Hello from southern Russia!
Things are good here in Russia. We left Moscow this morning and have traveled via plane and bus to the beautiful Caucasus Mountains. Our flight took us to southern Russia not too far from the Black Sea.
This part of the country is predominately rural and is responsible for much of the agriculture that the larger cities depend on. We were meet by our trustworthy guide Yuri, whom I've climbed with many times. Then hopped in our van for the three-hour drive up the Baksan Valley to the base Elbrus.
The small town we are in is called Cheget, and it doubles as a ski town in winter and converts to climbing in the summer. We didn't do a ton of exploring this afternoon due to the adjustment of the time that we are all still feeling.
However, tomorrow we will do our first acclimatizing hike and do a little exploring.
All is well here and the team is excited to stretch our legs a bit!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
The Five Day Summit Climb July 6 - 10, 2017 enjoyed beautiful weather during their time on Mt. Rainier. Their five day program concludes today with them reaching the summit of Mt. Rainier. They will return to Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon for a bit of celebration.
Congratulations to the Five Day Summit Climb team!
RMI Guide Geoff Schellens and the Four Day Summit Climb July 7 - 10 team reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today. The team enjoyed clear skies and moderate winds.
They will return to Paradise later this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb team!
Hello everyone -
All is well here in Moscow, although it's been a little damp and cool. Most of the team arrived yesterday evening after some very long flights. As most of us are still adjusting to the massive time change we kept things simple with a little round of introductions and stepped out for a short walk and a nice dinner not too far from the Hotel.
Today we meet with our local tour guide and had a wonderful tour of the nearby Red Square, Kremlin as well as visiting several churches including the iconic St. Basil's.
We took a short break and then headed out once again for dinner and a nice walk.
Everyone is doing great and looking forward to heading to the mountains tomorrow.
That's all for now.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
July 8, 2017
Here we are back in Cheget! We had a very interesting climb. We started looking at the weather around midnight and made our plan to leave at 3 am with the help of a snowcat ride. It was clear above us with a mild breeze at camp and the forecast was calling for moderate winds. We woke the team at 1:45 am and got ready for our summit attempt. The wind increased as we ascended but it didn't turn us back. We were prepared for a big climb and that is what we experienced. We took a few photos on the summit of Mt. Elbrus and then started our descent. We return to the huts where we spent the last few nights, had lunch, packed our gear and then continued down to the thick are of the Baksan Valley. Tommorow we will enjoy a day of rest and touring in Cheget before we head off to St. Petersburg.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Greetings RMI Blog loyal followers. This is your ESS - Peru team and we are standing on top of Urus Este at an elevation of 17,600 or 17,700 ish disputed. We are in the sunshine. We're loving life on this really dramatic beautiful arrest of a summit and we are all enjoying the sunshine up here before we start going downhill and the group has something to say. (Cheers) Tomorrow we return to Huaraz and then on to Copa. Until then we will keep you in the loop. Bye.
RMI Guide Robby Young
RMI Guide Robby Young and team call from the summit of Nevado Urus, Peru.
Hey Jason. Sorry Brian couldn’t complete the trip.
I’m sure the pictures don’t do justice to the real views you are experiencing.
Love you and look forward to your safe return.
Mom and Dad.
Posted by: Steve Gehrke on 7/10/2017 at 3:27 am
Hi Jon! How’s the air up there? Your family at sea level misses you, especially Cala, who misses her Uncle Jon so much she cries every day. We wish you and your climbing team the best, stay healthy and safe.
Hugs,
the Crabbies and Mom
Our Summit Climb team, led by RMI Guides Caleb Ladue and Mike Walter, reached the top of Mt. Rainier this morning. With sunny skies and moderate winds, the team is making their way back to Camp Muir.
Congratulations to today's summit climbers!
Hey RMI Blog universe followers! This is Robby and your Peru Seminar team on the summit of Nevado Ishinca at 18,143' feet! "What do you think guys?". It is a beautiful day in Peru as usual. We are feeling great and loving life! We are just about to start our descent back to camp. We'll get a good rest this afternoon and tonight, because tomorrow we are going for Urus! Until then we'll talk to you soon. Ciao!
RMI Guide Robby Yong and Team from the summit of Ishinca
Wow, that's all I can say! No chance to call from the summit. We are all back down at our base camp and everybody's doing well. Toughest climb in my whole history of 20 plus years of climbing here. An Incredible team effort! Unbelievable! We were the first and only team to climb the mountain today, so we are pretty darn proud! I couldn't be more proud of this group of hard working mountaineers than I am right now. We'll talk to you later. All is good!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker Calling from Mt. Elbrus 7-8-17
Hello, this is Eric Frank calling from the North Cascades. We are at the notch of the West Ridge of Forbidden tonight. We've had a long, but very well traveled day. We were almost 13 hours on the route to climb the Torment Forbidden Traverse. Everything went really well, so we're just nestling into bed up on our high bivy. We looking out over Iceberg and Tuck Lakes, and a pretty stunning sunset behind the El Dorado Peak. Hope everyone's doing well. Talk to you in the next couple days!
Have a great time, Scott and Julie! We will be following you all the way. Looks like a good strong team. Best of luck to all of you!
Posted by: Mom and Joe on 7/10/2017 at 6:25 pm
Be safe all of you. Andrew, please be careful. Your parents love you.
Posted by: Ruth Baldock on 7/10/2017 at 10:49 am
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