Jul 2006

Report: July 30, 2006
The Huts

Location:
N43 18.926’
E042 27.555’

Today so far has been an easy day. Mostly resting up for tomorrows summit attempt. We hiked up from the Barrels to the Huts. Only took about 2 hours. The sun was very intense again today. The hut looks like a double wide trailer. On one side is the kitchen, and the other side are 2 rooms with 2 large bunks that sleep 4 each. The latrine is interesting. It hangs off a cliff with a hole in the ground, and you can guess where the rest goes 4 stories down. Tonight we sleep early and wake at 2am for a 3:30 departure for the summit. Hopefully the weather will hold out for one more day.
Feeling good. Few others have been hit by the bug. Stomach, bowel issues and a few headaches. Headed off to bed now.

Stoopid Americanos (pt2)

After our lessons, we pulled out our trash compactor bags and made our glissading rig. We cut 2 holes, one for each leg, in the bottom sides of the bag, and then pulled it on like a diaper. We front loaded our packs and stowed our poles. We used our ice axes as a break. Then away we went, flying down the snow field we just hiked up. We hopped in the chute one after the other to benefit from the previous persons butt impression. Have to pay attention because once in a while you’ll hit a sharp one. Between hills, there was some flat areas we had to walk. So we walked while holding our gear to our chest in one hand and the other holding up our diaper. We walked past many other teams headed up the mountain and the looks they gave us were classic “ stupid American” looks. Tomorrow we move to “The Huts” in preparation for our first summit bid.
Lunch: bread, salami, cheese
Dinner: pasta and meat sauce

Report: July 30. 2006
Stoopid Americanos (pt1)

I’ll explain the stupid Americans thing later…
Had a tough time sleeping last night, although I did fall asleep early. About 8am. So, from 3am on, I tossed and turned and tried to make the urge to pee go away. We had breakfast at 8am, and by 9 we were on the trail. Today, our goal was the Pastalov Rocks at about 15000ft. The weather was cleat and sunny. At times, a bit hot for me. Because of the intense sun and the snow reflection, we had to make sure every bit of skin was covered. We hiked for about 5 hours, and once we reached the rocks, we had some lessons on self arrest. We practiced sliding down our backs, foot forward, on our stomachs, head forward, and on our back, head first, using our ice axe to stop ourselves.

Cont…

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The Barrels Day 1 (pt2)

This advanced base camp consists of about 12 large fuel barrels that sleep 6. We also have a kitchen hut. There are a couple of other groups with us. After we got settled, we put on our climbing gear and went crevasse hunting in 4 rope teams. I was the anchor (last) for our rope team that was lead by Vern Tejas. Jim was 3rd directly in front of me. Going was pretty easy. We crossed over a few deep crevasses and then ascended a 120ft wall at about a 45 degree angle. Circled back to base.
Lunch: salami, cheese bread, mini ritz, chocolate wafers, tea, hardboiled eggs.
Dinner: soup, mashed potatoes, chicken, bread.

Report: July 29, 2006
The Barrels Day 1 (pt1)

Current Location:
N43 17.937’
E042 27.837’

This morning we packed our packs and headed out for the barrels. The process was very interesting. Because we’re basically at a ski resort, we took advantage of the gondola/tram to take us from Azau to midway station, where we unloaded our packs and kitchen gear. We then loaded on single chairlifts alternating between gear bags and a climber. The chair took us up to 12000ft where The Barrels are.

Cont…

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Today we went for another aclimization (sp?) hike to a local observatory up outside Terksol, a town back down the valley from Azau where our base is. Weather is beautiful and everybody is feeling great. Tomorrow we head up to the "barrels" where well camp for 2 nights. The barrels are old fuel barrels that were drug up the mountainside and knocked on their side. They can sleep about 6 people.

Since we've been here up in the mountains I have been sleeping great. The daylight patterns are much more what I'm used to as opposed to the 20 hours of daylight back in St. Petersburg. Starting to crave other foods now. Burritos, burgers and pizza.... I think I may just OD on potatoes while were here.

We are now in the town of Azau, in the Baksan Valley. We will be here for two days while we acclimate via day hikes in the surrounding foothills. Today we went for a hike up past a local ski resort which took us to 11400 ft. On the way down we did a little shopping at some local street vendors in the village. Dinner was mystery meat again. Tomorrow we go on another day hike up to a observatory on the other side of the valley.

As Adam A may have mentioned, my updates will probably be shorter for the next week because I am out of GPRS range and can't send email, only SMS.

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Hi, Adam Doti is out of GPRS range and can only send SMS. He has asked me to relay his messages.

Thanks,
Adam

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Test01 from abomb.

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... Spelled something like that.
Anyway we made it down here from st. Petersburg. The flight was a bit scary to put it mild.

Since we've landed in Minerol Vody which is located in soth western Russia, it's a been a very surreal experience.

