4th of the 7 SUMMITS

Alas!! Aug27, 11.02am Local time - Romi made it on top of Mt Elbrus' West Peak 5642m (Highest in Europe). This is the 4th of the 7 SUMMITS! 3 to go!!! Layo pa haha!

Summary

Finally, after a long dreaded re-attempt to climb the West Peak of Elbrus – the summit revealed itself to me! WHEW! And as usual, given the mountain’s notorious behavior of sudden weather change – we almost didn’t make it. Our guide thought of aborting the climb 20-30mins before reaching the summit due to high winds, bad visibility and white-out! Imagine we already reach the summit-rim and just need to find the highest mark of the rim – the thought of walking back from that point can make you Mad like hell! But luck favored us that time - the weather held for a bit and we were able to continue on and went back to safety.
My team mate was not as lucky. He lost his baggage (containing all his customized gear), then got sick a few days later – and when he was finally making the summit push – 2 avalanches sent climbers tumbling down the slopes (1-hr before the summit), eventually shooing them away from its summit! Tough luck!

Well, I was not too lucky all the way myself – the immigration officer in Min.Vody (I flown in straight here from Baku), wanted to kick out my sorry ass back to Azerbaijan (where I “connected” my flight) claiming that I should pass by Moscow first (as written in my useless voucher document). For the knowing tourist – he was simply after $$$! But I’m a stubborn SOB, and although I was the last one to leave the airport – at least I was let go! WHEW! I did expect “some problems” along the way (the place being Russia), but it was a surprise to have my first point of contact (immigration) to be my problem. Such is life!!

Anyway, the solid, good news was that, I’m now “4 out of the 7 SUMMITS” (the current Philippine record) – and the obvious question being – WHAT’S NEXT?!

Let’s see… :)