Greetings all,
After spending the last 10 days above 14,000', our eyes and lungs relished in the sights, smells, and the oxygen-rich, moist ocean air we encountered on the drive back from Huaraz to Lima. A stop in Playa Barranca for ceviche, tacu-tato, and other local seafood dishes truly brought our expedition full circle as we enjoyed an ocean view from our lunch table. Upon arrival in Lima, the inevitable disbanding of the team began as some caught midnight flights back to friends and family, while a few have one more day in Lima to relax, catch the World Cup Final, and relive the wonderful experiences we've had over the past couple weeks in the Cordillera Blanca. Best wishes from sea level and thanks for following along!
RMI Guides Robby Young, Elias de Andres Martos, and the Peru Seminar Team
Good morning everybody. This is Leon and team calling from our way out of Boston Basin in this morning. Another beautiful day today, just like yesterday, and we climbed up the West Ridge of Forbidden. We had a successful trip, starting out at 2:30 in the morning under a full moon. It was beautiful, a perfect day. And yeah, we're all doing well heading out to the cars hopefully in time to watch the World Cup Finals. Talk to you guys later. Thank you. Bye.
RMI Guide Leon Davis
RMI Guide Leon Davis checks in from the North Cascades.
July 13, 2014 - 4:05 AM PT
Hey, this is Dave Hahn calling in from 17,000' we made it up today, a better than expected day. It didn't start out too good but we made good use of it. We left 14,000' at 1:30 in the afternoon and got up here at 17,000' at 9 PM, which was a little bit late but we managed to get all buttoned down before the storm started again. All are doing well at 17,000' and now we're ready to get lucky up here.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
RMI Guide Dave Hahn checks in from 17 camp on Mt. McKinley.
At 7:25 AM, RMI Guide Garrett Stevens and the Four Day Summit Climb team radioed from the top of Disappointment Cleaver on their descent from the summit of Mt Rainier. Garrett reported warm temperatures and a light wind making for a perfect, bluebird day. We look forward to greeting the team in Ashford this afternoon.
Congratulations!
July 12, 2014 - 1:15 am PT
Hey - This is JJ. Well, this morning we did not play Eye of the Tiger. We did not play T-N-T. But let me give you a few of the lyrics we played this morning:
I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast. I do like jelly on my breakfast toast.
And do you know what else I like? Not one, not two but every single climber on top of Europe's highest mountain.
What do you say gang? (cheers in back ground)
It's an urgent news message, we are on the summit of Mt. Elbrus. Everyone did a great job. Strong as can be. And we are enjoying a beautiful day, a few puffy, happy clouds out in the distance, but that is about it
Stay tuned for some photos and videos. We are going to head back down. I do believe we have a well deserved dinner and maybe a little bit of a celebration back at camp. Take care and thanks for following along. We will touch base again soon.
Sayonara from the summit of Elbrus.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
RMI Guide JJ Justman and the team call from the summit of Mt. Elbrus.
July 11, 2014 - 8:15 pm PT
Hi Everybody this is Leon and Bryan in the Boston Basin, we climbed Sharkfin Tower today. It was a beautiful day. Everyone did great, everyone is feeling it but we got a lot of good training in.
Tomorrow our plan is to wake up early and get an alpine start and head up to the west ridge of Forbidden and climb that thing.
All is well, we will talk to you tomorrow.
RMI Guide Leon Davis
The Four Day Summit Climb Teams led by RMI Guides Mike Walter & Solveig Waterfall reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Just after 7 am the teams were approaching the top of Disappointment Cleaver on their descent.
They will return to Camp Muir for a short break before continuing to Paradise later today.
Congratulations to today's summit climb teams!
July 11, 2014 - 4:31 pm PT
Hey Everyone –
This is JJ Justman with team #1 here on Mt. Elbrus. It’s about 3 am in the morning. We have the crampons on, it’s a breathless night here for climbing. We are about to jump on the snow-cat, which will give us a little lift higher up on the mountain.
It’s a gorgeous evening, it’s going to be a gorgeous day tomorrow. We will touch base again. And I am pretty darn positive we will be doing that from the highest mountain here in Europe.
Take care everyone, talk to you soon.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
RMI Guide JJ Justman checks in just before summit attempt.
July 11, 2014 - 11:04 pm PT
There wasn't much reason to get up early for climbing this morning at 14,200 ft. It snowed throughout the night and continued through the morning, piling up to about 8 or 10 inches. Luckily there wasn't much wind with it though, so we slept well. Our radio conversations with the folks hanging at 17K revealed that they hadn't gotten snow, but had gotten plenty of wind. The consensus seemed to be that if the weather eased, folks would be bailing out of high camp and quitting the climb. We made the best of calm conditions at our camp to get out for some exercise. The gang built snow walls and dug tunnels and watched wind and cloud buffet the upper mountain. Things did ease in the afternoon and our friends on high began descending. Ben Liken counted 43 climbers eventually making their way down the fixed lines. That number represented five different guided teams from three different companies. They'll head for the airstrip tomorrow, leaving us alone at 14,200 and virtually alone on the mountain. One guided team of three (two guides, one climber) remains at 17,200 hoping for better luck, it would be great if we could get up there to keep them company.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hi Dave. With a good supply I know the weather will clear soon & you will get the team up for a really awesome summit. safe travels & post more photos.
Posted by: Mary on 7/13/2014 at 1:26 am
Hi Dave -
I’ve been following your teams journey. This latest dispatch reminds me of when we were down on Vinson and ended up being the only team on the mountain.
You’ve probably already heard from RMI HQ that the latest issue of Outside magazine has a large article about what happened at Everest this year.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed that you guys get a weather break and are able to continue upwards.
The team is back at the trailhead in the village of Pashpa. The bus is waiting to shuttle us back to Huaraz as soon as the donkeys make it down from the Ishinca Valley Base Camp. Tomorrow I will send a final dispatch and some photos.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
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Great effort everyone ! Hope you can summit soon. Wishing you every success from Switzerland !
Posted by: Beat on 7/14/2014 at 2:57 am
Dave & Team - look forward to following you all the way.
Travel safely.
XOXOXO
Posted by: Mary on 7/13/2014 at 9:04 pm
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