We all tried to get our gear sorted and our little bed areas as comfy as possible and then lunch was served at 12pm in our kitchen container by our expedition cook Vladimir.The table was covered in food, biscuits and sweeties! If this is a sign of things to come then we have arrived!!
I had some hot chocolate, biscuits, chocolates etc before Vladimir gave us delicious borscht with bread-somehow I think I will be putting on weight here and not losing any!!
After lunch we got our harnesses and crampons on for our first acclimatization hike up to the Priut Ruins-around 4100m!
The sun was baking down on us and after only 5 minutes I took off my fleece and spent rest of hike in my t-shirt!
Oh my....the views!! I cannot describe how amazingly beautiful it is here-I can't stop taking photos! And the landscape changes every few minutes with cloud, mist etc-a proper winter wonderland.
I loved each minute of the slog up the snow slopes-Jay and I even played a game whereby we saw who could walk the furtherest with their eyes closed...I lost as I immediately veered right and kept going haha!
My first time walking with crampons was going so well-I was so chuffed with myself! It felt good and I never thought of them again. We laughed and joked the whole day-our group is getting on so well and everyone's a joker!
We rested opposite the Priut ruins on some rocks, eating snacks and drinking precious fluids! Joe tripped on his one crampon and injured his leg-a nasty looking scrape, so we are aware that we must be careful!
Juri got us all ready and showed us a quick sliding type technique for going down fast, it was awesome such fun!
The clouds had covered everything it was like a 'gorillas in the mist' scene!
We got back to the barrels and all jumped into our sleeping bags for some rest and relaxation before dinner at 7pm! It only gets dark around 9/10pm here, which works so well with no electricity.
I did some blog entries, read on my kindle and slept a little.
We got up for dinner which was hearty again and headed for our barrel straight after. The toilets are really nasty-so I'm really lucky I don't have to take Diamox and wee all the time!
We were winding down on our beds some of the group asleep when all of a sudden the light in the barrel came on!!
We whooped and screamed not quite believing our eyes! Turns out the super turns the generator on for two hours some nights from 9-11pm! Ray plugged his phone charger in so fast and lo and behold it worked!! Yay now I could play games etc on iPad and recharge tomorrow night!!
We all slept well, my bag and liner was so hot at one stage I was sweating!
All is good here in Russia....
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