Entries from Expedition Dispatches
This morning’s climb led by Win Whittaker and Billy Nugent had to turn around at 12,300’ because of low visibility and high winds. They were back at Camp Muir where it was snowing and in the clouds. They are planning on heading back to Paradise around 8:00 a.m.
The Four Day Summit Climb July 12 - 15 reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. RMI Guides Mike Haugen and Casey Grom and their teams checked in from the crater rim at 7:40 a.m. PT. They reported clear and sunny conditions with a steady wind.
Congratulations to today's teams!
Still at 14,200', I'm afraid. There was a cloud cap sitting on Denali at 7:45 this morning when we started checking weather. The cap meant snow and wind were working over the camp at 17,200' and so we weren't anxious to head that way without some improvement. That cap dropped lower as we ate breakfast and eventually it mingled with some clouds from below to put us in the soup. By midday it was snowing and we had to write off our chances for going high on this day. On the bright side, our team members that were suffering from minor colds yesterday had kicked those ailments by today... Vitamin C and bedrest. The gang put on climbing gear and walked up the first hill over camp, despite the steadily falling snow, just to get some exercise and some time out of the tents. Our forecasts call for more snow, unfortunately, so we had to do a bit of contingency juggling of supplies today. As we mentioned a few days back, we can't afford to be separated from our cache at 16 by avalanche conditions as our food supply at 14 Camp dwindles. This afternoon three of the guides broke trail up to the fixed lines and then ascended to 16,200' to retrieve the cache. There was plenty of recent snow to plod through and there were scars and debris piles from a few avalanches, but today things were stable enough and the mission was a success. The entire team greeted the cache raiders enthusiastically upon their return at dinner-time. We'd certainly hoped to use the cached supplies for our summit bid... and we cling to that hope. But now we have that food and fuel safely within our grasp should we need to retreat instead. The team is upbeat and optimistic... and realistic. We know we need the weather to improve in the next few days, defying the forecasts.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Our Four Day Summit Climb teams led by Peter Whittaker, Ed Viesturs and Jake Beren reached the top of Mt. Rainier today. Visibility was low and winds were strong, so their time on the top was short. The teams have started their descent and are on their way down to Camp Muir.
Our Kautz Glacier Climb led by Mike Walter sent us a radio call at 1:59pm PST from the summit of Mt. Rainier. The entire team reached the summit via the Kautz route.
Congratulations to today's teams!
Oddly enough, we had great weather today, but we couldn't really put it to good use. We stayed in our 14,200' camp. Forecasts called for dire weather and a couple of our gang were under the weather, dealing with minor colds, so we decided to give everything and everyone a day in which to get better. In fact, none of the other teams on the mountain moved either. We know of four, one other guided group at 14 Camp and three teams up at 17,200'. The National Park Service team packed up their camp and flew out of 14 today by helicopter, their season finished. To take advantage of the fine sunshine and to stretch legs, most of our team roped up and took a short walk to the "edge of the world" on the rim of Genet Basin. It offers magnificent views nearly straight down to the Northeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier and also a good look at the lower portions of the West Rib climbing route. Obviously, if we have the opportunity tomorrow, we want to get back to work on the West Buttress route.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
have been following your progress on the blog and praying for a summit and safe return for you and all the team members, can’t wait to hear all the stories when you return, take lots of pics and hope you will give presentation at the medical society mtg when you return
God Bless,
Kenny Tidwell
Posted by: Kenny Tidwell on 7/14/2011 at 8:11 pm
How’s the bacon supply holding out?
Posted by: Joe on 7/14/2011 at 4:18 pm
The Four Day Summit Climbs July 10 - 13 led by Brent Okita and J.J. Justman reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today. J.J. reported clear skies and cold temperatures with winds below 20 mph. There is a cloud deck below them at 9,500' but blue skies above.
Congratulations to today's summit teams!
Just as the Mt. McKinley weather report predicted, we got six inches of snow last night at our 14,200' camp. There wasn't any wind to go with it though, so the night was an easy one. Most of today was spent "inside the ping pong ball" -in a white world of cloud and falling snow. So most of us passed the time in the tents, sleeping, reading, listening to music or talking about the weather. A high point to the cloudy part of the day was a reading of the comments posted to the RMI blog. We can't bring up a web page, but the comments were cut and pasted into an email for the team and were very well received. Thank You.
Finally, around dinner time, the clouds began to clear and we were treated to stunning views of Foraker, Hunter and Denali. Now, at 9:30 in the evening it is crystal clear above and cloudy down below. This clear and dry evening defies predictions but we'll gladly take it. The big hope now is that tomorrow will stay nice and we'll get to move up to high camp.
