Entries by Kurt

Karanga Camp!

Head guide Sid Pattison reports: Karanga, meaning “peanut”, seems to undersell this camp. Big views all the way down to the plains below and the towering Kilimanjaro above. Since leaving Machame Gate we have trekked through rain forest, arid dry lands, hidden moorlands and scrambled up the Baranco Wall. Today at 4000 m / 13,220 […]

Recap of the Elbrus summit

Straight from head guide, Mark Tucker, here is the full recap of summit day on Mt. Elbrus: We got pretty lucky with the weather — except for it trying to blow us off the summit ridge! And then after we descended the fixed lines (that are installed annually to protect against a fall on the […]

Climbers head to the mountain!

Head guide, Sid Pattison reports: Welp, we are on our way! After a full day of gear checking, packing, shopping and putsing around Arusha, we are finally on our way to Machame gate! The crew is psyched, our local staff have been amazing and we are excited to get some miles under our boots!

Mt. Elbrus Summit!!

Exciting news of the Elbrus Summit in this quick text-only update from Lead guide Mark Tucker. More details and PHOTOS to follow: 16 of us left high camp at 2am 16 of us literary crawled to the tallest point in Europe due to high winds 16 of us are now in the forest of Cheget […]

The summit push is next!

Lead guide Mark Tucker just provided this expedition update via phone from the comfortable LEAPrus huts on Mt. Elbrus: The team is in bed for some final rest before the summit push in about four hours! Weather is looking good with just some clouds down below in the valley. Everyone is fired up for the […]

On the Mountain and Getting Ready!

Life is good here at 3,900 m / 12,800 ft! We made an easy departure from our hotel with a great breakfast filling our stomachs! After the short transfer to the lift system and following the same drill as yesterday, but this time loaded with lots more gear for our stay at the luxurious LEAPrus […]

Acclimatizing and training on Elbrus

It was a nice day in the mountains! After breakfast, the few missing pieces needed to form complete climbing kits for some of our team members were tracked down. In Terskol, nice equipment is available for hire and the next thing you know it is getting put to use! We took the day to make […]

Terskol!

The 2018.07 Elbrus expedition team today had a timely and smooth flight from Moscow to Mineralnye Vody, grabbed some supplies at a local grocery, and hit the road via bus for Terskol – at the base of Mt. Elbrus. Along the way they enjoyed fresh made chicken sandwiches (Wolfgang Tuck style!) while avoiding herds of […]

Elbrus team arrives and tours Moscow

Head guide Mark Tucker reports: The Elbrus 2018 team arrived in Moscow yesterday after a tiring day of travel. As most of the team is still adjusting to the nearly 12 hour (!) time change, we kept things simple with a little round of introductions and a brief discussion of the days ahead. After a […]