We had a PERFECT summit day today. Last night's winds had calmed by morning and we got started just before 8 am. We climbed along Lenz Rocks before banking to the west and beginning the traverse across a large bowl towards the saddle between the East and West summits. The sky was brilliant blue all day without a cloud in the sky. We intersected the route to the West summit and all of the Southside climbers midway up the final pitch. The timing couldn't have been better as all of them were already descending and we had the summit entirely to ourselves, something of a rarity on Elbrus. The views over the surrounding Caucasus and the verdant green hills back towards Kislovodsk were stunning, and we spent about 30 minutes on top taking them in. Marc and Mike decided to take an extra jaunt to tag the East summit as well, while the rest of the team descended back to our camp at Lenz. We took a brief break, then packed our camp to descend further to the relative comforts of the Moraine Camp at 12,000'. With ramen to recharge us, we're headed to bed after a long, full day. We'll continue to base camp in the morning, more than likely spend the night there, then return to Kislovodsk the following day. But now, to bed. RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Mike Uchal, and team

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