After getting our bags we had lunch on the airport premises. The.resturant was located inside the secure terminal which we had to pass metal dectors for, then past ticketing, up some random back stairs, down a hallway, past some administrative office and through 2 sets of heavy wood doors. Here we entered another smoking lounge, and yet even more people smoking. Lunch consisted of two thin slabs of wrinkely mystery meat. One dark slab and one light slab. It was accented by a pile of greasy potato parts and a side salad of cucumber and tomato slices and some week old stale bread. Mmmmmm.

Were now on the bus that will take us to the mountain base camp about 4 hours away in the Baskan Valley region. The bus is ungodly hot. Only about half of the windows slide open and the ones that do are those small horizontal ones. Whenever the bus stops the ambient temperature in here goes up about 30 degrees and I instantly loose another 14 ounces in sweat.

A couple of other guys in our groups bag got lost coming out from atlanta. This morning they had to fly to Moscow to meet up with their bags while we flew to Minerol Vody directly. Luckly when they got to Moscow the bags were actually there. Something that was a bit of a gamble as apparently there were reports they might be in Paris.

Well be in Azau at the base of Mt. Elbrus in about 4 hours. There we will be at about 7000 ft and hopefully much cooler!

Over and out for now.

Yesterday we hit the tourist scene and all the traps. We saw a bunch of chruches I already forget the names of, walked across the street to the necropolis to see the grave of Tsychovsky the famous composer among many other famous artists. We also visited the Hermitage which is like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. Saw paintings by DaVincci and Rembrandt. Pretty darn cool. Everybody smokes here! We can't seem to escape it. Even in the museum they have a so called designated smoking area but it wafts throughout the halls.

Food has been ok, not great, just ok. Actually yesterday at lunch we were given a appetizer which I can only describe as a fusha purple anchovie coslaw with a nice mayonase sauce. Mmmmm, nasty.

... We just boarded the plane. Interisting. Ill save the details for after we land in Minerol Vody.

-a

Ok so as a followup to my previous post here are the details on our journey from the US to St. Petersburg.

The flight from LAX to D.C. Was pretty uneventfull. I slept most of the way. From Dulles to Frankfurt we transferd over to Luftansa and had been upgraded to Business finally after pestering them for the last few months. Good thing too cause it was nice! The seats were mechanical and adjusted into various positions even almost completely horizontal.

We landed in Frankfurt sometime in the early morning hours. We walked around the airport to shake off all the sitting we had been doing. Then we came upon a very odd and very European sight. Scattered throughout the terminal hallways were smoking stations. These stations had powerful suction fans that pulled in about 50% of the smoke allowing the passerby to enjoy the other 50% of the sweet small. The really funny part was there was a sign on the station advertising a cigarette company and in print underneith was the text "Smoking Kills". Perfect.

We got on our last flight from Frankfurt to St. Petersburg. Another Luftansa flight that was primarely empty. When we landed in St. Petersburg we had to clear passport control and customs before we met up with our Russian sponsor and Vern, our guide for Elbrus.

We arrived at the same time as another couple and were taken back to our hotel, the "Moscow Hotel". The romm overall is ok. The one thing that stands out are the bed spreads. Very scarry. We immediately took those off and shoved them into a drawer.

After a short nap we met the entire climbing team in the lobby for dinner which was in a subterranian level building. For dinner we were served some sort of pork smothered in I think a mushroom sauce.

After dinner a few of us decided to hit the town and check out the nightlife. We figured the "bar" was written as "gap". So we found a few "gaps" and people watched from the sidewalk tables. Getting to the "city center" was pretty comical. Forget about trying to decipher the alphabet and the subway signage. After hopping on the first subway and then wondering around the underground multi-level subway tunnels we poped out right in the city center area we were looking for.

At this time it was about 10pm and it was still light. Because we are so far north it stays light very late during the summer. We only had about 5 hours of darkness with the sun rising at about 3 am.

Today we are going to take a tour of the city and The Hermatage.

That's all for now.

• excuse spelling. Not so easy from a blackberry at the back of a bumpy bus.

Ok so I'll post more about our journey from the USA to St. Petersburg later. But at the moment 4 of us are camped out at a local bar/discotecca on Nevskiy Prospekt. People watching on the street. As quite interisting getting here. Let's just say trying to figure out the language/alphabet here... Forget it! Good times...

Current Location:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=IAD&ie=UTF8&ll=38.963146,-77.446747&spn=0.114789,0.346069&om=1
<http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=IAD&ie=UTF8&ll=38.963146,-77.446747&spn=0.114789,0.346069&om=1>

Today I started my journey to the summit of Mt. Elbrus (18,510ft/5,642m) in the southern Russian Federation. The south west Kabardino-Balkaria region in the Caucasus to be exact. We made an R.E.I run and packed last minute items. Tomorrow we have to lave the house by 4:45AM! Ouch. More to come.
From this page you will be able to view our latest daily diary that we will try to post daily. It is unknown what cell reception will be like as we make our way to the Baskan Valley and up towards the summit of El'brus. So don't be surprised if updates stop coming for a few days. We will have another daily team dispatch by satellite phone managed by Alpine Ascents.