400th anniversary of the incorporation of Kabardino-Balkaria, the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic where Elbrus was located. From 1959 through 1976, a cable car system was built in stages that can take visitors as high as . There are a wide variety of routes up the mountain, but the normal route, which is free of crevasses, continues more or less straight up the slope from the end of the cable car system. During the summer, it is not uncommon for