Black Climber

A mythical entity or ghost from the folklore of climbers of the former USSR countries. According to legend, the black climber was once a living person, but died in the mountains under mysterious circumstances and now wanders through the mountains, sometimes meeting with climbers and coming into contact with them.

It is described as a figure of a man with an indistinguishable face, covered with a black mask or just very dark, in black clothes.

Meetings with him occur exclusively in the mountains, some of the narrators say that they saw him only from a considerable distance, but there are also such stories that describe a face-to-face meeting and even communication with him.

The story of the appearance of the black climber and its significance for the person who met him is told mainly in such variants:

"The search for the guilty"

In this version of the legend, it is said that the black climber is one of two climbers who once went on a pair ascent. Sometimes it is emphasized that two climbers had some kind of a quarrel, for example, were in love with the same girl. During the ascent, one of the pair broke down, the other, connected to the partner with a safety rope, either fearing for his life, or remembering the discord, did not pull him out, but simply cut the rope. Sometimes it is specified that the body of the deceased was not found.

The deceased became the black climber. They say that he wanders through the mountains, trying to find the one whose fault he died. At night, he looks into the tents of sleeping climbers, looks at their faces and leaves. It is emphasized that it is impossible to catch him doing this — he is suitable only when everyone is fast asleep. If a black climber, looking into the tent, sees his legs instead of the climber's face, he can pull the sleeper out of the tent by his legs to look at his face. Narrators can refer to supposedly real cases when a person who went to sleep in a tent with his feet to the exit woke up outside.

In this version of the legend, it is usually said that a meeting with a black climber is a harbinger of misfortune or failure.

"Guardian"

The second version of the legend describes a group of climbers in which bad relations have developed between the participants. The group got into an emergency situation, got lost (details can be told in different ways), and people began to disappear and die one by one. There was only one person in the group who kept his presence of mind to the last, tried to rally the group and save the survivors. In the end, he also died, but after his death he stayed in the mountains to look after the climbers and help them.

In this version, a meeting with a black climber in itself does not threaten anything bad, moreover, a black climber can help. However, meeting him may be a sign that there is some tension in the relationship between the climbers.

"Give me some bread..."

The third option is a horror story for the young. During the first nights on the glacier, the young are told a legend about a climber who went down to get bread for the group and did not return, froze in the snow, dried up in the wind, turned black in the sun. But his soul has not calmed down, and he walks on glaciers, looking for bread all the time — and there will be something wrong with the one who does not give him bread. The legend is played out according to the roles — believers / non-believers, long and hard discussed, etc.

At night, the young are sent to sleep, waiting for the moment when they calm down and are half asleep, then one of the old men smears his hand with black, quietly pushes it into the tent and asks in a sepulchral voice: "Give me some bread..." — the reaction is appropriate.

There is a continuation of this tale — the situation develops according to the above scheme, except that someone else is smearing his hand, secretly from the first Black Climber, and after the words "Give me bread..." puts his hand on his shoulder and asks in a sepulchral voice: "And why do you need my bread?.."

"No one is to blame" The fourth option is a kind spirit.

A group of climbers was walking uphill, but suddenly a man walking at the end of the bundle slipped and fell into a gap, where he lost consciousness. The others tried to shout to him, but, having received no answer, they decided that their friend had died, and cut the rope.

After a while, our hero woke up and saw mountain spirits offering him to fulfill one of his wishes:

— Do you want to return home or to your group?

— No, they have already let me go, they have already experienced enough shocks.

— Then maybe you want to punish the friends who left you?

— No, they have already punished themselves.

— Then what do you want?

— I want to walk in the mountains forever, just like you.

The spirits fulfilled the climber's wish. Now he walks in the mountains, and meets climbers.

Sometimes a Black climber leads people into a trap, and sometimes rescues them.