mountaingirl
New member
Finally, the belated trip reports – catching up the long-due work, running the hilarious 208 mile RTB relay race – haven’t been able to sit down until today.
During the past few weeks, I traveled to Russia to climb Elbrus, 5642m = 18,510 feet, the highest peak in Europe. We successfully reached the summit on Sept 2 amid the worst weather I’ve experienced in mountains.
Elbrus is a double-peaked mountain situated in the Caucasus Range in southern Russia, within bullet(or cannon?)-shots distance from Georgia. The west summit is 21 meters higher than the east peak and is officially the highest one in Europe. Because this mountain does not require any technical climb in normal summer condition, it attracts many first-time mountaineers as well as many tourists. Having been on mountains almost 1000 feet higher than this one before, I, like many people going to Elbrus, was quite relaxed when I first planned the trip. It even didn’t come to my mind that this mountain is much further away from the Equator, and thus is colder and has less oxygen comparing to the mountains I have climbed. It is only a couple weeks before the trip that I started to get serious after I read that, because of its changeable weather, this mountain is actually one of the deadliest mountain in the world. It claims about 20 lives each year, and 48 people died there last year alone. I immediately geared up my package with more just-in-case equipment, and made EMS my last stop before airport.
There’re three people on my team – Damien, a Rainier alumni from Australia; Sami, a Kilimanjaro alumni from UAE; and myself. We arrived at the foot of Elbrus on Aug 28, and settled into the lodge Azau at 2300m, where we stayed for three nights while we were doing our acclimatization hikes around. Our mountain guide is Oksana, a cheerful mountaineer from Ukraine who has guided on Elbrus more than 60 times during the past 5 years. I was very excited to have Oksana as our guide as this is my first time climbing with a female guide, and only later I learned that she is the most raved-about guide on this mountain.
The next day, we went for a couple hours’ hiking on Mt Cheget at 3300m. Those VFTT folks who have hiked with me all know that I’m always the last one in the pack, and speed is my biggest concern when going with group. Not surprisingly, I was always well behind again. It was only 3300m, but I was gasping for air so hard as if I was diving with an empty tank. Seeing Damien and Sami flying up the trail so easily, I was really worried that I could be denied summit just because of my speed. Oksana only lightly commented that things can be different when we go higher and altitude effect kicks in for everybody.
On the second acclimatization day, we rode the chairlift to Barrels at 3800m, then hiked up to the Diesel hut at 4050m. My breathing rhythm began to get more under control, and I was surprised that I could even pass Sami now.
On the third day, we moved our base camp up to the Barrels at 3800m, then hiked up to Pastuckhov Rocks at 4800m. It was a long hike in snow, but I felt much more at ease than the first day. I was happy to find that I could keep my pace well with Oksana and my muscle still felt fresh after three days’ hike. My confidence began to grow. I kept telling myself, no matter how slow I am, I was strong enough to do crazy-dave hike, and summit day can’t be longer than that! So I should be good enough to handle the summit!
The fourth day was a rest day to prepare for summit. We did a light hike up to Diesel Hut at 4050m again. We have had blue sky and bright sun shine during the past few days that I was able to snap some happy pictures. But weather started turning later that day. By the late afternoon, to walk the 20 meters to the toilet (3800m), I needed to put on more layers than I was wearing while hiking at 4800m the previous day – two layers polypro and windproof fleece jacket -- plus Gortex jacket. The forecasted weather for the next few days was only getting worse, so Oksana decided that we can’t wait. We are going tonight! I was very cheerful at dinner time. Yah, I come from New England, hiking in hash winter is daily routine there! It would be boring if the weather is perfect, right? We are tough mountaineers, and we seek challenge, right? There’s a birthday party next door, and I happily dropped in for some sweet alcohols to warm up for my summit trip. There’re several teams going up tonight. People are all so psyched!
I was too excited that I stayed awake almost all night, but I must have fallen asleep for at least a few minutes before 3am, our wake up time. I dreamed that I was due for a salsa dancing party at 3am, but was wearing a dark business suit and fanatically sorted through a huge bag for a pair of shoes for dancing! I couldn’t find any shoes matching my suit
until the alarm clock went off.
At breakfast, I tried to keep myself relaxed, drank as much water as I could and put down as much solid cereals as I could hold in my stomach. It was windy and cold outside, so I put on the most layers I’ve ever worn in any hiking – Windproof soft-shell pants plus heavy-duty Gortex pants for my legs; For upper body, two layers polypro, one mid-weight polypro, windproof fleece, and heavy duty Gortex shell. My face was fully covered in balaclava + windproof fleece hat + Gortex hood.
