Summit Day
Summit day was intense, we had to battle against 100km/hr winds snow blasting on our faces and insane incline levels at high altitude. After hours of climbing and pushing we made it to the top of Europe. Usually we get to look around enjoy the views but not on this mountain. We just took our few pictures of glory of my country’s flag, ROTA and Rahhalah’s and headed straight down to lower altitudes where the winds was less and warmer.
After reaching camp we rested fora while before dinner, we also finished a day earlier and were trying to change our tickets. Not the easiest thing to do in Russia. We slept not knowing if we were leaving the next day.
After a long night sleep we woke up to find that the storm started. It was freezing in the huts and a whiteout. You can nearly see anything. We had to double check if we where going to leave for the valley of not. We were waiting for a snow cat to take us to the first cable car to head down. At 10am is came, we loaded the cat with out gear and jumped in to take us to the cable car. Only finding that it was closed! We had to carry all our gear to the next cable car which was another hour down hill in mud rain and wind. This wasn’t my most pleasant experience on this trip.
Finally after hours of going down we finally reached our tiny hotel for a quick shower and a meal before heading for the airport. The drive to the airport was a 4hr drive that we spent remembering the good days in the mountains and looking forward to the ones in Moscow.
We had to slit into 2 groups in to two different airports in Moscow. Asti was last minute all flights were full. To make it simple we arrived at the hotel at 1am only to find problems with all our rooms. Apparently the hotel overbooked and was full,we had to fight hard to get the rooms, let’s put it this way Ziad fought the hardest and got the most out of it in freebies.
All in all was an amazing trip, with amazing friends and the summit was the cherry on top. I am really happy that I managed to show some of my Friends what’s mountaineering is all about. It is also. An honor to climb for ROTA and I truly believe in their cause and the 1000’s that benefit from their hard work. Now it’s time to set my eye on my next mountain in Jan.
