Good afternoon, This is ElÃas and the Alpamayo climbing team. It's Sunday, the 20th, at 3:30 pm local time, and we have just arrived at Camp 1, or Moraine Camp, where we deposited a cache a couple days ago. We are turning into our tents, and we're going to start an early dinner pretty soon here, with the hopes of Col Camp, or Camp 2 tomorrow. Potentially we could be going for the summit in just 36 hours, but we'll keep you posted on that. Again, tomorrow the plan is to get to Col Camp, and we will keep you up to date on that, as well.
Take care.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
We did it! We successfully climbed to the highest point in Europe. It wasn't easy, in fact it was far from it.
We started our climb in pretty windy conditions and battled our way for several hours before the weather finally eased off. I have to admit I wasn't sure it was going to happen for us, but a big thanks to our local guides for working hard and to the crew for doing a great job of taking care of themselves. We had our heads down most of the climb due to the blowing wind and surface snow that continuously made it difficult. The team worked extra hard today to make it happen, wearing parkas and goggles nearly the entire day.
We have finally descended all the way back to Cheget and just finished another wonderful meal, washed down with endless vodka in Russian style!
Everyone is in great spirits and looking forward to taking in the sites and relaxing in beautiful St. Petersburg.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and Team
The weather hasn't cooperated with us the past couple of days, and we're getting ready to pack up and descend through the Fisher Chimneys, and return to the trailhead. It's still raining here, and we have a lot of climbing ahead of us just to get back to the approach trail. We'll enjoy the climbing, but we're also looking forward to a warm shower!
We've done the bulk of the climbing on this route already, and only about 2000' stand between us and the summit. But there's no way we can move upwards in these wet conditions.
We'll touch base when we're back at the trailhead.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
The RMI July 18th Mt. Elbrus team led by RMI Guide JJ Justman gathered in Moscow on July 19th. The team explored the city on July 20th with a local tour guide soaking in the sites of the Kremlin, Red Square, Lenin's Tomb and more. Check out the video from their city tour.
The Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guides Seth and Solveig Waterfall were unable to reach the summit today due to route conditions. The teams reached 12,700' before deciding to turn back. They will return to Camp Muir for a short break before continuing down to Paradise.
We look forward to seeing the teams at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and the RMI Mt. Elbrus July 11th team reached the summit of Mt.Elbrus, Europe's highest peak on July 20th. The team had a great day and will check in again when they are back at camp.
Congratulations to the team!
After a great day of climbing yesterday, we had high hopes for a summit push today. Unfortunately, the mountain had other plans and the weather kept us in our tents all day as it has been consistently raining and windy. Things are seeming to ease up a bit this evening, and the forecast shows an improving trend. We'll see how the situation progresses, but right now we are hoping to go for the top early tomorrow morning.
Either way, we'll be climbing back down through the Fisher Chimneys tomorrow and headed back to the trailhead. Hopefully we'll get a chance to climb up before we climb back down.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
Good afternoon from Alpamayo Base Camp. We are checking in from our rest day. We had an uneventful day today, just took our time to eat and drink, and rehydrate. And we witnessed a little bit of rain and light snow with hail today -- the first one of the trip. But the weather hasn't been very bad. It's just been normal Andean weather. We don't have much to share today. We're just excited to head up tomorrow to Camp 1, and other than the sighting of the birth of baby sheep that happened right here at base camp, nothing major today. So again we are just so excited to get packed tomorrow morning and head up to Camp 1, from where we will be checking in tomorrow. And so we are letting you know that the next day we are going up to Camp 1. That's it for now. We'll check again later. Bye.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos checks in from Alpamayo Base Camp.
Not that we needed it, but yesterday's thunderstorms with hail, lighting, and strong winds only confirmed we'd made the right call to delay by one day. By morning today the clouds had blown off and the sun was back out but you could still see the wind up high blowing strong. Rather than rest all day again, we went for a nice hike after breakfast to stretch the legs and exercise the lungs a bit. Being a Saturday there were dozens of snowcats full of people and endless snowmobiles flying past as we hiked.
After our hike we enjoyed another nice meal cooked by Albina and then sat together to discuss our upcoming climb. We have gone over all the details and are already packed up ready for morning. Our plan will be to wake up around midnight, have breakfast at 12:30 and hopefully be riding our snowcat by 1:30. The snow cat will drop us off basically where we ended our highest acclimatization hike two days ago. From there it should takes us about 6-8 hours to reach the summit of Mt. Elbrus if all goes according to plan. The forecast looks better than yesterday's and the team is very ready for the climb.
We'll do our best to call from the summit, and will undoubtedly check in when we return.
Wish us luck!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
It is 10 am Seattle time so by now you have reached the top and come back down with lots of stories and good thoughts. Kevin are you keeping a journal for a great book? Love to all Mom and Granny
Posted by: Cornelia Granny on 7/20/2014 at 9:49 am
By now you must be climbing, or maybe already there. So glad the weather broke for you, and looking forward to many good pictures. Be safe—MA
The Four Day Summit Climbs led by RMI Guides Zeb Blais and Lindsay Fixmer reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The teams experienced very high winds upon approaching the crater rim. The team enjoyed some time on top before starting their descent around 7 am. The teams will return to Camp Muir for a short break before continuing down to Paradise. We look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb teams!
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That is an impressive accomplishment. Congratulations!
Have a safe trip to St. Petersburg.
Posted by: Tamara on 7/20/2014 at 6:22 pm
You did it and I see smiles all over the place. I am very proud of all of you. Love and prayers Mom and Granny
Posted by: Cornelia on 7/20/2014 at 3:37 pm
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