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Glissading on Butts
Saturday, July 13, 2002
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tejas
Tejas
DISPATCHES
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Hi Mountain Zoners, this is Vern Tejas with Alpine Ascents Mount Elbrus UpDogs Expedition. And here we are at 13,233 feet about sea level, approximately. That's roughly about 4,100 meters above sea level.

And guess what, kids. The last couple days we've been working hard to get acclimatized. Doing little hikes up the hill and then glissading back down on our butts. The snow is actually quite wet but man is it refreshing.

So, you might wonder what we are up to today. Today we're in the mode of getting ready for tomorrow's summit attempt which is quite exciting seeing as the clouds have filled the sky and the wind is coming up.

"The big plan is we're going to be up at 2 in the morning, eat breakfast and then we're going to be off at 3, and hopefully, if everything goes well and we don't get blown off the mountain, we'll be summitting about noon..."

Everybody's been hydrating and drinking and eating and all the other things that go along with that so we feel like we're in the best conditions possible. We're sitting around the hotel, now I use that term quite loosely, most of the guys are giggling right now, because this is not much more than just a few boards hammered together and kind of perched precariously on a ridge up here overlooking the scenic Caucases.

We have 20 people in a room that's about 20x20, so that gives you a few feet per person and of course we're sharing it with the Castillon team from Barcelona. They're getting up about 1 o'clock in the morning, but not us, no siree, we're sleeping in until 2 and everybody is quite stoked about that.

The other part of our team, the better half, is out in tents, just behind,in the wind storm so they should sleep really well tonight. The big plan is we're going to be up at 2 in the morning, eat breakfast and then we're going to be off at 3, and hopefully, if everything goes well and we don't get blown off the mountain, we'll be summitting about noon. And at that time we'll give you a call back and say howdy from the top, if all goes well.

So keep your fingers crossed and keep the prayers coming. Hopefully this weather clears up and then we get a reasonable summit attempt today.

We have a P.S. Hello to Rachel and Rebecca from Reuben. So thank you very much for tuning in, we'll see you soon. Bye.

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





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