Entries from Expedition Dispatches
We spent the day visiting the heart of Moscow today, walking through places familiar from a lifetime of hearing their names but only witnessing for the first time - Red Square, Kremlin, Bolshoy...
We left the hotel this morning and crossed the two bridges spanning the Moscow River and walked along the walls of the Kremlin until we reached Red Square. After wandering through the area for a bit we met our Tour Guide, Nina, for a tour of the city. In fluent English tinted by a distinct Russian accent, she spent the next three hours recounting stories, history, and significances of the many places we bounced between. First walking around
St. Basil's Cathedral, the ornately decorated church on the south side of Red Square, we then passed through the GUM Department Store, the beautiful former Soviet State Store now turned luxury shopping mall. Between the stores full of familiar Western brands - Levi's, Prada, Jaques Cartier - she also recounted her personal experiences transitioning from Communist Russia to life in Moscow today, explaining the differences in food choices to retirement.
Across from the Bolshoy theater we descended into Moscow's subway system, hopping trains between several of the impressively ornate underground stations, many covered with mosaics, frescos, and hanging crystal chandeliers, before emerging into the sunlight back at the entrance to the Kremlin. We then walked beneath the thick red brick walls into the center of the Kremlin, passing throughout the churches and monuments in the heart of the Russian Government.
By late afternoon we returned to the hotel and spent a few hours of down time before dinner, trying to shake the last of the jet lag. Tomorrow we leave Moscow and fly to the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains to reach the foot of
Mt. Elbrus. The team enjoyed Moscow and we are excited to head into the mountains and begin the climbing.
We will check in tomorrow from our hotel in the Baksan Valley.
RMI Guide Linden Mallory
The
Four Day Summit Climb teams led by Brent Okita and Andres Marin reached the summit this morning in beautiful skies… and strong winds. Brent said, “It’s windy but best day of the year so far.” Clouds started to form on the summit as the teams began their descent to Camp Muir.
Check out the
Mt. Rainier live webcams on our website.
Mountain Guides can be a superstitious bunch. So as we did a little bit of training including rope travel, self arrest and cramponing in our second day of gorgeous weather. My superstitious side is coming out.
Tomorrow is our summit day on
Elbrus and we are knocking on wood that the weather stays beautiful. But if I may ask all of you (because this worked for me before), please leave a comment on this post wishing our team luck. The more posts we get from you the better the weather will be. And that means great photos and video to share with all of you when we get safely down.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
The weather forecast was right on this time... A day of snow. It was a little bit like the inside of a milk bottle for most of the time. There were a few hours when the clouds were thinner and the sun's heat could be felt through the storm, but the snowflakes never quit falling. It was not going to be a climbing day for our team and so we turned it into a fine rest day.
Solveig Waterfall taught an excellent course in avalanche beacon use.
Tim Hardin and
Cody Doolan built the mother of all snow kitchens. The team listened patiently to old guide stories and chatted over the current events we could pick up from the Anchorage FM stations. We had a few sessions of cutting snow blocks and building walls around the tents. Mostly this was done for exercise and to get warm, since as yet this particular storm hasn't come with the wind which would necessitate walls. We are happy for that and are somewhat resigned to another day or two of this same system.
Best,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Adam Knoff called into the office just before 6PM. With a storm expected, the team was hoping to make it to basecamp in order to fly off in front of the storm. The weather didn't quite hold and it began to snow in the last hour upon reaching
basecamp. The team's plan to unwind in Talkeetna has been thwarted until further notice.
On The Map
Dobrye Veycher from Moscow! The
RMI Mt. Elbrus Team arrived into Moscow throughout the day today, making the hour long drive from the airport to our hotel in the heart of the city, across the Moscow River from the Kremlin. With climbers coming in from all over the globe, it has been a long couple of days of traveling for the team and we had a mellow evening, finding dinner in a small restaurant down the street from the hotel.
This far north, it is still daylight at 10:30pm as we turn in for the evening. We are excited to be here and looking forward to exploring Moscow tomorrow, visiting the city's most famous sites - from Red Square to St. Basil's Cathedral to the Kremlin. We will check in tomorrow after our city tour.
RMI Guide Linden Mallory
The
summit climb teams reported 100% to the top today! They climbed into a cap with 25 – 30 mph winds, but otherwise conditions were not too bad according to Lead Guide
Mike Haugen. The teams will spend a bit of time on the summit today and head back down to Camp Muir shortly.
Congratulations to today’s teams!
Today the team awoke to a gorgeous sunrise in the mountains. Typically the weather can be sunny in the morning and then the clouds engulf the surrounding mountains including
Elbrus. However, today the mountain has been out in all its glory.
After an early breakfast we threw the rucksacks over our shoulders, strapped crampons to our boots and we went for a four-hour acclimatization hike. We made it to 15,000 feet and enjoyed the views as they only got prettier the higher we went.
We are back at camp, after a nice lunch (Albina makes the tastiest soups) we are resting in our hut. As a matter of fact, I hear the movie Dumb & Dumber playing on someone's iPad. Gotta go...
RMI Guide JJ Justman
On The Map
Hello All,
We have just finished a fun dinner after returning to Timika late this afternoon. Admittedly though, the dinner, as delicious as it was, paled in comparison to a shower after all these days in the humid & muddy jungle!
This trip has been demanding in so many ways that the whole adventure is just that much sweeter now that it has ended.
Mark Tucker and I are off to Bali for a day of body surfing (oh how I hate my job!) and then back to the U.S.
Thanks for following along.
All the best,
RMI Guide
Alex Van Steen
On The Map
Our first night at 14 camp went well. Not that folks didn't notice the altitude and the cold here in Genet Basin, but everybody showed up for bacon and bagels breakfast in a reasonably cheerful state. We didn't get up early, since it takes the sun until about 9:30 AM to get far enough around
Denali's South Peak to shine on us. And we took our sweet time getting geared up for our "back carry" -the mission to retrieve our cache below Windy Corner from three days ago.
We left 14K at 10 minutes past noon and made fine time getting down around the corner. It was another windless day where we were, but we could see that the gang at 17 camp was catching it in the teeth. The cache was right where we'd left it and it didn't look like the ravens had even bothered trying to dig into it. We loaded up and began the slow walk back uphill over the now familiar terrain. We were back a little before 5 PM. Job done and the approach finished. Now we can focus on the climb. Via the radio, we knew that
Adam Knoff and his crew were quitting high camp and descending ahead of a multi-day storm. They had our sympathy, obviously, but we looked forward to seeing them at 14. They didn't stay too long as they wanted to get down around the end of the West Buttress before the snow started falling. The evening was the calm before whatever storm we'll get though. We still had good views of Mount Foraker, across the way, but it and every other peak, was stacked high with lenticular clouds... something is coming. But we've got everything we need to deal with such things, and we are dug into our fortress at fourteen.
Best,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
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Many thanks to our guides Andres, Leah and Levi for making it the experience of a lifetime.
Can’t wait to do it again on another mountain!
Posted by: Chris Lynn on 7/9/2012 at 8:53 pm
Way to go everyone! Can’t wait to see some pictures!
Posted by: W.B. on 7/9/2012 at 4:21 pm
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