Elbrus Expedition Dispatch

July 28, 2008 – A Windy Day on Mt. Elbrus

A view of the Garabashi Hut, better known as “the Barrels”

On Saturday when we rode the trams up towards the barrels we knew we were not going to spend the night at the barrels, so it was a reconaissance if you will. It’s also easier to take people and show them the barrels and the glaciers below the summit of Elbrus than it is to talk about it and give them a description; you have to go through what it’s like. So Saturday it was a reconaissance day. We did hike a couple meters above the barrels taking our plastic boots and some of our other equipment along for climbing. When we returned to the barrels, we left the equipment there and then we went back to the hotel Saturday night.

Sunday was a good day for us. We moved up onto the mountain finally. You can probably imagine when we go onto the tram to ride up towards Elbrus the cars were full of other climbers. There were also many Russian tourists and tourists from elsewhere who are just out for the alpine experience by riding the tram (windy – transmission interrupted)

Now I’m calling you on Monday from 15,200 ft at the top of Pashtukhov Rocks. Several members of the team looked around and said “this is great” being that they love the mountain weather. All I can see are their hoods up, their big goggles and their face masks (windy – transmission interrupted)

The group seems really happy to be up in some windy weather on Mt. Elbrus (windy – transmission interrupted) we are heading back down to the barrels now.

We are in a good position now. We will wait until the weather improves and see what our chances are of reaching the very top of the highest peak in Europe, Mt. Elbrus, in a few days time.