RMI Guides Dave Hahn and Solveig Waterfall led their Four Day Summit Climb teams to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Dave reported perfect weather on the summit - clear, calm, and sunny. The teams began their descent to Camp Muir just after 7:30 am. They will continue their descent to Paradise this afternoon.
Congratulations climbers!
Peter….Wow! Congrats to you for such an accomplishment! We are proud of you…hope to toast to you sometime soon.
Posted by: zoppetti - fischbachs on 8/1/2015 at 1:48 pm
Jeff, we are sure the sights make all the training worthwhile. Hayden was sure she saw you on the mountain last night when we viewed it from the Wallmart Parking Lot and Indi recognized your green eyes in the photo.
Summit day.
This morning we got up a little after midnight to a starry calm night. We ate breakfast and put the final touches on our packing and just before two o'clock in the morning we marched out of camp. Within 40 minutes we encountered steep snow slopes and began pitching it out. We slowly worked our way up our route climbing close to 2,000 feet of beautiful ice and snow. The whole team did a fantastic job today. We reached the summit of Alpamayo just before 8:00 AM. Tired as we were, everyone stayed focused for our decent and we walked back into camp tired but extremely happy. We will begin our descent to Base Camp tomorrow.
Thanks so much for following along on our climb. It has truly been an honor to climb such a beautiful peak with such a great group.
RMI Guide Geoff Schellens
Congratulations to the team! Well done! It seems as if we crossed paths just yesterday. Happy trails out.
Posted by: Wolf Riehle on 8/1/2015 at 7:11 pm
Excitement and “Vivas” !!!
Congrats and pat on the back for each of you… GREAT JOB!!
A huge hug from your family, Jesse
Mom, Dad, Virgie, Evencio Jr, and Zelda
<3 you!
Jambo Everyone
Things are going well and the team is doing great here on Kilimanjaro.
Today the team had a leisurely start as we wanted the sun to warm us up before our only semi-technical part of the climb. The trail out of camp starts off relatively mellow and then quickly ramps up as we ascend the great Barranco wall. It's truthfully not as intimidating as it looks, but when does a thousand foot cliff ever look easy. Thankfully the route winds its way up the cliff through ramps and small rock steps and eventually on to easier terrain. Everyone did a great job of taking it easy and I actually think they all enjoyed the challenge we had. It was a very busy day and there was fair bit of traffic on the route as all the porters and climbers slowly made our way to the next camp here above the Karanga Valley.
Today was a relatively short day for us as this will be our last camp before we move up to our high camp tomorrow.
As usual we've had a trivia challenge that one lucky winner will receive a satellite phone call from the summit. It won't happen until we reach the summit, but that's not too far away. I'll let everyone know when that might happen on tomorrow's dispatch. So stay tuned!
We are spending the remainder of the day relaxing and enjoying the royal treatment by our gracious staff here on Kili.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
The Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide Lindsay Mann called from the crater rim at 7:30 am as they were ready to begin their descent. Lindsay reported a beautiful day with a light breeze. The ESS-Paradise led by Ben Liken was also leaving the summit to return to Camp Muir. Both teams will continue their descent to Paradise this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
Update: July 30, 2015 11:31 pm PST
Family and friends we are back at camp safe and sound. Again, every one made the summit. Stay tuned for the summit video!!
July 30, 2015 8:50 pm PST
Hey, everyone. This is JJ Justman with the Elbrus team. I will give you one guess, just one guess as to where not one, not two, not five, but every single team member is right now. That is right! We are on top of Europe! We are on the summit of Mount Elbrus! The team did just a fantastic job today. We are a day early than expected. We have some weather coming in tomorrow and the next day. It is supposed to snow pretty darn good. As a guide I kind of hemmed and hawed and made the decision that the best day to go was today. And I'll tell you what, the team today is just strong as can be. We are on the summit of Elbrus. We are taking some more photos, and then we are going to head downhill. It is a beautiful day right now so we just made a terrific call as a team and I'm really proud of everyone. [Team cheers!] That's right, a big holler. Everyone says hi to family and friends. I will touch base with you guys when we get back down, but boy, we are just doing great. Thanks for following along. We'll talk to you again soon.
