9/11-9/13 | Salt Lake City >> Los Angeles >> Amsterdam >> Surprise Paris >> Moscow >> MRV
The travel never stops.
On travel day, it was a really hectic morning. Local Los Angeles news channel KTLA TV wanted to do a morning news piece on my journey and Second Seven Summits goal. Because it’s LA, that meant full hair and make-up before the shoot. Cut to the internet not working well enough at my house, segment delays, and all of a sudden barely having time for filming the segment before leaving for the airport.
My flight was with Delta and their Sky Team partners. I checked in for my flights: First, SLC to Amsterdam; then Amsterdam to Moscow. The total flight plan was just shy of 24 hours and the quickest route to Moscow. Upon landing in Moscow, I planned to book a separate ticket to get to MRV (Mineralnye Vody Airport), the airport closest to my starting location. I had a six-hour layover in Amsterdam, which was fine as the lounge was nice and the airport was clean. When I landed, I checked on my next flight, and all was good. Fast forward to an hour before my flight, it’s time to board, flight crew scan my boarding pass, and I’m blocked from boarding. I’m told that I can’t fly to Moscow through Amsterdam unless I am a repatriating Russian citizen! Amsterdam is a “red list” country for travel into Russia on tourist visas (Wow, I wish someone would have caught this before booking!). When I went to the help desk, I had to be re-routed through Germany, Turkey, or France, as those countries allow transient travel into Russia. At that point, the quickest option was to fly to Paris and then onto Moscow. This change added another 10 hours to my flight itinerary resulting in me missing my fight to MRV.
I arrived in Moscow, went to baggage claim, and discovered my bags didn’t make it and were completely missing. I had to file lost luggage reports at the airport and communicate with everyone through Google translate as my Russian was as good as anyone’s English (i.e. bad on both sides). I was beyond tired and hadn’t slept, so decided to find an airport hotel and try to sleep for four hours before catching a morning flight to MRV. Without any of my stuff, I got to the hotel, showered, slept in my clothes, and headed back to the airport. The hotel jaunt probably wasn’t worth it in the end, but I was so fried that I needed a dark room and no overhead speakers blaring. I hadn’t even gotten to the mountain yet and my mental state was deteriorating quickly.
I landed in MRV late morning of 9/13, got picked up from the airport, and driven straight to a rental store to rent gear. The weather window for the trip and going for a summit was a narrow, now or never situation, so there was no time to wait for my own gear to arrive. A lesson I keep learning in the mountains is to be resilient, and this was a whole new kind of resilience on the front end of the journey.
The rental store was amazing! They helped the best they could with everything from sleeping bags, to boots, to crampons, a climbing harness, a backpack, bowl, spoon, jackets, gloves, underwear, socks…ALL THE THINGS. I finally felt like something was going my way. Naturally, most items weren’t my correct size, and nothing was the quality (hyper lite) that I am used to, but hey, it all worked for the most part.
We left the rental store and I met up with my two partners in crime, Garrett Madison and Chase Merriam. And off we went on a three-hour car ride to Base Camp. The car ride was 1.5 hours of paved road and then 1.5 hours of non-paved, non-maintained road. We passed through three passport guard station checks in a vehicle with a back seat only going up to the middle of one’s back and no head rest. We made it to Base Camp later in the day than planned and then met our guides, Victor and Alexi, both legends in the world of mountaineering, and whose skill and abilities humble me.
We completed a full gear check and got to bed so that we could wake up early for our 9/14 start.
September 14 | Base Camp (7218ft) >> Camp 1 (11,482ft)
The adventure begins! We started to trek and about 20 minutes from Base Camp we showed our permits and got our passports checked again for approval to climb on. Dykh Tau is located in the Caucasus Mountains about 5km away from Georgia. It is one of the hardest peaks to climb in the Caucasus, as all of the faces are incredibly steep and full of snow and ice. Our climb is via the North Ridge.
Chase and Garret just finished climbing Mt. Elbrus, the tallest peak in Europe, so they were already acclimatized. I skipped acclimatizing here because I wanted to spend more time at home with the kids and felt that, with the amount of time I have been in the mountains this year, I should be okay.
It all started as a mellow hike in and then got steep quite fast. This part of the hike didn’t require crampons. All of us were skilled enough to do the rock/scree sections without ropes, but it was a long day at around 10 hours. I know it could be done in less time, but weather plays a huge role in the mountains and our weather slowed us down.
We climbed “alpine style” which means we have to carry everything in. There were no fixed lines, and we were tied off to one another, moving up and down the mountain as a team with our belongings.
After carrying heavy packs and getting to Camp One, it was time to set up tents, get out sleeping bags, and find snow to melt for adding to our dehydrated meals. This was when I noticed how much I really missed my gear. My boots were too big, which the rental store said was better than too small. However, we were doing technical things, so I felt sloppy on my footing. My larger backpack swung with every step and couldn’t tighten up small enough to stay tight to my back. Looking for some silver lining, I chalked it up to being a new way to strengthen my ankles and improve my core muscles.
I also missed my mountain food and my mountain snacks. The first dehydrated dinner made me realize it was going to be a long, few days of trying to get food down and stay fueled, an issue that has cropped up for me on previous expeditions.
We got all set up and crammed three people into a three-man tent that had only one vestibule (making it really hard to keep our stuff covered up). While the tent was not quite big enough for us, there was not more space for additional tents, and no one wanted to carry up another. The two guides shared a two-man tent, and while it had two vestibules and a little more room, they also had a lot more gear.
We laid down to rest, but I’m not sure any of us got sleep.
September 15th | Camp One >> Camp Two (15,748ft)
Wake up was at 5:00am as we had another solid 10+ hour day ahead on the mountain. Breakfast was a version of oatmeal that tasted like a wet paper towel. We then packed up everything to head out.
