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Today was a pretty easy day. We made our way up 3 ski lifts, and then hiked up Elbrus for about half an hour before getting to slopes steep enough to do our skills review. We got instruction on ice axe self-arrest technique(how to stop yourself if you fall off the mountain, or if a team member falls into a crevasse), how to travel on a rope team, and proper crampon technique. Everyone on our team is experienced in mountaineering so this was really just review. We did get some really effective self-arrest training though, launching ourselves down the mountain and actually picking up some speed before arresting, to simulate an actual fall. We did this from all of the positions – face up & down, on belly & on back. That’s better training than I got in my Denali prep seminar on Rainier!
The weather was not great; windy with minimal visibility. After wrapping up our training, we headed back down. Like yesterday we had plenty of downtime. I used the time to go to local mountaineering shops with Gina and Jo, who were looking for a bigger puffy jacket.
Unfortunately Gina & Danijela seemed to have come down with something – neither were feeling well. Mike made an executive decision to “quarantine” them by having them eat at a different table. We all felt pretty bad about it, and hoped that they’d recover before their summit bid.
Planetary Muffin Expeditions 