Saturday, July 6th, 2013 1:39 a.m. PST
Hi all. This is Pete, Geoff, Robby and team from Mt. McKinley. We are happy to report that we stood on top of North America today! Had our weather window show up and went for it. The whole team stood on top. It was a little bit blustery, but everybody did a great job. We were on top about 6:30 this evening. Now we are all back at 17K Camp safe and sound enjoying a Ramen dinner and getting ready to sack out before we start looking at moving down the mountain tomorrow. So hope everybody is well and glad to be able to give good news. Will talk later, bye.
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer calls in after summit success!
Derek, Congrats on your climb! I’m in North Pole AK and have been looking at the mountain from the fire. ICP is at elem. school stop by if possible.
Stay Safe,
Kim
Posted by: Kim Lemke on 7/10/2013 at 2:20 pm
Way to go!!! Can’t wait to hear the tales, Wy. What an awesome accomplishment. It’s almost like being able to say, “I walked on the moon!” :) Love you!
Friday, July 5th, 2013 10:57 p.m. PST
Finally a break in the weather. Things calmed down during the night and the upper layer of clouds began to dissipate. As we watched for an hour or two beginning at 5 AM, the weather went back and forth for a while, but once we committed to getting the team up and getting going, it all began to go our way. We dealt with slightly cooler temperatures and steady breezes as we left camp at 9 AM for our carry, but we had big blue skies overhead which was great for everybody's morale. Snow conditions were perfect for walking, which was a little surprising after so many days of falling snow. It seems that it had been such a long dry spell previously, that the surface had gotten firm from wind and sun. When new snow landed on that surface, it just blew clean. At any rate, it was perfect for our crampons today. We got up Motorcycle Hill and halfway up Squirrel Hill in the first hour, which entitled us to enjoy grand views of The Northwest Buttress and the Peter's Glacier. The second hour took us into the "Polo Field" as folks now call the basin which the end of the West Buttress towers over. We moved through this area without much visibility as another cloud had found us. By the time we reached Windy Corner, we were walking out of the cloud and getting big views again. Windy Corner has been a concern for several weeks now as the June heat wave had produced a rockfall hazard in the area. But there had to be some benefit to the storm that was keeping us down, it froze things up nicely above the corner and our passage was fast and safe. We cached food and fuel at 13,600', just past the corner. It had taken four and a half hours to reach our destination. We buried things deep to thwart the cache robbing ravens, and then began an easy descent with light packs. By 3:45, we were back in camp, basking in sunshine. There is still plenty of cloud around, but for the moment it is below us. We hope it stays that way as we want to move to 14,200' tomorrow. All were excited and energized to finally see beyond the corner. Denali's South Peak was no longer far away or on some horizon, it was front and center... and gigantic.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Good to hear that you are finally able to move. I arrived in Moscow yesterday with Casey Grom and teamates. We fly up to the Elbrus area tomorrow morning.
-Larry Seaton
Posted by: Larry Seaton on 7/6/2013 at 9:49 pm
Dear Will and team: Glad that you can finally get on the move again, and that it was a good weather for the most part. Heard from Amy yesterday, and she relayed the news. Your Dad says hi, and sends his love. Hope today brings another day of good climbing.
Nice to be in the mountains, especially the Caucasus. What a nice range of peaks it is. A bit of sun, a little cloudy at times, and some wind made for a nice variety during our day of hiking. We used the chair lifts to put us into thin air and then climbed to around 11,000'. Had a momentary glimpse of the Mt. Elbrus' upper mountain but saving the prolonged clear for summit day and time we will spend high on the flanks of the tallest peak in Europe. Good planning indeed.
Ran across a number of guide friends today and played a good trick on one of them. The team got into character and did not break till we totally fooled my pal. They met him on the trail and immediately surrounded him saying how great to see you again, giving him hugs and the whole enchilada, while I kept just off stage watching his reaction. He was pretty cool, trying to remember what trip or where he knew them from, being old friends and all to this group of five ladies, acting as if yes, I might just remember you. We all had a good laugh after I showed myself. I better keep an eye out for he will definitely try to get me back.
