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Posts from 09/2012

Mt. Rainier: 2012 Climbing Season Comes to and End

Posted by: J.J. Justman, Brent Okita | September 28, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'

This morning the Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir team woke to this beautiful view at Camp Muir. After a week of training and a successful summit climb Brent Okita, JJ Justman and team wrap up our 2012 season here on Mt. Rainier. 

Thank you to all who joined us for an adventure on Mt. Rainier this season. We hope to see you in the mountains soon!

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Kilimanjaro: Grom & Team Safari in the company of Elephants

Posted by: Casey Grom | September 27, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro

Hello everyone.

We just had another wonderful day here in Tanzania!

Today we visited Tarangire National park that is home to more than 6000 elephants. So needless to say we saw plenty, in fact, they were everywhere we looked. We even had one cross the road just a few feet behind our vehicle and saw one about a week old that everyone wanted to bring home. We witnessed the usual suspects of zebra, wildebeest, giraffe, antelope, a few lions and even managed to spot a cheetah enjoying a little shade beneath a tree.

Tomorrow will be our last day here. We’ll make our way back through the park, take a quick shower at the Dik Dik lodge and then head to the airport. I’m sure the whole team is looking forward to getting home and sharing their stories and pictures from this astonishing adventure.

Thanks for following our team!

RMI GUIDE Casey Grom and Team

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Mt. Rainier: Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir Summit!

Posted by: Brent Okita, J.J. Justman, Solveig Waterfall, Zeb Blais, Katie Bono | September 27, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'

On a perfect weather day, the Expeditions Skills Seminar - Muir team called in from the top of Mt. Rainier!  RMI Guides Brent Okita and JJ Justman were happy to report 100% of the team reached the summit this morning!  After spending some time reveling in the views and taking photos, the team began their descent at 9:30 a.m.

This marks RMI’s last Mt. Rainier program for the 2012 season.  Congratulations to all the summit climbers this season that we have had the pleasure of guiding to the highest point in Washington state!

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Mt. Rainier: Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir Training Up High

Posted by: Brent Okita, J.J. Justman, Solveig Waterfall, Zeb Blais, Katie Bono | September 26, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,060'

RMI Guides Brent Okita and J.J. Justman are leading the Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir this week.  The team hiked to Camp Muir on Monday and has spent several days training at the 10,060’ camp.  Today the team is receiving instruction on crevasse rescue techniques.  The weather has been clear with warm temperatures.  We hope the weather holds for their summit attempt tonight.

Good luck to the team!

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Mt. Shuksan: September 26th Summit!

Posted by: Billy Nugent, Mike Walter | September 26, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *North Cascades
Elevation: 9,127'

RMI Guides Mike Walter & Billy Nugent led their team to the summit of Mt. Shuksan today.  The team enjoyed stellar views and a great climb.  They will return to high camp for their final night in the mountains.  They will descend to the trail tomorrow.

Congratulations to the team!

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Kilimanjaro: Grom & Team Visit the Ngorongoro Crater

Posted by: Casey Grom | September 26, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro

Today we visited the famous Ngorongoro Crater. It’s a 1.2 million year-old caldera full of wildlife trapped by the steep outer walls.

We saw more than our share of lions today! So close that the lions were literally under our vehicles. It was moderately hot and the lions cooled themselves in the shade of our cars. We also visited a working Masai village and were amazed at their simple yet hard life that they live.

The whole team had a wonderful day and are looking forward to even more safari tomorrow.

RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

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Kilimanjaro: Grom & Team - Day One of Safari

Posted by: Casey Grom | September 25, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro

Day one of our safari brought us to Lake Manyara, known for its famous pink flamingos and tree climbing lions. It took us about two hours to get there from our hotel. The drive took us through the vast open plains of Africa inhabited mostly by the Maasai people. Once in the park we rolled the tops of our land-cruisers back and drove through while standing up. It’s currently the dry season and the lake was mostly gone for now, but we saw many animals- elephants, water bucks, Thompson giselles, impalas, dik diks, zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, and too many birds to name. No big cats today but hopefully tomorrow we’ll see plenty.
 
Everyone enjoyed the day and we are currently resting at the fabulous Plantation Lodge. See for yourself. We will be headed out early tomorrow to try and beat the heat and catch the animals at breakfast, so to speak.

It’s off to bed for now,
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

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Mt. Rainier: September 24th Summit!

Posted by: Leon Davis, Seth Waterfall | September 24, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'

The Four Day Summit Climb September 21 - 24 is our last Summit climb of the 2012 season.  This morning they reached the crater rim of Mt. Rainier just before 8:30 a.m.  RMI Guides Seth Waterfall and Leon Davis reported clear skies above 13,000’ with light winds.  The teams will spend a bit of time on top before starting their descent to Camp Muir.  After a short break to re-pack their gear and re-fuel, they will continue down to Paradise.  We look forward to seeing the teams this afternoon at Rainier BaseCamp.

Congratulation to today’s teams!

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Kilimanjaro: Team Finishes Climb

Posted by: | September 24, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro

Back safe and sound!
Today we hiked the last few miles off of the mountain and are all freshly showered (thankfully) and are awaiting the feast that the Dik Dik Hotel is preparing for us. Everyone is happy to be back off the mountain and are looking forward to sleeping in beds, hot showers in the morning, cotton clothes and fresh coffee!

We have had a great last few days with the whole team getting to stand on the summit of Kilimanjaro. It was a wonderful, if maybe just a little exhausting, week full of beautiful views and amazing weather.

We’ll spend the night resting here then we will be off again in the morning to enjoy the rest of this beautiful country on safari.

RMI Guide Casey Grom and a happy crew.

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Kilimanjaro: Teams Returns to High Camp

Posted by: Casey Grom | September 23, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Kilimanjaro
Elevation: 15,000'

Hello everyone back home this is Casey Grom checking in from our Kilimanjaro trip. Just wanted to report that we are all safely back at high camp and we had a 100% reach the summit today. Pretty amazing day. Weather was still perfect again for us going up. Little chilly, so we’re having to do a little dancing to keep our fingers and toes warm but all in all the group did fantastic. As I said we returned to high camp, we’re packing up and we’re actually going to be descending a few more thousand feet to our last camp, Mweka Camp.  If I get a chance I’ll try to send in a written dispatch. And if not we’ll certainly check in sometime tomorrow when we get off the mountain. That’s all for now, everyone’s doing great and look forward to trying to share few photos in a couple days with you guys.

RMI Guide Casey Grom

On The Map

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