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Taking in the culture.

The port city of St. Petersberg in Russia has welcomed our 2016 team with open arms. With such a rich history and beautiful architecture, the team of Chad, George, Henry and Fred spent today exploring the city while doing the all important work of getting over jet lag.

Chad wrote in this morning saying they spent time soaking in the culture visiting the great halls, museums and tombs of Russia’s most famous Czars. “Crazy history and amazing mansions of incredible wealth… makes you understand why the people revolted!”, Chad wrote. “Our city tour also…

Our 2013 Elbrus team had great success as a result of a great deal of effort. We’re very happy for every member of that team for summiting after waiting out a lot of bad weather, retreating back to town, and then going for it in one big push when the weather forecast suddenly changed. Here are some photos taken by Anna Fridlyanskaya, documenting their time in the Causasus.

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This year’s highly motivated Elbrus team really proved they had a huge amount of stamina. After descending back to town, when weather just wouldn’t let up, they saw an opportunity for a clearing a couple of days later and went for it. A 1am start from town allowed them to take a series of lifts and cats, climb, and descend Europe’s tallest peak, and make it back down in order to catch their flights to Moscow that night! Nice job, team!

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Alpenglow guide, Brian Warren, and team are pulling out all the stops to try to make a successful and safe summit of Elbrus. After having descended back to Terskol, they checked the weather and saw a glimmer of a hope for a clearing on Wednesday. In a few hours they will begin what is shaping up to be a very long day! They’ll take a series of lifts and snowcats up the lower flanks of Elbrus and hope that when they arrive at the snowcat’s high point, the winds will have subsided and the conditions will be appropriate for climbing.…

The Elbrus team is waiting out some weather at the hut and looking at Tuesday the 6th as their best summit option. It’s been cold, windy, and some fresh snow has fallen, so the mountain has not quite presented itself to them yet. Fingers crossed that things clear up a bit in the next few days and allow for a beautiful summit bid. Have fun, team!

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Most of the Elbrus team met in Saint Petersburg a few days ago and they were able to begin their trip with a city tour yesterday after a long breakfast together.  

Mount Elbrus seems to get less credit than it deserves. For a peak which is considered “easy” among its 7 summits siblings and appears less forbidding than its neighbors in the Caucus, it has variables that make climbing more difficult than many give it credit for. After being turned around an hour into summit bid #1 and summiting the next day in a white out with howling winds while the valley below basked in the sun, this year’s Alpenglow team returned to camp feeling like they’d made a real accomplishment on a real high altitude peak. Check out some images…

The Elbrus team has packed their bags after an exciting and successful week in the Caucus. We now move on to Moscow for a couple of days for some sightseeing and non-mountain food! We will post stories and photos from our adventure soon.…

After two days of acclimatizing lower in the Baksan Valley, the Mount Elbrus team will head up the initial stages of the mountain this morning, where we will post up at a mountain hut, situated at 3,900 meters. Having hiked around for the last couple of days with the assistance of Roman, a remarkable Russian climber and guide, we will bid him farewell as he heads off to see his family, and we will begin climbing with Nikolay, who is a K2 legend and whose tales will hopefully keep us inspired and entertained for the next 5 days. We will…