I just returned from a month of international travel. It was crazy. Here's the story.

So I've had a trip to Peru planned for about eight months. We were headed to Iquitos and then Lima. Iquitos is a town were tourists go to see the amazon. So we were headed there to see the Amazon as well as do a camp for the underprivileged kids in the area. The trip was ten days and everything went smooth, but Peru isn't what my story is about. About two weeks prior to my departure to Peru I went to a benefit dinner for a local non-profit. I slightly knew the founder, so i was going to go support his cause. I had the chance to say hi to him just before I was leaving and he asked me if I was still doing web stuff. I said not really and that I am mainly doing designing, filming and editing now. He then replied by asking "Wanna go to Russia?" of which I said, "sure." Little did I know that they were leaving three weeks later. We got to talking a few days after and figured out that they were leaving the exact day I was returning from Peru. I decided I could do the trips back to back, so the trip was on.

My job: To document the trip of "at risk youth" that John was taking to Russia to climb and snowboard Mt. Elbrus. One of the seven summits of the world. 18,510 ft. My trip: Free!

The trip begins.
Saturday night: 11 pm. I depart Lima for Los Angeles.

Sunday morning: Arrive at Los Angeles and spend my two hour layover in line trying to get one of the girls a plane ticket because the online agent scheduled her flight for the wrong day.

Sunday afternoon: Arrive home at Denver International Airport, walk out the doors and collect my new bags from my sister.

Sunday evening: Meet the team and depart D.I.A. for London.

Sometime monday morning: Arrive in London and head out to see the sights for the day.

Monday night: Depart London for Moscow. Arrive in Moscow early Tuesday morning. Then have an eight hour layover until we make our final flight to Mineralnye Vody.

Once we arrived in Mineralnye Vody, we loaded in taxi vans and made the two hour drive to the base of the mountain. Spent the night in a hotel and then the next day got our gear together and headed for base camp.

I'm pretty sure this tram was erected in the 60's... and I don't think it's been maintained since then either.

The World War II Memorial at the top of the tram.

A butterfly at 11,500 ft? What?!

Our base camp.

After settling into base camp, at 11,500 ft., we hiked to 15,000 ft. to acclimate for our summit attempt.

Leading the pack.

I put the camera away for my ride and made my way back down to base camp. My legs were dead. The following day we prepared for our summit attempt, later that night, by laying around and eating and laying around some more.

Instead of setting up a second camp, the day prior, at 15,000 ft., we decided to get a lift by snowcat. Scheduled pickup was 2:30 am. We reached our starting point at 3 am.

The hike begins.

John and I on the summit.

Self portrait. East summit in the background.

Thirteen hours later we made it back to base. Ten out of thirteen of us successfully made it to the summit. Our youngest was fourteen. The next day we made our way back down off the mountain.

So the hike was over and it was more than successful in our opinion, and our trip was only half over. During the next week, we had the boys learn how to serve others by interacting and playing with Chechen orphans as well as some small community service projects in the town of Nalchik.

A high kick to the face equals a broken nose. Which equals no fun in a Russian hospital.

Mineralnye Vody translates to "mineral springs".

We departed Mineralnye Vody for Moscow and spent 2 nights there.

Brothers don't shake hands...brothers hug.

While in Russia, we went to a flea market and I found the find of the century. I bought two original propaganda posters from the Soviet era. One from 1945. The other from 1949. Both are also first prints! I'll post some pics of them once framed. They're so sick.

After Moscow, the trip still wasn't over. We departed Moscow and headed for two nights in Munich. I was so tired by the time we got to Munich that I didn't take many pictures.

So that was the trip and it was quite the experience! I'm glad to be home for a few reasons. One, I really missed my lady. Two, being a "foreigner" for a month starts to get really old, and three, I'm excited to get moving on my new website and clothing. The site was suppose to be launched July 1st, but unfortunately my web guy let me down big time and I'll be spending the next few weeks creating it myself. I'll keep you all updated once it launches.

Thanks for reading.
Signing off.
Brandon Russell.

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