This is Mike and team checking in after our delicious asado dinner cooked by the mule drivers. We had an eight-hour hike from Base Camp and some of our feet faired better then others. Regardless, everyone is excited to be in Mendoza tomorrow night. This has been a great group of climbers and while we didn't stand on top of Aconcagua, the team learned a lot and had fun doing so.
RMI Guide Mike King
First, this dispatch is brought to you by Starbucks...I sit here drinking an Italian roast as I write this. Second, this team is rocking and rolling! Today we took a well-deserved day of rest at Aconcagua Base Camp; however, everyone had a great first night at altitude.
The team woke up to a fresh egg veggie scramble. We went to work after breakfast and began organizing food and gear for our carry to Camp 1. We went for an acclimatization hike and explored the surrounding area. Everyone is doing great and despite the strong winds, we are having a lot of fun.
Stay tuned for more Aconcagua action and as usual... Go Green Bay!!
RMI Guides JJ Justman and Pepper Dee
Who is the Packer fan? I love my Green Bay Packers but they let the Vikings beat them. Oh well, on to Washington. Good luck to all, especially Terry! Thinking about you. Judi
Posted by: Judi Harper on 1/6/2016 at 2:27 pm
Brad and Brian:
Hope you guys are having fun. Be safe. Looking forward to having you home! Happy Trails!
January 3, 2016 5:25 am PT
All is well here at Mweka Camp at 10,000 ft. Climb went like clock work. Left for the summit just after midnight under clear skies and light wind. Par for the course, a bit chilly. The team did a fine job all day climbing in good style and working well together. Right now we are enjoying peanuts and popcorn awaiting an early dinner, the sooner we can get in our sleeping bags the better. Early hike in the morning to the park gate.
January 2, 2016 10:15 pm PT
Mark Tucker here checking in from the the top of Kilimanjaro! Looks like I've got the whole team standing here with me. Great day. Fantastic job coming up the hill and our stellar stand out, Tess, crushed it! We are all doing well. Going to make our way down the hill back to high camp and could sweep on into Mweka Camp. We will check in later. All is good in the hood. Thanks for following.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker calls from the Kilimanjaro summit.
Thank you, Mark, for the GOOD NEWS, about safe arrival AT THE TOP -
and cheers for Tess the Crusher ! love to all - we’re so proud of you -
and thank you, Mark, for all your help.
Sure has been a Happy New Year ! love, T
Please tell the Notre Dame rooters that Muffet McGraw won 800th coaching game
today as the Irish gals won !
Posted by: Terry Seidler (mother of Bob & Tom & grandmothe on 1/3/2016 at 4:50 pm
Way to go Tess, Kristen, Monica, Josie, Robert, Tomas and Tuck! We love the updates and can’t wait to hear more about your awesome adventure! Sleep well and steady hike out to the gate tomorrow!
XO The Gates
This is Mike and the Team. We are at Base Camp feeling good after a long day carrying down our equipment from 18,000' to 13,800'. We will start our descent to the road tomorrow, which will entail 20 miles and culminate in a delicious Argentinean asado dinner. The weather continues to plague teams and we are thankful for our time up high.
RMI Guide Mike King
Hola friends and family! This is Pepper Dee writing along with JJ Justman from Aconcagua Base Camp. Today was a bit of an action packed outing. We started the day off strong with a mule ride across the Vacas River at dawn to reach the base of the Relinchos Valley (probably the closest the team will ever get to starring in a spaghetti western), and then trekked up the valley all day until we reached Base Camp early this afternoon. Everyone is doing great and is adjusting well to life at just under 14,000 feet. It's very windy around basecamp, and we're hoping the gusts start to simmer down during our rest day tomorrow. Hugs from the team! We'll be in touch tomorrow.
RMI Guides Pepper Dee and JJ Justman
Hope you are having a great day and get some rest! We enjoyed spending time yesterday with
Becky, Halle, Brody and Jake. We ate at Chiles, one of our favorite places. Everyone is doing great.
We miss you, stay safe. Dad took pictures of the lake and it is something to see.
