Elbrus Expedition Dispatch

July 18, 2016 – Elbrus Summit Day

3:45am in the morning, on Monday. I am standing on the most beautiful setting you can imagine. When we woke at 1:30am, I stepped outside our Barrels shelter and I still saw that nearly full moon hanging over the Caucasus Mountains range. Bright as it could be.

We had a good breakfast and Leila, our cook, served at the dining shelter and just at 3am, we loaded on 2 snow cats. We’ve got all 13 climbers from this team, plus 4 guides. Myself, Vladimir Bakhmutov from Kiev, Vladimir Kopylov from Moscow and Margo, from here in Terskol.

The team looks great, we are approaching this climb with all due humility, wondered and awe; it is a big mountain before us. Right now we are just appreciating the beauty of this beautiful morning, not too cold but of course we are wearing our big down jackets. We rolled up in the back of the snow cats. And as we begin to climb, higher and higher towards the saddle of Mount Elbrus; we will be in some pretty cool mount airs. Sun coming up. I am seeing a bead of rose gold light off to the east; the sun will begin to rise soon.

So, here we go, trying to reach the summit of Mount Elbrus; hopefully we will call you from the top in a few hours.

Listen to Wally's call

Call from the summit

8:30am and we reached the summit. All 13 climbing members for Berg Adventures and guides and what a beautiful day in the Caucasus. We had our photos on top and just moments after that; the clouds begin to blow in, some high winds. Now I am calling you from the snow cat turn around point. A few thousand feet below and we’ve already descended and we are waiting on our snow cat right now.

The team did great. Melody has decided to name this team “Lucky Thirteen” and I can see why, we’ve had some blessed weather, really good conditions and they’ve been very, very strong. We are going to head down now; we’ve got some fabulous photos we want to share with you of our climb and our summit attempt, standing on the very top. That will take a couple of days as we head down the valley; get reconnected with the fast internet. I would like to congratulate this entire lucky thirteen team. They did great; it was an honour for me to be on the summit of Elbrus with them this morning.

Listen to Wally's call from the summit