Mount Cheget

Surprise visit back to the town to pick up more supplies so an extra chance at the internet. We had left town three days before in glorious sunshine with hotels BBQs going for breakfast from about 2,100m to drop down to the main valley and up into the mountains.

 A view of the bottom of the main valley.

And then we left the main road, through a village, past the cemetery...

 and we were soon high up the valley side.

 We were dropped in some trees to get our packs off the 4x4 truck.

 And then it was a slog up the slope.

 Some of the group.

 A view back down the valley.

 And a view up the valley, and it was a nice day.

 We had soon left the forest and were above the tree line, taking a break over looking vast slopes of scree.

 We were following a stream up towards a lake but the weather was closing in and it would start raining before we got to camp.

 We reached the lake but it was already raining and there was a string wind and the temperature had dropped.

 We started itching camp in a hollow to get some  protection from the relentless wind.

 A view overlooking the lake and the stream that flowed off the glacier higher up the valley.

 A view of the delta that had formed where the stream flows into the lake.

 At last our tents were up and gave us some shelter. We had dinner and went to bed.

 After breakfast we climbed up the col from which we could ascend Mount Cheget whose summit is 3,601m. I took this photo of a bird but none of us could positively identify it...any ideas?

 A view down the valley but the weather was closing in, the wind was picking up and there were distant rumbles of thunder.

 We took a look at the view over the col.

 But the weather got worse and we were just a hundred vertical metres from the top. But the bad weather forced our hand and so we descended in the rain and huddled in our tents waiting for the weather to break.

 A huddle. We soon called it a day and went for n afternoon nap as there was nothing else to do.

 Late in the evening the clouds blew over and the sun shone weakly for an hour before dusk. We had some visitors. First just a mother and fawn and a little later, the whole herd came to check us out and what we were doing on their patch.

 And  ptarmigan came over to see what was happening.

The wether the txt day was better nuts was time to move on so we packed up camp and headed down.

The weather had inverted itself so that on the mountain it was sunny but there were clouds in the valley. We were grateful to see our driver and get a lift back into town.