Curt Reaches his 20th Summit in 13 Years

13 years, 20 summits... What have you been up to over the last decade? Curt clearly has been living life to the fullest. Internally at Seven Corners, we call him the company's most adventurous team member. It's tough compete with 20 summits in just over a decade!

For his 20th summit, Curt traveled to Russia to take on one of the seven summits, Mount Elbrus. This is the same guy that took on Mexico's Mount Ixta earlier this year and in 2012 reached the summit of the legendary Mount Kilimanjaro.

His journey up Mount Elbrus took 10 days. When you're climbing up an enormous mountain nearly four miles into the sky, there's an acclimation process necessary so your body can adjust to the air.

Here's Curt to give you his story up Mount Elbrus:

You couldn't ask for better hiking conditions all week long. Typically on climbs like this (that last more than a week) you run into at least one weather system that makes the climb more difficult. But our group had nothing but clear skies and sunshine all week.

I flew into Moscow but didn't stay long. I had to board another flight to Mineral Vody, which is about 1,000 miles south of Moscow near the country Georgia. 

Before I begin climbs, I like to tour the city. Before heading to our starting point at the base of the mountain, I visited Red Square and took in the sights of The Kremlin and Lenin's Tomb - pictured below. Once at the hotel, we had to stay there for three nights to acclimatize before we started our ascent. I really enjoyed our group - the countries represented were: the United Arab Emirates, India, Bahrain, Australia, United Kingdom, and of course myself and a few others from the United States. 

On our first acclimatization hike we climbed 12,000 feet - just over two miles. It was a beautiful day - could not ask for more perfect weather. The hike was great and really had a nice time getting to know the other members of our group.

After a night's rest we began our second acclimatization hike. And again, another perfect day. On this hike we worked out any challenges with our gear to ensure we were prepared for the final ascent to the summit. Before started that climb, we had one more acclimatization hike to reach what were called "The Barrels" which is are just huts on the mountain for climbers.

Here are just a couple images I was able to get during the final hikes before we reached the summit:

 And one of my personal favorites, the sunrise on the morning we reached the summit.

Summit day commenced at 2:00am following our final acclimatization hike. Our gear was in proper working order, we were rested and we were ready to reach the 18,510 foot peak of one of the highest summits in the world.

Another perfect day that concluded with an abundance of pictures at the summit of Mount Elbrus. It was quite an amazing feeling and huge accomplishment for me personally to reach my 20th  
My adventure in Mount Elbrus is done but I have pictures of the memories I'll take with me to the grave. For my next summit, I'm planning on taking on another of the seven summits; Mount Aconcagua at 22,838 ft. Stay tuned for that story, hopefully coming to you in 2017!