We got up at 1.30 AM and had a little snack for breakfast before we started our summit attempt at 3 AM. The weather was perfect: a starlit sky, temperatures just below zero and practically no wind.

We started at the bottom of Pasthukov Rocks at 4550 meters and had to begin on a rather steep slope. The snow was very firm though and easy to walk on.

Right before we reached the saddle between the West and East peak at 5300 meters we came into the sun and we soon had to take off several layers of clothes. The ascent from the saddle to the West plateau at 5600 meters was the toughest part. From there it was only an easy, almost flat walk, and at 11 AM we were standing at the top of Elbrus at 5642 meters and could enjoy the view for quite a while since it was warm and no wind at all.

The descent back to our camp at 4100 meters was quite a challenge because it was hot, very intensive sunlight, and we were running out of water. At 2 PM we were very happy to be back in our camp and could enjoy some cold water and juice.

After one more night up on the mountain, we are now back at our hotel in Terskol and enjoy the privileges of civilisation like a decent toilet and a warm shower. Today we will go for an easy hike in Terskol valley. Tomorrow we will fly back to Moscow before I return to Oslo on Wednesday.

– Tommy, Sasha, Derry, John, Mr. Nansen, Róisín and myself

After one night at 3000 meters and two nights at 3850 we have just moved up to our last camp at 4100 meters. We are staying in containers which are not luxurious, but OK. The toilets are not five star either which is annoying because I caught some virus or bacteria and have been going there every couple of hours since yesterday morning.

The weather yesterday was a bit cloudy and windy. Today it is fantastic again – warm and sunny. There was a group though who tried to summit last night, and they had to turn around because of strong winds at the saddle. We are going to try the summit tonight starting at 3 AM, so until then we just have to prepare our equipment and relax.

Today was another sunny and very warm day in Terskol. We walked up to Mt. Terskol today to an observatory at 3050 meters. From there we had a fantastic view on Mt. Elbrus with its two peaks.

Mount Elbrus: We are going to climb the West Peak on the left, slightly higher than the East Peak

Now we’re back at the hotel relaxing after another sauna visit, soon ready for dinner. Tomorrow we will leave Terskol and start our ascent on Elbrus. As a first step we will move up to the mid station of the ski lift at 3000 meters where we will spend one night.

Everybody is in good shape and the weather forecast looks promising for the whole week and especially for our summit day on Saturday with a clear sky, light wind and temperatures only down to minus nine degrees centigrade.

Our group (from the left): Tommy, Derry, guide Sasha, Róisín and John

We arrived yesterday after a rather wild car ride from the airport at our hotel in Terskol in the Russian republic republic Kabardino-Balkario. I’m sharing a room with Tommy from Norway – the most experienced guy in our group who has climbed Mt. Everest and five of the Seven Summits. The rest of the group is completely Irish: two guys, Derry and John, and a girl, Róisín. And our Russian guide Sasha of course who always has a good joke to tell.

Today we went for a small acclimatisation tour from our hotel at 2000 meters up the Cheget mountain just to the top of the ski lift at 3000 meters. This was a half day’s tour only so we could enjoy a nice lunch and go to the sauna later.

Learning of the day: the lady in the café was surprised that I blended beer with Sprite. Sasha explained me why: “Stephan, see: In Russia we don’t mix beer with lemonade. We mix beer with vodka. Actually, we say when you drink beer without vodka, it’s like throwing money to the wind.”

View from our hotel

After one week back in Oslo, I’m now ready for my second Seven Summit: Mt. Elbrus in Russia, the highest mountain in Europe at 5642 meters.

Mr. Nansen and I will take a flight to Moscow tomorrow morning and continue by plane to Mineralnye Vody in the North Caucasus region, close to the border to Georgia, on Saturday. From July 15^th to 20^th we will slowly move up on the mountain, starting at 2000 m in the town Terskol, and with our highest camp Priyut/Diesel hut at 4160 m, and we will have time for several acclimatization tours. From Priyut it is 1500 meters altitude difference up on our summit day, which is more than we had on both Kilimanjaro (1300 m) and Mont Blanc (1000 m), so this is going to be a tough day. Our schedule has three opportunities for the summit (in case we are stopped by bad weather), so we should reach the top between July 21^st and 23^rd.

Since the prices for data roaming in Russia are sky-high and I assume that we won’t have a WLAN available, we’ll have to try a back-up solution to update the website (MMS to Klaus, Klaus posting to blog). Anyway, the updates might not be as frequent as on the Mont Blanc trip.

Today was the day. After an almost sleepless night at the Gouter hut, we stood up at 1.30, packed our staff and ate breakfast. Through the window we could see the lights of Chamonix 2600 meters below us. As Friederike commented, such a view you normally have from an airplane. At 3 AM we left for the Mont Blanc summit attempt.

It was a clear full moon night. After I had two bad days in the beginning and Friederike a difficult day on the way up to the Gouter hut, everybody was in perfect shape and ready for the challenge today. Friederike went together with Julian. Philipp and I followed a few meters behind led by Aldo. In a zig zag pattern we ascended the mountain and gained meter after meter – in total we had about 1000 m altitude difference ahead of us.