To be continued in the next ...
During the past few weeks, I traveled to Russia to climb Elbrus, 5642m = 18,510 feet, the highest peak in Europe. We successfully reached the summit on Sept 2 amid the worst weather I’ve experienced in mountains.
Elbrus is a double-peaked mountain situated in the Caucasus Range in southern Russia, within bullet(or cannon?)-shots distance from Georgia. The west summit is 21 meters higher than the east peak and is officially the highest one in Europe. Because this mountain does not require any technical climb in normal summer condition, it attracts many first-time mountaineers as well as many tourists. Having been on mountains almost 1000 feet higher than this one before, I, like many people going to Elbrus, was quite relaxed when I first planned the trip. It even didn’t come to my mind that this mountain is much further away from the Equator, and thus is colder and has less oxygen comparing to the mountains I have climbed. It is only a couple weeks before the trip that I started to get serious after I read that, because of its changeable weather, this mountain is actually one of the deadliest mountain in the world. It claims about 20 lives each year, and 48 people died there last year alone. I immediately geared up my package with more just-in-case equipment, and made EMS my last stop before airport.
There’re three people on my team – Damien, a Rainier alumni from Australia; Sami, a Kilimanjaro alumni from UAE; and myself. We arrived at the foot of Elbrus on Aug 28, and settled into the lodge Azau at 2300m, where we stayed for three nights while we were doing our acclimatization hikes around. Our mountain guide is Oksana, a cheerful mountaineer from Ukraine who has guided on Elbrus more than 60 times during the past 5 years. I was very excited to have Oksana as our guide as this is my first time climbing with a female guide, and only later I learned that she is the most raved-about guide on this mountain.
The next day, we went for a couple hours’ hiking on Mt Cheget at 3300m. Those VFTT folks who have hiked with me all know that I’m always the last one in the pack, and speed is my biggest concern when going with group. Not surprisingly, I was always well behind again. It was only 3300m, but I was gasping for air so hard as if I was diving with an empty tank. Seeing Damien and Sami flying up the trail so easily, I was really worried that I could be denied summit just because of my speed. Oksana only lightly commented that things can be different when we go higher and altitude effect kicks in for everybody.
On the second acclimatization day, we rode the chairlift to Barrels at 3800m, then hiked up to the Diesel hut at 4050m. My breathing rhythm began to get more under control, and I was surprised that I could even pass Sami now.
On the third day, we moved our base camp up to the Barrels at 3800m, then hiked up to Pastuckhov Rocks at 4800m. It was a long hike in snow, but I felt much more at ease than the first day. I was happy to find that I could keep my pace well with Oksana and my muscle still felt fresh after three days’ hike. My confidence began to grow. I kept telling myself, no matter how slow I am, I was strong enough to do crazy-dave hike, and summit day can’t be longer than that! So I should be good enough to handle the summit!
The fourth day was a rest day to prepare for summit. We did a light hike up to Diesel Hut at 4050m again. We have had blue sky and bright sun shine during the past few days that I was able to snap some happy pictures. But weather started turning later that day. By the late afternoon, to walk the 20 meters to the toilet (3800m), I needed to put on more layers than I was wearing while hiking at 4800m the previous day – two layers polypro and windproof fleece jacket -- plus Gortex jacket. The forecasted weather for the next few days was only getting worse, so Oksana decided that we can’t wait. We are going tonight! I was very cheerful at dinner time. Yah, I come from New England, hiking in hash winter is daily routine there! It would be boring if the weather is perfect, right? We are tough mountaineers, and we seek challenge, right? There’s a birthday party next door, and I happily dropped in for some sweet alcohols to warm up for my summit trip. There’re several teams going up tonight. People are all so psyched!
I was too excited that I stayed awake almost all night, but I must have fallen asleep for at least a few minutes before 3am, our wake up time. I dreamed that I was due for a salsa dancing party at 3am, but was wearing a dark business suit and fanatically sorted through a huge bag for a pair of shoes for dancing! I couldn’t find any shoes matching my suit
until the alarm clock went off. At breakfast, I tried to keep myself relaxed, drank as much water as I could and put down as much solid cereals as I could hold in my stomach. It was windy and cold outside, so I put on the most layers I’ve ever worn in any hiking – Windproof soft-shell pants plus heavy-duty Gortex pants for my legs; For upper body, two layers polypro, one mid-weight polypro, windproof fleece, and heavy duty Gortex shell. My face was fully covered in balaclava + windproof fleece hat + Gortex hood.
To be continued in the next ...
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