It's finally time for us to get in position for the summit attempt. We had pre-booked the transportation from the MBS hotel to the cable car station in Azau the previous day. We carried a lot of equipment with us, but the vehicle that arrived was not the bus we had asked for but a small, old and classic four door Lada! All of us fitted inside the car but the equipment didn't fit too well inside the small trunk. Here we have our excellent driver next to Yolanda and Altin.

Once again we arrived to Mir with the second and the last of the two cable cars. The weather is nice and again we see some examples of Russian snow-stripping. And why not? It's summer season, right?! Yes, we must admit in some cases is quite pleasant to watch.

We got a new perspective on the concept of time tables during our visit here. The chair lift up to Garabashi and the barrels didn’t start in time this morning. To kill some time we started to chat with a few Russian youths on free style skiing training camp in the area. They came form all corners of Russia; Moscow and some even from Sibiria! They didn’t know much about Sweden but when we mentioned ABBA, Roxette and Ace of Base they all broke up in a smile and happy ‘da!’.

We waited for more than 2.5 hours before we decided to walk up to Garabashi since the chair lift had not yet started. Marco and Yolanda is standing in the snow on the way up... there is a small route with gravel, stones and some snow that leads all the way up.

Half way up we met Mattias and Maria, they was on their way down. Or not! It had been bad weather at higher altitude and they where almost out of freeze dried food, thats why they turn down. But after a discussion about the situation, time plan, weather forecast and so on they decided to go back up with us. Finaly we arrived at Garabachi. We took a short break. We must soon start to walk again since the today planed stop is the Priut Hut (even called the Diesel Hut)...let's go.

We reach the beginning of the small plateau before the last slope up to the Priut 11 hut. We descided to take a short break and look at the other people that moved around on the mountain. Somewhere in the crowd comes Mattias and Maria, that took a break earlier and now they catch up.

Because of the late season and the warm winds from the south the ice and snow melts. This is the reason that the small river was formed. A few days ago, during an acclimatization trip, there was no water at this place, only snow and ice in combination with the low temperature. Mattias and Maria is on the way to cross, but it's not that easy... Mattias got his boot wet.

Finaly our caravan reach the Priut 11. Our intention is to find a good camp ground above Priut 11 Hut. It can easily get crowdy and dirty close to the hut, so we want to find a place that is little more isolated to avoid this. At the picture we can see, in the background, both the Observatory and the old classic Ice Camp.

We find a good camping ground for all tents, close to each other. More, or less, we started to shuffle snow to make room for the tent... but hey, only the green tent in the middle had been secured deep enough in the snow to protect it from strong winds. Good work (whoever the owner is)!

The evening was calm... we use the time to chat and discuss the weather. And of course to eat and drink a lot. We tried a special gasmix to our stoves a few days before, it works fine. A small detail, as seen in the picture, is the plate to put the stove on. It prevent the stove to melt through the snow and it helps to stabilize the ground under the stove. Also, we isolate the gas can from the ground to prevent it from freezing.