Summit Stories - part I

A few details are trickling in...lots of fresh snow and super high winds all night and morning of the summit bid with gusts of up to ~60mph, which would knock you over if you didn't brace yourself.  Scott broke trail to the summit, gaining 6,000 feet of elevation in those conditions.  Lots of wind burn, but he made it to the "tip top" as EP says.

Apparently a lot of climbers take a snow cat up to 16,000 ft. and then start climbing from there to the peak (~18,510 ft.), which seems a bit like cheating to me.  Team MountainWaz made a true summit bid from camp, which means climbing ~6,000 feet of elevation to the peak.

Video of Scott's snowboard descent from below the Saddle of Mt. Elbrus, Caucasus Mountains, Russia

#6 is in the books. One last continent to go before Scott is a member of the Seven Summits Club, meaning that he will have climbed to the highest point on each continent.  The only outstanding one is Mt. Kosciuzko in Australia, which is more of a hike rather than a technical climb.

Of course, there is some debate whether Carstenz Pyramid, located in a remote area of Papua, New Guinea should actually be the highest point in Oceania, depending on our definition of that continent.  And so the climbing continues...