Entries By jm gorum

We made it to the top of Europe this morning! The weather forecast turned out to be horribly wrong, but in our favor. What was supposed to be a pretty marginal day turned into one of the best weather days we’ve seen this whole trip. After we hit the top of Mt. Elbrus, we boogied back down to camp, packed up our things, and moved back down into town. We’ll have our celebration dinner down here tonight, after some well earned showers. Everyone sends their best!

RMI Guide JM Gorum

On The Map

Well, we had our fill of pizza, thick air, and dance remixes of American top 40 pop songs. We’re back on the mountain now, preparing for our summit attempt tonight. We just enjoyed dinner and a movie, chicken and couscous while watching a Russian overdubbed version of Twilight. The weather is better than it was last time we were here, but I wouldn’t say it’s remarkable. We can’t control what the weather does, but we can give it our best and see what happens.

Wish us luck tonight, and we’ll check in tomorrow!

RMI Guide JM Gorum & Team

Last night a large electrical storm passed over Mt. Elbrus. It brought hail, strong winds, and shaking thunder. We woke up this morning to find a few inches of fresh snow at our doorstep and a lack of electricity flowing through our local power grid. After our standard 8:00 AM breakfast, the winds and snow picked up considerably until it became unpleasant to venture beyond the impenetrable comfort of our repurposed shipping container homes. The forecast for tomorrow showed no improvement in weather.

We decided that instead of sitting in the wind and snow doing nothing for two days, we would ride the lift back down to town, eat pizza, and sleep in real beds. That’s precisely what we did, and it has been nothing but enjoyable. We’ll spend the tonight in Cheget, and tomorrow afternoon we’ll ride the lift back up to camp in preparation for our summit attempt on Sunday.

RMI Guide JM Gorum

On The Map

This morning we had our standard breakfast of oatmeal and eggs at our standard time of 8 am. We then suited up for our walk up to 15,000 feet on Mt. Elbrus. The weather was pretty marginal, but it was a great opportunity to test out our various layering systems.
We spent about five hours out in the wind and snow today, made it up to 15,000 feet, and only got blown over once or twice. The views were minimal, but we had fun. That’s all for now.

RMI Guide JM Gorum

On The Map

The team is officially on the mountain! We’re living our best lives, as they say, up here at 12,600 feet. We took advantage of a series of gondolas to get us here, but we did have to haul our duffels the last 100 feet to our doorsteps. Working smarter, not harder.
We took a short break after moving in, and then went for an exploratory jaunt above camp. After we walked as far as we felt like walking, we turned around. We did spend some time practicing our footwork and balance on steeper snow. Some team members took to boot skiing like they were born for it. Others…not. Ultimately we all found our style, and descended with class and grace back to the huts in time for lunch. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing, mingling with other climbers, people watching, and story telling.
Now the sun has set, and there’s no reason to be outside anymore, so we’re going to bed. We’ll check in tomorrow.

RMI Guide JM Gorum

On The Map

  Moscow is cool and all, but it’s nice to wake up in the mountains. Cheget is a quiet little place, and there isn’t much going on in the morning hours. We had a casual start to our day, with an 8 am breakfast being the first item on the agenda. Breakfast was pretty normal fare. Eggs, toast, oatmeal. I usually can’t stand oatmeal, but here it’s basically soaked in cream and butter, so I can’t really complain about that. The team did a great job fueling up for our late-morning chairlift ride. I believe that everyone left breakfast on the edge of being uncomfortably full, which is really the sweet spot.
  From the hotel it’s about a five minute walk to the bottom of our chairlift. We hopped on, and skimmed the tops of the trees for about fifteen minutes. It really was quite a stylish ascent. We had butterflies, wildflowers, and chirping birds below us, and nothing but blue skies above us. We unloaded at the midway station, and walked to the top of the next lift. At around 10,000 feet we hung out, took some photos, discussed the climb, and soaked up some sun. I think about 1/3 of the team have earned nicknames at this point. Some not suitable for print.
  After we were satisfied with our day’s exercise, we rode the chairlift back down, more or less onto the deck of our lunch cafe, ate again, and then spent the rest of the day exploring town or relaxing. Tomorrow we’ll head up onto the mountain and stay there through the weekend. I think we’re all looking forward to it.

RMI Guide JM Gorum

An early start, a few van rides, and a quick flight have landed us in Cheget, at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains. It ends up being a pretty full travel day getting here, but we had enough time to walk around town, sample some local beverages, and gawk at our high elevation surroundings. The pace here is much slower than in Moscow.

Tomorrow we’ll hop on a chairlift in town and do some walking around at altitude…should be pretty nice.

RMI Guide JM Gorum

On The Map

Most of the Mt. Elbrus South Side team has arrived with most of their equipment, which is pretty good by Russian standards. We all got settled into our hotel rooms, did some quick introductions, and then went out to dinner next to the Moscow River. I always forget that outside dining in Russia comes with blanket service. We all wrapped up, enjoyed our meals, and then returned to our hotel and promptly went to sleep.

Tomorrow we’ll spend the day exploring Moscow. We’ll let you know what we discover!

RMI Guide

Sign Up For Mt. Elbrus South Side July 5, 2019 Emails

With rain in the lower elevations, we were ecstatic to hear that our Mt. Rainier summit climb team was above the weather system. RMI Guide JM Gorum is the leader of this crew.  He radioed in that the rope teams were currently cresting the crater rim.

Congratulations to today’s summit team!

The Kautz Seminar June 23 - 28 made their summit attempt today, they climbed the crux of the route and reached 14,000’ between Point Success and the true summit before weather turned them around.  RMI Guide Tyler Jones reported a thick cloud cap with snow and cold temperatures.  The team will descend to camp and continue their training on the mountain for the next few days.