31st August: Since we summited, we have been keeping quite active. We walked to the local springs to check out the mineral water, we then went on to have shashlik (BBQ) and enjoy a drink of 5642. Luckily, we also survived the vodka at the pirate party. We changed location yesterday and drove to Nalchik. This is a Russian town that we enjoyed for the night. Next stop, home.

28th August: 100% success

Congratulations to Wayne, Jason, Shaun, Adrian and Liudmila for getting to the top of Europe. We all made it to the summit around 8:30am this morning and everybody was in great spirit. The weather forecast was correct about a partly clear sky but it omitted to mention the blustery wind conditions. After been blown around for most of the morning, we are now back at our hotel enjoying the sauna.

I think the most dangerous part of the expedition is still ahead of us tomorrow night as a local company has invited us to a eating, dancing, drinking party. Something tells me there might even be a little Vodka involved. At least we are all well, happy and safe. Well done to all of our team.

25th August: Although we got caught in a hail storm towards the end of our hike, we were still able to climb Mt Andyrchi (3900m) today. Most of our climb today was on Russian switchbacks, to you and me, that is pretty much straight up hill. Even though it was a tough climb, we all had a great time and got to the top with no problem.

Tomorrow, we are heading back to the barrels where we will spend the next few nights. The weather is looking good for a few days so we are hoping for a summit attempt on 28th or 29th. The next time I write, I hope to have some good new.

24th August: We are all having a great time and enjoying our acclimatization progress. Today, we went to visit the infamous barrels as they have quite the reputation among Elbrus climbers. We then carried on and walked to Priut-11 at 4050m. Theses are sights we will be seeing again when we come to do our summit push in a few days.

Yesterday, we walked to Georgia and climbed Cheget Peak where we enjoyed lunch around 3400m. We also had the bonus of descending on a chairlift which our knees thanked us for. So far, all is going really well and we look forward to tomorrow’s challenge.

22nd August: We are now in a completely different part of the world since our last post. Since our flight to Mineralnye Vody via Moscow, we took a 4 hour drive to the Baksan Valley and relaxed for the rest of the afternoon in our wonderful hotel. It is really clean, in a fantastic location and the food is great. After a good nights sleep, we had breakfast this morning and set out on our acclimatization hike up to the Terskol Observatory. After lunch, we decided to head up to our high point around 3400m.

Here, we got to see our main objective of the trip, Elbrus. We had a few showers yesterday but the sun was shining all day today which was really enjoyable. I have just met up with the last member of our team, Liudmila, which is great as we are now a full team. We are going enjoy a nice dinner this evening and plan another acclimatization hike for tomorrow.

20th August: I am now at Heathrow airport with Wayne, Shaun and Jason. We have checked our baggage and we are excited to get our expedition underway to Elbrus, Russia.

19th August 2014: The Team will depart the UK on the 31st of July arriving in Moscow before travelling on to Mineralnye Vody to make their final preparations for the mountain.