Entries from Expedition Dispatches
Stunningly perfect weather today at 14,200'. We got the stoves going at a leisurely 8:30 AM since we knew we'd be deep in the cold shadows until 9:30. One of the gang measured the overnight temperature at -10 F which was quite a departure from the tropical conditions of the lower mountain. While it was something of a novelty for us to share a camp with so many other folks last night, they'd snuck away for the most part by morning. We did get to wish Linden Mallory's team luck as they departed. Around midday we roped up and strolled down a half hour to where we'd cached food and fuel two days back. Bringing this back up in about an hour and a half completed our ten day "approach" to the mountain. We spent the remainder of the day resting and preparing for the climb. If the good conditions continue we'll climb to 16 or 17,000' tomorrow carrying supplies and acclimating, but then we'll duck back down here to our comfortable camp in Genet Basin.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
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Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador
Hi this is Seth, Darryl, Will, Michael, Mike, Imi, Dan, Jim and Marc checking in from the Cotopaxi Express trip. We're back in Quito! After a great night at the Hosteria La Cienega we made the final leg of our journey back to Quito. The Saturday markets are in full swing and everyone has had the opportunity to do some shopping this afternoon. A few of us have evening flights and the rest of us will be heading out tomorrow. We just have time for one last dinner together before our trip is officially over.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Michael, Dan and crew - glad all is well. Sorry about the end result, but i expect the journey was still awesome See you soon - Best, Mango
Posted by: Ed Manigault on 7/9/2011 at 8:55 pm
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Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador
The Cotopaxi Team is safely off the mountain and checked into the historic La Cienega Hosteria in Lasso, Ecuador. Today has been a mix of excitement and frustration as we finally took our shot at the summit of Cotopaxi, only to be thwarted by the high winds that characterized our stay on the mountain. We awoke at midnight to a slight lull in the wind and began our climb just after one o'clock AM. The snow conditions proved to be tough with a thin ice-skin over unconsolidated 'corn' snow. After reaching just over 18,000 feet I had to make the tough decision to turn the teams around. The wind had increased dramatically, blowing climbers out of the trail and covering all of us in a layer of rime ice. It was maddening to get so close to our goal but in the end the importance of returning safely to our family and friends is, of course, the most important thing. Now we're set to celebrate the end of our trip with a great dinner at La Cienega before making the final leg of our journey tomorrow. We'll check in again when we arrive back in Quito.
RMI Guide - Seth Waterfall
Win Whittaker, Andres Marin, Walter Hailes and their RMI teams reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The temperature on top was about 18 degrees with winds of 20mph from the northwest. The teams had clear views all the way down the valley and were starting their descent back to Camp Muir at 7:44am.
Congratulations to today's teams.
This is Dave Hahn calling down from 14,200 feet on Mt. McKinley. It's 8:11 in the evening. It is a beautiful day, absolutely spectacular. We are way up above the clouds. The sun is still out, it hasn't gone behind the West Buttress yet. We did a great job getting up today if I don't say so myself. We started out this morning from 11,000 at about 9:15 a.m.. We weren’t really sure what the weather was going to do, but it did hold long enough for us and we made good progress coming up to 14. We came around Windy Corner and we were up here in six hours, which is always good. From having camp at 11 all to ourselves last night and being relatively alone on the mountain, so far, we're definitely in the community of guides and climbers up here at 14. A number of teams came down the mountain from up above including our friend Linden Mallory and his team. And it's great to be with those guys here at 14. They're spending the night as well, so we've got company.
Again, it's just perfect this evening there is not a puff of wind. We very are happy to be finishing up the approach to the mountain, and excited to begin the climb. Although, tomorrow we're actually going to finish up the approach. We're going to go back down and get the cache we left of food and fuel about 500 feet below camp. After we retrieve our cache then will be here for real. Bye for now.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
RMI Guide Dave Hahn checks in from 14,000 on Mt. McKinley
WOW!!!!! I am so excited for all of you. Enjoy, Enjoy, Enjoy. Love thru the wind to you Wayne, Dinah
Posted by: dinah rogers on 7/9/2011 at 9:00 am
After three long days of climbing we are back at 14 Camp with the summit of Mt. McKinley under our belts. We couldn't believe our luck when we woke up at 17 Camp to absolutely beautiful weather so we set out on our summit bid mid morning, having waited a bit for the sun to warm everything up.
Nevertheless, it was still cold as we climbed the long traverse out of camp to Denali Pass at 18,500'. At the Pass a light but cold wind was blowing, so we kept our break short before continuing upwards. As soon as we climbed a few hundred vertical feet above the pass we escaped the wind that was funneling through there and it became great climbing. We made our way upwards, passing a few rock outcroppings before cresting into a broadd plateau called the Football Field (19,500') that sits below the final push to the summit. The weather remained perfect and the team strong so we set out, climbing the slopes to the summit ridge and then traversing the wildly corniced ridgeline to the summit. A moderate wind was blowing out of the southeast, which we had been protected from up till that point, but as we climbed along the ridge it blew plumes of powder snow around us - making for cold going. Finally we skirted the last cornice and climbed the final feet to the summit. It was beautiful from the top, with views in all directions.
