Entries from Expedition Dispatches
Our day began well as we enjoyed the news of Mike Walter and team reaching the summit the evening before and looked forward to an easy day getting our cache just a few hundred feet below camp. In fact, just hours ago, Mike, Geoff and the crew passed through 14 camp where we cooked up bacon quessadillas for them. They are now at 11,000' camp where they'll rest a bit before making their way to the airstrip to catch the next flight back to burgers, beer and of course, family.
The sad part of the day came as some of us lighter sleepers heard helicopter activity in the early morning hours around 3:00 am. This gave rise to concern, but we knew all of our RMI teams were safely back at 17,200'. Tragically, an accident had befallen a team of two on their descent from the summit. One always wonders why and how these things occur. And of course, concern for our loved ones can shoot through the roof as our imaginations get the best of us. I was informed of the accident by the lead climbing ranger as we were once again reinforcing our camp by building walls against the possibility of tent ripping winds. I immediately gathered the team to share the bad news, and to reaffirm our commitment to returning home safe and sound. Of course somber news like this makes us reflective, but it is also contructive in reminding all of us on the mountain of the care each of us needs to practice as we pursue our goals. I, for one, plan on coming home in a week or two, after doing my very best to get a group of climbers who are quickly becoming friends, to the summit of this mountain.
So, we carry on in our quest to climb Denali. Tomorrow finds us climbing up the famous headwall fixed with ropes and finally getting on to this routes namesake, the West Buttress. By far, the most beautiful part of the mountain.
Check in tomorrow to see how we did!
RMI Guide Brent Okita
Hey, this is Solveig checking in for Billy, Mike, Tim and Drew from Mt. McKinley. Yesterday we packed up camp at 14,000’ and had a great move to our high camp at 17,300 feet. The first part of the move we enjoyed calm winds and warm sunshine. It was a lot of fun to be climbing in such great conditions. However, about two-thirds of the way up to high camp we were hit by 30 -45 mile per hour winds which persisted all the way into camp. There were a lot of teams camped at 17,000’ when we arrived but we found an area to build our camp and spent the next three hours digging ten platforms and building walls to protect our tents. One particularly strong gust knocked over our completed wall.
We began cooking dinner and settling in and the winds subsided. We enjoyed a calm evening inside the protection of our tents and surrounding sturdy walls.
Today we are eating and resting and enjoying light winds and good weather.
Tim wanted to wish his mom a “Happy Birthday”.
RMI Guide Solveig Garhart
Sounds like a good day, exhausting but good! Hope you can all rest.
We are thinking of you and looking forward to hearing all about it. Enjoy!!
Love, Mom
Posted by: Shirl on 5/26/2011 at 6:56 pm
Solveig and Team- Great to hear you are at high camp enjoy the rest!! Wish I was with you! Love Dad
Posted by: Jim Garhart on 5/26/2011 at 5:29 am
The Expedition Skill Seminar - Muir checked in this morning from Camp Muir. The team started their summit attempt today but were forced to turn around at Ingraham Flats due to high winds and blowing snow.
Everyone was resting at Camp Muir and they will spend the afternoon practicing some knot training, fixed line travel and crevasse rescue scenarios.
Hello from Everest Base Camp,
We have been enjoying some warm sunny days relaxing at Base Camp with Dave and Linden after their return from the summit. We were joined in Base Camp by RMI Guide Melissa Arnot and her climbing partner Dave Morton. For the past two months, while our team was at Everest Base Camp acclimatizing and preparing for our Everest summit bid, Melissa and Dave were doing the same for an ascent of Makalu. They are now resting at Everest Base Camp in preparation of a summit bid on Mt. Everest. The weather looks good and they plan to leave Base Camp in a few days.
Dave and Linden will also be departing soon. Making their way down valley to Lukla, flying to Kathmandu and spending a night or two before boarding flights for home. Everest Base Camp is getting pretty quite but there are still a few teams here.
We will keep you posted.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
all the best to you up there! go get em melissa!!!! be safe! :-) amy
Posted by: amy oconnell on 5/27/2011 at 9:59 pm
Posted by:
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
We have all arrived safely in Talkeetna and have settled in to our rooms in the Talkeetna motel. The team spent the evening telling stories and getting to know each other a little better. Since most of the team are already friends and have climbed together on other mountains it was mostly the guides that needed to get caught up with the back stories and inside jokes.
We will spend Wednesday checking in with the National Park Service Rangers, doing final gear checks, packing and enjoying the sunshine here in town. The weather forecast is promising for flying to the glacier tomorrow first thing on Thursday. We will check in again tomorrow as our adventure on Mt. McKinley begins.
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Cheers from the whole team;
Andy, Ian, James, Tim, Steve, Mike, Pete and Walt
Have a great time. You know the mantra… “one piece”. :)
Posted by: Kimberly on 5/27/2011 at 2:00 am
Steve
Let me know what the top of North America is like. Have fun and be safe
Kevin W
Posted by: Kevin Witt on 5/26/2011 at 6:39 pm
Hello from Mt. McKinley,
Awakening to perfect skies and no wind provided a great start to our carry to 13,500' today. The team rose to the challenge of the steeper terrain and climbed well. With that done, we just need another reasonable day to move camp to 14,200' from which the summit is tantalizingly close.
