14th-15th - Arrival in Russia

Despite being in a group of people I have never met before it was easy to find some of them at the airport; big climbing boots, and those who had checked in their boots came over to the increasingly large group of people gathering at the gate. I have never sent so much time and energy on looking at strangers’ footwear.

Arriving in Moscow after a delay and only 2-ish hours all 17 was gathered. A few nervous looks at the luggage belt as someone’s bags took a very long time to arrive but finally we all had received our bags, met with the local agent and spent an hour in a bus to get to a huge hotel where we were checked in for the night. Being late we just found a local place for dinner and went to our rooms.

We left the hotel early in the morning and went back to the airport to catch our flight to Mineral Vody. Here we met with our tour guide Jakob and were transported in two non-AC’ed minibuses for a 3-hour drive. The driver didn’t seem to care much about the speed limit and several time he had to navigate through herds of cows that had decided to stop and rest in the middle of the road. Checking in at the hotel (at app. 2200m) at our destination we had a couple of hours by ourselves before an introductory meeting and dinner.

Tomorrow will be a relatively easy day; we leave after lunch and have a couple of hours trek before reaching camp. We will go by bus in the beginning, though, and because we are so close to the Georgian border we will be passing through a military checkpoint, which apparently easily can take an hour to get through.

The day after will be significantly longer with walks across a glacier, getting altitude before returning to the hotel.

After this we will have another – longer – trek and returning to the hotel before going on the final trek that is to bring us to the summit of Elbrus. It makes it easier with packing as you only need to bring the clothes for those few days. And I have a feeling I will love any saved weight when starting the walks.