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Olympic flame lit atop Europe’s highest peak, Mount Elbrus - in October

Russia Sochi Torch Relay

In this photo made Friday, Oct. 25, 2013 and provided by Olympictorch2014.com, Saturday, Feb. 1, 2014, mountain climber Karina Mezova and Abdul-Khalim Elmezov, head of Kabardino-Balkaria climbing federation, light the Olympic flame on the summit of Mt. Elbrus during the Olympic torch relay in Kabardino-Balkaria province, southern Russia. The special project to take the flame to the western peak of Elbrus, the highest point in Europe, was planned separately from the main Olympic Torch Relay route in order to ensure the best possible weather conditions for the climb and was made at the end of October 2013. The 65,000-kilometer (40,389 mile) Sochi torch relay, which started on Oct. 7, is the longest in Olympic history. The torch has traveled to the North Pole on a Russian nuclear-powered icebreaker and has even been flown into space. (AP Photo/ Konstantin Dikovsky, Olympictorch2014.com)

AP

Officials have confirmed that the Olympic torch’s ascent to the top of Russia’s Mount Elbrus, the highest peak in all of Europe, took place in October 2013. The announcement comes as the torch relay moves into Russia’s Kabardino-Balkaria region, where the mountain is located.

Back in October, mountain climbers Karina Mezova and Abdul-Khalim Elmezov (who serves as president of a local climbing federation) went up Elbrus’ western face with the flame in tow, kept inside a special lantern.

Sochi Olympic organizers said today in a statement that the Elbrus stage of the relay was planned separately from the main torch relay route to “ensure the best possible weather conditions for the climb.”

“Today [Saturday] is the official stage of the torch relay to Mount Elbrus, as is down in the calendar,” a spokesperson confirmed to AFP. “But the mountaineers went there in October, when the weather conditions were more favorable.”

Russia Sochi Torch Relay

Sochi 2014/OlympicTorch2014.com

AP

The Elbrus stage of the relay is the last in a series of four special stages that have also seen the torch visit the International Space Station, the North Pole, and Siberia’s Lake Baikal, the deepest freshwater lake on Earth.

Highlights from Sochi Olympic torch relay trip around Moscow

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