Mt. Elbrus Dispatches

Casey Grom, July 28 - August 8, 2008 Elbrus Expedition

August 7, 2008 (email received 3:10p.m. PDT):
Hello Everyone, Casey here checking in for our last Dispatch. The team is in St. Petersburg and doing great. We have had a busy schedule the last few days and are finally getting ready to head home. We came down off the mountain on Wednesday and spent the night in Azou after a small celebration with our outfitter that lasted well into the night (read mandatory Vodka shots). On Thursday, we left Azou and headed back to Mineralnye Vody where we waited for several hours (a common thing here in Russia) for what would be our very bumpy flight to St. Petersburg. After we finally made it to our hotel, everyone was very tired and we settled for ordering pizza and called it a night. Today, we started off with a city tour and then made our way to the famous Hermitage Museum. It has one of the largest collections of art work in the world. Everyone really enjoyed it, then the group split up to do a little exploring and shopping on our own. We met up later in the day for our evening river boat tour. Again, the group had a great time and enjoyed seeing the town from the many rivers that surround this beautiful city. After our boat tour we headed off to dinner at a nice little sushi restaurant that operated at Russian speed, so we once again spent some time waiting. It has been a great trip. Thanks for following, Casey and crew.

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August 4, 2008 (6:17 p.m. Russian Time/ 7:17 a.m. PDT) SUMMIT!:
Hello, this is Casey checking in from Mount Elbrus. We made it to the summit this morning and are now safely back at the hut. We had terrible weather throughout the climb. We woke up to a clear, calm night at the hut and after breakfast rode the snow cat to 15,000'. When we arrived there the wind was blowing 30 mph and continued throughout the climb. We were in white out conditions the entire climb and weren't able to enjoy the beautiful views of the Caucasus that we were hoping for. Everyone did well and is satisfied with their personal highpoints considering the unfavorable conditions. We have finished dinner and there are a few card games going on now but I think everyone will be heading off to bed shortly. Tomorrow we will descend to Azou, the small town at the base of the mountain, and check in again.

August 3, 2008 (7:30 p.m. Russian Time/8:30 a.m. PDT) :
Hi this is Casey checking in with an update. The weather has finally broken and we have had the best views of the entire trip in the last few hours. We can see a large part of the Caucasus Range as well as Ushba, one of Russia's most famous peaks. We did some training today with cramponing and self arrest practice and the team is doing great. We are getting ready to go to bed now and plan to wake up around 12:30 a.m. to start our summit attempt. Around 2 a.m. we should be ready to load the snow cat and ride to 15,000' where we will begin our climb. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the weather remains clear. We will check-in again soon.

August 2, 2008 (8:30 a.m. PDT) :
The group is doing great, we woke up to rain but the weather eventually cleared giving us a good view of the upper mountain. We took one more acclimatization hike while the clouds moved back in around us. We will rest tomorrow and plan on climbing Monday when the weather is supposed to clear up. We will call back soon!

August 1, 2008 (9:27 a.m. PDT) :
Hello this is Casey checking in from Mount Elbrus. Our group woke up early and rode two gondolas and a chair lift to high camp at The Barrel Hut. After lunch we made an acclimatization hike to 15,000'. The weather was unsettled with clouds blowing in and out, but we were able to see our summit route during some intermittent clearing. We descended to high camp and relaxed before the evening meal, a traditional Russian dinner of Borscht. Everyone in the group is doing great, and the plan is to rest tomorrow and climb the following day, weather permitting.

July 31, 2008 (email received 9:35 a.m. PDT) :
Hello again everyone, Casey here checking in again from Azou, the small town at the base of Elbrus where we are staying. Yesterday we woke early to catch our flight to Mineralnye Vody (means mineral water), known for it's natural springs. We were greeted by our in-country outfitter, and then hopped in a van for the 3 hour drive to the base of the mountain.

The drive starts out in the plains of southern Russia, which is similar to that of the Midwest (think Ohio, Indiana or Kansas). The majority of the area is used for farming and raising cattle, just like back home. One of the highlights was the enormous sunflower fields that stretched out as far as the eye could see. Soon the plains gave way to the Baksan Valley, which one of the climbers said was like driving from Denver into the Rockies. We arrived at our hotel and had a fantastic dinner and then headed off to bed as everyone is still adjusting from the 12 hour time change.

Today we were awakened by the sound of heavy rain and thunder. After breakfast we quickly transitioned into our hiking mode and then set off on our first acclimatization hike. Our plan was to climb up a small peak called Cheget. It's ridges rise sharply out of town and it is used as a ski resort in winter. Fortunately for us, we were able to use the ski lifts to make up for some lost time after our rain delay. We climbed up to around 11'500 feet in very thick clouds. Even though we were not able to see much, the group did great and I think they even managed to have a little fun along the way.

