Goal Setting
Climbing any big mountain always includes many unknowns. The team dynamics, the weather, the snow conditions and even the local culture, political climate and economy come into play. This is the excitement of exploration and adventure.
Wednesday July 28 – Cheget For our first morning back in Cheget we had planned a late breakfast to allow for a sleep in. My body was not interested in the sleep however and I was wide awake at 6:30am. I took my netbook computer to the lobby to check email and then went for [...]
Tuesday July 27 – Descent to Cheget After a decent sleep I woke just before 7am. I think I should have slept better considering the lack of sleep I was working on and the amount of energy I had expended, but I found it difficult to sleep last night. Todd and I played cards until [...]
Monday July 26 – Summit Day At 11am we stood on the top of Europe. It was a long and tiring climb, but fun and exciting. It was very busy in the hut which translated into a lot of noise, but I don’t sleep much before a summit climb anyway. I went to bed about [...]
July 25 – Diesel Hut Rest Day Today was a rest day in preparation for our summit attempt tomorrow. We slept in and had breakfast at 8:30am. Breakfast was a large pan omelet with sausage as well as the usual assortment of tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, and salami. Rest days can be long as there is [...]
Saturday July 24 – Diesel Hut Acclimatization Day Today was a spectacular day. Breakfast at 7am and then an acclimatization hike at 8am. When we started out it was snowing lightly, but the temperature was warm (right around freezing) and there was little wind. The cloud base was right down to the ground and visibility [...]
Friday July 23 – Azau Hut 2970m – Diesel Hut 4257m After a great night in the Azau Hut we had a huge breakfast of eggs, bread, cheese, and salami. We then packed up and hit the trail at 9:30am. Hitting the trail is walking to the gondola for a 10 minute ride to Mir [...]
Breakfast once again at 8am. Today it was a type of fried dough, fried eggs, ham, salami, cheese and cereal. It was all quite good and I ate a lot as I did not know when lunch would be or if it would be any good. At 9:30am we boarded a van for the 15 [...]
Today was a pretty simple day. After a good sleep in the clean cool mountain air we had breakfast at 8:00am. Breakfast was a selection of cereal, bread, cheese, salami, hard boiled eggs and crape pancakes (just like the ones I make). There was no good old Canadian maple syrup, but they had sweetened condensed [...]
After a quick breakfast we made our way to the airport. The driving was quite slow as Moscow traffic can be, and was, quite heavy. Check in and security was no problem with the help of our Moscow logistics guy, Nikoli. There is no English anywhere so without speaking the language you really need someone [...]