July 4, 2014 - 9:44 pm PT
The move to Mt. McKinley's high camp is like stepping into the ring with a heavy weight larger than King Kong. Thing is, he really likes to throw things at you in one long grueling round. That round our team won. It could not have been a more perfect day to come to high camp. Now the question becomes how much strength does the team have for round two which comes in the form of Godzilla. Tomorrow we will attempt to climb to the summit, weather permitting. Wish us well.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff and team signing off from high camp.
This is from your mother, Mark…and I suppose me, too!
Lots of love Mark..so glad things are going well. Good luck and success to you and your teams.Thrilled that you might reach the summit today! Love, Mom…and Merabeth
Posted by: Merabeth Lurie on 7/5/2014 at 1:15 pm
Congrats on making it to High camp. You guys are like Rocky and keep going no matter what is thrown at you! Can’t wait to read your next blog from the summit!!
Posted by: Jerry Hildebrand on 7/5/2014 at 12:04 pm
Today the Alpamayo team made a big jump and moved a portion of our group gear up to the next camp, Moraine Camp (16,200'). We moved well and were at the cache site by late morning. Despite feeling good, everyone was breathing hard and we were happy to drop back to our basecamp at 14,200'.
The food on this trip has been phenomenal. Everyday our cook, Raul, impresses us with his culinary prowess. From veggie omelettes to grilled trout to fresh cut fruit salad every night, we have been eating like kings. I suspect the amazing food has a strong correlation to how good we all feel.
All for now. Thanks for following along.
RMI Guide Eric Frank and the Alpamayo team
Friday, July 4, 2014 – 10:32 AM PT
We took advantage of great weather and climbing conditions yesterday to summit Cotopaxi (19,348')! We started climbing a little before 5 am, summitted around 1 pm, and were back at camp by 5 pm. Twelve hours of ascending and descending the glaciate slopes of Ecuador's most famous volcano, Cotopaxi. Although we were greeted by gusty winds as we approached the glacier, the sky was clear and the temperature was comfortable. By the time we strapped our crampons on, the wind had died down and the weather and climbing conditions could not have been better. The snow was perfect for cramponing, winds were about 10 mph all the way up to the summit, and the views of the surrounding peaks were stunning.
After a long day of climbing we settled back into the climbers' hut and enjoyed a warm meal before crawling into our sleeping bags for a full night's sleep. This morning, after a leisurely breakfast, we visited a small pre-Incan archaeological site within Cotopaxi National Park before heading south to the Hacienda La Cienega. Now we're all set to enjoy showers, some more food, and comfortable beds.
Nice work team, on safely climbing up and down a very impressive mountain. We'll rest here at La Cienega tonight and then head back into the capital, Quito, tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
Friday, July 4, 2014 - 9:43 AM PT
Hello from the summit of Nevado Urus at 5,497 meters! This is Elias and the crew, we are on top and enjoying the views of the Cordillera Blanca. We had a nice day and are enjoying our time up here. Everybody's doing well and we will be checking in tomorrow on our rest day. We are blown away by the lakes and the glaciers and the summit we are seeing. Are we guys? (team cheering). I don't know if you heard them but they were cheering. That's all for now, we'll be checking in later. Bye.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos checks in from the summit of Nevado Urus.
Hi Aunt Kim!!! Way to go on your first summit- yay!!!! I had the best time in Nashville while mommy and daddy were away… I am so independent now- pretty soon I can start climbing mountains with you !!!!!
Lots of Love
Sophia & Crew
PS I taught daddy how to catch fireflies
Posted by: Sophia Rose on 7/5/2014 at 7:00 pm
Congrats on one of the summits. Can’t wait to see photo of the view that is described. Sasha and I are spending our days at the beach and jungle trail and thinking of you all in your fleece. Hope the food on this Peru journey is as good as in September.
Thursday, July 3, 2014 - 7:09 PM PT
Hello again, this Elias and the Ishinca Valley seminar. We're having a good time here during our second day at base camp. After our arrival yesterday we left a dispatch but didn't know if the call went through, or at least part of it. Today we're checking in letting you know we had a great day of training. We are going to bed right now getting ready for tomorrow's climb of Navado Urus, a 5,400m (17,800') peak. Everybody's doing well, enjoying ourselves up here. We will be checking tomorrow again with hopefully some good news from the summit. Hope all is well at home and we'll let you know of our progress tomorrow.
Good bye for now.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos checks in after a day of training with the Peru Seminar team.
