Monday, June 29, 2009

Mount Kazbek defeats me yet again...

I spent the last few days enjoying the beautiful crumbling architecture of Tbilisi's old town. I used the few Hebrew words I knew to try and communicate in the city's old synagogue, practiced a little Arabic with the keeper of the old mosque (the only Mosque to survive the 1930's anti-religion campaigns) and traded some Russian and Georgian pleasantries at the numerous churches. Other than that, I have just been eating gargantuan quantities of Georgian food.

I had finally readied my iceaxe, crampons and cold weather gear for my ascent of Mount Kazbek (the place that Prometheus was supposedly chained down by the gods). I have dreamed of climbing this peak since my last visits to its base in 06 and 07. Full of excitement I just checked the weather forecast and... a week of thunderstorms lay ahead. *sigh*. Looks like I brought my gear halfway across the planet for nothing.

Oh well, better make the most of my time. I met a Serbian man with a car and convinced him to try and head up to Tusheti. This region is the most remote in Georgia. It is bordered to the north by Chechnya and to the east by Dagestan. Looks like that is where I'm headed before I hop on the bike.

3 comments:

  1. James, thats really too bad about the storm! You will have the chance some day to climb it. Sounds like things are going over all well. Good luck my fellow biking savage... Hope to hear from you soon!

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  2. Hey James....screw mountain climbing, jump on that bike buddy... hopefully we will hear more from you soon, but until then have fun and keep it real dude.

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  3. Hey James! Great to connect to your blog... I love to hear what you are up to! I miss our dinners together, and our vacations away from the madness of this place. Take care of yourself! loooooove hannah

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