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Posts from 10/2011

Mt. Rainier: Climber’s Story

Posted by: Eric Frank | October 27, 2011
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount Rainier

RMI Climber Chuck Knauff climbed Mt. Rainier on a 5 Day Summit Climb this August and with RMI Guides Leon Davis, Eric Frank, and Dave Walter.  Chuck recently told the story of his climb in the newspaper the Sun Gazette.

AN INCREDIBLE EXPERIENCE
City man climbs Mount Rainier

Sun Gazette
October 23, 2011 By Julie Reppert

“It’s one of those things that, it bit me and now I’m pretty well hooked on it,” Charles “Chuck” Knauff said of his climb to the top of Mount Rainier in Ashford, Wash.

Knauff, 48, a Williamsport resident and project manager for a construction management firm based out of Harrisburg, completed the climb alongside six others in August.

He spent five days at Mount Rainier, training and climbing, with the ascent to the summit and back down to the base camp taking just under four hours.

“When you’re standing there looking at it (the mountain), it looks fake,” Knauff said. “You never get tired of looking at it.”

Two years ago, Knauff came across a documentary on ESPN depicting the mountaineering experiences of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and other NFL dignitaries, who climbed Mount Rainier as a fundraiser to benefit charities. Their challenges sparked his interest in making the climb himself.

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Shishapangma: RMI Guide Team Returns to Kathmandu

Posted by: Elias de Andres Martos | October 17, 2011
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Guide News *Everest

Dear friends, family and colleagues: we are happy to get back in touch with you. Before all, we would like to apologize for the lack of communication of the last 10 days, but unfortunately, we were the most frustrated with that issue. Our satellite phone decided not to cooperate with our solar panel, and recharging the battery was an impossible task. Being the last team this season on the mountain, we could not borrow any other means of communication and we understand the worries this might have caused. But this is what being in the Himalayas brings to all of us…

That said, we are eager to announce that entire team is back safe in Kathmandu after having reached the SUMMIT ON THE CENTRAL SUMMIT OF SHISHAPANGMA at 8013metres!!!!
On Oct.11th, Bridget, Jake, Geoff and Elias reached the central summit in the mid afternoon, on a warm and cloudless day, after having followed the NW ridge for several hours from C3 (Elias and Bridget) at 7450m and from C2.5 (Geoff and Jake) at 7100m. The next day, Oct 12th, Eric and Leon, who had made shelter in C3 the previous day, started strong towards the summit. Leon reached the summit hours later, having Eric turning around well above 7600m in a wise and mature decision that honors this young, strong and smart climber, since his cold toes were not warming up in those early hours and up there you are the mercy of the temperatures.

Two days later, the entire team was reunited at Base Camp, from were we would proceed to do several back-carries to clear our gear and trash from anywhere below C1 at 6400m. After another day of rest and packing, we initiated our descent towards the trail head, also called Chinese Base Camp, were we arrived yesterday, the 16th. We were picked up by our truck (who learned about our arrival by a paper note sent down 2 days earlier with a yak shepherd) which would take us to the town of Nyalam, just a few Kilometers away from the Tibetan-Nepali border, to spend the night. This morning (Oct 17th) we made it into Nepal not without a couple small issues at the border and multiple traffic stops en-route to our hotel in Kathmandu, due to the heavy tourist season in the area. Is close to midnight here, so I will stop writing, but we will send you a good recap of the entire expedition soon.

Again, thanks to all of you for your support, your interest and the good vibrations sent. Best regards.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos

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Shishapangma: Group Returns to ABC

Posted by: Geoff Schellens | October 17, 2011
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Guide News *Everest

Hey All,
This is a dispatch from the Shishapangma Team.  We are all back to Advanced Basecamp and everyone is doing very well.  Jake, Elias, Bridget and myself reached the summit on the 11th, Leon reached the summit on the 12th.  We are all back at ABC packing up and heading to Kathmandu on Monday the 17th.

We will update you again soon.

RMI Guide Geoff Schellens

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Shishapangma: News Regarding the Team

Posted by: Elias de Andres Martos | October 14, 2011
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Guide News *Everest

We wanted to give everyone a quick update from the Shishapangma crew. We have not received any new information directly from the team, but we did learn that the Liaison officer received a note from the team requesting their yaks to arrive at Advanced Basecamp on the 15th and vehicles to arrive at Basecamp the following day. They will spend the night of October 16th either at Nyalam or Zhangmu, depending on what time they get back to Basecamp. We will post again as soon as we hear any additional information.

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Mt. Rainier: July Climber Recounts His Experience

Posted by: Mike Walter | October 06, 2011
Categories: *Mount Rainier

With the summer climbing around here over and the leaves starting to change colors in Ashford we are taking a look back at this season’s climbs. Check out this newspaper article about climber David Cox’s 4 Day climb of Mt. Rainier. David reached the summit on July 27th with RMI Guides Mike Walter, Andy Bond, and Cody Doolan.

Congratulations David, nice climbing and thanks for sharing the article!

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Shishapangma: Team Ready for Summit Push

Posted by: Jake Beren | October 05, 2011
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Guide News *Everest
Elevation: 24,500'

It has been a busy few days here on Shishapangma. Yesterday a number of teams reached the summit and we are very happy for them.  Our team is back at Base camp after a solid rotation up high. Our team carried, put in and spent a few nights at Camp 2, roughly the same height as the summit of Aconcagua.

On this last round were able to get in a pretty windy carry to Camp 3, somewhere around 24,500’ above the ocean. Now we’re resting and recouping here at Advance Base Camp.  If weather holds we will launch this weekend for shot at the top. 

RMI Guide Jake Beren

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Shishapangma: Team Establishes Camp 2

Posted by: Elias de Andres Martos | October 03, 2011
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Guide News *Everest
Elevation: 22,965'

Hello,
This is the Shishapanga team with a new update.  Camp 2 (22,965’) has been established and the team is starting today to do some rotations and the weather forecast for the next few days is good.
We will try to push it a little further to Camp 3 (24,278’)  with some carries and get acclimatized.
Everybody is doing pretty well and we are excited and in very good spirits.  The team is working well together and despite the hardness of Himalayan climbing we are having a really good time.
So that is it for now and we’ll be calling soon with a new update.  Take care and hello to everyone.

RMI Guide Elias De Andres Martos

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