Elbrus Expedition Dispatch
July 1, 2016 – We Went Up to Check Out the Barrels and the Glacier
This was our “shakedown day”. Time to ride up the covered chair lifts to “Garibashi”, the famous “Barrels”, where we will be living while we attempt our summit of Elbrus. Today provided a perfect opportunity to walk up the glacier to a higher elevation and we were able to do that, reaching 13,700 feet.
Tomorrow we will move back to the Barrels to stay. These photos will give you an idea of what it is like to go up onto Elbrus via the lifts and climb higher in the ever-changing Caucasus weather.
It was a beautiful day and the entire team did great!
Team at Asau, the bottom terminal of the Mount Elbrus Lift System.
We ride a series of three of these covered chairs to the top now.
Jean enjoying the beautiful ride
Vladimir Kopolov on the chair ride
The new chair that goes from Mir Station to Garabashi at the top is finished.
New sign at Mir Station
Also a new café at the top!
Time for a walk to check out some of our gear.
Our “Barrels” are square this year!
Home Sweet Home
Barry and Jean as we continued climbing higher
Betsy and Dale as we climbed higher – still beautiful weather
As we reached our highpoint, the very common Elbrus white out came, Vladdimir Bakhumtov just before we started descending
Jean higher on the glacier
Time to start down, a very successful first trip up on the snow
On our way down
“Shakedown” day means you discover some issues with gear. By 3:30 we were back down in the shops; Todd got some new gaiters, several team members got a thermos and we exchanged some rental boots for a better fit.