Veteran Freeport mountaineer Dave Mellor has returned from another triumph – this time the ascent of Europe’s highest peak, Mount Elbrus.
Mr. Mellor, 63, scaled the 18,481-foot twin-headed volcano in the Caucasus range of Russia as part of his mission to climb the highest mountain on every continent.
Elbrus is not as high as many mountains tackled by the intrepid retired Grand Bahama businessman, but it is the worst killer because of extreme weather conditions.
“Many climbers lose their lives on the mountain in an average year,” he told The Tribune.
“This area was the scene of some fierce fighting during the Second World War when the German army was fighting its way through to Stalingrad,” he said.
“There were many casualties and still even today there are bodies of soldiers being found in the melting glaciers that surround the mountain.”
Mr Mellor, a Yorkshireman who has lived in the Bahamas for nearly 40 years, began climbing as a teenager. Now he is devoting his retirement to a series of mountaineering challenges.
“I made the first attempt (on Elbrus) on September 1 to celebrate my 63rd birthday and almost made it to the top before a bad storm hit us with 60mph winds and minus 20 degree temperatures.
“The wind chill made it bitterly cold and I felt colder then than I did on Mount Everest. We had to fight our way down in white-out conditions and helped a number of climbers who were finding it really hard.”
At his second attempt, however, Mr Mellor made it to the top after what he called “six bone-chilling hours” in a freezing snowstorm.
“It was too cold to hang around, so after my usual ritual of leaving the Bahamas flag, scattering sand from Freeport beach and planting a set of Bahamian coins among a pile of icons and trinkets that marked the top, I head down long, long descent of almost 7,000 feet.”
He has left the Bahamian flag on Mount McKinley in North America, Aconcagua in South America, Kilimanjaro in Africa and now Mount Elbrus in Europe. One of his future targets is Mount Vinsen in Antarctica – “the coldest mountain in the world.”
He also has a lingering desire to have another go at Everest, the world’s highest peak. In 1999, he reached 28,000 feet.
Source: The Tribune
