Elbrus Group Reaches Baksan Valley

Yes­ter­day the crew spent the day trav­el­ing. We piled into a van with all our gear and start­ed a 2 hour dri­ve to the Moscow air­port. The air­port was hop­ping! And with a group of 16, we added to the chaos. After safe­ly check­ing in and clear­ing all our peo­ple through secu­ri­ty, we had a quick break­fast and board­ed our plane to Min­er­al­nye Vody (lit­er­al­ly mean­ing ​“Min­er­al Water”). All our bag­gage arrived and we met up with our Russ­ian guide, Sasha, and start­ed the 3 hour dri­ve to Ter­skol. We arrived to nice cool tem­per­a­tures and won­der­ful accom­mo­da­tions at the Povorot hotel.

The beau­ti­ful Bak­san Val­ley. Dave Ahrens photo

Today after a great break­fast we began our acclima­ti­za­tion pro­gram. We spent the day tak­ing an antique creaky sin­gle chair­lift then gain­ing about 2,300 ver­ti­cal feet to the sum­mit of Cheget. Elbrus was obscured by clouds most of the day, but we did catch a cou­ple glimpses of the east sum­mit, as well as views into Georgia!

First acclima­ti­za­tion hike. Dave Ahrens photo

I take off for the bar­rels tomor­row with Jason and Car­o­line, who are push­ing through a quick­er itin­er­ary to make it to a wed­ding on time! The rest of the group will do anoth­er acclima­ti­za­tion hike with Tino and Dave to the observatory.

All is well here in the Bak­san val­ley. More updates from high­er ele­va­tions to come!

~ MM Guide Alan Rousseau

Dave Ahrens photo