Hello there cybernauts, this is Alpine Ascents' Mount Elbrus expedition Team Updog reporting in.

Today we finally got onto the mountain. We hiked all the way up from the valley floor after shaving our heads and now we are sitting at 13,500 feet above sea level where there is the highest hotel in the world.

We're planning on spending the night here in a few nights, but we're going to drop back down to the ever-scenic barrels, these are huge fuel drums that latch to the side of the mountain that we're going to be using for shelter over the next few days.

The team seems to be all well and healthy, they have a very sick sense of humor however and the doctor has nothing to treat it. That being said, you'll be happy to know that Rueben and Jean have been reunited with their luggage. So they have climbing gear and big smiles. And yahoo, we're very happy that they'll be able to have sleeping bags on this trip.

The mountain has been fabulously clear for the last few days and, like I said, we're acclimatizing very well so everything looks copasetic. However, that leaves us with the possibility that the weather is going to change.

Looking up right now we can see plumes probably about 3-400 meters long coming off the west summit where the wind is blowing the fresh snow off the top of the mountain. But, down here at 13,000 feet, snow conditions are pleasantly spring-like corn snow and there might even be a test run to see if it's good snowboarding quality.

Well that's pretty much it. Does anybody else have anything to report?

Hi from Jean to Ron, Mark and Greg. From Rueben, hello to Rachel and Rebecca. From Carlos, to the whole family, hello! And from Jeff, Tiffany and Mack, hello there from 13,000 feet high on the flanks of Mount Elbrus, which, just for your information, is 5,642 meters above sea level. Put that one in your computer.

Ciao for now.

— Vern Tejas, Alpine Ascents International Guide and MountainZone.com Correspondent