But of course, there is still so much yet to do before we can be thinking of that.
For now, an afternoon of rest after getting back and a hearty meal of mac and cheese with loads of bacon should get us fueled up for our big move in the morning.
I think everyone is feeling good about the day to come. I know I am.
Until next time, at 14,200', with any luck.
RMI Guide Brent Okita
Tell Frank Carole Catie Beth and Will arerehearing for him!
Posted by: Carole on 5/25/2011 at 7:10 pm
Great work team! Thanks for the updates!! Zac, we love you and miss you! M, T & B
Posted by: mary candelario on 5/25/2011 at 1:19 pm
We made it to high camp yesterday in hopes of a summit attempt today. The winds did not cooperate but tomorrow's forecast is looking good.
Please send good weather vibes our way! The team is doing great and ready for their summit attempt.
We will check in tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
You don’t want to break my record: 33 days and no summit (May, 1972)
Posted by: Joe on 5/25/2011 at 10:42 am
That’s exciting that you guys are so close. We’re all thinking calm clear skies for you. Good luck from the crew at Les Schwab.
Posted by: Jeff McCrary on 5/25/2011 at 9:55 am
It has been three days since Dave, Tshering, Kaji and I reached the summit of Everest. Our short and fast summit bid was a whirlwind of a climb, an exciting and tiring endeavor up and back down the mountain's upper reaches.
Leaving Camp 2 in the early hours of the 20th I was full of excitement and anticipation, eager to finally be setting out on our summit bid after so much time here on the mountain but also nervous about heading to altitudes far higher than I had been to before, uncertain of how my body would react. Within minutes of leaving Camp 2 those thoughts were pushed from my mind, replaced by nothing but pleasure: it was an incredible time to be climbing. The waning moon was still so bright that the entire Lhotse Face shone above us, our shadows stretching across the glacier of the upper Cwm. We switched off our headlamps and climbed by nothing but the light of the moon, easily making out the ice and snow features of the Face as we ascended. We managed to climb at the same rate as the moon's descent so that the moon hung just above Nuptse's Ridge, never managing to slip behind it until daylight was well upon us. Dawn found us reaching Camp 3, passing by the tents of groggy climbers just waking up for the day.
Strapping on oxygen at Camp 3 changed the game. Dave, Tshering, Dawa, Kaji and I cruised past other teams that were just leaving Camp 3. I was amazed by how much stronger I felt, even at the relatively low flow rates we were using. Before long we had crested the Yellow Band and navigated through the Geneva Spur, arriving at the South Col by late morning. Above us clouds gently swirled off of Everest's South Summit and we could pick out climbers descending from the summit. Dave spent some time explaining the route above to me, pointing out notable landmarks and their elevations and what to look for as we passing them in the dark. Soon we crawled into our tent for some much needed rest after our push up from Camp 2, now sitting a vertical mile below us.
We spent the day melting snow and doing our best to recover from the climb. The winds picked up in the late afternoon, gusts shaking the tent walls, but I managed to drift off for an hour or two of restless sleep. Before I knew it we were firing up the stoves, filling our waterbottles with boiling water, and choking down a little bit of food before heading out. Above us we could see a string of lights bobbing up the Triangular Face - climbers who departed a few hours before us. By midnight the evening winds died and we set out - walking across the Col to the base of the Triangular Face. The approach to the Face is far longer than it looks from Camp and I felt like we were making hardly any progress, the silhouette of the mountain above us in the darkness seemed to retreat with each step towards it. But as soon as we hit the Triangular Face and began to gain elevation the mountain side slipped quickly by as we climbed. Before long we had passed the climbers we had seen on the Face from camp and were cresting onto the ridge, pausing on a small bench known as the Balcony, no bigger than the backseat of most SUVs.
After swapping out our partially used oxygen bottles we continued up the ridge towards the South Summit, still some 1,200' above us. We continued upwards, bracing against sporadic gusts of wind sweeping down from above, and battling the frozen condensation that formed on the masks, occasionally freezing the valves. Entering the rock bands below the South Summit Dave stopped and pointed off to the east where a thin line of purple and red was spreading across the horizon. The sky gradually lightened while we navigated the short rock steps and soon the sun found us, suddenly turning the snow and rock brilliant orange around us. The sun brought me a new wave of energy, we were just a handful of vertical meters shy of the south summit and my excitement was growing with each step. The sharp cold we battled throughout the night dulled slightly and my fingers and toes pulsed with warm. Within minutes we were standing at 28,700' on the South Summit looking across the narrow ridge line to the top of Everest just a few hundred feet above.
