Buenas tardes from Ishinca Base camp. Rest day today with a good session of rope self rescue and abseiling in the afternoon is what was in the agenda. We're climbing Urus East tonight, so an even heartier dinner was served before early bed time, which was delayed by the stories shared over the after-dessert tea. Weather keeps holding pretty good, and all seems lined up for a good day up the closest of the towers reigning over this unreal valley.
Stay tuned for our recap tomorrow,
RMI Guide Elías de Andres Martos and team
-Spanish climbing word of the day; "grieta" (crevasse)
The summit climbs, led by Jake Beren and Paul Maier, successfully summitted Mt. Rainier this morning. The teams began their decent at 7:45 AM, reporting clouds above and below them.
July 2, 2016 - 1:23 am PT
We were very lucky to fly off the glacier yesterday since the weather closed in on Denali and may have prevented us from flying for days. We spent a celebratory evening in rainy Talkeetna thankful for not being stuck in snowy Basecamp!
After the long process of sorting, cleaning, and drying all of the gear it takes to get to the top of such a huge mountain, we paused to thank each other over a meal that did not require mixing with hot water or adding copious amounts of cheese to maximize calories. It really was an amazing team that assembled two weeks ago in Anchorage and made a smooth ascent of the highest mountain in North America. The team was very strong and had a great attitude that allowed them to experience an amazing, windless summit and a seamless two-day descent back to base camp and ski planes that almost beat us to the glacier landing strip.
Thank you for the great expedition El Siete!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen
July 1, 2016 - 10:19 pm PT
A hint of storm moved in last night, with some more cloud, some more snow and a little wind. It looked like more wind up above on the crest of the West Buttress, but we aren't going up that way to find out until things improve. It was a quiet and restful storm day at 14K. Instead of carrying loads up high, we ate long meals in our dining tent, let our blisters heal and took naps. Call it an acclimatization day. We'll hope for some improvement tomorrow morning that allows us to sneak a carry in.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
And we made it!
Nevado Ishinca greeted us this morning with more ice and steep terrain than any of the three guides remember. Intricate navigation on its summit pyramid required a good deal of attention to crevasses, moats and leaning seracs, but motivation and performance had us on top at 11am. We passed the only other team on the mountain before summiting, and the descent proved to be another adventure to ourselves; we decided to descend via a different route, completing a full circumnavigation of the mountain... not a piece of cake when the subject is an 18,100' prominence. We're headed to bed as we speak, and a well deserved rest day awaits tomorrow.
RMI Guide Elías de Andres Martos and Team
-Spanish climbing word of the day; Rimaya (bergschrund)
Team Ecuador is all settled in at the Illiniza Hut. The weather was clear and sunny, which made for nice hiking to the hut. Once they arrived and settled in, the wind picked up and the team is currently in a cloud layer. Their plan is to climb Illiniza Norte in the morning. The team is doing well and will check in tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
Hello from Azau. The team is down to five as two left yesterday evening. The remaining teammates are having our last dinner together as I type this message.
Today the guys went for a horseback ride in the morning and then we all went to a 'catch your own' trout lunch. There may or may not have been beer drinking involved as well.
It has been a total blast of a trip and today was hilarious. We are all catching flights tomorrow and beginning our journeys back home.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Hello this is Elias, 11:00 local time in Peru. We just summitted Ishinca! I have some folks right next to me that would like to say something. [Team cheers!] Alright, that's what you get when you climb in style with RMI. We are going to initiate our descent in the next few minutes and we'll be blogging tonight with a recap of what we did. Tomorrow we're going to take a rest day and we'll be revitalized for the next climb up Urus. Stay tuned. Take care. Bye.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos calls in from the Ishinca summit!
Congrats, Dan and Augie, as well as the rest of the team! Looking forward to hearing about more adventures and summits! (By the way, I love the new design of the RMI blogs.)
Posted by: Darrick on 7/3/2016 at 10:48 am
Ed, tassja and team - congrats on the Ishinca summit! Looks amazing and I am sure you are in heaven! Just a side note Ed - I made it to the top :)
RMI Guide Steve Gately radioed in from the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The teams enjoyed a beautiful morning with light winds. At 7:00 am PT both Four Day Summit Climb teams June 28 - 1 July, 2016 were beginning their descent from the crater rim.
June 30, 2016 - 9:43 pm PT
Hey all,
We are all settled in here at our 14,200' camp were we can finally visualize the upper mountain. Before we could move gear and people up hill though we had to retrieve our cache of food and gear at 13,200 ft. So after a filling bagel breakfast we set off to grab it, and after a 3 hr round trip time the team was back in camp getting a little more rest. We are not fully acclimated to 14,000' yet so a little rest is still needed to recoup.
Now as the never ending sunlight moves west we are gearing up and talking fixed line technique, in hopes that we can climb high tomorrow. If the weather holds we will move some food and gear to the top of the fixed lines at 16,200'. Then after breathing that thin air and scoping our line up the rocky west buttress, we will retreat to 14 Camp. As the old saying goes "climb high and sleep low".
The team is still climbing like pros!
RMI Guide Ben Liken
All the best to all of you. Very excited for Anshul on his first expedition.
Posted by: Nitin Amin on 7/2/2016 at 7:33 pm
Keep going joe
Posted by: Cici on 7/2/2016 at 6:41 pm
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