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Posts from 06/2012

Mt. McKinley: Dave Hahn and Team Waiting in Talkeetna

Posted by: Dave Hahn, Solveig Waterfall, Cody Doolan, Tim Hardin | June 29, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 358'

Update at 12:12 pm PST: The team is flying into basecamp!  The weather cooperated for flights and we expect to hear from the team once they are settled on the glacier.

12:00 am PST:
The plan was for us to get started with our Denali expedition today.  We needed good mountain flying weather.  We had high hopes, but as it turned out, we also had low clouds.  It was on the dark and rainy side if things as we finished breakfast and walked out toward the airstrip in Talkeetna.  During the course of the day, the cloud cover would lighten here and there and we monitored alternating reports that it was getting better or worse now and again at our intended basecamp on the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier… But in the end, the upshot was that conditions never really got good enough for our pilots to risk flights into the range. 

The team took the delay without great concern, we passed the time hanging at the hangar, playing ping pong, listening to music and catching up on email and current events.  We enjoyed fine Talkeetna meals at various restaurants and we took advantage of the comforts of one more day of civilization.  Into the mountains tomorrow.  Possibly.

Best Regards,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

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Mt. McKinley: Walter & Team Reach 17,000’ Camp

Posted by: Mike Walter, Paul Edgren, Mike Hinckley | June 29, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 17,000'

Mike Walter called at 12:00 a.m. Friday morning and reported that he and the team had reached 17,000’ Camp on Mt. McKinley.  They had a nice day of climbing with light snow and no wind.  They rolled into camp at about 5:00 p.m., and are now resting.  The team may take a rest day at 17,000 but if everyone is feeling good they might just go for the top.

Good Luck Team!

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Mt. Rainier: June 29th Update

Posted by: Win Whittaker, Eric Frank | June 29, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,640'

Our Four Day Summit Climb Teams led by RMI Guides Win Whittaker and Eric Frank reached the top of Cathedral Gap today, but strong winds and heavy precipitation forced them to turn back.  The teams have left Camp Muir and we expect the back at Ashford Basecamp in the early afternoon.

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Mt. McKinley: Knoff & Team at 14K Camp

Posted by: Mike Uchal, Adam Knoff, Zeb Blais | June 28, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 14,200'

After a few snowy days at our 11K camp, we hoped for some kinder weather for our move to 14,000’. We all agree we got too much of a good thing. Yesterday’s move validated the old mountaineering saying that “you either freeze or fry.” Wednesday morning was clear, but quite cold at 11K. We ate our warm breakfast, anxiously awaiting the sun to warm our tents before we packed up to move. The cool morning climb up Motorcycle Hill quickly turned into a sweltering overly sunny slog through the Polo Fields and around Windy Corner which lacked the then desired wind of which it got its name. After refueling and rehydrating the well-oiled machine we pulled into camp 4 (14,000’)  at 5 pm. We were welcomed by our other RMI team, light snow, and many other climbers at this small makeshift alpine village.

Today (Thursday), we returned to Windy Corner to retrieve our cache of food and equipment in much of the same weather conditions as the day before.  We are now resting back at 14,000’ awaiting our possible carry up the fixed lines to 16,000’ tomorrow.

To our many fans out there who are leaving messages on our blog, rest assured they have reached us!

Tuesday night over dinner we passed the iPhone around for all to read the kind words from friends and family. Keep them coming!

Until tomorrow,
RMI Guides Mike Uchal, Adam Knoff, Zeb Blais, and our team at 14,000’

Stay classy lower 48!

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Carstensz Pyramid: Team Takes First Trek Through the Jungle

Posted by: Alex Van Steen, Mark Tucker | June 28, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Carstensz Pyramid

Good Evening, good evening from the Carstensz Pyramid team.  We are at Gamagai Village and we have had an incredible day.  We had a beautiful flight over the jungle, we were greeted in Sugapa by hundreds of people, friendly, welcoming, and we began our trek on jeeps, very fun.  We rode for about 10 minutes and then began our jungle walk. Although we expected a lot of rain and there were clouds all around, it did not rain on us as we went through first couple of villages.  It wasn’t until the last couple hours that we experienced the deluge of the jungle. We set up our tents once we got to Gamagai Village but we are not wet a bit, and the reason why is that they welcomed us to do some indoor camping at the local church. 

We are enjoying a dinner of cheese and all kinds of good food. We are going to get ready for another big day tomorrow, a great fun day. We are looking forward to what the mountain has in store for us and we will catch up in a day or two. 

