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 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
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
Our final night in St. Petersburg!
The team had a great last day here in Russia, with a visit to several beautiful churches full of mosaics. We then visited the very famous Hermitage Museum, where we saw paintings and sculptures by many well-known artists including Picasso, Rembrandt, and even Da Vinci. We took a small break and wrapped up the day with a fantastic evening boat cruise to see this amazing city by water.
It's been a wonderful adventure here in Russia, but it's time to say our goodbyes and return to family and loved ones.
Thanks for following,
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Hello everyone!
Today was our travel day from the mountain to St. Petersburg. It was a pretty long day with the four-hour bus ride to the airport and then a three-hour flight. It was a pretty uneventful day, but the team is doing very well. Everyone is happy to be here in this beautiful city and looking forward to our city tour tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Enjoy that beautiful city! From underground in the subways to the glories of the Hermitage amid memories of the long siege—it is a glorious city. So glad you are having a chance to visit it. MA
Posted by: MaryAnn on 7/22/2014 at 8:32 am
Down off the mountain and now you get to visit a city that many of my friends and relatives want to visit or have visited and think it is great. Have fun and enjoy Mom and Granny
Posted by: Cornelia Granny on 7/22/2014 at 6:47 am
We did it! We successfully climbed to the highest point in Europe. It wasn't easy, in fact it was far from it.
We started our climb in pretty windy conditions and battled our way for several hours before the weather finally eased off. I have to admit I wasn't sure it was going to happen for us, but a big thanks to our local guides for working hard and to the crew for doing a great job of taking care of themselves. We had our heads down most of the climb due to the blowing wind and surface snow that continuously made it difficult. The team worked extra hard today to make it happen, wearing parkas and goggles nearly the entire day.
We have finally descended all the way back to Cheget and just finished another wonderful meal, washed down with endless vodka in Russian style!
Everyone is in great spirits and looking forward to taking in the sites and relaxing in beautiful St. Petersburg.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and Team
RMI Guide Casey Grom and the RMI Mt. Elbrus July 11th team reached the summit of Mt.Elbrus, Europe's highest peak on July 20th. The team had a great day and will check in again when they are back at camp.
Congratulations to the team!
Not that we needed it, but yesterday's thunderstorms with hail, lighting, and strong winds only confirmed we'd made the right call to delay by one day. By morning today the clouds had blown off and the sun was back out but you could still see the wind up high blowing strong. Rather than rest all day again, we went for a nice hike after breakfast to stretch the legs and exercise the lungs a bit. Being a Saturday there were dozens of snowcats full of people and endless snowmobiles flying past as we hiked.
After our hike we enjoyed another nice meal cooked by Albina and then sat together to discuss our upcoming climb. We have gone over all the details and are already packed up ready for morning. Our plan will be to wake up around midnight, have breakfast at 12:30 and hopefully be riding our snowcat by 1:30. The snow cat will drop us off basically where we ended our highest acclimatization hike two days ago. From there it should takes us about 6-8 hours to reach the summit of Mt. Elbrus if all goes according to plan. The forecast looks better than yesterday's and the team is very ready for the climb.
We'll do our best to call from the summit, and will undoubtedly check in when we return.
Wish us luck!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
It is 10 am Seattle time so by now you have reached the top and come back down with lots of stories and good thoughts. Kevin are you keeping a journal for a great book? Love to all Mom and Granny
Posted by: Cornelia Granny on 7/20/2014 at 9:49 am
By now you must be climbing, or maybe already there. So glad the weather broke for you, and looking forward to many good pictures. Be safe—MA
Today the team got up a little early to make use of the firm snow to practice using our crampons, and we revisited how to self-arrest also. After our morning session we enjoyed breakfast and then relaxed near camp till lunch. The weather has slowly been changing here and shortly after lunch we decided to postpone our climb by one day as the forecast is showing a slight improvement for tomorrow evening. So that means another day of rest tomorrow!
Not much new to report here, but everyone is doing well and we have our fingers crossed that the weather improves enough to allow for some amazing views.
We'll check in again tomorrow before our big climb!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Am sure you are anxious to start the climb but glad you can wait a day to get better weather. Prayers and good thoughts for you all Love Mom and Granny
It was another beautiful day here on Mt. Elbrus! We woke to clear skies, calm winds and a amazing view of the enormous Caucasus range. (Really you should google it sometime!) We had our standard breakfast of porridge, boiled eggs, assorted meats, cheeses and coffee. Today was our planned acclimatization hike and we did just that. The team hiked for about three hours uphill and reached about 15,000 ft, which was a new record for some. We enjoyed the views took a few photos and then headed back down to camp for lunch. The remainder of the afternoon has been spent playing cards, reading and napping.
All is well and we are looking forward to having a rest day tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
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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