As of January 2009 The Last Well is an official 501(c)(3) nonprofit. A special thanks to those who made this happen.

February 26 – March 1, 2009 The Last Well will be taking a team to do a Winter Summit of Mt. Washington, NH. This time the team is made up of new and veteran members of the Mt. Elbrus expedition. For being a rather short mountain at just 6,288ft, Mt Washington is home to some of the world’s most extreme weather. During winter months it is not atypical to see temperatures in the -20 degree farenheit range with wind chill. It is also noted that Mt Washington holds the worlds fastest recorded wind gust at 261mph. Bundle up team! We’ll pray God keeps you warm and safe!

In April 2009 The Last Well be doing another stateside climb. We’ll be traveling to California’s Inyo National Forest to attempt to summit Mt. Whitney – the Highest peak in the lower 48 United States. Mt. Whitney is 14,505ft and is positioned in the Eastern Sierra Nevada mountains between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. An interesting fact is Mt. Whitney, the highest point, is only 2 hours away from the lowest point in the United States – Badwater (Death Valley), CA. Pray for their safety – that’s bear country!

The most exciting news to announce is the partnership of Global Impact, the world missions arm of Frontline, and The Last Well. In June of this year two teams totaling 26 members will be traveling to Africa for two weeks. Week one will be spent with Manna doing outreach work in Arusha, Tanzania. Week two the teams will attempt a summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro – the Highest point in Africa and one of the fabled Seven Summits. This is an amazing oppurtunity for all organizations involved and a chance to continue sharing our faith while pursuing our passions.

Please check back for more information as the details for each one of these trips develop.

The Last Well

In Vail, Colorado on October 19, 2000, I started my very first “Life’s 100,” which Jack Nicholson’s PR agency has since instructed me to call a “Bucket List.”  Never mind the fact that I couldn’t think of 100 items right off the bat.  The very first strokes of the pen jotted the aspiration of climbing Mt. McKinley, as part of a larger goal of climbing the Seven Summits.  I had become aware of the first-time feat achieved by Dick Bass through a recent article.

I have to admit mountaineering may not have qualified as a true passion at the time – let alone my life’s purpose.  If it were, I would have prioritized climbing 14ers in my spare time, wracked up tons of experience, and built an impressive resume of summits.  Perhaps I might even have pursued it as a way to earn a living.  Instead it remained my favorite daydream, and felt like a promise waiting to be filled.

At that point, I already knew that I was moving the following autumn to Washington DC to finish college at American University.  Nonetheless, I began to research the Seven Summits task and started attempting to recruit friends to join me in the quest.  I priced permits and gear for McKinley, evaluated the possibility of every summer, and took a spring break in Chile to visit Aconcagua’s Andes.  My planning was going nowhere.  Worse still, I had sharply departed from Christ and his teachings over the course of those years.

By the time late 2005 rolled around, I finally realized that I needed a serious course correction.  I joined a Bible Study and recommitted myself to following my Savior.  Late last year, I went on my first mission trip since high school, to India.  Every step of the way, God flawlessly illuminates more of His truth – and then patiently renews my heart to implement it.  Just as He was revealing that I could do more to meet the material and spiritual needs around me, the Elbrus Expedition presented itself as the opportunity.

When I say I cannot recall ever thinking about Mt. Elbrus, much less planning for it, I am quite serious.  But God has given me a direction and then provided a completely unforeseen path of His own in my life before.  The challenge is usually to remember his abiding faithfulness and take heart from it.  I’m sure I’ll be reminding myself of these words soon enough.

And so I found myself at 13,000′ with a team of men that I didn’t know a year prior, preparing for a summit more than 4,000′ higher than I’d ever been.  The night before our summit attempt, I woke up and could not nod off again.  A couple of hours went by and I turned to God to find comfort in conversation.  My prayer was a simple question for confirmation of what lay ahead.  “Lord, is this my idea - or Yours? Because if it’s Yours, I need Your strength and faithfulness to carry it out.”  Of course, I also asked for a bit of rest – “please, just two hours.”  The plan was to wake up at 1:30am, gear up, and be heading up the mountain by 3am.  I only had been sleeping for 1.5 hours when I awoke in the first place.  11:30 came and anxiety began to rise.  11:32 and my spirits began to fall.  I peeked again at 11:36, made a mental comment about how encouraging it would have been to get the two hours, and within minutes I was asleep at last.  Our wake-up call came late… at 1:40.

