Elbrus Expedition Dispatch
July 10, 2014 – Anatoliy Savejko’s Photographs
We were sitting having lunch in the valley on Thursday when a fellow who we recognized showed up. He had a smile and a brief case in his hand.
Since the beginning, nearly all Berg Adventures Elbrus climbs have been documented by Anatoliy Sevejkov. Toli is amazing. He always shows up somewhere high on the climb into the Elbrus Saddle, with a Canon SLR camera and short skis strapped to his pack.
Exhilarated and usually exhausted Berg Adventures climbers slowly plod past Toli crouched in the snow and realize, “this guy is taking pictures of me”. In the high winds and thin air most climbers do not even notice when Toli puts his skis on and disappears. He is off to get his photos printed in Nalchik.
Only a day or two later, in what seems like another world, while BAI groups are enjoying a sashlik lamb barbeque, Toli will show up with his brief case. He has a folder for each climber, with beautiful prints which feature close up shots of each person, a personalized portfolio of striking images from high on Elbrus.
Toli showed up while we were having lunch on Thursday.
We’d last seen him crouched in the snow high on Elbrus.
He was getting shots of our team as we climbed above 5000 meters on a beautiful Caucasus morning.
Toli had prints for each team member.
Toli’s packet of prints, delivered with a CD of all the images, always brings a big smile.
The first thing Dan and each of us see is a print of ourselves climbing high on Elbrus.
It was only some hours ago, that we were in another world, Toli captured it well.
Toli captured Don climbing toward the saddle.
He snaps photos of each climber as we pass him.
Micheline and Tom high on Elbrus. It is amazing that Toli can identify us in the valley. We were all goggles and face masks on the mountain!
It is nice to have an objective image captured of our group climbing on the long Elbrus summit morning.