Cybercasts

Comrades, Family & Loved Ones,

Big news: after extensive brainstorming and deliberation, the team voted unanimously to rebrand itself as Team “Climb & Punishment.” Thanks to Sarah for coming up with such an awesome name!

We had some free time early this morning to explore Moscow before piling onto our bus to go to the airport. The logistics worked smoothly and we arrived at our hotel in Terskol in time for dinner.

We enjoyed the ride from the airport in Mineral Vody to Terskol, past fields of corn and fruit trees. We made one compulsory stop along the way for some locally made ice cream — a Russian summer staple— and also to try on some sheep wool hats.

We’re crossing our fingers for clear weather tomorrow for our hike up Cheget Ridge and, hopefully, our first view of Mount Elbrus.

Thanks for following!

Carole

Comrades, Family & Loved Ones,

After several cold, rainy days in Moscow, we woke up this morning to the sun and blue skies. Perfect weather for our city tour today.

Our very Russian tour guide Olga showed us the sights and, impressively, managed to summarize 700 years of Russian history in about 10 minutes, all while speaking into a microphone while walking down a crowded sidewalk in Moscow.

Needless to say, we all enjoyed learning about the tumultuous and rather complicated history of this country— it definitely helps us understand some of the cultural differences that we’ve noticed so far in our short time in Russia.

We have a day of travel tomorrow and as much as we’ve enjoyed our time in Moscow, we are all looking forward to relocating to our base near the foot of Mount Elbrus. We’ll check back with you tomorrow from the South of Russia.

Thanks for following!

Carole

Comrades, Family & Loved Ones,

Thanks for tuning in to our coverage of Alpine Ascents’ June 28 climb of Mount Elbrus. Team members arrived in Moscow over the course of the day today and we met as a group for the first time this afternoon.

Other than a couple of missing bags (which the airlines hopefully will deliver tomorrow), the Team is off to a strong start. The Team members, some of whom are pictured below, got right to work brainstorming ideas for our Team name. We’ve already come up with several contenders, only some of which are publishable here. All very promising!

Tomorrow we’re going to head out early to tour the highlights of Moscow. We’ll check back with you again tomorrow evening with an update of our day.

Thanks for following!

Carole Tejas

Greetings Comrades,

The Team made the most of our short time in St Petersburg. We toured the highlights of this beautiful city as a group today and also managed to squeeze in some extracurricular activities: some of the crew took a nighttime cruise around St Pete’s rivers and canals. Cody went to an historic Russian Banya— he immersed himself (literally and figuratively) in the experience and met some Russian friends in the process; others of us wandered off the beaten path to check out the city’s shopping and modern art scene. It was a fun way to cap off a great trip with a fantastic group of people.

Tomorrow, most of us will start to make our way back to you. Thanks to everyone following at home and thanks to the members of Team Elbrus for making this a safe, fun and successful adventure.

Carole

The Team spent most of today traveling to St Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city located near the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea.Everything went smoothly and we are all really excited to be here.

After dinner, we took advantage of the “White Nights” (the very late sunset this far North at this time of year) and spent a couple of hours exploring the city. The street scene was as “happening” at 11 pm as it was in the middle of the afternoon!

Tomorrow, we’ll spend a full day touring the highlights of this beautiful city.

Thanks for following,

Carole