The team did great today on the hike. We are all well and having a fun time.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Chair lift? Now that’s the way to “climb” a mountain! Like to see the dismount from said lift with pack. Does my heart good to see Lucy’s hair still perfect after 4 days in Russia and Sasha in her colorful gear. Fully expect Laura to be in green. Mark has just tapped the potential for humor for this group. He has no idea. Love to you all
Posted by: Kathryn LeBey on 7/6/2013 at 4:58 am
ambushed by five attractive ladies, not a bad joke
Today’s Four Day Summit Climbs led by Jake Beren and Eric Frank reached the Mt. Rainier summit this morning. The teams are currently descending to Camp Muir and will be in Ashford later this afternoon. The Expedition Skills Seminar - Kautz led by Seth Waterfall is descending to Paradise after their successful summit yesterday. His team took a photo before they left their camp this morning (below).
Congratulations to today's summit climbers!
We had a great climb of Cotopaxi yesterday, and everyone summitted! We took advantage of cool weather and firm snow conditions and were able to climb during the day yesterday, hiking only the approach to the glacier in the dark. The weather was great, with no wind all day. The team climbed very strongly up the steep slopes of Cotopaxi, and had enough gas left in the tank to enjoy the summit and climb safely back down to the climbers' hut in 10 1/2 hours round trip.
We had great views along the way, being able to see many of Ecuador's high peaks, including Cayambe, Antisana, the Illinizas, the Pichinchas, Cotocachi, Imbabura, and El Corazon, as well as the beautiful mosaic of Andean farmlands far below us.
We spent last night relaxing at the climbers' hut and descended to our waiting vehicles this morning. Now we are at the beautiful Hosteria La Cienega, enjoying hot showers, lower altitude, and the comforts of life off of the mountain.
Congrats to our team for a successful summit of Cotopaxi!
RMI Guide Mike Walter
Hello RMI followers. This is JJ Justman with the first Mount Elbrus team. Today was an exciting day as we left the tiny town of Azau. After two tram rides, we arrived at the Garabashi Hut, also known as "The Barrels." We are currently at 12,000 feet. The team is enjoying the thin air. We would like to convince you that we are roughing it. However, life up here has some pretty darn nice creature comforts: French-pressed coffee and a full delicatessen, some comfy beds to name a few. It is important to relax and ease into the altitude. That's exactly what we need to do. We're playing card games and listening to electronic dance music, it's thumping in the background as I speak. I'm actually, myself, gonna currently watch culinary video podcast to get some new ideas for my mountain cuisine. We want to say hello to all the friends and family following along. The team is doing just fantastic, having a lot of fun. We will keep on informing you of how we're doing up here, but life is pretty darn nice. Take care for now.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
RMI Guide JJ Justman calls in from the Garabashi Hut.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Groundhog Day at 11,000 ft on Mt. McKinley. Another storm day from start to finish. Moderate winds, light but steady snow falling, poor visibility. Our POSH tent is a well dug-in fortress; essentially a covered pit in which we've cut benches for people and shelves for stoves. It provided excellent shelter today. Obviously, we drag out the meals for several hours, eating and talking and talking some more so as to avoid going back into our sleeping tents too soon and for too long. We each put in a few sessions of digging out the tents during the day, which is good for the tents, but also for our muscles and our brains. In late afternoon, the team assembled for a lesson in how we'll climb the "fixed ropes" section of the route between 15,000 and 16,000 ft. Then it was time for dinner, more talking in the POSH, and finally bed once again.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Awesome news! We heard from Anders by Satellite phone that the weather broke and the guys were able to climb up past Windy Corner to cache some gear yesterday (July 5th) around 13K. Then they descended back to sleep at their now very familiar Camp three. Just posting this so other families get the news in case you don’t get to update the RMI blog soon. We were thrilled to hear you guys were able to do some climbing and make some progress! We look forward to reading Dave Hahn’s recap of the day, and hope you get another lucky weather break.