My usually overactive brain was placid – literally fixated only on the next step, and the next breath.  As our guide, Tap, explained: mountaineering is about being as efficient as possible.  Oh, that we were so dedicated with the rest of our efforts in life!

I find it hard to define or explain the profound affection I have for these other guys who I was roped to on that mountain, but I feel it is important to try.  The fellowship that gives God glory is the one that hopes in Him, and remains committed to each other.  So I am not surprised that it was right to push on in camaraderie and entrust the top to each other.  In this way, every exhausted step taken by your brother in front of you – from the saddle to the summit – was a step just as much for you as for himself.

That unbounded thankfulness expressed itself in euphoric tears as we approached the final few yards.  By that time, my focus was no longer the apex – but turning around to share my excitement with Zach behind me.  My smile sought to explode through my weeping as we scurried up to sprawl out together on top of Europe, and unrolled our banner reason for being there…  THE LAST WELL.

I am exuberant about the future.  The future of providing water and the Word to Liberia.  The future time spent with you and others who will hear of this movement and be stirred.  Yes, future mountains, too.  The point is not that God promised me the summits of seven peaks, but that His salvation and faithfulness are perfect even when I am unfaithful and heartless.  He is ceaselessly reminding me of His desire to be relied on in our relationship.  And a list is the least of the ways that He will work through our lives and show His Glory.

Andrew Good

I went into this expedition knowing I have suffered from altitude sickness in the past. Anytime I’ve approached 13,000ft and higher I got sick. I prayed that it would not affect me this time or that I would be able to take medicine to mitigate any affects even though I dislike any medicine dependencies.

We moved onto the mountain on Monday to live and acclimatize at 13,000ft in our base camp hut. The valley we had been staying was at 7,000ft. Upon arriving to the hut I instantly starting feeling the affects of the 6,000ft ascent. The symptoms were all too common as I’ve had them before…nausea, headache, loss of appetite, general malaise. It seemed that every minute I was feeling worse and worse. I began to worry if I would even be able to summit in just a day and a half. Our guide, Tap Richards, had already gained my respect and trust given his experience and interaction with our group. I decided not to take the altitude meds and go naturally. He confidently explained that what I was feeling was normal for some and he wasn’t concerned yet. I felt completely miserable though. Through the night and for the next 12 or so hours I was suffering from being at this altitude. At times, some symptoms would let up and I would feel encouraged only to have them reappear later.

When you lie awake at night sick, on the side of a mountain, in a foreign country listening to 20 knot winds batter your cage – your faith is forced to a test. I was finally out of my comfort zone. My earthly strength was zapped, and I was as far away from home as I’ve ever been participating in what some would say isn’t the safest sport. I had to give my safety and the entire outcome of this trip to God and come to terms with the fact I may not summit. I actually convinced myself that night that I wouldn’t be able to make it to the 18,510ft peak. I prayed that God would be clear to me as to which point to turn back if that was His will but I was still going to attempt to summit Elbrus.

Our summit day came in the early hours of Wednesday morning. We all woke and prepared for this momentous day. I still felt sick but slowly was improving – I was at a solid 85%. We started our ascent at 3:00am. I know the adrenaline and anxiety masked some of my symptoms that morning. Just two hours into the ascent I found myself on all fours throwing up on the side of the mountain at about 14,500ft. I was scared, worried, disappointed…  I called for Tap, our guide, and his response was “I’ve seen plenty of guys throw up and still summit. Try to make it through at least one more leg.”

Was God telling me to stop here or reminding me to rely on him?

I continued on.

The next few hours can only be described as an answer to prayer and God pouring out his infinite grace on a submissive heart…yet again. While I was still tired and becoming more exhausted the effects of the altitude were lessening the higher I went. I didn’t understand. Several of us just barely made it into the saddle of Mt. Elbrus due to the altitude and fatigue our bodies were feeling. At our rest stop in the saddle I saw and felt strength come over our team that could only be described as supernatural. What a humbling time. We all decided here that we go to the top as a team and celebrate the summit together or not at all.

