The Four and Five Day Summit Climbs turned above Disappointment Cleaver (13,000') due to poor visibility. They were en route to Camp Muir on their descent. After a stop at Camp Muir to re-pack and re-fuel they will begin their descent to Camp Muir.
We look forward to seeing them in Ashford this afternoon.
Hey this is Gilbert with the RMI May 15th expedition calling after a successful summit day here on Denali. We are back safe and sound in our tents brewing up some water and dinner. We left around 10 am under clear skies and very little wind. We had a great summit with eight clients and three guides.
Now we are back safe and sound. We are going to re-hydrate and re-fuel and beat feat down to basecamp and hopefully fly out in the next 24 hours or so and be back in Talkeetna.
So, that is all for now and we will keep in touch.
RMI Guide Gilbert Chase
RMI Guide Gilbert Chase checks in after a successful summit day on Denali.
Once we decided not to move for the day, the team slept late and gorged ourselves on a breakfast of toasted bagels with cream cheese and lockes. The rest of the morning was spent getting camp in order and digging out our walls.
Expedition life is a funny mixture of hard days of climbing and long days of sitting in the tents trying to avoid boredom. Today was the latter. We spent the afternoon avoiding the sun while we napped, read books and told stories. Being able to entertain yourself in the tent is a crucial skill on big expeditions.
Tomorrow, weather permitting, we plan to make a push up towards the 11k camp for more acclimatization and rest before we push higher on this magical massif, Denali.
RMI Guide Tyler Jones
"Its a miracle, I lit the stoves!" Exclaimed Roberto as he woke up the team this morning. When we entered the cook tent Roberto and Brent had laid out a spread of bagels, cream cheese and smoked salmon. Roberto was quite the Italian gentlemen this morning running the stoves and serving hot water, while insisting everyone enjoy their morning coffee and cider, and even giving us a short Italian lesson. A big grazie to Roberto, our favorite Italian chef at 14,000 feet!
After a leisurely breakfast we took a walk out to the edge of the world. The edge of the world got its name because it drops away 6,000 feet below you. Allowing us to see our previous camp at 7,800 feet and giving us fantastic views of the Alaskan range.
That was our big event of the day, and now we are resting and preparing for our move to 17,000 foot camp.
Other exciting news was that RMI Guide Gilbert Chase on the McKinley May 15th Expedition checked in this morning as RMI Guide Billy Nugent and team were making their summit bid. We expect to hear from them later on tonight.
Sitting strong at 14,
RMI Guides Lindsay, Brent and Leon and team
Happy birthday Phil!! Meatloaf sandwich on me this time. Looking forward to the stories. Be well!
Posted by: mark deffe on 6/4/2012 at 8:30 am
Happy Birthday Phil, what a wonderful place to celebrate! We are inspired by you and your teammates, hope you aren’t tired of the poptarts. xox Suzy & John
Today the team succeeded in getting our cache all the way up to 17,200'. What an achievement! Another early start had us beating the madding crowds up the fixed ropes and allowing us to enjoy our climb on the Buttress with a peaceful solitude.
At Washburn's Thumb everyone was climbing well, but we decided to send one team on up to high camp while the rest of us conserved our strength and descended back to camp from 16,600'. After all, we had reached the highest point many of us had ever climbed to and were doing well. Our team of go-getters who went on higher even carried some of our personal caches with them so that all our cache would be together at our next and final camp. I'm still so impressed by how this team pulls together and helps each other out in times like these. It should be noted that seldom do any teams make the effort or have the strength to carry all the way up to 17,200' camp.
What we experience while climbing the terrain between the fixed ropes and 17,200' is nothing short of awesome. And for most of us this is the most exciting climbing we have ever done. Steep, exposed and beautiful. What more could we want.
Back at camp now everyone is resting well and looking forward to a real rest day. We'll sleep in and dine on smoked salmon, bagels and cream cheese. And maybe after that we'll get into something else. It will be a well deserved day of rest!
Until next time...
RMI Guides Brent, Leon and Lindsay
The Four Day Summit Climb turned at the traverse of the Cleaver (11,500') this morning. They were back at Muir and did some crevasse rescue training before descending to Paradise. The team is back in Ashford at Rainier Basecamp.