We walked for about 30 minutes before needing to put on crampons and harnesses. The beginning of ice and rock from here on out. The weather was nice to us in the morning and we started vertical progress really quickly. The steepness I read about is real. You need to use two ice axes along with your crampon toe picks to move up the mountain. I should have trained with heavier packs.
We climbed along the ridge lines as rock features as much as possible because they were the safest way up. Luckily, the snow quality was okay, but we kept an eye on it because avalanche danger is real, and we would eventually need to get off the mountain—not just up it.
The route was not set, and we made it as we went depending on conditions. We would continue to do this the entire expedition. Because some areas are more dangerous than others with the ice conditions, we had to put in anchors along the route as we went up. The guides also made important decisions as to how to best cross obstacles.
It was a big mental load day with all that was going on. The weather started to deteriorate before we got to Camp Two, so setting up the tent, going to the bathroom, and eating dinner were not easy tasks. At least we were on snow, so melting it for drinks and food was easier than the day before. We crawled into the tent exhausted, however at this altitude it wasn’t easy to sleep. The wind was blowing like crazy, and our gear was still a bit wet from the night before and not having enough time to dry out.
September 16th | Summit Push (17,072ft)
We woke up at 3:00am to try and beat a coming storm before our summit push and descent. We were all looking forward to coming back down to Camp Two for the night after touching the summit at (17,073ft), which meant our packs could be lighter for the day. In theory, this day should have been another 10 hours of effort, but of course, it was all weather dependent.
So far, the route hadn’t been easy and today turned out to be no exception. The first part of the route, we dug our way up the face of the mountain. Had the weather been any different at this time of day, we would have turned around for avalanche risk. However, snow was in our favor despite being waste deep and a football field or more of pure uphill trench digging to get where we needed to go. This made our day longer than planned, making us all more worried about the incoming storm.
The ridges the day before paled in comparison to the ridges of today. There were rocks and edges so extreme, that taking one mismeasured footstep to the right or left would send you falling 1,000 plus feet. And, mind you, because I was roped to the person in front of me, if either of us made a mistake it would have been both of us suffering.
Because I was wearing boots too big, every step caused my foot to slide inside of them and my stabilizing muscles to engage. Uphill was easier than downhill, but I really started to feel the effects of altitude, lack of calories, and ill-fitting gear. The weather continued to be an issue all day with the sun coming in and out and massive black clouds to the side of us that seem to be teasing us all day.
By the grace of God we summitted! And…we were up there for as short of a period as possible because the storm was immediately upon us!
Garrett removed his ice axe from his backpack at the summit because he felt the heat from it on his back. We were in the storm at the highest point which meant electrical currents were high. The next hour we moved as fast as we could, crawling in sections on our stomachs to stay low to the ground. Chase was zinged a few times and I was, as well. It is not a comfortable experience and rather frightening! We got down to a safer spot and still really didn’t process how quickly that storm moved in, and how lucky we were to not have someone get hurt more severely.
The day was a bit of a blur on the way down as we set up rappels and continue descending. I quickly learned how much more of an adventure this mountain is than others I have been on. All three of us have done K2 (they both summited; I did not) and agree that this mountain is in a whole other league.
We made it to Camp Two later than we wanted, more tired than we desired, and colder than we expected.
September 17th: Camp Two >> Base Camp
Time to descend to Base Camp. It would be a dramatic drop of about 8500ft in altitude while managing bad weather and increased avalanche danger due to new snowfall. If we couldn’t get through certain parts, we faced being stuck on the mountain without extra food packed.
Our gear was wet when we woke up. Sleeping bags, jackets, and everything were completely soaked, which turns light gear into heavy gear fast. We had no time to worry about it and just had to get moving to rappel down the mountain as soon as possible.
The weather seemed to be holding, but we didn’t take any chances. Downhill in big boots is not awesome. My left ankle was killing me, and snow was balling up under everyone’s crampons (which meant compromised footing). We slipped and slid our way down to Camp One. At least we were finally off snow and ice. The next section down was loose rocks that we boot skied down as much as possible. There were lots of obstacles throughout this section, so it wasn’t as safe as it could have been and rather frustrating not having permanent anchors to quickly rappel down. Any misstep in my boots and on tired legs could have led to serious ankle injury or a fall.
Mentally and physically, we were all exhausted. We made it past the checkpoint and finally ended up at Base Camp. I don’t think a Base Camp ever felt so good! We could eat real food, drop packs for good, and lay out gear to dry. I got to put on tennis shoes! (I think I will carry my boots as carry-on luggage going forward!)
September 18: Home bound
We slept in until 7:00am and had breakfast – a real one and not freeze dried, hurrah! We packed up the rest of our stuff and started the drive out to MRV. We returned all my rental gear, checked into a cute hotel, and enjoyed a meal fit for a king and queen! I can’t remember when simple things tasted so good.
We all reflected on the difficulty of this climb. The fact that Dykh Tau is rarely summited because of weather conditions along with the work it takes to even get there, including special permits, puts it out of reach for most on a summit expedition.
We are grateful for the experience and think back to when the three of us first met on an Ama Dablam expedition of Garrett’s last fall in Nepal. A lot of life and mountaineering has happened for the three of us over the last year. The mountains test us in so many ways and build friendships and respect for one another in a way that is hard to repeat in the “normal” world.
I now have three of the seven mountains on my list done, including one of the more technical summits, so I am feeling good. Perhaps I’ll feel even better as the distance from the actual event widens.
There were definite moments of deep questioning on this expedition. More so than on the others. Next up is hopefully Mt. Tyree in Antarctica in January. I’m still trying to get the logistics to work and I will probably slide something more local in before to build more endurance and practice more skills.
Until the next time!