Entries from Expedition Dispatches
Jambo everyone!
Day three here on
Kilimanjaro was a little windy and cloudy. But those conditions allowed us to make good time on our hike by keeping us cool but not cold. We hiked up the Shira Plateau for a few hours and reached our high point around 15,000' (new heights for some) at a place called Lava Tower. We stopped and took a nice break and enjoyed the limited view then easily descended down into the
Barranco Valley to camp. Along the way we saw some of the unique vegetation that only grows in this part of the world. The giant Senecio trees that look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book, groundsels,and lobelias.
We are all currently relaxing in camp either taking naps or playing cards. Everyone is doing great and having a good time!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
Hi everyone. You know...it certainly can be disappointing. I guess that's why they call it
Disappointment Cleaver, which is where we are right now.
However, our team is having fun and smiling. Hey! That's part of climbing. The mountain said no and we have to respect that. We will climb another day and we are happy about that.
Now, we will finish taking photos and focus on the most important part of climbing, getting down safely.
Ciao from Rainier.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
Once more into the breach, dear friends. Today was a shorter hiking day, but I thought much more technically challenging. We ascended 2500 feet, ending up at tonight's camp sitting at 12,500'. The road to the camp was dusty and narrow. I personally found it difficult to maintain the pace of the group due to some stomach issues, but Eric, one of our 40 porters helped me out by carrying my sack for a spell. I'm happy to report that I feeling much better. The group is working very well together. Peter and Fatima brought a high end camera and are on charge of high end shots. Heidi and Jami are heading up the bunch and in charge of the "walking" photos. Heidi has dual duties, in that she has to give distance and altitude reports. Rosa is in charge of local PR with the porters. Rick, who wanted me to give a special shout out to his two girls at home, is in charge of culinary spicing. Kendyl and Dan are in charge of fact verification and chocolate supplies. Me, I'm comic relief. And Casey, he keeps us all in line and moving toward our goal. In short, all parties are necessary and I'm glad they are here.
Looking forward to tomorrow,
Dawn & The RMI Team
This is the last day of the trip for us. We've had a really nice day here in St. Petersburg. We kicked off the morning by beating the crowd to the Hermitage Museum. Once we got in we disbanded and everyone took in the seemingly endless art works at their own pace. Everyone seemed to really enjoy the experience there.
Now we've all met up again for a boat tour on the canals. The weather is really nice here with plenty of sun and just a little crispness in the air.
Tomorrow we'll all head to the airport for our flights home. It's too bad the weather kept us from getting to the top of
Mt. Elbrus but this group has really made the most of the situation.
Pete and I feel really lucky that everyone had such a positive attitude throughout the trip.
Thanks guys!
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Hi all,
Today is our last day on
Shuksan before we hike out tomorrow. We spent the morning relaxing getting in and out of our tents as the rain storms were sporadic. By early afternoon it seemed stable enough and we did some training. First we practiced knots and hitches, then we moved on to building snow anchors, and wrapped up with some crevasse rescue scenarios. We are now back in tents as a very dark ominous looking cloud quickly approaches.
That's the latest from Shuksan,
RMI Guide Geoff Schellens & Team
The
Four Day Summit Climbs led by Lindsay Mann and Tyler Jones were unable to leave Camp Muir last night. The team experienced heavy thunderstorms that brought much lightening and 6 inches of new snow to Camp Muir. The teams plan to leave Camp Muir shortly and will be back in Ashford in the early afternoon.
Congratulations to today's teams!
We had a mixed bag of weather this trip: some sunshine, some rain, some thunder, some lightning. A strong low pressure system moving in from the south has been causing heavy rain and flash flooding in Oregon and Washington, but we were able to squeak in an enjoyable climb today. We climbed from our bivy sight at 5,700' on Mt. Shuksan, climbed up through the
Fisher Chimneys, on to the White Salmon Glacier, up Winnie's Slide, onto the Upper Curtis Glacier, up Hell's Highway, and onto the Sulphide Glacier before weather forced our hand and we headed back down to camp. We had a full day of climbing, and almost got to the top. Now we're back in our tents, safe, dry, and content, listening to the rain. The squirrelly weather did provide us with this beautiful sunset last night though!
RMI Guide Mike Walter
These are the days that I really love being a mountain guide. Sharing the beauty of
Mt. Rainier in September can only be understood by experiencing the beauty of Autumn on Rainier.
The wild flowers are popping in full color. The marmots are whistling. And despite marginal weather, the low marine layers really make the mountains appear luminous and majestic.
The photos don't do it justice so get off the couch, push yourself away from the desk and get on out here!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
Hi all,
Well we lucked out with the weather yesterday and made the summit of
Mt Shuksan. If you had asked me our chances of climbing yesterday morning I would have said not good. The sky was very dark with heavy clouds hanging all around the summit, but as we started climbing they seemed to dissipate. Kirk and Harry did a great job despite being a bit nervous about the rock climbing necessary for the summit pyramid. We left our camp at around 7:30 AM and found ourselves smiling on the summit by 12:30. All in all a great day.
Today we are resting and recovering during the intermittent rain showers and will hopefully get some more training in when we can.
That's all for now,
RMI Guide
Geoff Schellens and Team
Greetings from
St. Petersburg, Russia. This has been one of the two days without rain on the trip and we are psyched! We really had a great tour of the city with our local guide Tatiana. We visited St. Issac's cathedral, Peter and Paul's cathedral and fortress, and the Church of our Savior on Spilled Blood.
Tomorrow we'll be touring the Hermitage museum and then taking an evening canal tour for the last day of the trip.
Here's a photo from St Issac's.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Fatima and Pete..You are heading to Summit day. Savor every moment….Say HI to Casey. Deb
Posted by: Debbi on 9/8/2013 at 4:41 am
You’re doing a Wicked Good Job!!!
Posted by: John Ehntholt on 9/8/2013 at 4:14 am
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