Elbrus Expedition Dispatch

August 9, 2008 – Ahead of Schedule at the Barrels

It is 6pm on August 9th and I am calling you from the top of Pashtukov rock, 15,300 feet above see level.

The team had a very successful day today, much more than they expected to accomplish. We left the hotel early this morning after 5 nights in our comfortable accommodations there. The acclimatization hikes have been paying off and of course it was time to move to the Barrels.

It is Saturday, so the lines down at the cable car were quite long so we had to work our magic and we took a special door directly on to the first cable car and got up to the top of the charlift quite early.

We met Tamara, our cook, the same wonderful woman who fixed our great meals on our last group. We are in Barrel number 5, which is going to make a great home for all of us; Vladimir, Karina, Kate, John, Michael and myself.

Then we thought, well, the weather is perfect, we have been hiking every day, we are in good shape, why not climb all the way to the top of Pashtukov today, a day ahead of schedule?

The idea worked great, I am sitting here now, the sky is almost perfectly clear, looking far down below into the valley and across the peaks of the Caucasus Range.

We are off to a great start on our high part of this trip, we are up on a mountain now, and we will be taken our mandatory rest day tomorrow to make sure we are acclimatized. After that, if the weather holds, who knows, anything is possible in the 3 days after that.

We will keep you posted on our plans to go to the summit of Elbrus, and we will let you know how we do on the way and hopefully give you a call from the top in the next 3 days.