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Mt. McKinley: Billy Nugent & Team Move to 11,000’

Posted by: Billy Nugent, Kel Rossiter, Levi Kepsel | May 22, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 11,000'

In the movie “Spinal Tap” there’s a comical part where the rock god explains to an interviewer that, whereas most amplifiers only go up to ten, his “goes to eleven” in case he’s really rocking out and “needs that extra push.”  Well, our strong team definitely needed no extra push in making it to 11K camp today.

After a calm night at 9600’ we woke to clear skies and prepared to “go to eleven.”  After caching some gear and food in a snow hole ( which we’ll pick up tomorrow) we enjoyed the feeling of dramatically lightened packs and sleds as we moved up.  Arriving in camp the team had its first experience with building a true Denali-style fortified camp.  Some people were shoveling, some were cutting blocks, some were carrying them:  everyone was working hard and in an hour or so we had a veritable Great Wall in place. Everyone enjoyed the upper body workout and the concrete results.  The sun sets late at 11K (it’s about 10pm now and still brilliant) and folks are settling in to a well-earned sleep.

Tomorrow will be a “half-rest” day: we’ll be making a three-hour trek to retrieve our cache, but without the work of breaking down and setting up camp we’ll be able to also rest and acclimatize.

RMI Guide Kel Rossiter

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Alaska Expedition Seminar: Team Enjoys Pulling Sleds and Glacier Climbing

Posted by: Andres Marin, Garrett Stevens, Katie Bono | May 22, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 7,300'

After our unsuccessful attempt climbing Radio Tower due avalanche conditions, we spent our last day hiking to the first camp on Denali. We all had the opportunity to pull sleds and go for a long glacier hike. The group enjoyed the views and exercise that took to get there. We finished our day climbing up Heartbreak Hill back to Denali Base Camp. All and all a fantastic day.

Tomorrow we will be packing our camp and be flying at noon back to Talkeetna.

RMI Guide Andres Marin

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Mt. Everest: Dave Hahn Checks in from ABC

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

This is Dave Hahn calling form Mt. Everest, and again tonight we are at Advance Base Camp.  Our Plan had been to move up to the Lhotse Face and we tired we went out this morning with that as the goal, but unfortunately with Dan’s cough has not gone away and it has turned out to be debilitating as far as preventing us from going higher.  It is not a danger to him, but going higher with it would be a problem. So, quick change of plans Dan is going to head down to Base Camp in the morning with Lama Babu, and Seth and I are going to try and keep up Tshering, Gyaljen and Kaji and our plan is to go all the way to high camp tomorrow and attempt the summit on the 23rd.  The complication is that the weather forecast is kind of breaking down for those days and might be kind of dicey weather – We will have to see. We figure that will be our one chance and so it is up or down for all. Things should be moving around a fair amount for these next couple of days…we will see what happens. We are going to miss Dan as he heads back down to Base Camp, Lama Babu is happy to guide him down and we are expecting they will have a smooth descent and will be in Base Camp about the middle of tomorrow morning. That’s what’s going on here at Everest. 

We watched a lot of people tired people coming down from the Summit and from the Lhotse Face again today but it has starting to get though crowd a little bit, we have noticed traffic slacking a bit and that works in our favor.

That’s all for now, Bye!

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

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Mt. Everest: Dave Hahn Sends an Update from Camp 2

Posted by: Dave Hahn, Seth Waterfall, Mark Tucker | May 20, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Everest
Elevation: 21,300'

This is Dave Hahn calling down again from Camp 2, ABC, on Mount Everest, 21,300’. We took a rest of day here today as plan, tried to catch up on our hydration and rest obviously. We were pretty much observers today watching a lot going on, watching a lot of climbers coming down from the top and a lot going up. Easy to look out at any time today and see over 100 climbers on the Lhotse Face. We were particularly interested in the efforts of Lam Babu, our Sirdar, who went up in the middle of the night last night and led a team of Sherpas that were determined to help a man high on Lhotse who had been in distress for a couple of days. They did a great job getting up there. They were up there at Lhotse Camp 4 by out about 4 in the morning, or I’m sorry by about 6 in the morning. But sadly it was just a little too late for the man who’d been through too much. But very proud of Lam Babu and the team that he led up there. He’s back safely at camp now. And we’re getting ready for our efforts at moving up tomorrow, moving to Camp 3 tomorrow on the Lhotse Face. So that’s certainly occupying all our thoughts as we go to bed. Hoping everything’s in order and that we have a good day tomorrow. Bye for now.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

