July 13 - To Elbrus

After breakfast we loaded up two vans full of our climbing gear and drove down the road to Chegit. The group fit into one tram which we rode up to the base of the ski area. From there we took a single chairlift we our backpackers on our lap up to the Barrel Huts. Many climbers stay in these huge old oil drums as their basecamp. Our hut was about two miles up the mountain from there. It was a luxury to have a hut to stay in instead of a tent! The hut had two bunk rooms for sleeping in and a common room for cooking and eating in. The bathroom was an outhouse with a hole in the floor! We put away all of our gear and set up our sleeping area before having dinner. We read in our sleeping bags untilbwe couldn't keep our eyes open anymore.