The Camp Muir Skills Seminar is back down off the mountain! We had hoped to give the summit one more shot but, as was our luck, the rain returned overnight. The mountain did clear at the mid elevations yesterday giving us hope but the weather fronts were stacked up end-to-end this week so we packed our things this morning and headed down.
Even though we weren't able to summit, Camp Muir provides an excellent high-altitude training site so we were able to train in the complex skills necessary to climb a glaciated peak. And so when the team parted ways everyone was psyched up for new adventures. One of the main things that makes a successful trip for me is if everyone returns as friends. This is no small feat with 15 climbers and 5 guides, but if this is our yardstick we definitely succeeded after our week at Muir.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Seth, Adam, Solveig, Thomas and Zeb were excellent guides and made the trip a worthwhile experience even though the weather did not cooperate for a summit bid. I look forward to other guided adventures with any one of these guides.
Thank you for a memorable trip.
This morning we awoke to 6 to 8 inches of light fresh powder. We didn't allow this to stop our momentum. With calm winds and overcast skies we decided on a carry for today. We cached a portion of our gear at 10,000 feet with the intention of lightening our load when we move to 11,000 feet.
We are now back at our camp at 7,800 feet hiding from the sun, rehydrating and relaxing. For the past two days we have seen many climbing teams from all over the world. This trip of a lifetime is well underway and the team is climbing strong. As the winds pick up here at Camp 1, we are headed out to tighten up our camp and build some wind walls. Cheers for the team.
RMI Guide Tyler Jones
Hey, everybody it’s Billy.
I’m calling from 17,000’ where we are enjoying our third rest day or you could call them weather days. We have been sitting around in the clouds, it has been snowy and windy. We are hoping that this high pressure that is supposed to build this weekend over the mountain actually happens and we’ll get a chance to climb. Right now the team is hanging tight, chilling in their tent, every now and then getting out and working on the snow walls, trying to maintain sanity and waiting for this weather to lift so we can take a crack at the top. I’ll give you guys a call again tomorrow, let you know if anything new develops.
Take care,
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
RMI Guide Billy Nugent checks in from 17,000 ft on Mt. McKinley.
Breakfast was early this morning as the night was fairly warm and if we were to make a carry we wanted to not be caught up in the sometimes crowded scene that happens on the fixed ropes later in the day. But a quick survey of how everyone was doing at breakfast confirmed our suspicion that the day would be better spent resting and fortifying our camp from windy, nasty weather that can happen at any time. After all, we'd been going strong for six days straight. So, we enjoyed a leisurely meal of western omelette, bacon and bagels, followed by some warm pop tarts. And the best part of the morning was when Roberto Pellegrino took over and started turning out some killer pancakes leftover from another days breakfast. The morning amounted to a relaxed time just enjoying each others company. But of course my mind is always spinning and after my third hot drink I thought it might be worthwhile to at least get some food up to our high camp, and perhaps even see our friends Billy, Geoff and Gilbert. So, off Lindsay and I went. It was her first time actually on the Buttress itself, and it made for a fun trip. And visiting with our other team at 17,200' was great too.
Tomorrow we plan on all climbing up the fixed ropes and on to the Buttress. How far we just don't know. But, we'll be sporting nice light packs, a very welcome change for us all.
We'll be in touch tomorrow night as long as we get back early enough.
Brent, Leon and Lindsay
Way to go Elizabeth, Brandi, and the rest of your team. The photos are absolutely stunning. We miss you here but are glad you’re having a wonderful adventure!
Love, Victoria
Posted by: Victoria Bailey on 6/1/2012 at 1:20 pm
Doug and Audrey, we’ve enjoyed following your journey and wish you well. I hope you’re having a blast and enjoying a look at life “from the top”. Much love.
Elizabeth and the Nugent team.
That’s just fantastic. So happy to hear you got a weather window to summit. Congratulations.
Posted by: james rozzelle, ann shepherd, Josie on 6/5/2012 at 10:38 am
Congrats Stuart!!! You did it! Can’t wait to hear al abut it.
Stay safe! Love Patti
Posted by: Patti Emmert on 6/4/2012 at 11:02 pm
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