We walked in a fairly slow pace, except the one time when I had to ask Aldo to please not take any more shortcuts from the zig zag course to take over other rope teams, because this walking straight up the steep mountain in deep snow and increased speed was killing me…

The scenery this night was spectacular. Snow covered mountains in the moonlight and an amazing view – we actually saw Geneva in the distance. Shortly after 5 AM the sun appeared on the horizon so that we now had the sun on the one side and the full moon on the other side.

At 6.30, well before what we had expected, we reached the summit of Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps at 4810 meters. We took a short break to rest, drink, take photos and enjoy the great 360 degrees view over many peaks in the Western Alps.

Now we “only” had to descend the 2700 meters to the point where we could take the cable car back to Chamonix. At 4 PM we were back at the hotel and took a well-deserved shower and a nap. Now we’re celebrating the summit success and the great day we had with dinner and panaché (beer with sprite).

Surprisingly, there is a mobile network available up here at the Gouter hut at 3800 meters, so I can post a short update.

We left Chamonix at 8.30 today, first by bus to Les Houches, then we took a telepherique up to 1800 meters and a tramway up to 2100 meters. From there we had to walk.

Chamonix was cloudy and grey, but above 2000 meters the sun was shining. We saw several ibex (ibexes?) and chamois very close by on our way up.

After three or four hours we reached the most difficult part of the climb: le Grand Couloir – a steep passage with constant risk of rockfall. Le Grand Couloir stretches over 400 meters altitude difference, so it takes about one and a half hours to climb it. Julian and I built a rope team, and Aldo, Friederike and Philipp the other one. Julian and I reached the Gouter hut at the top of Le Grand Couloir at 5 PM. The others arrived about half an hour later.

The hut is pretty overcrowded, so I’m not sure if we’ll get any sleep tonight. Then again we’re going to get up at 1 AM to start our ascent to the summit. The weather forecast is excellent: clear sky and full moon! Now: dinner.

We woke up this morning 5 AM with fog, rain and strong wind outside the Torino Hut. So instead of climbing the Tête d’Entrèves as planned, we took the first lift down to Entrèves again and then the bus via Courmayeur to Chamonix.

Here we bought some more equipment for our Mont Blanc climb. There was not much more to do since it was raining all day (meaning lots of new snow above 4000 m). Fortunately, the weather forecast says we’ll have a window with clear sky for our summit attempt during the night from Tuesday to Wednesday. But first we have to climb the 1800 m altitude difference to the Gouter hut tomorrow and then the last 1000 meters on Wednesday to reach the top of Mont Blanc.

We also just met our second guide: Julian from Argentina. The South American dream team is complete!

I’ll post the next time Wednesday evening – hopefully with a summit picture.

Today we took a bus from Villeneuve to Courmayeur and another one to Entrèves at 1370 m. From there a lift took us to the Torino Hut on 3371 m – 2000 m altitude difference in 15 minutes!

We were supposed to do some exercises on the glacier today, but it started to rain so we stayed in the hut for some theory. Hoping for better weather tomorrow to climb to Tête d’Entrèves at 3551 m.

Aldo and Philipp are playing chess now. We’ll get dinner in half an hour. Think I’ll have some red whine with the dinner. No TV here to watch the Euro final. Anyway, we’ll support the locals – forza Italia!

It’s day 2 of our 2012 trip to the Alps. Unfortunately our fourth man Conrad had to cancel the trip due to a rebelling tooth, so it was only Friederike, Philipp and I who met in Villeneuve in the Italian Aosta valley on Friday. And Aldo, our Peruvian guide (who lives in Münster).
After sorting our equipment, we packed a daypack and took a taxi to Pont at 1950 m and started to walk to our first base, Rifugio Vittorio Emmanuele (2735 m) at the foot of Gran Paradiso, Italy’s highest mountain. Here we were going stay for two nights, and we were lucky to get a room for ourselves which is complete luxury in an overcrowded cottage like this.

We went to bed early Friday night, because at 3.30 our alarm went off and at 4.30 we were already ascending towards Gran Paradiso with headlamps on – together with between 180 other mountaineers this day.

It was an unusually warm night, and we soon started sweating under our many layers of clothes. After one hour the glacier started, so we took our crampons and climbing harnesses on. The next hours were demanding for me – not acclimatised to the high altitude and approaching a 4-thousander on the second day, but I somehow forced myself to continue.

Shortly after 7 AM we reached the only technically difficult passage at Gran Paradiso (2nd degree climbing), just below the summit. We had to wait at this bottleneck for at least 20 minutes for climbers in front on their way up and others returning from the summit. I enjoyed those minutes as they helped me to restitute and bring down my heart-rate. At 7.45 we reached the top of Italy at 4061 m, gathering around a (O bella Italia!) madonna statue for the summit photo.

As I’m writing this (Saturday, 5 PM) we’re back at the Refugio, just had a power nap and preparing for dinner now. I have to wait until tomorrow until I am back in civilisation to post this.

Stay tuned!