RMI Guide JJ Justman calls from the Mount Elbrus summit.
Nice! Looks gorgeous!! Congrats to all and a special shout out to my honey, Brian. Love you baby!!
Posted by: Victoria on 7/31/2015 at 8:01 am
hi Brian and team-
Wow! Sounds like some great decisions as to when to summit! Congrats to all!! Be safe and have fun coming down.
Love you-
Molly and Mike and family
Today was a rest day at high camp and the team took full advantage. Most of us have been napping, stretching, hydrating, and getting strong. A few of us, including myself, had a little bit of a rumbling gut last night and this morning but everyone seems to recovering quickly today.
Excitement is very high is we look up at the beautiful summit face with its steep ice runnels. Like a siren it is calling to us and with calm winds and blue skies it is impossible to ignore. Our forecast for tomorrow looks perfect as well so for now, we wait.
Thanks for following us on this fantastic climb.
RMI Guide Geoff Schellens and the Alpamayo Team
Brother, you really are Superman! Go Jesse!
When y’all are done with this one is Mt. Everest next on the list?
Can’t wait to hear about the top of the summit. Keep it up guys, almost there!
Posted by: Virginia Rosales on 7/31/2015 at 11:34 am
Good luck to everyone today! Geoff, you keep those rogues in check - no funny business at 70 degrees! Sending my love.
Hello again from Kilimanjaro -
Today the team had our usual start at 7am with a full breakfast at 7:30 and hit the trail just after 8. The skies were clear and it felt wonderful to be hiking uphill in the warmth of the sun. Our route today took us up to about 15,000' (setting new altitude records for some) as we passed a landmark known as Lava Tower and then descended down into the Barranco valley. This valley is full of giant groundsels and senecio trees that look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.
As we arrived at camp the clouds enveloped us once again and we are currently relaxing back in our tents waiting on dinner.
Everyone is doing well and enjoying the climb.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Hello from Mt. Elbrus -
Our team is back from a great acclimatization day. We reached 15,300 feet and every team member did a great job! We are back now at camp with full bellies after lunch. This afternoon we are going to relax in the sunshine!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
RMI Guide Leon Davis radioed BaseCamp at 7:02 am to let us know both Four Day Summit Climb teams were about to reach the summit of Mt. Rainier. Leon reported a nice day on the mountain with light winds out of the West. The teams spent over an hour enjoying the view from the summit. They began their descent from the crater rim at 8:20 en route to Camp Muir. After a brief stop they will continue to Paradise and complete their program later today.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb teams!
Hello from High Camp. Today we woke up with the sun hitting our tents at Moraine Camp and not a cloud in sight. We had breakfast and coffee and packed up. This was our first time with crampons and ice tools of the trip. It took a stretch or two but we all fell into a good cadence. Soon we found ourselves nearing the Col but a few steep steps of snow and ice separated us from camp. Though it was difficult with heavy backpacks we all climbed very well up to the Col. Here we finally got our first view of the southwest face of Alpamayo that we will climb. It is perhaps one of the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen and our line is striking and direct. Everyone is very excited for the ascent.
The team did very well today and everyone is happy and healthy. Most likely we will take a rest day tomorrow and climb on Friday.
Thanks for following along with us.
RMI Guide Geoff Schellens and the Alpamayo Team!
Wow!!! That is QUITE A MOUNTAIN!!!!! I appreciate the nightly reports so we can follow along with you. The blue skies DO make the mountain look magnificent….ONWARD AND UPWARD!!! Happy climbing! How are the donkeys ??? HEEE HAWWW!!!!!!!
Posted by: Patty Stenderup on 7/30/2015 at 9:51 pm
Go Geoff and team!!! Cheering for you all from Ashford. Go guys!
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Peter….Wow! Congrats to you for such an accomplishment! We are proud of you…hope to toast to you sometime soon.
Posted by: zoppetti - fischbachs on 8/1/2015 at 1:48 pm
Jeff, we are sure the sights make all the training worthwhile. Hayden was sure she saw you on the mountain last night when we viewed it from the Wallmart Parking Lot and Indi recognized your green eyes in the photo.
LOL
Posted by: Jacquie on 8/1/2015 at 12:06 pm
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