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Title image - BAI takes you to: Mt.Elbrus
Why climb with Berg Adventures

Elbrus Expedition Dispatch

June 28, 2009 – Team Settles in at Garabashi Refuge

It is the afternoon of Sunday June 28, and I am calling you from Garabashi Refuge at 3,800 meters. This is going to be our home as we begin to climb higher and eventually reach the summit of Mt. Elbrus.

Our first climb above Garabashi Refuge (our home base)

Our first climb above Garabashi Refuge (our home base)

The weather has changed as I call you right now there is a hard snow fall with no visibility anywhere around us. Just yesterday, when we made our first trip via the gondola up to this place, it was still clear weather which we have seen throughout our trip so far. We always do the same system, we come up to the refuge, move in and check it out. We move a lot of our gear up on one day so that we know what it is like then we go back down to the lodge in the valley for one more night and one more sauna. After our last lodge/sauna night we come back up here to stay.

The team loves it here. We have our own kitchen, our own spacious shelters/rooms and large beds, and plenty of room for our personal gear. We have the place to ourselves. The famous Barrels are adjacent to us and we can see that it is a lot more congested over there. This makes us very happy to try out these new accommodations.

Speaking of “new," when we came up here yesterday we rode on the new gondola for the lower stage of the lift. It was fast with fantastic views out of the windows as it took off with considerable speed up the hill. It is a nice improvement to the infrastructure here on Elbrus.

We were really pleased to meet our last joining member of our BAI staff, Anastasia, our cook. She was waiting for us when we arrived. Anastasia has never cooked for BAI before, but I knew Karina’s standards are always very high and she was going to hire an excellent cook. As it turns out Anastasia served us lunch today and she showed us she really knows what she is doing and she is a very charming lady as well. We enjoyed talking and getting to know her better as she is going to be cooking many great meals for us while we are climbing higher on the glacier.

We are doing great. It is snowing right now, and we are acclimatizing and happy to be higher on Elbrus as we prepare for our summit which will be happening in a few days.

Jackie Berger and Winston Chan in the new gondola with fabulous views all around

Jackie Berger and Winston Chan in the new gondola with fabulous views all around

John Bank and Vladimir Bakhmutov

John Bank and Vladimir Bakhmutov

John Bank and Steve Whittington

John Bank and Steve Whittington