Hello everyone from Team Texas in Russia! St Petersburg to be exact. Look... I'm going to be honest with you, we don't want to make you jealous. However, ending the trip in St Pete's is indescribable. So! To give you a tiny idea of how spectacular it is here, take a look at our slide show of today's events.
And don't go to far. I will have another slideshow of our canal tour later tonight. Stop dreaming and come to Russia!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
With all that snow you’re getting, I bet you’d be happy to see a little sunshine. It’s nice and warm down here in the Chicago area. Wish we could send some sunshine & warmth your way.
Hope you’re able to get some good photos of the climb between the snowfalls. Can’t wait to see them.
As far as the home front goes, Summit’s doing good although Mom’s a wreck, but what do you expect! As you know, I’m the one that has to suffer through all this, so I hope you appeciate what I’m going through.
Anyways, take care and look forward to your return. Best wishes also to your fellow climbers.
Hello RMI family! It is Team Texas from Russia. Today we flew to St. Petersburg and we are enjoying this amazing city! We are celebrating our safe and successful trip on Elbrus. And believe me, everyone deserves to rest, relax and enjoy the good life that only sea level altitude provides!
Stay tuned for tomorrow's video dispatch of St. Pete's!!!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
RMI Guide JJ Justman and 100% of his Mt. Elbrus team reached the summit this morning! Everyone is back, safe and sound, at the Garabashi Hut. The team sent a video as well as a photo from their successful summit.
RMI Guide JJ Justman calls from the Mt. Elbrus Summit!
It is a rest day for Team 1 on Mt. Elbrus. I wish I had some really exciting things to report. However, rest days are filled with the continual search to beat the boredom of camp life. Activities like cards, dice, reading, people watching, drinking coffee, eating food, etc...are a few of the things we have partaken in so far today.
I'm not gonna jinx it but our summit day tomorrow may require a constant supply of sunscreen and cooling mist machines! It's normal for team members to be a little nervous before summit day. But I'm telling ya...if I were to place a Las Vegas bet, it would be 100% to the top.
Wish us luck!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
Swinging into full climbing mode, our team made a giant foray onto the upper slopes of Mount Elbrus. Hey everyone, this is JJ Justman with RMI and the first Elbrus team of the season. Of course proper acclimatization is key and everyone is doing very, very well. 15,200 feet was our max altitude that we reached today. Donning sharp crampons on our boots allowed us some good practice for our summit day. Now back at camp here feels a little thicker and once again, our cooks are pampering us with some of the best authentic Russian cuisine. After all I have a good saying that a well-fed climber is a strong climber and I do believe the one reason why Russian climbers are so strong, is a secret ingredient they put in the borscht, which is Russian homemade soup here. It's really delicious, our cooks are doing a great job. We're loving life up here on Mount Elbrus. But it is relax time to fully recover. As I mentioned, our team is doing really, really well. We are going to do a rest day tomorrow in preparation for our summit day, which as of right now, is looking like it is going to be Monday, so stay tuned.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
(Julie first removes pin hole glasses so not to type more errors)
TEXAS IS GETTING EXCITED FOR YOUR SUMMIT.
Amy, be sure to keep Ed in line. (what am I saying?) LIZ, keep both Ed and Amy in line.
Hello RMI followers. This is JJ Justman with the first Mount Elbrus team. Today was an exciting day as we left the tiny town of Azau. After two tram rides, we arrived at the Garabashi Hut, also known as "The Barrels." We are currently at 12,000 feet. The team is enjoying the thin air. We would like to convince you that we are roughing it. However, life up here has some pretty darn nice creature comforts: French-pressed coffee and a full delicatessen, some comfy beds to name a few. It is important to relax and ease into the altitude. That's exactly what we need to do. We're playing card games and listening to electronic dance music, it's thumping in the background as I speak. I'm actually, myself, gonna currently watch culinary video podcast to get some new ideas for my mountain cuisine. We want to say hello to all the friends and family following along. The team is doing just fantastic, having a lot of fun. We will keep on informing you of how we're doing up here, but life is pretty darn nice. Take care for now.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
RMI Guide JJ Justman calls in from the Garabashi Hut.
Hello from the base of Mt. Elbrus,
We are enjoying our time in Cheget, located at the base of Mt. Elbrus. Today it was nice to stretch the legs. We climbed up Peak Cheget at 11,000 feet. The weather was nice and the views were incredible. We had a fantastic day in the mountains surrounding Elbrus. The team is doing great and having fun!
Enjoy the video.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
The RMI Mt. Elbrus team led by J.J. Justman left the hustle of Moscow and flew to Mineralnye Vody and drove to the Baksan Valley at the base of Mt. Elbrus. Check out their video below.
Hello from Moscow,
Today our Mt. Elbrus June 30th team enjoyed a fantastic tour of the Kremlin. There is a lot to see and we want to give you a glimpse into this historically and culturally rich place. We hope you enjoy the video.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
The gang is all here in beautiful Moscow. It is a long, tiring flight to get here but we made it and it's nice just to relax in our comfortable hotel near Red Square. A good night's sleep is needed before we partake in our first objective...a city tour of this giant world city.
Stay tuned for a great video dispatch tomorrow to see what we explore!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
Hey JJ- heard you have extra company from Richmond- Hi to all. Good intro to Russia with the flight delay. I know you all will have fun on what might be parallel climbs!! best-
Hi Scott,
With all that snow you’re getting, I bet you’d be happy to see a little sunshine. It’s nice and warm down here in the Chicago area. Wish we could send some sunshine & warmth your way.
Hope you’re able to get some good photos of the climb between the snowfalls. Can’t wait to see them.
As far as the home front goes, Summit’s doing good although Mom’s a wreck, but what do you expect! As you know, I’m the one that has to suffer through all this, so I hope you appeciate what I’m going through.
Anyways, take care and look forward to your return. Best wishes also to your fellow climbers.
Dad
Posted by: Wayne Adaska on 7/11/2013 at 9:41 am
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