We flew via assorted intermediate points, landing in Mineralnye Vody, then by road to a place called Terskol (sp?), which is in the valley to the south of Elbrus, where we had hotel rooms. At the time there was a sequence of two gondolas and a chair lift (actually, the second gondola wasn't running) which went up pretty high, something like 3,500m I think. The Priyut 11 hut had not burnt down at the time and we were in that the night before we summited; that was a little over 4,000m, so 1,600m from the summit or thereabouts. The barrels, and a few containeres iirc, are below that, level with the chair lift, and were there at the time. We were being a bit gung ho on acclimatisation and did a couple of high peaks on the Russia/Georgia border before Elbrus, then straight to the Priyut 11 and then summit and down all the way in one day.
Edit: I meant to say that the Priyut 11 was rebuilt and is presumably a bit nicer and less flammable now!