Elbrus Expedition Dispatch

July 12, 2016 – It is Time to Fly to the Mountains and Say Goodbye to Moscow

What a day! We arrived at our hotel in the Caucasus Mountain about 10:30 this evening. The day started for most of us with Larissa standing in line at the Lenin’s Mausoleum, she went over there at 9 o’clock.

We showed up just before 10 and walked to view Lenin’s resting place, at the Red Square. That was just the beginning.

We went back to the Hyatt Hotel, relaxed for a while and then we took off by a Mercedes Sprinter Bus to Sheremetyevo Airport.

We are picking up members still along the way.

Josh has flown in from the US, arrived at Sheremetyevo; have gone from the International to the domestic terminal, still without sleeping in a hotel or bed. He met us inside security.

Vladimir Kopylov met us there as well. The team is coming together and we all flew south to Mineralnye Vody. We didn’t land until about 7pm, still light. We saw Mount Elbrus from the airport which is a real unusual event this time of year. We got through the departure area pretty smoothly.

It is getting dark as we go south towards the Baksan valley, Mount Elbrus region where we will be staying but it is a beautiful drive and even though we are exhausted and heavy eyed from the days of touring in Moscow and St. Petersburg. I got to tell you some more stories about all of that.

It is great to know that we are heading to some place where we will be staying for a while to climb a mountain. We all feel very welcomed by the staff at the hotel; they are all glad to see Berg Adventures return.

Right now the team is downstairs, enjoying a couple of drinks and dinner. It will be a late night tonight and kind of a sleeping in tomorrow. Ride up the Cheget and see Mount Elbrus again; we already seen from the airplane and from the distance.