Hi Everyone!! First, the entire team wants to say hello to family and friends back home. Today we spent all day traveling to St. Petersburg, the coolest city in Russia. Needless to say, we are tired. However, the team is going to celebrate our first night here by going to one of my favorite restaurants, Jerome’s, a “French-ish” restaurant. Yes, French! We have eaten plenty of authentic Russian cuisine. Tonight, the team is going to kick back, relax and enjoy the “white lights” of St. Petes!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
It has been an adventure full of adversity. The weather on Elbrus has been so finicky. We didn't even see the mountain until a day ago! This morning the winds were still howling but certainly not as much as the last few days. Today was our last hope at making the summit. We awoke and headed out at 4AM and the climbing was tough with moderate winds. The winds stayed steady at 35mph and the team simply did an amazing job. It's not easy climbing in less than ideal conditions. At 9:15AM we reached the summit of Mount Elbrus. It has been a long day and we are all very happy to be safely down in Cheget. Tonight certainly calls for a celebration.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
After a great day of acclimatizing to 15,000 feet on Mt. Elbrus our team has decided to take a day of rest. So today will be filled with reading, playing cards and watching Tommy Boy for the 102nd time. We will also get out and play in the snow refreshing our mountaineering skills.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
David and Team, thinking of you everyday. Glad to hear the weather has cleared and you’re relaxing at 15,000 feet! All is good at here….after a week in AK, the family is happy to be home. You’ll be happy to hear that we took Foster on gondola ride and he “hiked” around at the top as he’s also a mountain climber. All too soon he’ll be joining you on one of these!
We survived another stormy night up here on Elbrus. It definitely is nice staying in a hut rather than tents. Especially when lightning strikes and the whole ground rumbles underneath.
It looks like Elbrus got that nasty weather out of its system. Later this morning the sky cleared and for the first time the team saw the mountain! We took advantage of the day and went up to 15,000 feet to acclimatize. The team did great and we are now resting back at camp. It is still a little windy so we are waiting and watching for the right opportunity to make a summit push.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
Wow! What a night and what a day for Team Russia. I have been guiding here since 2002 and I haven't seen weather quite like this. The winds are very strong still. However, the thunder and lightening has moved away. Instead of acclimatizing towards 15,000 feet, the team was forced to stay put. So today was a rest day and we did manage to go for a short walk and do some skills training. Tomorrow we will give it another try in climbing up towards 15,000 feet, weather permitting.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
We have officially made camp up at 12,500 feet on Mount Elbrus. Today the team woke early and grabbed all our gear and headed up the mountain. Arriving early we decided to continue up to 13,500 to acclimatize. The team is now back at camp resting and enjoying our first day on the mountain.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
It was a soggy day for the team in Cheget. We still made the best of the rain by hiking above 11,000 feet and acclimatizing. However, at the sound of thunder we hightailed it back down. The team had a great lunch and we are now finalizing our gear for tomorrow. Hopefully the skies will be a little sunnier!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
The July 15th Elbrus team has rolled into Cheget. It has been a long day of driving, flying and more driving. It is nice to be in the mountains. The team unpacked and quickly set out exploring the cool little ski village of Cheget. Think Aspen...California...Beautiful!!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
The July 15th Russia team has officially begun with a great day touring the great city of Moscow. The team is great and we certainly are looking forward to heading to Cheget to get the climb underway tomorrow. However, today we had a relaxing day seeing some of the highlights of this great city. Check out the video below and we will check back in from the little ski town of Cheget soon.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
Well... This is it. The final blog for the July 1 - 13, 2016 is sadly here. However, as is the case, we had an amazing day in Saint Petersburg! Our local city tour guide Elena, was amazing as we strolled around the entire city. I have been here 13 times now and today was simply put, the coolest tour I have had in St Petes. I am sad as I sit here writing this blog during our last dinner. Our entire team has been absolutely amazing. It is not every climb where complete strangers come together and have such an amazing adventure.
Thank you for following along. The team sends giant hugs and kisses back home to friends and family! Thanks for your support.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
Nice job! Congratulations Matt and Team JJ! Glad things worked out for you to summit… Looking forward to the pictures and stories!
Posted by: Fred Dietrich on 7/24/2016 at 6:10 pm
Yay! Well done David and Team! JJ, thank you for leading them to success and safety! Super excited for you all!
Posted by: Beth on 7/24/2016 at 11:54 am
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