An hour and half later we celebrated. The Last Well Team sat on top of the highest peak in the European continent 18,510ft into the sky. This meant 40,000 Liberians would soon have access to clean water!

All Glory to God.

Zach Casper 

I’d also like to share a little from my dicey moments on the mountain to illustrate the importance of a great team! On Tuesday morning around 10am we had reached the saddle of Mt. Elbrus.  The saddle is the ridge between the East and West peaks of Mt. Elbrus and this is the last break before the final 1.5 hour push to the East Summit of Elbrus.  At this point we had been climbing for about 7 hours and over 4,500 vertical feet.  When I reached the saddle I put my backpack down and tried to get out my water and some food but I kept stumbling and was having some trouble seeing.  Our guide, Tap gathered our team together and said, “This is it guys, the last push.  If you don’t think you have the energy to get to the summit and back down to summit camp, don’t go because either we all make it or none of us make it.”  Gulp!  Todd Phillips and I looked at each other, doubting whether we should jeopardize the whole team if we couldn’t make the summit.  Several times we changed our minds but then finally decided to stay back so that the stronger climbers could make the summit. 

But then Andrew Good spoke up and said, “We’re doing this as a team.  Either we all make it or none of us makes it!”  That was the vote of confidence we all needed.  We made our way up the summit and all 8 of us made it to the top….together. 

On the way down, my dizziness and lethargy started to really kick in, as well as a complete white out due to a rough snowstorm.  What I didn’t know at the time is that I had cerebral edema, an altitude disorder due to lack of oxygen that causes the brain to swell, a loss of motor functions, and blackouts.  The only cure is to get down to a lower altitude ASAP!  About 45 minutes into our descent I completely blacked out…

I woke up on the mountain at about 14,000 ft still hiking downward toward our summit camp.  When we finally arrived at camp my team began to tell me what they did to get me down safely.  Tom Heffernan, Rob Newton and Zach Casper each played a huge part in helping me down the mountain to safety.  Of the whole team, not one guy complained or left me, but each one went above and beyond what he had left in the tank to make sure we got down safely.  It is not an exaggeration to say that these guys saved my life.

This is what a great team is all about.  Helping each other even when it’s inconvenient, carrying each other’s burdens, sacrificing our own interests for the interests of others, an all-in attitude.  I’m still processing through the impact each of these guys made in my life, but the lessons I’ve learned about teamwork will be with me forever. 

Thank God for these guys!
Nate Keeler

I’m going to ask each climber to post a blog in the next few days so you can read about our adventure from the perspective of each man on the team.

We are all spending time with family and unpacking today and I’ll be in the Frontline office bright and early Monday morning.  God has truly displayed His majesty in the grandeur of His creation as well as the intimacy of friendship.  Thanks be to God for who he is!

Carpe Deum! (Seize God!)
Todd Phillips

At 12:30PM Elbrus Time (4:30AM EST) on Wednesday July 2nd, 2008 eight of eleven members of the Expedition Elbrus Team stood on the summit of the highest peak on the European Continent!

Rob Newton, Zach Casper, Andrew Good, Andrew Pitts, Thomas Heffernan, Nate Keeler, Jordan Olivero, and myself (Todd Phillips) endured forty mile-an-hour winds and a severe snowstorm to reach the summit.

Jim Printz became severely ill and just before the ascent was unable to climb with the team on summit day. Ryan Wheaton went temporarily blind in his left eye about two hours into the summit attempt and was forced to turn back, and Chad Madden, the videographer, turned around at 17,300 feet (1,200 feet below the summit). These men each made some of the toughest decisions imaginable and I applaud them for their clear-headed ability to make the right choice at the right time.

A few honorable mentions must be noted:
- Rob Newton, Tom Heffernan, and Zach Casper assisted one of our climbers down nearly 3,000 feet down unimaginably difficult terrain through a blinding snowstorm with high winds.
- Ryan Wheaton, upon returning to base camp, manned the radio and leapt to action when he heard two climbers were coming ahead of the rest of the team on a snow cat. He met the two climbers when they arrived, took their packs, ski poles and ice axes, and prepared hot drinks for the two dehydrated climbers.

