Entries By casey grom
Hello again from 12,000' in Russia!
Things are good here and the team is excited for tonight! Today we had our last acclimatization hike before tonight's climb. Normally we take an extra rest day before climbing, but the forecast doesn't look too good the next few days so we are making our bid tonight. We started early today to maximize our rest today and have been relaxing since noon.
Our cook Dasha has done an amazing job of keeping our bellies full with plenty of good home cooked Russian food.
This evening we had a thorough discussion about tonight's upcoming climb and everyone is packed and ready. Hopefully the weather continues to hold and we'll be up shortly after 2am and after a quick breakfast hop on the snowcat to give us a bump a little further up the mountain. This will shorten our climb a little and increase our chance of reaching the highest point in Europe.
We had a trivia challenge today and one lucky winner will get to make a satellite phone call from the summit. So everyone following along, keep your phones handy, you just might receive a call.
I'm expecting us to reach the summit somewhere around 10-11am here, same time zone as Moscow.
Keep your fingers crossed for us!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
We woke to clear skies and beautiful weather today. We had breakfast in the hotel and then loaded up all our climbing gear and drove to the base of the ski resort where we rode not one, but two gondolas, a single chair lift and then a short snowcat ride to reach our new home on Mt. Elbrus for the next few days. It's rather comfortable up here, as our outfitter has taken a few shipping containers and converted them into simple bunk rooms some for sleeping and some set up as dinning rooms.
Once we got settled into our new home we headed uphill on another acclimatizing hike and reached just over 14,000' before returning to camp where our wonderful cook Dasha had a nice hot lunch waiting for us.
We spent the remaining of the afternoon doing a little training for our climb. The weather forecast has been a little up and down, so are just staying prepared. Everyone is doing great and enjoying the views of the Caucasus mountain range which are pretty amazing since we are camped out at just over 12,000'.
Dasha has once again had filled our bellies full of delicious Russian food and so the team is off to bed now.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
We miss you but love following your latest adventure! Love and Prayers Jill, Rachel, David, Caleb, Kiki, Cora, Emily, Shane, Eli, Silas, Samuel, Shena, Jeff, Anthony and Chloe
Posted by: Jill Crumley on 7/27/2017 at 3:41 am
Awesome pictures! Looks like a great time. Have fun as you both get closer to the summit.
Love
Dad
Posted by: Wayne Kelly Sr. on 7/26/2017 at 1:02 pm
All is well here in the Baksan Valley, at the base of Elbrus where we've settled into our comfortable hotel. We made the most of the local ski lifts, (to save our knees of course) and hiked up the neighboring peak to start our acclimatization. It started off a little cloudy today, but eventually cleared for some decent views of Elbrus. After our ascent we headed back down to town for a nice lunch and headed over to the local climbing shop to pick up a few last minute things. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, getting our bags packed and just wrapped up another enjoyable Russian dinner with some wonderful Georgian soup.
All is well here and we'll check in again tomorrow!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
Здравствуйте (hello) from Russia!
We had an early start to the day as we left Moscow this morning and have traveled via plane and bus to the beautiful Caucus mountains. Our flight took us to southern Russia not too far from the Black Sea to a place called Mineralnye Vody, which simply translates to Mineral Water.
This part of the country is predominately rural and is responsible for much of the agriculture that the larger cities depends on. We were meet by our trustworthy guide Yuri, whom I've climbed with many times. Then hopped in our van for the 3 hour drive up the Baksan Valley to the base Mt. Elbrus.
Things went pretty smooth minus a few little traffic jams with cars, motorcycles and cows all humorously trying to use the road.
The small town we are in is called Cheget, and it doubles as a ski town in winter and converts to climbing town in the summer. We didn't do a ton of exploring this afternoon due to the adjustment of the time that we are all still feeling and having started so early. However, tomorrow we will do our first acclimatizing hike and do a little exploring too.
All is well here as we are looking forward to a little exercise tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
Posted by: Casey Grom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Elbrus Southside
Hello everyone -
The team arrived yesterday after a tiring day of travel. As most of the team is still adjusting to the nearly 12 hour time change we kept things simple with a little round of introductions and a brief overview of the days ahead. We then took a short walk to get dinner at a nearby restaurant before turning in for the night.
Today we meet with our local tour guide, Victoria, and had a wonderful tour of the nearby Red Square and the Kremlin. We visited several churches including the iconic St. Basil's, plus a brief stop at the famous GUM, which is a high end shopping mall that sits across the Red Square from the Kremlin.
We've just returned from dinner and are getting packed up for tomorrow's flight to the south which will get us closer to Mt. Elbrus.
Everyone is doing great and looking forward to heading to the mountains tomorrow.
That's all for now.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Good luck on summit success this morning. You all look ready!