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Mt. Rainier: Expedition Skills Seminar Moves into Camp Muir

Posted by: Casey Grom, Adam Knoff | May 20, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,000'

RMI Guides Casey Grom, Adam Knoff and their teams headed up to Camp Muir today.  The weather was magnificent!  Now they have settled in at 10,000’, they will spend the next four days learning mountaineering skills and as well as a summit bid on Mt. Rainier.

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Mt. McKinley: Walter & Team Move to 14K Camp!

Posted by: Mike Walter, Solveig Waterfall, Ben Liken | May 20, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 14,200'

Hello All!

We awoke this morning to calm winds and relatively warm temperatures; a welcome change from the last week of stormy living at 11,000’.  We had a quick breakfast and broke down tents just as the sun began to thaw out camp.  Eager to make our move, we started our ascent at 10 am and arrived at our camp in the Genet Basin at 14,200’ at 3:30pm.  Everyone did great and we enjoyed the warm sunshine and lack of chilly breeze getting around Windy Corner.

We spent the rest of the day working hard building walls and getting our camp in order.

Looking forward to getting a good nights rest and getting our cache tomorrow!

RMI Guide Mike Walter

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Mt. McKinley: Nugent & Team Establish Camp 2

Posted by: Billy Nugent, Kel Rossiter, Levi Kepsel | May 20, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 9,600'

Another beautiful day and another strong effort from our crew! We took advantage of more amazing weather and single-carried all of our gear and supplies up Ski Hill to set up shop at Camp 2, which sits at about 9,600’ on the upper reaches of the Kahiltna Glacier. Our guys clearly trained hard and the long hours on the stairmaster paid dividends today hauling massive loads. We rolled into camp around 4:30 which made for a leisurely afternoon getting situated and taking in the amazing views. After a hot dinner of tortellini alfredo, we all crawled into the tents and are currently waiting for the bitter cold to set in once the sun dips behind Kahiltna Dome.

That’s all for now, we’ll check in again tomorrow!

RMI Guide Billy Nugent

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Mt. Rainier: May 20th Update

Posted by: J.J. Justman, Jake Beren | May 20, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'

At 7:57 a.m. RMI Guides JJ Justman and Jake Beren were standing on Columbia Crest, the highest point on Mt. Rainier, enjoying the views.  There was a gentle 5 mph breeze on the “prettiest day in May that [JJ and Jake] have ever seen.”

The teams began their descent about 8:30 and we look forward to seeing them at Rainier Basecamp this afternoon.

Congratulations Summit Climbers!

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Mt. McKinley: Walter & Team - The Winds Win Out

Posted by: Mike Walter, Solveig Waterfall, Ben Liken | May 20, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 11,200'

We woke early this morning, had breakfast, and packed up camp, ready to move to 14,200’ before the sun had hit our tents. But the winds up high were too strong for my liking. We repitched our tents to seek shelter from the wind and waited for a few hours for the winds to abate. Unfortunately, the winds up high continued and a mean looking lenticular cloud had formed over Windy Corner, where we were headed. By noon we made the decision to stay in camp another day and avoid the risks of getting caught in a windstorm high in the mountains of Alaska.

So we wait another day. Such is expedition climbing. The weather forecast looks good for the next few days, and we’re confident that tomorrow will be the day to move camp. We’ll let you know how it goes.

RMI Guide Mike Walter

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Alaska Expedition Seminar: Marin & Team Practice Ice Climbing

Posted by: Andres Marin, Garrett Stevens, Katie Bono | May 20, 2013
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 7,300'

There is something about ice climbing in a crevasse that is just mind blowing.  Today the group got to experience ice climbing and how much fun it is.

We headed for the foot hills of Mt. Francis to find a deep crevasse suitable for great climbing.  Big smiles all day long.  Tomorrow we are getting ready to go climbing Radio Tower.  The team is excited to climb higher tomorrow and are doing well!

RMI Guide Andres Marin

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