When all of the pledges come in from this expedition, as well as donations made before the climb itself and a matching grant from a donor through Living Water International, we are confident that this 10 man team of bright, young, passionate Christ-followers will have reached their unheard-of goal of $250,000! One hundred percent of this money will be used to buy equipment and drill wells in Liberia in the name of Jesus! I am thrilled to have been part of such an incredible team of young men and count it as one of the highlights of my life.

We will stay in the valley just below Elbrus until Saturday morning when we will board our flight to the U.S. Every climber agrees that this was without a doubt the most difficult experience of his life. I agree whole-heartedly. I have had the privilege of summiting Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. I failed to summit Aconcagua on the Chile/Argentina border and failed to summit Mt. Elbrus on my first attempt in 2001. Each one of these challenges were unique in their own way but this summit was by far the most physically and mentally challenging effort I have ever undertaken. I give credit to the team but above all to God for the strength he gave each member of the team.

Your servant for His sake,
Todd Phillips

Julie Phillips received a call this morning (July 2nd) from a huffing and puffing Todd. EIGHT Expedition Elbrus team members made it to the summit! Stormy weather, and altitude sickness caused problems for three of the guys but Todd said EVERYONE is fine and did a wonderful job. The attempt started at 3am and the reached the summit around 12:30 pm.

They were able to put the banner: Expedition Elbrus- Last Well Movement and LIBERIA on the top of Elbrus! Hopefully this journey has been able to shed more light on the issue of clean water in a war torn nation as well as bring glory to our Heavenly Savior.

Thank you all for praying- Todd plans on posting a more detailed blog in the next few days.

]]> http://www.thelastwell.org/top-of-the-summitt/feed/ 0 http://www.thelastwell.org/praying-for-the-team/ http://www.thelastwell.org/praying-for-the-team/#comments Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:34:12 +0000 DigitalGhost http://thelastwell.org/private-eyes/?p=93

Join us as we are praying for the Expedition Elbrus Team.  We have 3 more scheduled prayer calls.  Here’s an update from the first call that just occurred at 9am EST today.  At least 10 voices were raised together in prayer for you all – such sweet time of prayer I found tears streaming down my face. We prayed for weather, safety, strength – physical and mental, each step, health, and on.

We prayed for Liberia and the church to grow there through the Last Well Movement and providing clean water in the name of Jesus.

We prayed for the salvation of the Elbrus guides and the opportunities each member of the team may have to share about Jesus.

We prayed that all would make it to the top, and so on.

If you’d like to join us for any of the other calls, feel free to do so on these key dates:

If you would like to participate, at the assigned times, please call – 877-926-8391  Passcode 2832229.

They will be short 15 to 20 minute calls that will be dedicated completely to prayer, so no need to announce yourself when you call in, just listen in and if there’s an open moment, feel free to pray. Edward Hunt will open and close us out.

Here are the call in times – the call in number and passcode are the same for all 3 remaining calls.

June 30 – Go to high hut on Elbrus… 12:00 noon EST
July 01 – Acclimatization hike… TIME CHANGE – 5:00pm EST
July 02 – Attempt Elbrus…7:00am EST

]]> http://www.thelastwell.org/praying-for-the-team/feed/ 0 http://www.thelastwell.org/great-weather-on-elbrus/ http://www.thelastwell.org/great-weather-on-elbrus/#comments Mon, 30 Jun 2008 04:30:38 +0000 DigitalGhost http://thelastwell.org/private-eyes/?p=85 Weather was terrific yet again!  Seven years ago when I was here for my first attempt at Elbrus the weather was horrible!  God has blessed us with unbelievably warm and sunny days.  Today was no different.  We left the hotel at 8:00am for a 45-minute ride to a beautiful area of the valley.  We hiked up a trail about 1,400 feet to the edge of a massive glacier for our training day.  The crampon and ice axe training was amazing, but the best was yet to come.  Tap, our guide, and his assistant Oleg, set ropes for us to practice ice wall assent and descent.  The guys loved it!