Posted by: judy christofferson on 7/6/2013 at 7:15 am
OK, enough already with the snow! Surely you guys have suffered enough and have earned a chance to get up that big hill! We are doing weather dances here on a frequent basis and hope that your weather fortunes soon improve.
Be sure to have Anders tell you about his love of penguins!
Posted by: Randy Christofferson on 7/5/2013 at 2:09 pm
Thursday, July 4, 2013
It has been like a sunny beach vacation...except if it were sunny we would have flown far away from this particular snowy beach days ago. The snow keeps coming a bit harder and the forecast says through Sunday now. Could be worse; we have plenty of food, fuel, and great conversations!
RMI Guide Mike Uchal made almost five hours worth of pancakes in a continuous stream for most of the camp. We have a small backlog of climbers around us. There are not many new climbers in basecamp since the weather has prohibited much movement on the mountain from any of the different camps.
RMI Mt. McKinley Summit Team 6
Hopeful for your getaway very soon! Keep us posted. Love, Mom and Dad Haugen
Posted by: Cindy Haugen on 7/6/2013 at 6:15 am
Missing you more every day. Good to hear your spirits are ok. Can’t wait to hear that planes can make it in. Got 3 holes in one today. Hug, mom and the guys. Ps did you put smiley faces on the pancakes?
We had a smooth departure from Moscow. We took a short flight which lands us in the district of Mineralnye Vody, well known for it's abundance of mineral springs, sorry team no spa time just yet.
Situated far right of the picture is our local mountain guide Johnny who will be assisting me throughout or adventure. We are here in the Baksan Valley at 5,500 ft. this begins our adjustment period to altitude before the summit push. We are staying in a nice chalet, used for skiers in the winter, now a very comfortable Basecamp for climbers from here and abroad. A few clouds around but not bad in the weather department.
Tomorrow we will ride a couple chairlifts to gain altitude then take a nice hike up to around 11,000 ft. Then we will return to our chalet for a second night. It is very nice to be here and out of the big city.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Did you have any fireworks yesterday? Tell Putin and Snowden hello for me. Ski chalet and chair lifts, I thought this was going to be hard? Enjoy the beet stew.
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Whulp, the weather gods didn't smile on us today. We went to bed under clear, calm skies, and high hopes for today, but when we awoke, it was to snow, blowing snow, and wind, and next to no visibility. It wasn't a hard choice to sit tight in camp today, rest up, and hope that the next few days bring our chance! Everybody is in high spirits, albeit ancy and ready to go. Hopefully we'll check in tomorrow or Saturday from the top! Happy Fourth of July to everybody out there.
RMI Guides Pete, Geoff, Robby, and team
Hats off to you all….it’s been a blast following this trek and moments where we wish we could be there with you b/c VERY hot here in upstate NY…travel mercies on the descent. Gil:I’ve been keeping Chandler in line. ~(:)
Posted by: Dana Holly Troy on 7/7/2013 at 8:16 am
Hola Guapo,
I have to assume you are summiting since there has been no news for two days!
We are munching nervously on the rest of your Kit Kat bars…..“oh my goodness!”
Forest Gump would say: “Run Guapo Ruuuun”!
Can’t wait to hear!
Lots Love!!
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Derek, Congrats on your climb! I’m in North Pole AK and have been looking at the mountain from the fire. ICP is at elem. school stop by if possible.
Stay Safe,
Kim
Posted by: Kim Lemke on 7/10/2013 at 2:20 pm
Way to go!!! Can’t wait to hear the tales, Wy. What an awesome accomplishment. It’s almost like being able to say, “I walked on the moon!” :) Love you!
Posted by: Donna Evenson on 7/7/2013 at 9:01 pm
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