All is well here in the Baksan Valley, at the base of Mt. Elbrus. We've settled into our comfortable hotel here in Cheget, which doubles as a ski town in the winter. Picture a lush green valley surrounded by many large snowy mountains!
We woke to a beautiful morning and finally we were able to get out and stretch our legs a bit. We made the most of the local ski lifts, (to save our knees of course) and hiked up the neighboring peak to start our acclimatization. It started off a little cloudy today, but eventually cleared for some decent views of Mt. Elbrus. After our ascent we headed back down to town for a nice lunch and headed over to the local climbing shop to pick up a few last minute things. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, getting our bags packed and just wrapped up another enjoyable Russia dinner with some wonderful Georgian soup.
All is well here and we'll check in again tomorrow!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Hello!
I hope our phone call from the summit was received. We had a great climb and are now checking in 10,000' later. All is well here at the Mweka camp, our last camp of the climb. What a night for the summit. The temperatures were chilly, but there was very little no wind and lots of sunshine, you can't complain about that. The team did great up and down. Sixteen hours is a long day for anyone, so we are feeling a bit beat up right now. But we are all healthy and happy. We will wake up early tomorrow for a short three hour descent to the Mweka gate where we will meet our vehicle and driver. Once we load up, we will leave the Kilimanjaro National Park Gate and head back to the Dik Dik Hotel. The lap of luxury awaits.
The Four Day Summit Climb teams July 26 - 29, 2014 led by RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer and Walter Hailes reached the summit of Mt. Rainier at 6:45 a.m with climbers from Wilderness Ventures. The teams reported light winds and great route conditions. They started their descent from the crater rim around 7:45 am. The teams will return to Camp Muir and then continue to Paradise later this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb Teams!
Mr. Mark Tucker here on the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro a beautiful day and a fantastic team. Everyone wants to say hi to the family.
Hey -With Mark Tucker and “Tuck’s Tucklings” on the summit of Kilimanjaro. It’s a beautiful day up here.
Hey it’s Maryann standing on the summit of Kilimanjaro – it’s pretty awesome.
We are having some fun.
Hey it’s Laura here on top of Africa. Hello to everyone back home.
Well we are going to wrap it up and start working our way downhill in a good safe manner. And we will check in from Mweka Camp at 10,000’. That is 9,420’ below here. We are doing great. Thanks for checking in.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker and the July 21st Team call from the summit of Kilimanjaro.
Hello again everyone
It was one long day of travel here in Russia for us again. We departed Moscow moderately early and flew southward to the town of Mineralnye Vody (which means mineral water) where we were meet by our local guide Vladimir. We loaded all of our duffels into the waiting van and continued heading south towards Mt. Elbrus. This part of Russia is very rural and the countryside is mostly used for agriculture purposes, especially sunflowers! It has been heavily influenced by the Turkish and is there for predominately Islamic. It's beautiful here, but it also seems a bit behind the times when compared to Moscow or St. Petersburg. The team enjoyed the views, had a little fun, but everyone is ready for some exercise!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Our team left the Baksan Valley and the beautiful Caucasus Mountains and hopped a flight to Saint Petersburg. Yes!!! It's a St. Petersburg selfie!! Eat your heart out Ellen! That is the expression you have when you arrive in St. Petersburg. The team had a long day first driving to the airport and then flying to get here. And let me tell you...it is worth it. I love this city and I can't wait to share the sights with the team. It is a luxurious way to end our adventure in Russia.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
We've assembled in Tanzania for an ascent of Mount Kilimanjaro. More importantly, our baggage has accompanied us. All 10 climbers and their guide arrived safely at the tranquil Dik Dik Hotel on the outskirts of Arusha. We spent today organizing gear for the climb, meeting with our expedition staff and catching up on jet-lag-lost sleep. Starting early tomorrow, we'll climb aboard the fully loaded tricked out off-road-ready expedition vehicle and head for the hills. Conditions have been partly cloudy with comfortable temperatures and team members have been granted partial views of Kilimanjaro as reward for climbing the lofty water tower on the Dik Dik grounds.
We'll need to get walking tomorrow... The quality and quantity of excellent food served up in the dining room of the hotel will have us absolutely spoiled if we don't make a break for it.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hello from 15,000' on Mt. Kilimanjaro.
All our team is here at High Camp, Barafu Camp (15,000'), in great shape and ready to go. We left from Karanga Camp this morning and made it to our new camp in good time. We enjoyed another nice lunch from our mountain staff and spent time organizing and packing up to make our early morning departure quick and easy. Here at Barafu Camp life is good. There are a few clouds around but that is not unusual and we are in hopes of a clear windless night ahead. We had a relaxing afternoon with lots of tent time, putting our feet up and drying out the boots, reading, writing, and maybe a bit of cards. We are taking it easy and making sure everyone is rested and ready for our upcoming adventure.
We will try and give you a shout out from the Roof of Africa tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
The Five Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide Solveig Waterfall and the Four Day Summit Climb led by Seth Waterfall reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The teams reported clear skies and nice climbing conditions. At around 7 am the teams began their descent to Camp Muir. They will take a short break there before continuing their descent to Paradise.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb teams!
Hello everyone and welcome to RMI's July 25th Mt. Elbrus trip!
After some very long flights the team safely arrived yesterday, we briefly touched base about today's plan before folks retired to catch up on some much needed sleep.
Today we had our official team meeting over breakfast at our hotel. It was hard to concentrate while enjoying plenty of fresh bread, cheeses, meats, juice and other delightful things. Once our bellies were full we stumbled out the door to explore the Kremlin and Red Square which is only a short distance away. A few folks visited Lenin's tomb and a few of us wandered around the area enjoying the site.
We met our tour guide around 10:30 am and spent much of the day with her visiting St. Basil's Cathedral, the Kremlin, and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Our tour guide even took us on a brief tour of the amazing Moscow subway - it has a 194 different stops and most are elaborately decorated and incredibly clean! We did visit the famous Red Square but for unknown reasons it was closed and blocked off today.
Afterwards we took a short break where most of us took cat naps to help adjust to the almost 12 hour time change and then headed back out for a quick dinner before calling it a night.
Everyone is doing great!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and Team
Good luck to everyone!! Greg I am excited for you and your dad for this adventure but I still can’t wait to see you when you get back!!
Posted by: Tiara on 7/29/2014 at 11:04 pm
Greg & Gregory Waltz. Good luck, we are tracking your progress.
Posted by: Eduardo A de Aragón on 7/29/2014 at 7:53 pm
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