Accident

The leader, Al (in his 30s), was climbing and was below the crux at the niche on the route. He had just placed a cam and was yanking on it to test the placement when it pulled. He lost his balance and fell farther than he should have, striking the wall and injuring his leg. He did not fall to the ground, but was hanging just above a belay ledge of a climb to the right called Youth Challenge. A nearby climber rappelled to him and gave assistance and comfort until MRS members arrived. Three local guides lowered the leader to the ledge, splinted his leg and evacuated him in a litter.
The lesson learned
Retaliation is a climb that is deceivingly difficult. It is a right-leaning dihedral rated 5.9, but is really more like 5.10. To succeed, the leader must be comfortable laybacking the dihedral and placing gear down by his knees. This time, the leader fell just below the crux and swung into the wall. Significantly, the belayer's hands were burned, which may indicate that she was not belaying properly. They were also using a lead rope less than 10mm in diameter. This rope size requires significantly more attention from the belayer than "fat" ropes, as it can slip much more easily through some belay devices.
We have seen or heard of several accidents over the past year where the belayer let the leader fall farther than desired because of the use of a "skinny" lead rope. If you are using a skinny rope, be sure to pay close attention, be familiar with your belay device's limitations, and if you are belaying, wear gloves and be prepared to quickly arrest any fall.

Kilimanjaro II
The rainiest period is March to June. The fact that most months of the year have so few rainy days makes it possible to climb in relatively good conditions year round. During the rainy period of March to May, clouds tend to pile up and over the summit, dropping snow on top and rain at the base. Visibility can be limited by cloud cover even when no rain falls. The temperature at this time of year is relatively warm. The dry season, beginning in late June and through July can be very cold at night, but usually is clear of clouds. August and September are also cool and can have completely clear days, but usually a dripping cloud belt girdles the mountain above the forest and moorland. The summit can be totally clear and the successful climber looks down on a vast sea of clouds with distant mountain peaks poking through like islands.
The shorter rainy period of October to December often has thunderstorms that pass over the mountain, dropping rain as they go. Typically the clouds disappear in the evening, leaving nights and mornings clear with excellent visibility. January and February are usually dry, warm and clear with brief rain showers which make for good climbing conditions.
Kilimanjaro towers above the Great Rift Valley, possible birthplace of humankind and the site of the Leakey's research in the Olduvai Gorge. This gives Kilimanjaro an awesome mystique. One can imagine the mountain towering above our ancestors, making an early, continual impression on the species. When you walk the mountain, you'll probably encounter some odd, purposeful arrangements of stone. Your guides will claim to not know what they mean. Perhaps they don't.

Kilimanjaro
Mount Kilimanjaro rises majestically from a rolling plain close to the Indian Ocean from hot savanna to a barren and frigid 3-1/2 mile high peak. It's the highest mountain in Africa and one of the largest free standing mountains in the world. Climbing Kilimanjaro is a must-do challenge for almost every trekker and mountaineer in the world.
Kilimanjaro National Park takes in the area above the 8,850 feet, or 2,700 meters, on the mountain. It includes the moorland and highland zones, Shira Plateau, Kibo and Mawenzi peaks. In addition, the Park has six corridors or rights of way through the Kilimanjaro Forest Reserve. The Forest Reserve, which is also a Game Reserve, was established in 1921; the Park was established in 1973 and officially opened in 1977.
Kilimanjaro stands a scant 205 miles south of the equator, on the northern boundary of Tanzania. Its location on an open plain close to the Indian Ocean, and its great size and height strongly influence the climate, vegetation, animal life and the climbing conditions. It is made up of three extinct volcanoes: Kibo 19,340 feet (5,895 meters), Mawenzi 16,896 feet (5,149 meters); and Shira 13,000 feet (3,962 meters).
Even though you can climb throughout the year, January, February and September are the best months, with July, August, November and December also being good.
Equatorial to arctic conditions are present on Kilimanjaro. The range begins with the warm, dry plains with average temperatures of 85°F, ascends through a wide belt of wet tropical forest, through zones with generally decreasing temperatures and rainfall, to the summit where there is permanent ice and below freezing temperatures.

