hello all hope all is well,if i remember well my last entry was 3 weeks ago and i was still excited about going to Elbrus but at the sametime i got dropped by a gear sponsor a day before i left ,for me the whole odeal confirm my very reason/intent or motive of embarking on such a feat or endeover it was for me a demonstration of peseverance i want to shed to other youngsters to pursue their dreams nomater the circumfrence or obstacle for them to always protrude beyond ,it is that  futuristic faith that has kept me till this very day .

yeah about the mission to Russian Cacaus mountains ,the journey was a very exciting one from missing my flights in Russia because of language barrier and traveling the outskirts of Russia by train after the expedition,i guess let me start at the very begining .

i arrived in Russia  15August 2011 after 4 Flights from Cape town,Dubai,Moscow,and Mineralyne Vody .i was a day early to the start of the ascent  i stayed at a hotel in Pytigorsk .the following day we took military trucks into the forest and venturing into the basecamp of the Grand Mountain ,we the ten of us  ,drove for about 6 hours in uncertain terrain but picturesque backgrounds i told myself from the very begining i will savour  every moment psyching myself to the challenge ahead  or rather lessons that lay ahead. we finaly arrived at Basecamp which is at about 2570m, that day was a rest day where we organised ourselves for the coming day which was going to be an aclimatisation day to atleast 3700 m then we came back again to basecamp then the folowing day we did the same but ascent an extra 100m the we also took  half of our stuff up to highcamp which was  3750m then we cam back to sleep at Basecamp for the last day .

then following day we took the remainder of our stuff to Highcamp ,then from there we had another day to aclimitise where we climbed using crampons  to Lenz rock at about 4570m then we stayed there to aclimitise for atleast an hour and a half the we descended to Highcamp once more ,8 of the 10 took a restday the following day while me and another guy who was a keen rockclimber went Iceclimbing it was lots of fun something im definetly pursuing in the not so distant future .

then we had two more days left to Atempt Summit  everyone agreed on the second one ,we would on that day also attempt with another French team consisting of Ned Bouadjar who had already climbed Everest and 4 of the other seven summits ,we woke up at 11am to pack water and some snacks and bars for the long summit day we had precoceived ,we left at about 12am we trecked for 25minutes out of the rocky area to the snow area where we would wear our Crampons ,the first 2 hours were -25degrees and became colder and colder  with the wind creping in, powerful percieng wind  we climbed up until  100m up Lenz rock  when one member chose to turn back a lad from Australia then we then because of the powerful wind decieded to go inside the wrecked army  helicopter we stayed the for 11minutes then 5 of the team decieded to turn back considering that they could make it up the mountain but would probaly not  have any fuel to make it down back into highcamp  we then we the other remaining ventured on yet again we climbed for another 4 hours then we started seing a dichotomy even in our group were the was a bit of doubts and uncertainty ,in 1 more hour we arrived  at the part were we needed to chose between us who would go either to the East peak  (lower) or Westpeak (taller),it was a tough desicion eventually me and my freind Jeff Smith went to Westpeak and Maria Conceiao and the rest of the other guys went to the East peak but only Maria made it to the summit of East peak the other guys turning 10minutes after leaving for summit ,then as for us our journey was slightly diffrent ans strenous cause we had to first trek on the saddle before getting on the actual Peak it was a 1 traverse then we took another 1hour up the peak then another few minutes walk the other side then we were the ,we summited ,we both felt elated ,everything else seemed not to matter all the struggles and obstacles were all worth it and were lessons and incentives to reaching the summit.

i had a great time ,i learnt alot of stuff even some stuff which will take time to fully comprehend as i am still internalising the whole expirience.and yeah to the people i met on the mountain also chasing their dreams i salute you,a few who come to mind is the Intrepid Four  guys who have dedicated their time in climbing the highest peak in Europe thet have already climbed 20 and are left with only 43 two of their members had their honeymoon on Mount E lbrus  that it was i keep on being lured onto moutains time again because of such intrigueng people who live life to the fullest and not settling for the second best life we are served with on a daily basis one.

next up its Gashebrum a mountain that will serve as training for both my 8000er quest and 7summits quest ,until next time ,always remember “it is not that things are difficult that we do not dare things are difficult because we dont dare ”