Entries By casey grom
Planes trains and automobiles, well almost anyway. We traveled all day and have finally arrived in one of the most beautiful cities of Europe--St. Petersburg, Russia. Things went relatively smooth except for the one bag that wasn't able to join us here in
St. Petersburg. Hopefully it'll find its way to us tomorrow.
We got checked into the hotel here and then ran out for dinner at this little eccentric place that serves up the most delicious meals. The service was a little slow, but very much worth the wait. After dinner we took a quick stroll around and then made our way home.
Everyone is very excited to explore and see this city in the daylight.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Hello everyone:
Not much to report today, other than everybody slept very soundly last night after some much needed sleep. It was a pretty relaxing day here in
Cheget and we ventured out to have lunch at a local restaurant that has a small trout pond, but we opted to leave the fishing up to the locals. After lunch the team wandered through this very small town and did a little shopping too.
We have just finished dinner and a little ceremony where we handed out certificates, congratulated everyone and said a big thanks to our local outfitter for all of their help.
Tomorrow it's off to beautiful St. Petersburg!
RMI Guide Casey Grom
We did it! We stood on the
highest point of Europe.
I have to admit we were pretty lucky with the weather, as it was near perfect. The team did a fantastic job of taking care of themselves and climbed strong. We reached the summit around 7:15 am in clear skies with a wonderful view of the entire Caucus mountain range.
But it didn't end there, after descending a short ways off of the summit we were at the saddle between the two summits that Elbrus has and a few of us decided to climb both summits while the rest of the team descended safely back to camp. It only added an additional 1.5 hrs, so not too bad, especially since we had such amazing weather.
After everyone returned to camp, we had a quick lunch and then packed up to head down valley to our hotel at the base of the mountain.
Everyone is high spirits and smelling great!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and a happy crew
On The Map
Pree-vēt!
Things are good here on
Mt. Elbrus and the team is excited for tonight! We did a little prep for tomorrow by reviewing a few climb techniques and then rested the remainder of the day. Our cook Dasha has done a great job of filling our bellies with plenty of good home cooked Russian food.
Everything is set and if the weather continues to hold we'll be up at 2am and after a quick breakfast hop on the snowcat to give us a bump a little further up the mountain. It will shorten our climb a little and increase our chance at reaching the highest point in Europe.
That's all for now. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
Hello again everyone.
The weather continues to be beautiful here on
Mt. Elbrus for us. We started the day with a nice breakfast and then set out on our last acclimatizing hike just before 9:00 a.m. The team did a great job as we made our way up to about 15,000', and it took us only about three hours. We stopped along the way to take a few breaks and enjoy the view.
After reaching our high point we made our way back to camp just in time for another enjoyable lunch.
Since then it's been nap time for most of us as we continue to adjust the time change and seek refuge from the sun.
Everyone is doing well and in good spirits.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
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!
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Great news! Congratulations to the whole team on reaching the summit. Many thanks to Casey Grom for a safe and successful climb…
Thad’s dad . . . Sam’s granddad
Posted by: Burton Golden on 7/16/2016 at 12:15 pm
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