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Elbrus Northside Climbers Wait at Camp 1

Posted by: | September 05, 2009
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Elbrus Northside
Elevation: 12,300'

Prvyet from Camp 1 -

The team is doing great. It was our third night here at Camp 1 and our bodies are adjusting well to the altitude. The winds that started blowing last evening remained constant throughout the night, with gusts up to 25 mph. Our hope was that the winds would die down by morning, but there was no noticeable change when the alarm went off at 7:00. We decided to postpone our wake up call for an hour to see if it might improve, but no such luck. Just as the winds would let up 15 minutes later they would return to full force. Since establishing Camp 2 in these conditions would be very difficult we chose to take a weather day instead. Although it can be difficult to wait out a rest day knowing our summit push is approaching, the down time will certainly benefit us as we move higher. The plan is now to move up to Camp 2 tomorrow and then make our attempt for Elbrus’ summit on Monday, weather permitting. The forecast is calling for improving conditions, and all we need is a 24 hour window of good weather.

We had an early dinner and as we crawled into the tents the cloud cap on the upper mountain began to break apart. Within minutes the twin summits were in full view and the West Summit was showing all the colors of a beautiful sunset. A very good sign.

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