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Mt. Everest: Team Returns to Base Camp

Posted by: Dave Hahn, Mark Tucker, Seth Waterfall | May 24, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Everest
Elevation: 17,575'

Dave and I are safely back at Everest Basecamp.  The Sherpa team has one more load to carry down from Camp 1 in the morning and then the expedition will officially be done with the Everest climb.

RMI Guide Seth Waterfall

[Audio posted from Dave Hahn after returning to Basecamp]

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Mt. Rainier: Muir Seminar Finishes Their Week on the Mountain

Posted by: Casey Grom, Adam Knoff | May 24, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount Rainier

RMI Guides Casey Grom, Adam Knoff and the Expedition Skills Seminar team descended from Camp Muir and arrived at Rainier Basecamp this afternoon.  They learned many mountaineering skills at 10,000’ during their five days on the mountain and weathered a winter snow storm that dropped three feet of new snow at Camp Muir.

Great job to all!

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Mt. McKinley: Walter & Team Rest at 14,200’ Camp

Posted by: Ben Liken, Mike Walter, Solveig Waterfall | May 24, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 14,200'

Our team slept in this morning and got some much needed rest for our upcoming summit bid. Tomorrow we plan to wake early, pack up camp, and move to our high camp at 17,200’. The weather is perfect, and so is the forecast. We hope the meteorologists in Fairbanks are correct, as they are predicting good weather for the next few days. But, as always, we’re focusing on one day at a time. And if the weather is good tomorrow, that focus will be climbing efficiently from our current camp at 14,200’ up to high camp at 17,200’, and establishing ourselves up high for a summit bid. Stay tuned and wish us luck…

RMI Guide Mike Walter

On The Map

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Mt. McKinley: Nugent & Team Carry to 13,600’

Posted by: | May 24, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 11,200'

We woke today to a blend of blue and white swirls, but with more blue above and more white down low—And with our team still charging strong—we made the push to cache food and gear at 13,600’.  This trek takes us onto a different aspect of the mountain, with views over to the “Father and Sons Wall” and the glaciers to the west, which feed north to the Bering Strait.  Pushing upward to 13,000’ we could see the tops of Foraker (17,000’) and Crosson (12,000’) poking out above a thick sea of clouds around 11k—we were happy to be above it all.  After caching our gear we headed down (a much quicker trip!) and we’re now back at camp just as the sun has begun burning through the clouds—perfect timing!

RMI Guide Kel Rossiter

On The Map

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Mt. McKinley: Okita & Team Ready in Talkeetna

Posted by: Brent Okita, Logan Randolph, Leah Fisher | May 24, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley

Hello from Talkeetna, Alaska
The result of a day of hard work sorting and packing stuff we’ll live with for the next two or three weeks. With a little luck we might be flying onto the glacier in a couple of hours or so. The weather looks promising here, but of course it could be completely different on the mountain.
We’re all set and doing great. But first, breakfast at the Roadhouse ...

RMI Guide Brent Okita

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Mt. Everest: Dave Checks at Camp 2 after Summit Bid

Posted by: Dave Hahn, Mark Tucker, Seth Waterfall | May 23, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Everest
Elevation: 21,300'

Update 7:21 p.m. PST:
Mark Tucker sent a message that the team is descending from Camp 1 to Basecamp.  All is well!

Voicemail update 7:20 a.m. PST:
Hey, this is Dave Hahn calling from Advanced Base Camp once again.  We finished our whirlwind tour of the upper mountain. You remember we went from here, 21,300, to nearly 26,000 feet the South Col and went to the summit this morning.  And then all the way back down here to Advanced Base Camp. So a long day of climbing and an exciting day of climbing for myself, Seth, Kaji and Tshering.  With Gyaljen playing lifeguard back at the South Col looking out for us and having some hot drinks ready when we got back there - which was pretty nice. And we loaded everything up, up there at the Col and came down with the pretty heavy packs down the Lhotse Face. It feels very good to be a little bit lower on the mountain but what a big day!  Certainly intended to give a voice dispatch from the summit, had the sat phone up there but there was a little bit of a cold wind blowing from the north, made it hard to do things like work with your fingers with your gloves off and make phone calls and things like that. But we were able to talk to Mark Tucker down a base camp on the radio and Dan as well who was standing down there with Lam Babu and our whole Base Camp staff.  So, that was nice to be able to connect with those guys, while we were up there. (broken transmission).

Conditions weren’t all that bad, ended up a pretty good weather summit day but a little cold. Wind kind of goes with what we consider a good day. Anyway this was a good day. And now it’s clearly the season is changed. And it’s time to get off the mountain, it’s heating up. The anchors we’re melting out on our way down the Lhotse Face and we had to be pretty careful of that. So we’re taking that as a sign that it is time to be heading down.  Alright, bye for now. Thank you.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

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Mt. Rainier: Expedition Skills Seminar Camp Muir Update

Posted by: Adam Knoff, Casey Grom | May 23, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,200

The Expedition Skills Seminar – Muir led by Casey Grom and Adam Knoff made the prudent decision to remain at Camp Muir last night.  A foot of new snow fell at Camp Muir overnight in addition to 10 inches yesterday.  Casey also reports the temperature is hovering around 10 degrees which is keeping everyone busy staying warm.  The Seminar is planning to head up to the Ingraham Flats this morning.  The team wraps up their training and time at Muir tomorrow.

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Mt. McKinley: Mike Walter & Team Carry to 16,200’

Posted by: Mike Walter, Solveig Waterfall, Ben Liken | May 23, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 14,200'

Hi Everyone!

We are back at 14 Camp after a great day carrying a load of food and fuel to the top of the fixed lines at 16,200’. Our team climbed strong and we were all excited to get a feel for the upper mountain and steeper snow and ice.
We arrived back in camp with enough sunshine left in the day to sit outside the tents and relax and rehydrate while our boots dried (and more importantly AIRED!) out.

The weather is looking good and we hope to move up to high camp soon and make our summit bid!

RMI Guide Solveig Waterfall & Team

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Mt. McKinley: Billy Nugent and Team Build Walls

Posted by: Billy Nugent, Kel Rossiter, Levi Kepsel | May 23, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 11,000'

There’s a great German game show called “Stackenblocken” where contestants arrange objects on a desk at right angles. A judge then comes out with a framing square and a riding crop to punish the contestants who cannot make their desk “Stackenblocken”. Well, the weather has been so sunny and warm here at 11 camp that the wall surrounding our camp was indeed no longer “Stackenblocken” and in fact leaned to the point where it comically collapsed… Fortunately for us there was no judge with a jockey’s disposition and the blocks remained intact. We were actually able to rebuild it in a few quick minutes; turns out its not so hard on the second go around when all your materials are ready-made.

On another note, the team also spent a bit of the day retrieving our cached food and fuel from the 9,600’ camp. We made such short work of our back carry that it really felt like a rest day. Good times!

More about our intrepid crew as our adventure unfolds…

RMI Guide Billy Nugent

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Mt. Everest: Team Returns to Camp 2

Posted by: Dave Hahn, Mark Tucker, Seth Waterfall | May 23, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Everest
Elevation: 21,000'

Update: 4:04 am PT

RMI Guide Mark Tucker reports from Everest Base Camp that the climbing team has safely returned to Camp 2 (ABC).  They will spend the night resting, eating and recovering from the summit climb.  Tomorrow, Mark is looking forward to welcoming the team back to Base Camp.

On The Map

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