Last night, I had mentioned that the place we are staying at is in the middle of nowhere, and that I would be able to give you a better idea once the morning came and there was sunlight. Well, I can now say with some confidence that we are still in the middle of nowhere! Where we are staying, there are 2 cafes, 1 hotel, and 1 bed & breakfast. There are no paved roads, and basically it feels like we’re in the middle of the woods somewhere. There is a great deal of poverty here. Not many people live here, but those who do, look like they’ve lived a very hard, tough life.
I see people walking with their baskets of food, or I see them in the cafés, and their faces look very old, and you can tell they have been through a lot. The area itself is not beautiful; in fact it’s just the opposite. There is a lot of garbage everywhere. I guess you could say that the people in this area have more on their minds than being environmentally conscious. But they are friendly… once you get past the initial conversation and get to know them a little bit. The food here, on the other hand, is quite good. The cafés serve traditional Russian food, like shish-kabob – but here they call it “Shashlik”. They also have this one dish which is like a quesadilla with potatoes and cheese, very tasty. They also have various kinds of rice with different herbs and spices, and their version of French Fries. All quite delicious.
Today was our first day of climbing. The lower part of the mountain is a ski area, and there are ski and chair lifts, as well as gondolas at the base of the mountain, that can take you up part way, if you choose to do it that way. We decided we wanted to try and get some good altitude in today, in order to acclimatize ourselves to the higher altitudes later on, so we chose to take one of the gondolas up a couple thousand feet and start hiking from there up to an area called “The Hut”, which is at 13,000 feet.
Luckily our hotel was only a quarter mile from the gondolas. As you go up the gondola, you feel like you’re in the middle of a huge mountain range. I told Kurt that it felt like we were in the middle of the Swiss Alps, and Kurt said that the Alps and Elbrus are actually very similar.
And then, something very strange happened… About half way up the mountain (9,000 feet), the gondola stopped suddenly, and due to the abruptness, the car began to swing and sway back and forth. When this happened, there were a few collective gasps, and even our local guide, Gia looked at me and said “I’ve never seen this happen before.” But apparently, there had been a power outage across the entire valley, and the power did not resume for a half hour (which is quite a long time, if you’re afraid of heights, or being in an enclosed space, which I am not of course!) The gondola can hold about 25 people – and there were groups from all over the world in the gondola with us; climbers from Korea, Sweden, Austria, Soviet Union and America. So here we all were in this gondola, with no poles or straps to hold on to, not to mention, we were also carrying our packs.
Then, there was this one guy who decided that one of the ethnic groups in the gondola (who shall remain nameless) was putting off an odor, so much so that he reaches over to one of the doors and opens it to let in some fresh air. Apparently, the people of this particular culture have been known to consume great quantities of a food called “Kemchi” which is a fermented cabbage. Personally, I didn’t smell anything (thank God for my asthma), but this guy did. It was horrifying because someone could have very easily fallen out -- we were suspended about 400 feet in the air! So needless to say, the “drama quota” had definitely been satisfied for the day!
Back to the climb: As we were hiking at about 10,000 feet, we were already seeing glaciers, which continued all the way up to the top, and the views were absolutely spectacular! When we started climbing from 10,000 feet up to 13,000 feet, it felt like we were in the middle of a huge snow field. It’s nothing but 100% snow, so there is still skiing here, even in July! You take any large ski resort, like Vail for instance, and this was 5 times the size. It’s just enormous!
At 13,000 feet, we reached “the Hut”. They call it the Hut because this is the place where climbers stay the night before they summit the next day. There are a lot of climbers on the mountain, usually in teams of 9 or 10 people.
Just like on Mt. Kilimanjaro, you run into groups of people while going up the mountain, as well as when you’re coming back down. We would always stop and talk with each of the climbers and ask them where they were from. Today we ran into some folks from Romania and also some U.S. climbers from Seattle, who were very excited because today was their summit day. That’s one of the best parts of this experience - is getting to meet folks from all over the world. It’s like solidarity up there because everyone is in it together.So far, the weather has been okay.. It’s actually been raining and snowing. But it rains late in the day and is sunny in the morning, so our plan is to hike in the mornings, to avoid the rain if possible. Kurt and John and I are all very excited, but also a bit nervous, since it is supposed to get quite cold up there in the next couple of days - about 10 to 15 degrees below zero (Celsius), which is about 14 degrees Fahrenheit. But everyone up here is very cautious and very careful, so I am confident.
Tomorrow we will go back up to the hut again and spend the night. And on Sunday, we plan on taking another acclimatization hike up about 2,000 feet, to prepare for the summit. Then Monday, we plan on waking up at 2:00am in the morning and hike to the summit, which is 18,510 feet at the top!
I’m not sure if I will have blackberry service from this point on or not, and I don’t have a place to charge the phone, so I will keep you posted when I can. More soon…
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