Hello everyone!
Today was our travel day from the mountain to St. Petersburg. It was a pretty long day with the four-hour bus ride to the airport and then a three-hour flight. It was a pretty uneventful day, but the team is doing very well. Everyone is happy to be here in this beautiful city and looking forward to our city tour tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Enjoy that beautiful city! From underground in the subways to the glories of the Hermitage amid memories of the long siege—it is a glorious city. So glad you are having a chance to visit it. MA
Posted by: MaryAnn on 7/22/2014 at 8:32 am
Down off the mountain and now you get to visit a city that many of my friends and relatives want to visit or have visited and think it is great. Have fun and enjoy Mom and Granny
Posted by: Cornelia Granny on 7/22/2014 at 6:47 am
Sometimes the most difficult part of any expedition is just getting on the mountain. Today, our Elbrus team got one step closer.
We jumped on a flight from Moscow and arrived in Mineralnye Vody and then had a 2 1/2 hour shuttle ride to arrive in Cheget.
We are now sitting under the glistening Caucasus Mountains that surround the valley. Some of our team are exploring the shops in town while others are sorting mountaineering gear.
Thanks for catching up with is and stay tuned for some photos and video of this wonderful area.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
We did it! We successfully climbed to the highest point in Europe. It wasn't easy, in fact it was far from it.
We started our climb in pretty windy conditions and battled our way for several hours before the weather finally eased off. I have to admit I wasn't sure it was going to happen for us, but a big thanks to our local guides for working hard and to the crew for doing a great job of taking care of themselves. We had our heads down most of the climb due to the blowing wind and surface snow that continuously made it difficult. The team worked extra hard today to make it happen, wearing parkas and goggles nearly the entire day.
We have finally descended all the way back to Cheget and just finished another wonderful meal, washed down with endless vodka in Russian style!
Everyone is in great spirits and looking forward to taking in the sites and relaxing in beautiful St. Petersburg.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and Team
The RMI July 18th Mt. Elbrus team led by RMI Guide JJ Justman gathered in Moscow on July 19th. The team explored the city on July 20th with a local tour guide soaking in the sites of the Kremlin, Red Square, Lenin's Tomb and more. Check out the video from their city tour.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and the RMI Mt. Elbrus July 11th team reached the summit of Mt.Elbrus, Europe's highest peak on July 20th. The team had a great day and will check in again when they are back at camp.
Congratulations to the team!
Not that we needed it, but yesterday's thunderstorms with hail, lighting, and strong winds only confirmed we'd made the right call to delay by one day. By morning today the clouds had blown off and the sun was back out but you could still see the wind up high blowing strong. Rather than rest all day again, we went for a nice hike after breakfast to stretch the legs and exercise the lungs a bit. Being a Saturday there were dozens of snowcats full of people and endless snowmobiles flying past as we hiked.
After our hike we enjoyed another nice meal cooked by Albina and then sat together to discuss our upcoming climb. We have gone over all the details and are already packed up ready for morning. Our plan will be to wake up around midnight, have breakfast at 12:30 and hopefully be riding our snowcat by 1:30. The snow cat will drop us off basically where we ended our highest acclimatization hike two days ago. From there it should takes us about 6-8 hours to reach the summit of Mt. Elbrus if all goes according to plan. The forecast looks better than yesterday's and the team is very ready for the climb.
We'll do our best to call from the summit, and will undoubtedly check in when we return.
Wish us luck!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
It is 10 am Seattle time so by now you have reached the top and come back down with lots of stories and good thoughts. Kevin are you keeping a journal for a great book? Love to all Mom and Granny
Posted by: Cornelia Granny on 7/20/2014 at 9:49 am
By now you must be climbing, or maybe already there. So glad the weather broke for you, and looking forward to many good pictures. Be safe—MA
Today the team got up a little early to make use of the firm snow to practice using our crampons, and we revisited how to self-arrest also. After our morning session we enjoyed breakfast and then relaxed near camp till lunch. The weather has slowly been changing here and shortly after lunch we decided to postpone our climb by one day as the forecast is showing a slight improvement for tomorrow evening. So that means another day of rest tomorrow!
Not much new to report here, but everyone is doing well and we have our fingers crossed that the weather improves enough to allow for some amazing views.
We'll check in again tomorrow before our big climb!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Am sure you are anxious to start the climb but glad you can wait a day to get better weather. Prayers and good thoughts for you all Love Mom and Granny
It was another beautiful day here on Mt. Elbrus! We woke to clear skies, calm winds and a amazing view of the enormous Caucasus range. (Really you should google it sometime!) We had our standard breakfast of porridge, boiled eggs, assorted meats, cheeses and coffee. Today was our planned acclimatization hike and we did just that. The team hiked for about three hours uphill and reached about 15,000 ft, which was a new record for some. We enjoyed the views took a few photos and then headed back down to camp for lunch. The remainder of the afternoon has been spent playing cards, reading and napping.
All is well and we are looking forward to having a rest day tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
July 16, 2014 - 5:12 am PT
We started our day at a reasonable hour with breakfast at 8 am, we had porridge, fried eggs, and of course plenty of the Starbucks coffee we brought along. :) After breakfast we finished the remainder of our packing and headed over the the gondola to hitch a ride further up the mountain to our new Base camp on Mt. Elbrus. Two gondola rides and one super long single chair lift delivered us at our new home just over 12'000'. Our new home is basically a retro fitted shipping container, they're brand new and rather comfortable.
After we settled in we had a nice lunch cooked by our wonderful and cantankerous cook Albina. She's a great cook, but I think is a little over worked and runs a tight ship.
After lunch we headed out to stretch our legs and continue our acclimatization process by hiking for a little over an hour and gaining well over a thousand feet. Everyone did great and we are now back at camp watching the evening clouds roll in and getting ready for dinner.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
I'm not too big of a man to admit...our adventure is officially over...and I'm actually sad. Our team took off early this morning after a grand finale here in St Petersburg. We had a tour of all the historical sites and finished with a great canal tour.
I want to thank every team member who I now consider friends. And ask my 3rd grade school teacher Ms. Buchanan, I have a tough time making friends!
Yes, we climbed Elbrus. Yes, we all made the summit. And yes, we all had a safe climbing experience...always number one on the list.
But for some reason this team was pretty much the same as all my RMI teams from the past. They were AWESOME!! I can't wait to climb with all of them again. Plans are already being made for Vinson and Aconcagua.
In the meantime, here is a short video of how we ended our time on this incredible adventure...
RMI Guide JJ Justman
Enjoy that beautiful city! From underground in the subways to the glories of the Hermitage amid memories of the long siege—it is a glorious city. So glad you are having a chance to visit it. MA
Posted by: MaryAnn on 7/22/2014 at 8:32 am
Down off the mountain and now you get to visit a city that many of my friends and relatives want to visit or have visited and think it is great. Have fun and enjoy Mom and Granny
Posted by: Cornelia Granny on 7/22/2014 at 6:47 am
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