Hi all. As you have already heard we summited Mount Elbrus at 11.15 on the 1st July. Everyone in the group made it which is fantastic and proves that the acclimatisation programme works. We started at the bottom at 2000m and each day went progressively higher and stayed in the mountain huts along the way. Russian mountain huts are poor!!!!!! On summit morning we had 1000m remaining to get to the top. We started walking at 4.45 and summited 6 and a half hours later. Weather was perfect and while it was cold at times it didnt go down to the feared minus 20. It was very steep but the guides set a good pace. The most bizarre part of the day was when at about 5000m we reached a professional photographer waiting along the path and he took our photos! The top of Elbrus is quite narrow and with our big group there wasnt much room. Lots of photos were taken and the Irish flag was produced from my rucksack and all in the group were happy to be Irish!! It was fantastic!! It still hasnt hit me that I achieved this target that I started planning about 3 years ago!! Many thanks to my friends in the CROWS who have helped with my training over the last 6 months. See you all soon in the Irish hills.
Posted on: Thu, 03 Jul 2014 07:19:07 +0000