2021.09 Elbrus expedition dispatches

Chase M. and Garrett on the summit of Europe's highest peak, Mount Elbrus!

With a beautiful summit day, our team topped out on Europe’s highest peak, Mount Elbrus, this morning.  Here is Garrett Madison with a recap of this quick climb:

Hello, this is Garrett calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Mount Elbrus climb. Today is Friday, September 10th and we had a perfect summit day on Mount Elbrus.

We were blessed with beautiful conditions, couldn’t have been a better day. No winds, no clouds in the sky and good route conditions. Chase and I got up to the summit with our Russian guide, George around 7:00am and had it all to ourselves for a little while. We took some photos and admired the views and made it back down to our high camp and then descended all the way back down to Terskol and Cheget, where we had a celebration dinner with our group and another group that we summited with today.

It’s been a great climb here on Mount Elbrus, a very quick climb.  Normally we spend a few days here, acclimatizing here at the Terskol/Cheget area and also up on Elbrus at the high camp.  But due to the weather, we knew today was the good day, and we had to go for it. So, we took advantage of the good weather and did a quick climb and got lucky with a beautiful summit.

So, we’re going to rest here a couple of days, do some fun activities and then head off to our next mountain, Dykh-Tau in the Bezengi base area, not to far from here.

The view of Mount Elbrus's twin peaks from the high huts

The view of Mount Elbrus’s twin peaks from the high huts

Sunrise on Russia's Mount Elbrus, Europe's highest mountain

Sunrise on Russia’s Mount Elbrus, Europe’s highest mountain

Perfect summit day on Mount Elbrus!

Perfect summit day on Mount Elbrus!

At the Mount Elbrus summit with Chase and our Russian guide George

At the Mount Elbrus summit with Chase and our Russian guide George


In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow our teams as they make their attempts on the world’s most formidable mountains on:

Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

  • Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear Garrett Madison’s daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions.  Just say, “Alexa, play my Madison Mountaineering flash briefing.

Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking map:

View from our camp at 3,800m on Mount Elbrus

Our 2021 Russian adventure is in full swing.  Garrett Madison and team member Chase M. are in position for their summit attempt on Europe’s highest peak, Mount Elbrus starting in just 11 hours:

Hello!  This is Garrett calling in from Mount Elbrus, Russia – highest mountain in Europe!

Chase and I arrived here on Mount Elbrus and we’re up here at the mountain huts at 3800m.  Looks like the weather is going to be great tomorrow.  And then after that, a few days of snow and high wind – some stormy weather.  So, we are going to go for our summit push tomorrow morning.  Just a short trip up here, hopefully good weather.  If we can’t get up tomorrow, we’ll rest a few days, let the storm pass, and then go for the summit next week.

At the moment, it looks like good weather tonight and tomorrow, so we’re going to go for it – fingers crossed for calm winds.  We are looking forward getting up to the highest point in Europe (5685m / 18,650ft).

We will check-in soon!

The view of the Baksan Valley from the slopes of Mount Elbrus

The view of the Baksan Valley from the slopes of Mount Elbrus

The twin peaks of Europe's highest point, Mount Elbrus in Russia.

The twin peaks of Europe’s highest point, Mount Elbrus in Russia.

Enjoying the high camp huts on Mount Elbrus

Enjoying the high camp huts on Mount Elbrus


In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow our teams as they make their attempts on the world’s most formidable mountains on:

Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

  • Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear Garrett Madison’s daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions.  Just say, “Alexa, play my Madison Mountaineering flash briefing.

Instagram:

– our Garmin inReach Mini powered real-time tracking map: