Entries By casey grom
It was a beautiful day here on
Elbrus, not a cloud in the sky!
We had a normal start to our day with breakfast in the hotel and then loaded up all our climbing gear and drove to the base of the ski lift where we rode not one, not two, but three gondolas to reach our new home for the next few days and happens to sit at just over 12,000ft. It's rather comfortable up here, as our outfitter has taken a few shipping containers and converted them into simple bunk rooms that sit atop some makeshift skis so they can be moved. Creative to say the least!
Once we got settled into our new home we headed uphill on another acclimatizing hike and reached about 13,500ft before returning to camp where our wonderful cook Dasha had a nice hot lunch waiting for us.
We spent the remaining of the afternoon relaxing, walking around and just enjoying the amazing view of the Caucasus mountain range.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Hello again everyone -
It was a beautiful day here in Russia. We had a nice relaxing start to the day with a traditional Russian breakfast of porridge, eggs and bread. Then made our way to the local ski lifts to help give us a jump start on our hike. I didn't hear a single complaint about riding up 1,500' before we started our two hour hike to the top of a local peak called Cheget, which is also the name of the town we are staying in. The hike went well with mostly clear skies and we even caught a few glimpses of
Mt. Elbrus between the clouds.
After our hike we made it back to town relatively quickly thanks to the ski lifts, where we had a hot lunch waiting on us. After lunch we dropped off our gear and made a quick stop to pick up a few extra items and even managed to try on a few local hats.
We wrapped up the evening with another nice home cooked meal here provided by our local outfitter and to top it off we celebrated one team members birthday!
Things are good here.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
Zdravstvuyte (hello) from Russia,
Things are good here in Russia. We left Moscow this morning and have traveled via plane and bus to the beautiful Caucus mountains.
Our flight took us to southern Russia near the Black Sea, or if you remember Sochi from the Olympics, it not too far from there. We flew into Mineralnye Vody. This part of the country is predominately rural and is responsible for much of the agriculture that the larger cities depends on. We were meet by our trustworthy guide Yuri, whom I've climbed with many times. Then hopped in our van for the 3hr drive up the
Baksan Valley to the base of Mt. 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 rain and 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
On The Map
Hello Everyone,
All is well here in
Moscow. 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 keep things simple with a little round of introductions and stepped out for a short walk and a nice dinner. Today we meet with our local tour guide and had an outstanding 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 and Crew
RMI Guide Casey Grom and the Four Day Summit Climb July 1-4, 2016 reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The cloud deck was at 8,800' and the windy conditions from last night had subsided enough for the team to make their attempt. They reported breezy conditions on the summit and everyone was doing well. They started their descent from the crater rim at 7:30 am PT.
Congratulations to today's
Summit Climb team and Happy Independence Day!
The
Expedition Skills Seminar - Kautz led by RMI Guide
Casey Grom reached the summit of Mt. Rainier via the Kautz route early this morning. Casey reported that the Kautz route is in great shape and it was a beautiful day of climbing for the team. They will spend another night on the mountain training before returning to Ashford.
Congratulations to today's team!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and the entire
Four Day Summit Climb team reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. On the summit, the team experienced a Mt. Rainier cloud cap with snow, low visibility and 25 m.p.h. winds. The team began their descent around 7:15 a.m. PDT. We look forward to seeing them at
Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
Way to climb!
Due to high winds and snow the
Mt.Rainier Summit Climb was unable to summit this morning. The team, led by
RMI Guide Casey Grom, traveled to the Gap (10,600') on the Disappointment Cleaver Route. Their planned departure from Camp Muir is 10:00 a.m.
The
Five Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide Mike Uchal and the
Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide Eric Frank Reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Eric radioed in from High Break while the teams were on their descent and reported the winds of about 40 - 45 mph on the mountain.
RMI Guide
Casey Grom and Team also checked in from the
Expedition Skills Seminar - Kautz, the team is camped on the Wilson Glacier having a great time training.
Congratulations to today's teams!
Today’s Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guides
Casey Grom and
Geoff Schellens reached the summit of Mt. Rainier around 7:30 am. Casey reported winds up to 30 mph and clear skies. The teams will spend some time on the summit before beginning their descent.
We look forward to seeing the teams in Ashford later today. Congratulations climbers!
Glad you survived all three ski lifts Michael:) haha. Hope everyone has a great climb today and the weather continues to hold up for the Summit. We are sweating back here in the US, enjoy the snow!
Be safe.
Jancy
Posted by: Jancy Darling on 7/13/2016 at 8:02 pm
Hi Thad. Hi Sam. Blazing heat every afternoon here now with triple digit heat indices, so to paraphrase WC Fields, all things considered I’d rather be in the Baksan Valley. Lovely scenery! I’ve seen pictures before of brightly painted shipping containers used as dwellings, but hadn’t seen the interiors. Looks cozy, though they might do with a skylight. You guys look pretty happy…
Posted by: Burton Golden on 7/13/2016 at 4:09 pm
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