Although most of Iran is fairly flat and desolate, its average elevation is an impressive 4,000 ft/1,200 m, thanks to a scattering of towering mountain ranges, including the majestic Elburz Mountains (with 18,386-ft/5,600-m Mt. Demavend) in the north, the Zagros Mountains (with Zardeh Kuh, 14,921 ft/4,550 m) in the southwest and the Central Mountains in the east. Damavand Mount, also called Mount Demavend, extinct volcano in northern Iran, near Tehran (Teheran). It rises 5604 m (18,386 ft) above sea level and is the loftiest peak of the Elburz Mountains. The summit is conical and the crater still intact. At the base are many hot springs, giving evidence of volcanic heat comparatively near the surface of the earth. Mount Damavand was first ascended by a European, W. Taylor Thomson, in 1837. The nearby town of Damavand is a popular summer resort.

Mt. Kazbek region is situated in Eastern part of Central Caucasus, on Georgia territory, near to Georgian Military highway, Kazbegi village (1700 m ). This mountain region is almost independent from other mountain chain. Kazbek is volcano 5033 m high. First climbed in 1868 under the leadership of D. Freshfild.
From meteostation there are two possible routes on the top. More difficult is just up by the wide south-east slope-couloir (snow-ice) (3B difficulty). This route comes to the top. Early summer it's possible to go this slope by snow. It is about 30-35 dergree. The route comes near to rocks, to be sure of avalanche secure. In august here ice is opening and becomes more difficult to follow this way.
Second route is more classical - like screw from the left to right, turning the cone of Kazbek on 180 around. From meteostation route comes by left side on the moraine. After 1 hour turns to right to glacier. Here is easier to go near to slope of Kazbek as long as possible, but from the slopes it is possible rock falls, but in second part of summer, there are a lot of crevasses on glacier. Rope and crampons are necessary. Then rout comes to the pass between Kazbek and Spartak peak (4677 m), turn to right again and by the wide snow slope way comes to the top. This way is very easy, but a lot of crevasses, especially in August are through the way. It takes about 8-10 hour to the top and back.

Bezengi region
North of the Central Range and east of the immense Bezengi glacier, is the no less impressive mountain system of the Lateral Range, with several peaks over 5,000 meters high: the Koshtan massif (5,151 m), the towers of Mt. Dykhtau (5,204 m), Mt. Pushkin (5,100 m) and Mt. Mizhirghi (5,Q25 m). From Mineral'nye Vody, via the city of Nalchik and the Cherek Bezengiskiy river valley, a practicable road leads to the Bezengi refuge at the beginning of the Bezengi glacier. From here, alpinists who want to tackle the Bezengi Wall should head south towards the so-called Austrians' Bivouac, which is a six or seven hours' walk over the glacier. The mountains in the Lateral Range, on the other hand, can be reached from two different camps. The Mizhirghi camp is on the orographic left of the Mizhirghi glacier and can be reached in two or three hours from the Bezengi camp; the "3,900 Meters" bivouac is a ten to thirteen hours' walk from the Mizhirghi camp. Though it is relatively near as the crow flies, in order to get there you must cross over the Mizhirghi and Kundyurn-Mizhirghi glaciers, which call for a roped-party climb, with all the necessary ice gear and rucksacks with bivouac material. The two sides of the Bezengi mountain barrier are quite different: to the south the faces, which are mostly rocky, are often in the form of impressive vertical walls 2.000 meters high; the northern faces consist of steep ice and snow inclines thousands of meters long with overhanging rock bastions and large icefalls that literally thunder because of the snowslides that occur day and night. The ascents of both sides are long and extremely laborious due to the high altitude, the difficulty of getting over the rock and ice, and the very variable weather conditions.
All mountain faces have two stractures strictly divided on their orientation. North routes are basically comes by snow and ice slopes with steep rock bastions inside. There are a lot of danger ice-falls and snow cornices, which time by time are falling down all day long with a terrible din and crash, adding sorrounded mountains with dramatically majestic dinamic action of "bewitched" 1000 meters slope high lighting up in white and blue, because of avalanch' friction over it in thunder storm time, specially in the night together with "St. Elm" fire (corona discharge) over your tent, ski stick and even fingers and hairs.
South faces are basically composed of steep rock. The most amazing are Dikhtau, Pushkin and Mizhirgi ones 1500 high rising up over Bezengi glacier near to "Austrian bivouac", which is a six or seven hours walk over the spectacular Bezengi glacier - a huge river of ice, the longest in the Caucasus, extends for 12 km.