Luckily for us the rain stopped about midnight. Clear and cool as we started the day with yet another fine breakfast. Not a long climb today, just a little over two hours to get us here at high camp, Barafu 15,000 ft. After making camp and enjoying lunch we got sorted for the summit climb to night. Lots of lunch/ snacks for the 12 hour climb ahead were a big focus and planing our clothing layers as well. Nice weather for drying boots and lounging about. Going to try and take a break before early dinner and nap till 11:30 wake up. The whole team is in good shape so with a bit of luck some good weather we should be on top soon.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Thinking of you as your 12-hour Climb has you almost on Cloud 9 : )
All of us are praying for the HIGH POINT of your amazing adventure !
Mark must be a wonderful leader. Blessings on all of you, love, TH
Posted by: Terry Seidler (mother of Bob & Tom & grandmothe on 1/2/2016 at 6:05 pm
Waiting to hear from you! You definitely will be closer to God and little Oma. Thinking of you constantly and praying for a safe journey. Paris is doing great and rooting for you all.
Love Bibi and Ross -Dirt & Dani and Jackson -Michelle and Nicole.
Hey everyone, this is JJ Justman and Pepper Dee with our Aconcagua team. We had a great New Year Day trekking to Casa de Piedra. It was beautiful sunny day it was very windy towards the end, but the winds starting to calm down. Pepper and I are chopping vegetables we are throwing the chicken on the grill, and we're going to have another great evening here under the Andean sky. Everyone's doing great the entire team wants to say hello to their friends and family back at home and they told me to just give a general shot out for the Happy New Year to everyone. Things are going great. Stay tuned because we are going to end this trek as we move into base camp tomorrow. So stay tuned and we will talk to you tomorrow. Good bye from Casa de Piedra.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
RMI Guide JJ Justman checks in from Casa de Piedra en route to Aconcagua Base Camp.
This is Mike with the Team at 18,000ft. Today we woke up and started towards high camp at 19,600ft. We carried our summit kits with the intention of going as far on the summit route as the weather would allow. Today was to be the last clear day for the next week and the winds were forecasted to be slowing down to 30mph by day's end.
We had an amazing sunrise across the snow covered Andes. Alpenglow on the Polish Glacier and Aconcagua's massive shadow to our West. The wind was in our face all morning, requiring the Team to be layered up and persistent with each foot placement.
Due to high winds and extreme cold we turned around at 20,500ft. We are all back in camp safely and feeling good about making an honest crack at the summit from our camp at 18,000ft.
Tomorrow we will descend to base camp and begin our walk out of the Park. The last few weeks have been a great learning experience for what expedition life is like in the big mountains.
Thanks for following along and we will check in daily until we reach pavement on Monday.
RMI Guide Mike King
We had another clear night on Kilimanjaro with cold temperatures. There was just a little noise at midnight, most teams were content to be getting some shut eye instead of celebrating. We had a leisurely morning knowing that our next camp, Karanga,at just over 13,000 ft would take about three hours climbing time. It also allowed the bulk of other groups a head start to give us less traffic on the first part of todays ascent, the Barranco Wall. We had lots of fun and took many photos for the team during the half hour of rock scramble. We all did it with style and grace. A nice hot lunch upon arrival at camp was a welcomed meal. We spent the next hour going over details to prepare us for the upcoming summit push, tomorrow night! It is raining pretty hard right now, let's get that out of the way right here. The team continues to do well, and is in great shape.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Hey, everyone, this is JJ Justman with Pepper Dee. We are sitting here at Las Lenas Camp. The team had a great day here, hiking into camp. It is a little bit windy here right now as we are getting the gear all situated. We are going to have a nice dinner this evening to celebrate New Year's Eve out here in the mountains. We are going to hang out with the cowboys, drink some Cokes and Tang and some matte and put that big slab of beef on the grill and get this trip underway. The team is doing great. We have a really great team, as usual an All-star team of ten guys looking forward to continuing the trek in tomorrow. Thanks for following along. Stay tuned - it's going to be a good one.
Bye bye,
RMI Guide JJ Justman
RMI Guide JJ Justman calls from Pampa de Lenas en route to Aconcagua Base Camp.
Who is the Packer fan? I love my Green Bay Packers but they let the Vikings beat them. Oh well, on to Washington. Good luck to all, especially Terry! Thinking about you. Judi
Posted by: Judi Harper on 1/6/2016 at 2:27 pm
Brad and Brian:
Hope you guys are having fun. Be safe. Looking forward to having you home! Happy Trails!
Posted by: Bobbi Birt on 1/5/2016 at 4:59 am
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