around the world

The sun had begin to lighten the Saddle, at about 5450m. That is were we were heading. After a short break, for water and some sweets, we continued without Tibi.

View from break point

Quite cold up there

We climbed fast for the next hour up to the dark rocks near the ridge. There, we thought there were about 5100m. We didn’t have an altimeter, so we asked another guy that was resting there. He answered “Oh, we are at 5535 here”. Wow, much much higher than we expected. “You mean, in 40 minutes we”ll be on top?” “Yes, 40-50 minutes”. That was great news, as we thought we would climb at least 4 more hours. Very interesting, that meant only 5 hours for the summit. Some more pictures, and we were ready to go. Lucian feet were warmer now, but the 3 fingers were still frozen.

The East Summit, a few meters lower than the West

Tibi was somewhere between the other climbers

Ileana and Lucian, close to me. The poles are for the one that go by skies back from the summit.

Relaxation point

A lot of suncream on my nose

The summit, in the back. We were happy to be there, but the team was incomplete without Tibi

So we decided to wait for him just below the summit. Lucian, opened a bag of corn. It was inflated because of the low pressure.

Waiting point. Cold but sunny; we sat and waited.

After one hour, I got back to see where Tibi was. I could’n see him, so we decided to climb the summit, and then go somewhere lower. Ileana didn’t feel very well after one and a half hours up there.

Summit photos.

Indonesians from the “Seven Summits” expedition

AIESEC

Just after deciding to go down, Tibi appeared on the horizon. Ileana felt worse, so she decided to go down, not to puke after so much time on the summit. Me and Lucian didn’t feel very well either, but we stayed there with Tibi. In total, 2 hours 30 minutes on the summit. For both of us, this is a new summit personal record. I don’t remember any other place where I had climbed and stayed so long on the summit.

Red Cross flag. Tibi is a member and a true contributor

The three of us. Tired and happy.

This one is for Pathos. Great place to learn the mountaineering life.

Getting down, fast and beautiful

When you are too tired, you can just throw the backpack and take a nap on the slopes of Mount Elbrus.

Out tents were at the first line of rocks. We hoped to get there, pack everything and run downhill to catch the cable car to Azau. We were on a hurry, as we all wanted to go to Bezengi, and Tibi had to go to Ararat on the 23rd. Time was short, tiredness was manageable. At lest for some of us…