All the Best,
Alex Van Steen, Mark Tucker and the first inaugural RMI Carstensz Pyramid Expedition team.

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Mt. Rainier: June 28th Update

Posted by: Brent Okita, Andres Marin | June 28, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount Rainier
Elevation: Summit

Our Four Day Summit Climb Led by RMI Guide Brent Okita reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today.  The team experienced clear weather, but strong winds.  They were able to spend a short amount of time on top and are now descending back to Camp Muir.

RMI Guide Andres Marin and the Expedition Skills Seminar – Kautz Team made a summit attempt this morning, but experienced much different conditions on the Kautz route and were forced to turn back due to strong winds. The team will spend the rest of their time on the mountain honing their mountaineering skills.

Congratulations to today’s teams!

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Mt. McKinley: Dave Hahn and Team Ready in Talkeenta

Posted by: Dave Hahn, Solveig Waterfall, Cody Doolan, Tim Hardin | June 28, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 358'

We’ve finished one of the more challenging days of any Denali climbing expedition... Packing, sorting gear and generally getting organized for leaving Talkeetna and getting on the mountain.  It wasn’t all hard work and suffering though, we certainly enjoyed a great breakfast at the Roadhouse.  National Park Service personnel at the Talkeetna Ranger Station gave us a warm welcome and Joe Reichert delivered a fine and informative orientation slideshow.  Our flight team out at K2 Aviation made us feel right at home in their hangar, which was where we got our food, tents, stoves, ropes, pots, shovels, fuel, snow saws, snow shoes, packs, ice axes, boots, crampons, sleeping bags, etc, etc, and etc. ready. 

Finally, we’d earned a break and a relaxing dinner at The West Rib Pub.  Folks then drifted home early for a last comfy night in the Talkeetna Motel.  The plan is for the team to meet bright and early for breakfast and then to hustle on out to the airstrip… If all goes well and the weather is stable, we could be loading airplanes shortly after 8AM and then winging our way toward the Alaska Range.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

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Mt. McKinley: Walter & Team Staying Put at 14k Camp

Posted by: Mike Walter, Paul Edgren, Mike Hinckley | June 27, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 14,000'

We went to bed with clear skies and a forecast for 12-18” of snow overnight. The clear skies persisted overnight and we didn’t get any new snow. There is a lenticular cloud on top of Denali today, indicating strong winds. We’re also seeing snow blowing off of the West Buttress between the top of the fixed ropes and high camp. The current winds and the increased avalanche hazard from yesterday’s foot of snow are keeping us at 14k for another day. The sunny weather at camp today is welcome, and is helping to keep our spirits high. It looks like some better weather is approaching for the weekend, and we’re hoping we’ll be able to take a crack at the summit then. With any luck, we’ll be able to move to high camp tomorrow and be in position for the arrival of the more favorable weather. We’ll keep you posted!

RMI Guide Mike Walter

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Ecuador: Nugent & Team Waiting out Weather on Cotopaxi.

Posted by: Billy Nugent | June 27, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Ecuador
Elevation: 16,000'

6/26/2012 4:00 pm Hey Everybody it’s Billy calling to check in from the Jose Ribas Refugio here on Cotopaxi (16,000’ ft). We elected to head up the hut early so we could give ourselves a full night and a little bit better of a chance of getting to the top because the weather has been so poor. So we are going to get up in the middle of the night tonight and hopefully these winds will die down a bit and the lenticular clouds will clear.  If the weather is not very good we will attempt a day climb. So we will check in again tomorrow and let you know how things played out.

6/27/2012 7:00 am Hey Gang, it’s Billy again. I’m calling to let you know that we got up in the middle of the night last night and it was blowing pretty hard so we decided to wait until the morning to see if we could attempt a day climb. We got up around 6 and we had a big lenticular cloud and pretty steady wind of 40 mph here at the hut. It is blowing a pretty consistent 50 mph just above where we are at right now. We are back into a holding pattern. So tonight will be our last chance to go climbing. We will head out into it unless it is just absolutely insanely awful.  So wish us luck. Hopefully the winds will have died down and we will have chance to get out and do some climbing. We will check in again to let you know how things went.

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Mt. Rainier: June 27th Summit!

Posted by: Casey Grom, Dan Windham | June 27, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount Rainier
Elevation: Summit

Our Four and Five Day Summit Climb teams led by RMI Guides Dan Windham and Casey Grom reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today. They reported beautiful skies, but the weather was cold and a bit breezy.  Both teams are en route to Camp Muir and we expect them back at Ashford Basecamp later this afternoon.

Congratulations to today’s teams!

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