Elbrus Expedition Dispatch

July 29, 2008 – Life at the Barrels

The weather was not good today. Yesterday evening after we returned from our hike at Pashtukhov Rocks, Vladimir and I set out and felt the cooler air coming and had some idea that we might see improving weather, but that was not to be. We listen to the wind blow and rain, changing to snow and hail at times, hit the barrels through the night. We did have some groups start out but they all returned well short of the summit today because of the very high winds that they encountered as they tried to climb to saddle, which is just over 5,000 meters on Elbrus.

The storm creeps in and covers the mountains

This is quite an international place here at the barrels. Besides our team, with members from Canada, United States and Austria, we have met climbers from Belgium, Germany, Slovenia, Korea and England.

We have a great level of comfort here. In one of the barrels, the one that Klaus, Martina and Marlene are staying in along with Joan and Mike; we keep a big thermos of hot water in there and snacks through the day so that people can hang out, visit, tell stories and listen to the bad weather. This is of course, between our cook Tamara’s wonderful meals that are served for breakfast and dinner each day!

We just finished one of Tamara’s great meals and now I’m looking at changing clouds overhead and am wondering what the weather will be like tonight. We have pretty much decided that the 31st will be our summit day. We are living well at the barrels, watching the weather and we will give you news of our summit attempt as we get closer. Stay tuned!