Spencer wishes his Mom a happy birthday from Denali... And his teammates second that.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Sending you good tidings for a safe summit Stewart!
Posted by: Gail on 7/13/2011 at 4:31 pm
Spencer, I read this blog every day and just can’t
imagine what you are doing! but then, I just can’t
imagine 99.9% of the things you do! I am just going to
have to live through you, that’s all there is to it.
Russ and I just can’t wait to hear all about it
love to you and best wishes to all on the mountain
Carol
Posted by: Carol Trett on 7/13/2011 at 1:10 pm
Our Four Day Summit Climb teams led by Billy Nugent and Gabriel Barral reached the top of Mt. Rainier today. They climbed into a cloud cap that greeted them with strong winds and cold temperatures. The teams started their descent back to Camp Muir at about 8:01am PST.
Our Emmons Expedition Skills Seminar team led by Dan Windham check it at 12:52pm PST today from Camp Schurman. The team headed out for their summit attempt at about 7:00am PST in hopes that the rain and wind they experienced at camp would die down. The team was able to reach an elevation of 12,000' but decided to turn back due to poor visibility, strong winds and heavy snow. The team will continue training and plan on being back at Rainier Basecamp tomorrow afternoon.
Congratulations to today's teams.
A restful rest day was had by all... Mostly. We slept late, until almost 9 in the morning, and then emerged to find the world a dozen shades of grey as multiple cloud layers shifted slowly about. Our chefs prepared a sumptuous breakfast of egg and bacon quesadillas and we sat about in down coats telling stories for a bit before returning to the comfort of the tents for the day, determined to catch up on sleep and hydration. Our weather forecast made it plain today that we could expect at least a couple days of snow and so it was decided to grab back two days of food from the cache we'd placed at 16,200' yesterday. Geoff and Zeb made the round trip in 2 hours and 15 minutes... just in time since shortly after their return it began to snow heavily. Continued snow will make the cache inaccessible for a time as we may need to let avalanche conditions settle. The team got out in the weather long enough to beef up the tent anchors and eat a hot dinner in the POSH dining tent. Despite the forecast and the snow, spirits remain high.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Do hope there is enough Kungfu chicken to go round…
Take good care all of you, stay happy and healthy and get there!!
Posted by: Claire Munting on 7/12/2011 at 6:39 pm
HEY SPENCER HOLD ON THERE TONTO WEST AND I ARE ON THE WAY WITH FRESH LINENS AND MORE COFFEE AND A LATTE. HEY AND WOULD YOU LEAVE YOUR LEFT OVER STUFF WHERE WE CAN FIND IT. YOU KNOW US JUST KIDDING!!!!PRAY FOR THE BEST WEATHER FOR YOU AND YOUR TEAM. GET TO THE SUMMIT!!!!
Posted by: TOBY EMERSON on 7/12/2011 at 1:58 pm
Posted by:
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Hi RMI this is Linden Mallory calling, it’s about 10 AM on Monday morning and we are calling from Denali Base camp.
We made it down this morning. We woke up about midnight last night and had the beginnings of a descent freeze, so we decided to pack up and see how the glacier treated us. We fired up the stoves and cooked up some breakfast and then we were walking in the middle of the night. It was a long but relatively uneventful walk down the glacier. We picked our way down and made it to Base camp about an hour ago. Right now we just packed up all our gear and we are waiting on the airplanes to come and pick us up. We have some low hanging clouds but we are fairly optimistic, a few planes have made it in.
So hopefully our next call is from Talkeetna. We'll check in and let you know how it goes.
RMI Guide Linden Mallory
Welcome back on low-altitude land! Kudos to the great guides who made it happen.
Alysse in the Forest
Posted by: Alysse on 7/11/2011 at 4:26 pm
Glad to hear everyone is safe and sound, can’t wait to hear all the stories. Thank you Linden for all the reports and getting everyone up and down safely.
Posted by: Toni on 7/11/2011 at 3:50 pm
.jpg)
.jpg)
HEY SPENCER!! TONTO WEST AND I ARE DOING THE GOOD WEATHER DANCE, WE WANT TO SEE YOU GUYS GET TO THE SUMMIT! BUT BE SAFE.
Posted by: TOBY EMERSON on 7/16/2011 at 8:01 am
Safety and food, altitude wished for all in the waiting game. Happiness awaits. love dinah and sue
Posted by: dinah rogers on 7/15/2011 at 6:02 am
View All Comments