Jeffrey Glasbrenner and I are now up at the high camp at 12,700′ in the luxurious LeapRUS huts. Fine dining and great views! Today we rode a Jeep up to the hut and then climbed to 15,200′ for acclimatization and are now enjoying a great dinner! We will do another acclimatization hike tomorrow then go for the summit of Mount Elbrus on the 27th, fingers crossed for good weather!
Garrett Madison
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On July 12th we were blessed with near perfect weather and climbing conditions when we reached Mount Elbrus North Summit in Russia, the highest peak in all of Europe at 18,506′, and one of the ‘seven summits’ on Earth. David, Matthew, and myself began our climb from our high camp at 11 PM on July 11th, as the elevation gain from high camp to the summit of Mount Elbrus is 6,200′, a big summit day! With a slight breeze we made our way up the glaciated slopes of Mount Elbrus in the dark using our headlamps, up to Lenz Rocks at 15,000′, then onward up the glacier to the saddle which is in between the East and West (highest) summits of Mount Elbrus. We continued on up the West summit to the highest point in all of Europe at 9:30 AM, had unobstructed views as far as the eye can see, it was truly a magnificent day. We then descended back down and reached our high camp in the early afternoon. The following day we descended back down to base camp where we had a nice dinner and shower and slept in our comfortable cabin. Yesterday we drove from the base camp on Mount Elbrus back to the town of Pyatigorsk and had a celebration dinner, now we are heading to St. Petersburg for some sightseeing and then home. It has been a wonderful trip!
Note: This was a ‘North Side’ climb of Mount Elbrus, whereas our regular and other recent programs on are on the ‘South Side’ of Mount Elbrus. Madison Mountaineering has led successful expeditions on both sides of Mount Elbrus, and as a boutique mountaineering guide service we strive to develop customer expeditions for intrepid climbers!
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Photos:
Garrett and Matthew gazing at Mount Elbrus from the hotel in Pyatigorsk
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Summit selfie at the top of Mount Elbrus
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Garrett and our driver Yuri enjoying dinner in base camp
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Matthew and David on the approach to high camp
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Matthew and David on the summit of Mount Elbrus
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Watching the sun rise from up high on the glaciated slopes of Mount Elbrus
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David and Matthew descending from high camp after a successful summit of Mount Elbrus!
Mount Elbrus north route summit!! Congratulations to our team of climbers for making a safe and successfully ascent of the tallest mountain in Europe. Listen to our audio dispatch below, Garrett Madison checking in after reaching the summit with David and Matthew. Photos and complete expedition recap will be posted shortly. Onward and upward!
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Garrett with David and Matthew at high camp at the north side of Mount Elbrus, roughly 12,500ft. Our team did a acclimatization hike today. Plan to rest tomorrow and then go to the summit tomorrow night. Hopefully summit the morning of the 12th then return to high camp that day. Descend back to base camp on the 13th, everyone is doing well and excited to make the summit ascent!
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Pictures to come!! Onward and upward!
Yesterday we reached the Mount Elbrus summit at 6:45 AM, the highest mountain in all of Europe. We had fantastic conditions, very calm winds and almost no clouds in the sky, allowing us to see for miles around!
We began our summit push in the dark using our headlamps at 2:45 AM and passed a few teams as we made our way up the snow covered glaciers, eventually reaching the saddle between the east and west peak around 5:30 AM. The sunrise was spectacular! Then we continued up to the west peak (highest) and to the summit. We had it all to ourselves for about 30 minutes, enjoying the 360 degree views of the Caucasus mountains, then another climbing team reached the top and we took a few photos together. Accompanying the climbers was a wolf dog, who was very friendly! On our way down we used our skis / snowboard, a fun way to quickly descend part of the peak. We descended back to our hut and now have reached the village of Terskol, and are planning a few fun activities here today. Tomorrow we will head back to Moscow!
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Greetings from 12,870 ft. on Mount Elbrus! We are currently at our mountain hut for the night. We had a great day riding the lifts up from the village of Terskol, where we spent the previous night, after an acclimatization hike on the local trails. Today we climbed to 15,000 ft. on Mount Elbrus to continue our acclimatization strategy and we skied down which was very fun and saved a lot of time. Conditions were great for skiing and snowboarding. Our newly constructed mountain hut on mount Elbrus is very clean, has wifi, nice bathrooms, and we are served 3 meals a day. We feel a little spoiled but we appreciate this level of comfort in the mountain. Tomorrow our plan is to continue our acclimatization in preparation for a summit attempt in the following days. The weather forecast looks promising so we hope for good conditions in the days ahead.
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