Third Elbrus Team Heads To The Mountain

Elbrus Team # 3 check­ing in from the Bak­san Val­ley. Cross­ing our fin­gers that the weath­er returns to favor­able con­di­tions for this group! Stay tuned for more news from the mountain.

Elbrus Team #3. Tino Vil­lanue­va photo

“We are head­ing up to the Bar­rels tomor­row. Things have been going smooth­ly, minus the usu­al­ly bump in the Russ­ian road. Yes­ter­day, the Cheget Ski Moun­tain, which sits with­in a few miles of the Geor­gian bor­der and is the nor­mal venue for our first acclima­ti­za­tion hike, was closed due to bor­der con­trol. Appar­ent­ly, some peo­ple had been cross­ing the bor­der with­out per­mis­sion and that is frowned upon. The mil­i­tary had stepped in to check into this situation. 

Tino Vil­lanue­va photo

“Instead, we rode the Mt. Elbrus tram to the mid­way sta­tion and hiked west through glac­i­er moraines, streams and ablat­ed ice. It was a beau­ti­ful hike and afford­ed us unique views of both Elbrus and the Cau­ca­sus. How­ev­er, the elec­tric­i­ty was cut for the entire base area vil­lage and, instead of tak­ing the tram down, we had to hoof it down to lunch. The weath­er seems to have mel­lowed a bit from the stormy pat­tern this sea­son. We are all excit­ed to get estab­lished on the moun­tain and start climbing.”

~ MM Guide Tino Villanueva

Tino Vil­lanue­va photo