Cybercasts

Friends, Family & Loved Ones,

Greetings from our hut on Mt Elbrus! We are doing well after a full day of activity.

As soon as the gondola opened this morning, we jumped on it and rode it up to the highest transfer station at just over 12,500 feet. Great teamwork was involved shuttling our big duffle bags and lots and lots of drinking water up the hill.

We got right to work up here and rigged some of our technical gear. Once rigged, we had a “rope rodeo” and practiced clipping in and out of the fixed line that we will find on the upper mountain.After lunch, we broke out the climbing ropes and went for a tour on the glacier.

Beautiful weather, beautiful views. Sorry not to send photos but limited bandwidth doesn’t allow.

All in all, a full and successful day.

Thanks for following!

Carole and Vern

Friends, Family & Loved Ones,

Another great acclimatization hike today. Down the road from our hotel, at the bottom of a small cirque, is the resort village of Cheget. We walked down to the village and then climbed just over 3,000 feet up to the beginning of a rocky ridge where we enjoyed some off-the-hook views. We were really close to the Georgian border!

Much of Mt Elbrus was in the clouds but we got some up close views of the surrounding peaks, glaciers and valleys. Being relatively new peaks (only 150 million years old), many of the Caucasus are jagged and dramatic— not as rounded or weathered as peaks (such as in the Andes) that are older.

We descended to Cheget on the chairlift – more great views. When we got down, we had Shashlik (grilled meats and vegetables) for lunch. Delicious!!!

The Team continues to climb strong.Tomorrow we move up to the huts and everybody is feeling super excited.

Thanks for following!

Carole & Vern

Friends, Family & Loved Ones,

So great to wake up this morning and see the beautiful pine forests of the Baksan Valley outside of our hotel room window. Now that we’re out of the big city and based at the foot of Mount Elbrus, we’ve turned our attention to the climb itself.

To acclimatize, we went hiking today up to the watchtower about 3,000 feet above our hotel. We climbed, first on a trail and then “off road”. From the top, we could see Elbrus itself, including the lower part of our climbing route. On the way down, we stopped for a photo op at the lovely Maiden’s Hair waterfall.

The Team did really well on the hike today and is looking strong. This afternoon, we did our gear check. Everyone came well prepared and so we breezed through it and had some time to relax before dinner.

Tomorrow, we’ll acclimatize some more and hike up the ridge on the opposite side of the valley.

Thanks for following!

Carole and Vern

Friends, Family & Loved Ones,

Today was a travel day from Moscow down to Terskol, our base at the foot of Mt Elbrus. Everything went smoothly, with the exception of a small tornado that hit during heavy rains en route to our hotel! We were fine, but there were a number of downed trees blown onto the road.

Once the storm abated, we drove past fields of sunflowers stretching almost as far as the eye could see. It’s pretty country down here.

Our hosts at the hotel, two friends both named Angelica, welcomed us with a tasty home cooked meal and an amazing birthday cake for Matt with lots of candles to be blown out!

Tomorrow, we will stretch our legs and head out for an acclimatization hike. The weather forecast looks promising!

Thanks for following,

Carole & Vern