Elbrus Season Kick-Off

MM Guides Tino Vil­lanue­va, Dave Ahrens and Alan Rousseau have made it to Moscow, along with 10 climbers and 3 ski­iers, com­ing from the US, Cana­da, Sin­ga­pore, and South Africa, for our first Elbrus climb and ski descent of the sea­son! Every­one arrived yes­ter­day with all of their gear in tow, and start­ed off the trip with an intrigu­ing tour of Moscow. Dave wrote in with a report:

Moscow city tour. Alan Rousseau photo

“Things are going great over here! Today start­ed with anoth­er great buf­fet break­fast at the hotel before head­ing out at 9am for the Moscow city tour. We first vis­it­ed the Krem­lin to tour the grounds and the armory which con­tained every­thing from medieval dress­es, jew­el­ry, and car­riages, to weapons and reli­gious relics. It was a great tour, which helped us all under­stand a lit­tle bit more about Rus­sia and how Moscow came to be the city it is today. 

World’s largest bell at the Krem­lin. Dave Ahrens photo

We then head­ed up to Spar­row Hill to take in the spec­tac­u­lar panora­ma of the city.

Dave Ahrens photo

After that we head­ed to the red square for a lit­tle more his­to­ry before say­ing good­bye to our local tour guide, Luba, and head­ing for a Belaru­sian lunch. On our way, a heavy rain storm erupt­ed forc­ing us all into a cov­ered alley where we hud­dled until it slowed down. When we decid­ed to con­tin­ue our jour­ney to the restau­rant, we had to take our shoes off to cross the streets, which were flow­ing with 5 inch­es of water! We decid­ed to take the sub­way back to our hotel and had some free time before din­ner. Head­ing to sleep ear­ly tonight for a big day of trav­el tomor­row to the Bak­san Valley!”

~ MM Guide Dave Ahrens

The group get­ting to know each oth­er. Dave Ahrens photo

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