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Entries By maile wade

Mt. McKinley: Walter & Team Move to 9,600’

Posted by: Maile Wade, Mike Walter, Pete Van Deventer | May 13, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 9,600'

This morning we awoke to our first views of the Alaska Range. After sitting out the storm in Talkeetna and flying on with clouds still in the area, we were pleasantly surprised with a beautiful sunny day. Our first big hill of the trip greeted us right out of camp, but even with this challenge we moved well up to camp at 9,500’.  The Kahiltna Glacier is in great shape which made our travels nice and fluid. Base camp received 3 feet of snow while we sat in Talkeetna, but this just made for great navigating and smooth sailing for us. As we moved into the steeps of Ski Hill, there was a perfect trough to keep our sleds in line and upright. With our first challenges behind us, we rolled into camp around 5:00 and made a yummy birthday dinner for Carl…61 today!! Now, we’re resting up for another big push tomorrow to 11,000’ camp. Happy Mother’s Day to all of our moms! Goodnight.

RMI Guides Mike Walter, Pete Van Deventer & Maile Wade

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Mt. McKinley: Walter & Team Enroute to Base Camp

Posted by: Mike Walter, Pete Van Deventer, Maile Wade | May 12, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 358'

The May 8th Mt. McKinley Expedition led by RMI Guides Mike Walter, Pete Van Deventer and Maile Wade is now en route to Base Camp.  The weather in Talkeetna was clear this morning and the team headed for the K2 Aviation hanger.

Good luck on your expedition!

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Mt. McKinley: Walter & Team Make Most of their Talkeetna Time

Posted by: Mike Walter, Pete Van Deventer, Maile Wade | May 11, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 358'

We spent the day waiting for our weather window to fly on to the glacier, but two feet of snow at Base Camp last night and continuing snow through today have so far prevented us from making it on. Rather than idly twiddling our thumbs, we decided to make the best of a warm dry hanger and practice our crevasse rescue skills and self rescue systems. Everyone is feeling better about their systems after a lot of practice and playing with knots and tricks. We still have one and a half hours to go before the planes are grounded for the night, increasingly it is looking like tomorrow morning is more likely for flying. Hopefully our next post will come from there glacier!

Best,
RMI Guide Peter Van Deventer

Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with us today, and we were unable to fly in to Base Camp once again. While it seems as though the weather is improving, the conditions were not conducive to flying; no planes left Talkeetna today with the intention of trying to land at Base Camp. We took advantage of the down time today and did some dry-land review of crevasse rescue. There were also some pretty competitive games of ping pong going on this afternoon in the Hangar as we waited on standby for the weather to clear. We’re all eager to fly, but we understand that climbing Denali requires patience. Hopefully we get a break tomorrow and can fly in to Base Camp and establish ourselves on the mountain. In the meantime, we’re enjoying Talkeetna.

Cheers,
RMI Guide Mike Walter

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Mt. McKinley: Mike Walter & Team in Talkeetna

Posted by: Mike Walter, Pete Van Deventer, Maile Wade | May 10, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Mount McKinley
Elevation: 358'

Yesterday was the first full day of the 2012 RMI Denali season. After a great team breakfast at the historic Talkeetna Roadhouse, we headed to the National Park Service for our pre-climb orientation meeting, followed by a full day of packing and sorting our gear at the K2 Aviation hangar.

We’re all excited for this trip to start, and optimistic that we will be able to fly on to the Kahiltna Glacier today. There are some clouds in the sky, and a little precipitation in the forecast, so we’ll see if the planes are able to fly or not. Hopefully our next dispatch is sent from the glacier…either way, we’ll keep you posted.

RMI Guide Mike Walter

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Ecuador: Team at Cotopaxi Hut Ready for Summit Attempt

Posted by: Maile Wade | July 31, 2011
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Ecuador

Hola from Ecuador,

We woke up to a beautiful morning with beautiful views of Cotopaxi.  We hung out at the Hacienda Chilcabamba, enjoying the breakfast and the sun.  We began the drive up to the parking lot, running in to a crazy hailstorm, thunder and lightning, and TONS of people.  The National Park is only an hour from Quito and is a popular weekend getaway for the locals.  Our driver, Victor, worked his magic with the bus and got us all the way up to the parking lot in the snow.  We then had dinner and hung out in the hut this afternoon. 

Everyone is settling in to go to bed now.  The team is psyched to get up and climb in the morning and is psyched to have guide Jaime Avila come climb with as well.  We will be climbing tonight and hope to be checking in from the summit tomorrow!

RMI Guide Maile Wade

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Ecuador: Team Readies for Climb of Cayambe

Posted by: Maile Wade | July 27, 2011
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Ecuador
Elevation: 15,500'

Hello, this is Maile and Casey checking in from Ecuador and the climber’s hut on Cayambe. Everyone is settling in for a good night sleep at 15,500 feet. This morning we woke up to a beautiful morning at the Hacienda San Luis and had a leisurely morning down there, we drove in to the town of Cayambe and had a local lunch before heading up to the mountain. We were able to drive up to 13,500’ before the road become too rough for the vehicles. We then walked up to the climber’s hut. Everyone is doing well, it is a beautiful night and we will check in again tomorrow and we hope everyone is doing well back at home!

RMI Guides Maile Wade & Casey Grom

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Ecuador’s Volcanoes: Team Ascends Rucu Pichincha

Posted by: Maile Wade | July 25, 2011
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Ecuador
Elevation: 15,406'

Hey Everybody -

This is the Ecuador group checking in. We had a great day today and everybody is doing well. We had another delicious breakfast at the hotel and took off early to ride the teleferique (gondola) up to Rucu Pichincha. Pichincha is a volcano just outside of Quito and we hiked the older (Rucu, in the indigenous language of Quechua) extinct side of it.

We rode the gondola up the mountain to 13,500’ into the grasslands above Quito. We began our acclimatization hike up to the top of the volcano from there. Our Ecuadorian guide Freddy joined us today and set the pace for everybody to follow. As we ascended, we moved from the grasslands into a rocky scramble that led to the summit. It took us 3 hours to ascend to the top at 15,406’, which was a new altitude record for some members of the group.

The descent was welcomed as we headed back to the comfortable altitude of Quito. We did a little shopping then headed out for an early dinner on a rooftop in old-town. We had spectacular views of the Basilica, the San Francisco de Quito, and the Virgin as we ate traditional Ecuadorian cuisine.

Everyone seems to be having a great time and we will check in tomorrow.

RMI Guides Casey Grom, Maile Wade & the team

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