Cybercasts

Greetings Comrades,

We woke up to a clear, sunny day in Terskol— the nicest weather yet. Over a leisurely breakfast, we watched a slideshow of photos from our climb put together by Andrey, our Russian guide. Fantastic shots, and fun to look back on the experience with the benefit of some sleep and some more oxygen than was available to us on summit day.

The main activity of the day was a short hike to a local fishing spot called Narzan. Pictured below: Jessica had no problem catching the first fish of the day;  Cody’s fish (under the green bucket) almost got away; Rob did a great job on the climb, but fishing… not so much; Bryson made it look easy!

We ate our catch and a lot of other food and washed it down with an assortment of beverages. The warm sun and the laid back atmosphere of Narzan was a perfect way to spend the afternoon.

We’re going to have an early start tomorrow as we make our way to the airport in Mineral Vody for our flight up to St Petersburg.

Thanks for following!

Carole

Greetings Comrades,

We were treated to a short but heavy snowfall early this morning from our perch in the hut bunkrooms. Cool to see but boy were we glad that we decided to make our summit bid yesterday instead of today, when the upper mountain looked totally socked in.

After breakfast, we descended to the valley and checked back into our hotel. There, we got busy: showering, relaxing, eating and playing cards. This lasted until dinner time, when we walked to the neighboring village of Cheget and had a celebration dinner at the “Seven” restaurant– Seven because a number of the glaciers and terrain features in this area happen to be in the shape of a 7. We gorged on bbq lamb, chicken and veggies and washed it all down with an assortment of beverages…

We will check back with you tomorrow, our last day in the beautiful Baksan Valley.

Carole

Hello again,

I’m writing this as half the team is having a post- summit nap (well deserved) and the other half is finishing a celebratory beer (also well deserved) in anticipation of having a post- summit nap. Yes, folks are tired but that is to be expected after making good time, in good style, to the summit of Mount Elbrus and back.

The weather today was variable: periods of clearing when we were able to look down to see an incredible panorama of the Caucasus Range; periods of whiteout (including on the summit) when we were able to see very little; and some in between.

On the summit, we all congratulated Ben Jones on his completion of the Seven Summits and then made fast tracks down before the weather deteriorated.

Other than fatigue at the moment, everyone is doing well and looking forward to a couple of days of R&R in the valley below before we head North to St Petersburg.

Thanks for following!

Carole

Greetings Comrades,

Just a quick note to let you know that all of us are safely back at our hut after an outstanding climb. It was great to stand on the summit with every single team member. I’ll write more in a little bit and hopefully send a summit photo.

Carole

Greetings Comrades,

We had several items on our agenda today, as we did some skills practice to prepare for our summit bid tomorrow.

We are now proficient at clipping in and out of fixed line. We practiced cramponing footwork to use on steep and potentially icy slopes, and worked on self-arrest (pictured below).

In short, we’re feeling good to launch our summit bid tomorrow! We’re planning to leave our hut at 1 am in an attempt to avoid most of the snow that is forecasted to fall.

We will keep you posted! Thanks for following,

Carole