Towering over the Caucasus Mountains near the border of Russia and Georgia, Mt. Elbrus proved to be an excellent start to our 7 Summits Challenge. The most difficult part to this climb proved to be the logistics of traveling in Russia. Mark and Rob arragned everything on their own, opting to make this a self-guided trip. Everything went as planned, except for 3 out of 4 bags being lost on the short London-St.Petersburg flight. Once that was taken care of, it was a text book ascent under excellent conditions. The highlight was a ski descent from just below the summit, making the long trek up with skis a worthy choice!