Cybercasts

Friends, Family & Loved Ones,

A busy day for the Team, as we hit the highlights of Moscow. It’s truly one of the great cities of the world— and Carole’s favorite.

The city comes alive in the summer. We toured the White Marble Church of Christ the Savior on the banks of the Moscow River. We visited the cemetery at Novodevichy, which was a history lesson in and of itself, as many of Russia’s most celebrated politicians, artists and writers are buried there. We drove by Moscow State University, with 50,000 students and a Stalinist “Seven Sisters” campus building. We had savory blinis for lunch! And then visited Red Square, where we saw St Basil’s Cathedral and the historic GUM Department Store. We took the Metro to the Kremlin, the last official stop on our tour.

It was a full day, but we now have a good sense of the highlights of Moscow- the old and the new, the different architectural styles and the vibrancy of the modern street scene. It’s a very cool place.

One of our biggest accomplishments today was coming up with our Team name: we are now calling ourselves Team Puttin’ on the Ritz. – pretty good, huh?

Tomorrow we head to the airport early for our flight down South to the Baksan Valley. We will report in tomorrow from the small village of Terskol. Thanks for following!

Carole & Vern Tejas

Friends, Family & Loved Ones,

Welcome to our coverage of the Alpine Ascents July 20 Elbrus Expedition! We met as a team in Moscow for the first time this afternoon. Everybody is more or less jet lagged, but we’re not letting that get in the way of our excitement to be here.

Today we started with the basics— getting to know one another and doing a brief orientation so that the Team knows what we will be doing over the next couple of days.

Tonight we enjoyed our first typical Russian meal — beef stroganoff. Fun fact: the dish supposedly is named after the mid-19th century Russian aristocrat Pavel Stroganov, who unfortunately didn’t have many teeth; to deal with this, it is said that his cook cut up his beef in small pieces and braised it with a cream sauce to make it more chewable; hence the name Beef Stroganoff.

Tomorrow, we’re going to spend the whole day touring some of the highlights of Moscow. We will report back to you then and will do our best, technology permitting, to keep you updated thereafter while on our climb.

Thanks for following our adventure!

Carole & Vern Tejas

Friends. Family & Loved Ones,

The Crevasseputins toured Moscow today and saw many of the highlights of this fantastic city.

After an afternoon of heavy shopping, we gathered one last time for dinner at a local Uzbecki restaurant.

Fun was had by all.

Tomorrow, most of the Team will start their journey home to You. Thanks for following our climb to the roof of Europe!

Carole & Vern Tejas

Friends, Family & Loved Ones,

The day started early at 4:30 am, with a boisterous round of “Happy Birthday” and a ginormous birthday cake for Borko.

The team then loaded up the bus and off to Moscow we went. All went smoothly until we arrived in Moscow in pouring rain and a bus transfer that was delayed in traffic. Not to be deterred, the Crevasseputins hitched a ride to the nearest Metro station (leaving Vern at the airport with a mountain of luggage) and off we went to the Kremlin. Moscow’s subway system is amazing — in spite of traffic, we were able to navigate across this huge city in no time.

In the rain, we got our first view of Red Square and the Kremlin. We are eager to see more of Moscow tomorrow on our tour, likely in some rain given the current forecast.

Please check back with us tomorrow!

Carole & Vern Tejas

Friends, Family & Loved Ones,

Sometimes a photo says it all. Below are highlights from our last day in the Baksan Valley:

Carole and Vern would like to thank our local staff– Nikolai Cherney, The Angelas (our fabulous hosts in the Baksan Valley) and Tatiana (not pictured) — for their help in making our trip run so smoothly.

Tomorrow, The Crevasseputins are going to Moscow!

Carole & Vern Tejas