Posts

Climbing Mount Elbrus - Attempting to summit Europe's highest mountain

Image
This is the story of my attempt to climb mount Elbrus in the Caucasus mountain chain in Russia. Standing at 5,642m mount Elbrus is not the hardest mountain to climb but that does't mean summiting isn't be challenging. So, you've climbed for a bit and you've covered some notable peaks. Perhaps you already summited Kilimanjaro, which is 200m higher than Elbrus, and now you think you're the sh*t. You know what trekking boots and crampons are, and how to deal with the long treks and altitude sickness coz you've done it at the equator where its nice and sunny and dry. You're basically Sylvester Stallone from that one movie where played a ripped climber killing bad guys. You are him - the Man. Except, you're not. Yep, that was me prior to climbing Elbrus. There are a few things you should be aware when before you go to Elbrus. First of all if you use the south route there won't be much climbing involved. Be prepared to go from 2,000m to 4,000m ...
Image
CLIMBING TOUBKAL - 4,167m I recently climbed Toubkal in Morocco and thought this would be a good place to share my experience. Me and my friend made the climb in two days in early November 2017. Since the climate has been warming up in recent years there was no snow and almost no ice, although it did get quite chilly as we gained altitude. My advice for those attempting the climb in the Autumn is to bring layers (including gloves!).  via GIPHY We made the climb with a guide because just to be on the safe side but you can easily do it on your own. The climb began at the village of Imlil which was about and hour drive from the Marrakech airport. We walked for about 40m-1h until we made it to the Toubkal national park entrance.  Once there we walked on the mountain path for about 1h and 30m before reaching Sidi Chamharouch which is a small village where we stopped for a couple of minutes to have a rest and drink some mint tea. The place itself is buil...