The final portion of the climb was a blur. Traversing the ridge line to the Hillary Step demanded intense focus with the 8,000' of exposure on each side. We followed the route crossing back and forth across several rock outcroppings, and up the narrow choke of rock and snow up the Hillary Step, moving over the awkward step around at the top of the Step, and up the gentle snow slopes to the summit. The views from the top were stunning, it was incredible to gaze northwards into the Tibetan Plateau, to the south into the middle hills of Nepal, and to the east and west ran the Himalayas, a jagged white strip piercing into the horizon in both directions. Below I could make out the peaks surrounding Base Camp - Pumori, Lingtren, Khumbutse - looking tiny compared to the prominence they hold from below. We spent some time on the summit, snapping a few photos and exchanging celebratory hugs before heading down, reaching camp back at the South Col by late morning.
We rested for a short moment at the South Col before breaking camp and heading back across the Geneva Spur and down the Lhotse Face into a high altitude furnace. Clouds settled on the face, trapping the sun that bounced off the face and rocketing the temperatures. Wearing down suits and carrying big loads, it felt like as much of a battle to descend the face in a couple of hours as it had to ascend it the day before.
Camp 2, at 21,300', never felt so good. We covered a lot of ground in the 36 hours since we left Camp 2 and my legs felt the effort, my toes screamed from the 8,000' descent that day, but the grin on the faces of Dave, Dawa, Kaji, Tshering - and doubtlessly me- told the the bigger story: we were all elated to have had such an incredible climb.
We slept soundly that night and it took us a long time to get moving in the morning, lethargically packing our gear before leaving Camp 2. By the time we walked into the sun while descending the Western Cwm I began feeling stronger, the sun again bringing much needed warmth and energy. We made a furious and fast descent back down through the Khumbu Ice fall, well acquainted with the ladders crossings and tricky sections of the route by now. Emerging from the Ice fall our pace quickened as we climbed up and down the dozens of large pressure ridges of ice back to Base Camp, despite our tiredness we were eager to put the final stretch behind us and just make it back to Camp. Cokes, flip flops and a big meal awaited us.
We've been back at Base Camp for two days now, drying out our gear, sitting in the sun, eating, drinking and recovering from the climb. Melissa Arnot and Dave Morton arrived in Base Camp today; already acclimated from 45 days spent climbing on Makalu, they are hoping to make a fast attempt on Everest before the end of the season. It has been a blast to sit around today swapping stories from the past month and a half of climbing on our respective mountains and catching up with them - it has been a spring full of adventure.
RMI Guide Linden Mallory
Way to do it Linden. Great account of your adventure, love to see the pictures.
Safe travels. Boots
Posted by: Boots Brown on 6/10/2011 at 9:39 am
Nice work buddy. Glad everything went so well for you guys.
Posted by: Ben Taylor on 5/26/2011 at 2:01 pm
Our day began with more unsettled weather, but seeing that we had a short day in store for us, we got an early start on retrieving our cache from 9,600' and were back up to camp by 12:30. And that's when the weather finally broke in earnest, greeting us with windless, sunny conditions. Finally!
We took great advantage of an afternoon with little to do and relaxed for a few hours. Later, we did get a short training session in where Leon and Maile refreshed our cramponing and ice axe arrest skills. This in preparation for our big carry up to 13,500', where the slopes steepen appreciably and the use of crampons and ice axes are essential. Everybody is ready for the challenging day and excited to start climbing.
We were also psyched upon hearing that Mike Walters and his group had finally made it to 17,200' camp. Well, I too better get some rest for tomorrow's climb.
Goodnight from 11,200'.
RMI Guide Brent Okita
Onward and upward, Steve! Thinking of you, bernie
Posted by: Bernadette Johnson on 5/25/2011 at 2:37 pm
Sergey, wow I didn’t know you had it in you! Good luck and enjoy your adventure!
Posted by: Barbara H on 5/25/2011 at 5:48 am
We finally saw a break in the weather today and took advantage by caching high on the West Buttress! Today's trip up the fixed lines was undoubtedly the most pleasant weather I have ever seen up here. Our team moved smoothly and efficiently all day in the midst of a throng of other climbers that had backed up at 14 over the past week of bad weather. If the good weather holds (it's supposed to) we're heading up to high camp tomorrow at 17k. The team is tired but will recover tonight for tomorrow's big move!
Ciao,
RMI Guides Billy Nugent, Solveig Garhart, and the gang
Hi Drew
The closer you get the more exciting it gets. Thinking of you and so happy for you.
Love
DLopay-TV
Posted by: DLo on 5/25/2011 at 11:46 am
A summit must be any day now, how exciting!!! Thinking of you, love you Drew
Posted by: Janie on 5/25/2011 at 7:19 am
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We cant wait to hear from you. Please, be smart, take your time, and keep it safe! Love you very much!
Posted by: Marina on 5/27/2011 at 9:16 pm
HW - I am sorry to hear about the latest accidents on the mountain. As Guide Okita wrote in his dispatch, it is also a reminder of how careful one needs to be climbing Denali. You have trained so hard for this, so I just ask you to take care of yourself and each other. I bought BB some new summer clothes and hair clips today and she was so happy. Stay healthy and strong! Love -F
Posted by: F on 5/27/2011 at 7:24 pm
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