All of the team members are excited about heading up tomorrow and hopefully we will get our first views of the mountain. We will be riding two gondolas and one more more chair lift to reach our high camp for the climb. I know it sounds tough! That's all for now. We will check in again in a few days. Casey and Team
 

July 29, 2008 (email 12:24 p.m. PDT/ 11:24 a.m. Moscow Summer Time):

Greetings from Russia! The team has finally arrived in Moscow and everyone is going great, especially now that all of our luggage has decided to join us too. Most of the team flew in last night and were welcomed by typical Russian hospitality, which translates to long slow lines and many stern faces, just as one might guess.

After a good night's sleep the team headed out this morning on a tour of the city. It was great! We started out by heading over to the Kremlin, which is just a few blocks from our hotel. Unfortunately it was closed as the Russian National Olympic team was there having a send-off celebration, but none the less we enjoyed just being there and walking around the Red Square, as well as visiting the church of St. Basil's (built in 1561).

(St. Basil's Cathedral)

We then headed off to see the famous Pushkin museum where we experienced a "walk back into time" while looking at the great collection of art work that Russia has in this museum. We saw many artifacts dating back as far as the 25th century BC, and one of the highlights was seeing six of Rembrant's paintings. Amazing! We saw many other historical buildings along the way and ended our tour with a stop on Sparrow Hill. It is a small hill (80 feet higher than the Moscow river) that over looks most of the city with Lenin's Stadium (were the 1980 Olympics were held) right in front. We even passed Gorky Park along the way. The team spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the city on our own and a few of us even managed to get in a nap. Tomorrow, we will wake early and head to the airport for our flight to Mineralyne Vody. We will then ride a bus for a few hours to reach the base of the mountain. So long for now, we'll check in soon. ~Casey and crew

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July 28, 2008 :
The group arrived in Moscow and held their first team meeting.  Tomorrow they will do some sightseeing and will check -in with a report of their day.
 

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Casey Grom, July 20 - 31, 2007 Elbrus Expedition

July 25, 2007 (10:00 a.m. PDT/ 9:00 p.m. Moscow Summer Time) :
Hi this is Casey with our daily check-in. We had a good day today. We woke early and had porridge, our typical breakfast.

We left at 8:00 a.m. and took a 4 hour hike to 15,400', this is called Pastukhova and is about ½ way up the route we will be taking for our summit climb. We took a lunch break and then made the descent back to our camp. The snow had warmed and the walk down was pretty slushy. Our weather has been nice and sunny but today was the first day that was really clear and we enjoyed great views of the entire Caucasus mountain range stretching approximately 100 kilometers.

We are going to rest and acclimatize tomorrow before making our summit attempt on Friday. We won't check in tomorrow but will give you a call after our climb.

July 24, 2007 (9:20 a.m. PDT) :
Hey this is Casey checking in again from Russia. Things are going great here. We moved to the barrel huts yesterday located just over 12,000'. We rode two cable cars and then would have taken a single chair lift but it was closed. It added an extra hour to our hike but it was good for our group to get a longer hike and stretch our legs and lungs a little more. Once we got settled into the hut we took a hike up to 13,000' and did work in our crampons. The weather has been beautiful and warm. We had a few clouds this morning that obstructed our views but this afternoon the sky cleared and we enjoyed great views of Mount Elbrus.

We plan to make an acclimatization hike up to 15,000' tomorrow. We will check in again soon. Good night.

July 23, 2007 (6:57 a.m. PDT) :
Hi this is Casey Grom checking in from the Mount Elbrus climb. We have been in Cheget for a day and a half now, we arrived yesterday around 6:00 p.m. We had a mellow flight out of Moscow and when we arrived in Mineralyne Vody it was 95 degrees. Sunny, hot and humid was a big change from the weather in Moscow. We made the four hour drive through rural Russia to the Baksan Valley. During the drive we all felt that rural Russia resembles the mid-West of the United States with lots of farming taking place. When we arrived in Cheget we had a typical Russian dinner of borsht, cabbage and potatoes.

Today we woke up early to another beautiful day and went on an acclimatization hike. We used the chair lift and then hiked several hours to the lower summit of Cheget Peak at approximately 11,300 feet. Throughout the day we saw glimpses of Mount Elbrus between the clouds.

We are currently organizing our packs and getting ready to start our climb. Tomorrow we will hike to base camp in the Barral huts at 12,000'.

That is all for today. Everyone is doing great and we will check in again soon.

July 21st, 2007 (email message 7:01 a.m. PDT):
Everyone is here in Moscow and doing well. Today we had a tour of the city, with stops at red square, the Kremlin, and various historical churches and buildings. It was a beautiful day with lots of sunshine and plenty of smiles. Tonight several members of the group will head out on the town and visit one on the many ballots. Tomorrow our group will rise early and head to the airport to catch a flight to Mineralyne Vody ( mineral waters ). We will get our first views of Mount Elbrus and travel to the Baksan valley at the base of the mountain. That's all for now.