The Four Day Summit Climbs led by RMI Guides Brent Okita and Walter Hailes reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Brent reported clear and warm conditions. The teams are enjoying some time on the summit. They will return to Camp Muir later this morning and then continue their descent to Paradise. We look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb Teams!
Happy Independence Day!
RMI Guide Mike Walter and his team of climbers reached the summit of Cotopaxi on July 3rd around 11 am PT. They descended to camp and will head to La Cienega today.
Congratulations to the team!
July 3, 2014 - 11:19 p.m. PT
The forecasts had us optimistic that today would work out well for a carry to 13,500 ft. At seven AM though, it didn't seem that Denali's clouds had read the forecast. It was socked in above, below and to the West of us. Even so, there was a mass exodus from 11,000' camp underway. The five other guided groups that we've been playing leap-frog with for the past week were all busting down their camps and getting early starts at moving up. By the time we'd finished breakfast, we had the place pretty much to ourselves (to our knowledge, no other climbers have come onto the mountain behind us). The weather, although a little murky and more threatening than we'd expected, seemed stable enough for our mission. We put crampons on our boots today instead of snowshoes, an ice axe in our hands instead of two ski poles, and we elected to give our sleds the day off, loading all food and gear for the carry onto our backs. At just after 9 AM we started up the steep "Motorcycle Hill" above camp. We made steady progress onto "Squirrel Hill" and then into the "Polo Field" laid out below the end of the West Buttress. By the time we reached Windy Corner at 13,300 we were thankful for the cloudcover which was keeping things just cool enough for comfortable climbing. And significantly, Windy Corner wasn't windy. We cruised up and around it to our intended cache site at 13,500 ft. Digging a raven-proof cache occupied us for long enough that the clouds began to clear while we were at it. This meant we were treated to some spectacular views during our descent. With lightened packs, we got down without difficulty. The route was in fabulous condition due to so much recent snow. We haven't crossed an open crevasse since leaving basecamp whereas in other years we might well have stepped over a hundred at this stage of the climb. The forecasted fair weather arrived and made our afternoon and evening resting back at 11,000 camp sunny and easy.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Happy 4th to JT, SS and the rest of the team! Thanks for taking us all on this incredible journey with you. Wishing you clear skies and safe travels. Sending all our love, KK&J
Thursday, July 3, 2014 - 3:01 PM PT
Howdy, ya'all from Alpamayo Basecamp.
Up here at 14,270' the air is a bit harder to breathe, but we are doing well and feeling strong. The hike today was a unique mix of open glacial plains and mossy paths through the woods which remind us of the land of the hobbits.
Currently the team is reading or napping in the tents to avoid the intense mid-day sun. We are all performing well and, weather permitting, plan to carry some gear up to a higher camp tomorrow.
RMI Guide Eric Frank
Thursday, July 2, 2014 – 4:43 PM PT
Yesterday our team experienced the unparalleled vistas of a clear sky at 16,200’ on Denali as we were finally handed a nearly perfect day. We loaded up three days of lunch and snack food plus a few personal items for our carry to the top of the fixed lines which crest Washburn’s Ridge—the most stimulating section of Denali’s West Buttress Route. The team did great learning how to jumar. All members of the St. Angelo family and Jay and Mary Lampas hit personal altitude records. Fatima did a great job breaking trail down the lines, literally paving the way for thirty other climbers on the same program as us.
The population of 14k camp has increased dramatically. What once was a camp that resembled a wide cow pasture with wandering wildlife now resembles a city with distinct neighborhoods on main thoroughfares. Just like a city, this can create traffic jams when multiple teams, all roped together, try to move around at the same time. This sudden influx of guided teams means we will need to wake up at 4 am, while the temperature here sits around 5 below, just to beat the crowds and avoid a bottleneck.
This afternoon we had a lengthy breakfast which leaned more along the lines of a leisurely brunch. We then took a beautiful stroll to an incredible precipice called the Edge of the World. Great weather allowed us more breathtaking views and inspired us for the hard days to come. Hopefully our next contact will be from high camp.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff
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This is from your mother, Mark…and I suppose me, too!
Lots of love Mark..so glad things are going well. Good luck and success to you and your teams.Thrilled that you might reach the summit today! Love, Mom…and Merabeth
Posted by: Merabeth Lurie on 7/5/2014 at 1:15 pm
Congrats on making it to High camp. You guys are like Rocky and keep going no matter what is thrown at you! Can’t wait to read your next blog from the summit!!
Posted by: Jerry Hildebrand on 7/5/2014 at 12:04 pm
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