UNESCO describes this site as "...one of two large mountain areas in Europe that has not experienced significant human impact." And I can vouch for that. This human found it very difficult to have any impact on it.

In 2011, with wife Freda and son Euan, I based myself in Sochi for a few days as we tried to find a way into this vast area from the southern side. We went north by bus to the end of the line at Krasnaya Polyana and from there took a cable car up the mountain. From here we could see (within the WHS) beautiful green mountainsides topped by grey rocky crags but we could not get amongst them. Whether even this is possible now I do not know as the area will have been transformed by the works undertaken for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

For 9 of the last 10 years the site has been the subject of reports to the WHC because of threats to its OUV. These threats usually arise from the activities of some branch of government for example, road building or tourist development, or are, at least, officially connived at, for example, logging and grazing of livestock. The WHC has threatened to threaten the relevant authorities with placing the site on the Register of WHS in Danger and the relationship with UNESCO remains difficult.

In June 2016, alone, I approached the area from the north in a hire car picked up when I arrived at Krasnodar airport. I stayed the night in Dakhovskaya and next day early drove to Guzeripl where there is an entrance to the park and a small Visitor Centre. Here, in the forest I came to a fork in the track and chose what seemed to be the road less travelled. This led for several hours, during which time I saw almost no-one, through beautiful green trees in dappled sunshine till I judged I must turn back if I was to have time to investigate the other branch of the track. This soon led, alongside a swiftly flowing stream, to a small, not very interesting, museum and a kind of dolmen erected over some large rocks.

On the basis of this little excursion I would not say I have gained any substantial knowledge of the site. I found almost no useful literature at the site and signing was poor. However I am disinclined to spend any more of my declining years trying to penetrate it and with a clear conscience I stake my claim to be one of the first of Els' people to visit this site