We just got back to the hotel around 4:00pm (8:00am EST) showered and everyone made a beeline for the small internet cafe where I am now.  There are three terminals in an unmarked building and we have to go next door to pay the pharmacist 80 rubles (about $3) for an hour of time online.  Several days we were thwarted in our efforts to get online by half a dozen local boys surfing their myspace accounts for hours on end!  The world really has become very small!

In a few moments we will all make our way to the small local store for our daily supply of bottled water, bread and local snacks. We’ll have a meal of potato and caper soup, hot donut-like pastries with a side bowl full of local honey and some sort of beef/chicken/pork item.  I love Russia!

Our evening devotionals continue to go well.  We read the 6th and 7th chapters of Acts last night.  This is the section that ends with Stephen being stoned to death as the first Christian martyr recorded in the Bible.  I shared with the team that I believe this is the only time where we it is recorded that Jesus is “standing” at the right hand of God (rather than “sitting”).  It’s as though Jesus stood as Stephen was being martyred for his faith to honor Stephen for his sacrifice.  We spent the next thirty minutes or so talking about all sorts of things related to the passage we read and then everyone turned in for the night.

Tomorrow morning we move from the hotel at 7,000 feet to the Pruit hut at 14,000 feet.  It will be the most taxing day to date.  So, please continue to pray for physical, mental, and spiritual strength for all members of the team.

Carpe Deum! (Seize God!)

Todd Phillips and the Expedition Elbrus Team

Our team arrived in the Baksan Valley at the base of Mount Elbrus yesterday (Friday) afternoon.  The weather is unseasonably warm (which is a good thing) and our guide, Tap Richards, is terrific.  We went for our first acclimatization hike today.  We went from 7,000 feet above sea level at our hotel up to 10,000 feet.  We got our first look at the two-headed summit of Elbrus today.  Almost everyone on the team has commented that the mountain looks much, MUCH bigger than they imagined.  I believe each member of the team appreciates the challenge that is ahead.  The team looks strong and everyone is in good spirits.

The first five days in Moscow went relatively smoothly.  We visited the Kremlin, St. Basil’s Cathedral (the building with all of the different colored cones jutting out from the top), a magnificent new cathedral called the Cathedral of Christ our Savior, the Arabat Outdoor Market, several cool downtown restaurants, and the Moscow subway (something everyone needs to experience at least once).  The only problem happened on Thursday afternoon when Jordan Olivero, one of our team members lost his passport – something you don’t want to do anywhere, but especially not in Russia!  We made arrangements for him to stay in Moscow because he was unable to board the plane the following day with the team heading to Elbrus.  However, the story has a good ending! As of two hours ago (Saturday afternoon) Jordan miraculously arrived at our hotel, new passport in hand, after a series of events that can only be described as God’s grace on our young teammate.  So, our team is now complete!

We will be hiking to a glacier tomorrow at around 10,000 feet to practice the team roping technique, ice axe arrest training, and use of our crampons (the sharp blades that go on the bottom of our boots that keep us attached to the ice).  We will leave at 7AM tomorrow – Sunday – for our training and we’ll get back to the hotel around 3 or 4PM.  Then on Monday morning we’ll make our way to our camp at 14,000 feet.  We’ll rest Monday afternoon, do more training and acclimatizing on Tuesday and then, weather permitting, we will make our summit attempt Wednesday morning starting at 1AM!

We are 8 hours ahead of East Coast Time (9 hours ahead of our friends and family in Texas) so we will, for example, be starting our summit attempt on Tuesday at 5PM EST/ 4PM CST.  So, please be praying that everyone on our team stays strong and healthy over the next few days.

Finally, as a team we read aloud through the book of Romans while we were in Moscow and it sparked some great discussions among the team.  We decided to read through Acts for the remainder of the trip.  The loss of Jordan’s passport led us to pray diligently as a team for his return. His arrival was an incredible testament to the whole team of God’s real-world provision against all odds.

We should be able to post one more blog tomorrow and hopefully we’ll be able to use a satellite phone while on the mountain to post additional ones as we move toward the summit.  The team wants to thank all of you for your prayer and support.

Carpe Deum! (Seize God!)

Todd Phillips and the Expedition Elbrus Team