Richard Cost I expect you to do both. Love you!
Posted by: Stacey Cost on 7/27/2017 at 11:43 am
Glad the trip is going so well. Richard Cost, you make a nice blonde.
Posted by: Stacey Cost on 7/25/2017 at 8:31 pm
Posted by: Casey Grom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Elbrus Southside
Our final night in St. Petersburg!
The team had a great last day here in Russia, with a visit to a beautiful church full of mosaics. We then visited the very famous Hermitage Museum, where we saw paintings and sculptures by many well-known artists including Rembrandt, Michelangelo and even Da Vinci.
We took a small break and wrapped up the day with a fantastic evening boat cruise to see this amazing city by water.
It's been a wonderful adventure here in Russia, but it's time to say our goodbyes and return to family and loved ones.
Thanks for following.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
To my dearest Steve Pastor, I’m so proud of you!! You are amazing! I feel absolutely honored that I received a phone call to find you made the summit. Mt. Elbrus summit!!! Great job to my crazy mountain climbing bestie and congratulations!! Love and Hugs, Andy
Thank you Mr. Grom for the wonderful experience you provided all these fantastic people! Congratulations to you and everyone with you!!
Sincerely,
Andy
Posted by: Andrea Houts on 7/18/2017 at 4:38 pm
Posted by: Casey Grom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Elbrus Southside
Saint Petersburg!!!
We traveled all day and have finally arrived in one of the most beautiful cities of Europe. Things went relatively smooth despite two van rides and two flights. We got checked into the hotel here and then ran out for a quick dinner followed by a short but scenic stroll.
Everyone is very excited to explore and see this city tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Greetings everyone -
Our team spent the contingency weather day hanging out in Cheget. We had a rather leisurely start with breakfast at 9:30 due to so many climbers being here in the hotel. But no one seemed to mind the extra sleep after yesterday's climb.
We spent the day walking around town, riding ATVs, enjoying the new coffee shop in town and of course horseback riding Russian style!
Right now we're all relaxing before heading out to a celebratory dinner with the team. Hopefully we'll survive the vodka associated with tonight's traditional Russian celebration, hosted by our gracious local tour operator.
Everyone is in good spirits and looking forward to heading to beautiful St. Petersburg early tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
On The Map
Summit!
Today the team stood on the highest point of Europe. I have to admit we were pretty lucky with the weather, as we had a little snowstorm pass through last night leaving a nice dusting. The team did a fantastic job of taking care of themselves and climbed incredibly well. With pretty decent weather we could see much of the massive Caucasus mountain range from the summit.
Once we descended back to the saddle between the two summits that Mt. Elbrus has (West and East), four of us decided to climb up to the other summit while the rest of the team descended safely back to camp. It only added an additional one and a half hours, so not too bad, especially since the weather was good.
After everyone returned to camp, we had a quick lunch and then packed up to head down valley to our hotel at the base of the mountain. Everyone is high spirits and smelling great!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and a happy, freshly showered crew
On The Map
Congratulation Scott + Julie and team. Well done.
Posted by: Walter Glover on 7/15/2017 at 11:41 pm
Congratulations to all of you. Glad you had a safe climb.
Posted by: Ruth Baldock on 7/15/2017 at 2:38 pm
Hello again from 12,000' in Russia!
Things are good here and the team is excited for tonight! We did a little prep work for tomorrow by reviewing a few climb techniques and then rested the remainder of the day. Our cook, Dasha, has done a great job of filling our bellies with plenty of good ol' home cooked Russian food. We had a thorough discussion about tonight's climb and everyone is packed up and ready. Hopefully the weather continues to hold. we'll be waking up shortly after 1 a.m. and after a quick breakfast we'll hop on the snowcat to give us a bump a little further up the mountain. This will shorten our climb a little and increase our chance of reaching the highest point in Europe.
We had a trivia challenge today and one lucky winner will get to make a satellite phone call from the summit. So everyone following along, keep your phones handy, you just might receive a call. I'm expecting us to reach the summit around 10 a.m. here, in same time zone as Moscow.
Keep your fingers crossed for us!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and team
On The Map
Best of luck with your skills, health and weather!
Posted by: kay nims on 7/15/2017 at 11:03 am
Go for it you guys. Casey is the best! Wishing you safe travels tonight
Posted by: John Horgan on 7/15/2017 at 8:27 am
Way to go! Very much of a team effort. Can’t wait to hear all of the details. Safe travels on the return.
Posted by: Jim Pound on 7/28/2017 at 2:25 pm
So happy for you all. Sorry to miss Seth’s call but will treasure the voice mail!!!! Absorb the moment!
Posted by: Brinkley Pound on 7/28/2017 at 6:29 am
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