After celebrating and soaking in thhe moment for a bit, we turned around and descended back to hig camp. The winds picked up as we descended but otherwise everyone climbed well, making it back to camp in the late evening.
This morning the wind continued to blow down through Denali Pass and into camp - not a great day to go for the top. We packed up camp and descended back down the West Buttress and down the fixed lines. It was smooth going but our legs felt the summit day yesterday, so we were all pleased to reach 14 Camp and take our packs off.
Now are sights are set on getting back to Base Camp so we can fly back to Talkeetna and then head home. We are spending the night here at 14 Camp before descending back to our first camp at 7800' at the head of the lower Kahiltna Glacier tomorrow. We plan to set up camp there for the evening and then wake up in the middle of the night to cross the lower glacier when things are nice and frozen and the snow bridges across the crevasses are strongest, hopefully arriving at Base Camp Sunday morning and flying out later that day. We'll need the weather to continue to cooperate but we're all feeling optimistic. We'll check in tomorrow from 7,800'.
Linden
Congrats to Frank and the whole team! Great job on a bigggg mountain!
Posted by: Tony Horness on 7/11/2011 at 7:41 am
We are all anxiously awaiting your return, but BE SAFE! A big hug to Frank.
Posted by: Laurie M on 7/9/2011 at 12:17 pm
The last push is always the worst. We woke up at midnight to see the sun almost set. The alpenglow on Denali was spectacular. After a quick breakfast we headed down glacier for a pickup at the airstrip, which had moved even further up the southeast fork of the Kahiltna Glacier. We are forced to travel at night on the glacier because we need the natural snow bridges that provide the path over and around the cravasses to be as frozen and firm as possible. We made the trip in a little over five hours with each team member silently cursing their sleds that usually have a mind of their own on what direction to go and how often they tip over.
I have been so impressed by how well this group of guys works together and has meshed as a great team. It is so easy to get overly frustrated with the mountain, your sled, and your rope-mates. Our group managed to take out these frustrations with positive humor, which is a huge reason for our success on the mountain! Within an hour of arriving at the snow airstrip, we heard the growl of the planes coming to pick us up. Thank God for modern communication. We used our satellite phone to make sure that the planes were coming for us. The person from K2 Aviation was concerned that since it was socked in with clouds in Talkeetna, the airstrip would be too socked in to land. She was almost as relieved as we were that there was not a cloud in the sky where we were!
As soon as we landed in Talkeetna, we tossed or packs and duffles in the hanger and went for a monster breakfast to power us up for the task of sorting through the heavily used gear and clothing that we had been carrying for the past 21 days. After our post climb chores were completed and some napping took place we enjoyed our celebration of a truly great accomplishment.
Summitting the mountain aside, we had a highly successful expedition by all the measures of fun, learning, and camaraderie!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen
Hi this is Seth checking in from the Jose Ribas Hut on Cotopaxi. All the climbers are safe and sound back at the refuge. We aborted our summit attempt at just over 18,000' today due to high winds. And all the climbers are back down safe. We'll be going to La Cienega Hacienda tonight and have a little good food and a hot shower. We're all anxiously awaiting that. We'll check in then.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Seth Waterfall checks in from the Jose Ribas Hut on Cotopaxi
Hey RMI, this is Linden Mallory calling from high camp on Mt. McKinley, 17,200'. We just got back a little bit ago from our successful summit of Denali. We had a relatively easy descent, the winds picked up after we left the summit so it definitely got quite cold. We were bundled up in goggles and down jackets and neck gaiters and all that fun stuff, but the team did well. We motored back to camp and right now we are changing into dry socks and brewing up some hot drinks and dinner and crash out and get some rest. It's been a long day. Everybody's doing well. We had a great climb today. I'll try to get a written dispatch off tomorrow.
Our plan is to head downhill. Try to make it down to at least down to 14 Camp or possibly further depending on the conditions that present themselves. Hope everyone is doing well at home. The team is very excited. Tired but excited. And we'll check in tomorrow.
Take care,
RMI Guide Linden Mallory
Linden Mallory and Team back at High Camp
Congrats! I’m so glad you lot were able to summit!
Posted by: Aimee on 7/8/2011 at 6:22 pm
Congrats to Frank & all - can’t wait for a first hand account.
Posted by: Pat & Jim on 7/8/2011 at 2:01 pm
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Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
High winds kept our teams off of the summit of Mt. Rainier today. The team headed out early and reached an elevation of 11,600' but the winds were just too strong, so they returned safely to the shelter of Camp Muir. They will be leaving Camp Muir early and will be back down to Rainier Basecamp in the early afternoon.
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Spencer Guinn are you on this team. If you are God be with you. We need you back.. Hope all is well.
I understand your calling to this peak. I’ve had many crazy adventures in my life that I needed to forfill. BE SAFE Hope to see you soon, Hugh
Posted by: Hugh Sales on 7/10/2011 at 7:45 pm
Hi Stewart,
Have been following the blogs and glad to see everything seems to be going well! Its nice and hot here needing some rain!
Love , Mom
Posted by: Ruby Fleming on 7/10/2011 at 11:04 am
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