The Expedition Skills Seminar - Kautz July 9 - 14, 2017 led by RMI Guide Jake Beren reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning shortly before 7:30 am. The team has spent the last two days training on the route and will do some additional training this afternoon. After a bit more training tomorrow, they will pack up their camp and descend to Paradise to conclude their program.
Congratulations to today's Kautz Climbers!
Today's Four Day ALA Summit Climb was unable to reach the summit of Mt. Rainier due to high winds. RMI Guides Win Whittaker and Solveig Waterfall made the tough decision to turn the team around at 13,700' as winds continued to increase. The team is descending to Camp Muir where they will repack their gear and continue down to Paradise.
Thank you to all the ALA Climbers for their hard work and dedication to the cause!
Good evening from Alpamayo Base Camp. We have spent the last couple days hiking on the Santa Cruz trek to get here. We have had beautiful weather and incredible views that the towering peaks around us provide. Tomorrow our donkeys head home and we start the more serious part of the trip. Stay tuned to follow our progress in the beautiful and challenging peak!
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
We dropped down from our high camp on Mt. Shuksan last night to avoid the wildfire smoke, and made our final walk out easier. An open bivy with breathtaking views of the mountain and Lake Anne were our reward. We enjoyed them in the fading light while eating dinner. A first-light start got us back to the car early enough to hit a local coffee shop for lattes on the way down valley.
This last week of climbing has been phenomenal. The perfect weather and excellent conditions in the mountains came together for an unforgettable experience. Here are some photos of our best moments...
RMI Guide Eric Frank
Hola amigos! It is Robby and Steve and your ESS-Peru team. We are here at High Camp on Nevado Copa and about 16,500 feet and just enjoyed the beautiful sunset up here. Just ate some dinner, now we are brushing our teeth, bedding now and getting ready for tonight's climb, which will come very shortly. We're waking up in the middle of the night, sometime tonight to attempt to summit Nevado Copa, which is just over 20,000 feet high. We certainly have our work cut out for us, but the team is strong and ready. We're having a great time here in Peru in the Cordillera Blanca. We will touch base hopefully from the summit of Nevado Copa tomorrow sometime in the late morning. Until then, hasta luego.
RMI Guide Robby Young
RMI Guide Robby Young calls in from Nevado Copa High Camp.
It was a beautiful day here on Elbrus.
We had a normal start to our day with breakfast in the hotel and then loaded up all our climbing gear and drove to the base of the ski lift where we rode not one, but two gondolas and a short snow cat ride to reach our new home for the next few days and happens to sit at just over 12,000ft. It's rather comfortable up here, as our outfitter has taken a few shipping containers and converted them into simple bunk rooms.
Once we got settled into our new home we headed uphill on another acclimatizing hike and reached about 13,500' before returning to camp where our wonderful cook Dasha had a nice hot lunch waiting for us.
We spent the remaining of the afternoon relaxing, walking around and just enjoying the views of the Caucasus Mountain Range. We also had a cribbage lesson to prepare for the upcoming tournament.
Thanks all for now.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Wow! It has been a whirlwind. This is the first chance I have had to catch my breath. We have explored St. Petersburg and it's beautiful museums and churches. We took an evening canal tour and ended the evening with a bit of Karaoke (not on the itinerary). Most of us, me included, should keep our day jobs. A few of our team mates will remain to some additional site seeing but the majority of us have left St. Petersburg and are making our way home. Our bags are filled with local treasures for friends and family members and heads our spinning from our recent experiences and plans for upcoming adventures. It has been a wonderful trip and it's been my pleasure to spend time abroad with this great team.
Until next time,
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Congratulations to today's Five Day Summit Climb Team July 8-12, 2017 who reached the summit of Mt. Rainier at 7 am this morning with 100% of their team. The climbers enjoyed an hour on the summit of Mt. Rainier under blue skies and moderate winds. The will descend to Camp Muir and continue down to Paradise this afternoon to conclude their program.
I am glad our group completed the summit together. Thanks to Andy, Mike and Peter for their expertise and patience. I had a great time and will use the confidence from this successful climb to complete any other difficult task that I might face in the future.
Posted by: Chad Miller on 7/17/2017 at 10:36 am
Congratulations to the entire team!
Garrett, I’m so proud of you for doing this. I so glad you have developed such a love for the beauty nature gives us and for your sense of adventure!!!
Posted by: Maria (Garretts mom) on 7/12/2017 at 6:46 pm
The city life is nice, but it's back to the mountains for your ESS-Peru champions. We're back at it again, climbing from 10,500' to 15,000' on our approach to Copa Base Camp. The views here at camp are otherworldly. The looming south face of Copa dominates our view up the hill, fluted with spines of snow and ice as the western glacier spills over the summit plateau into space. Our views back down to the valley are just beginning to glow red and pink as the sun begins its descent on our day. We're going to get a great night of sleep tonight, planning to sleep in to best prepare ourselves for our move to high camp at 16,400' tomorrow afternoon. We can't contain our excitement. We'll keep you informed. Keep following along and send us good vibes for the biggest climbing of our trip.
RMI Guides Robby, Steve, William, and your ESS-Peru team
I am jealous! What an incredible experience! Collectively, we are keeping fingers crossed for the team to reach the ambitious 6,000+ m peak goal! Stay strong! You can do it!
Hilda, the one that “EATS MOUNTAINS FOR BREAKFAST” will be having a big feast tomorrow morning!
Posted by: Martina Kalusova on 7/12/2017 at 7:53 am
Good morning. This is Eric and John calling from the summit of Mount Shuksan. It's about 10:45 here. We had a great climb on the Upper Curtis this morning to the Southeast Rib of Mount Shuksan. Right now we are just looking out over a whole sky of smoke unfortunately. We're taking in the scents of the bonfire that's currently in southern British Columbia, which has blown in a bunch of smoke in, which looks a lot like clouds. So right now we just see the tops of the peaks around us but down below there's really heavy coverage from the smoke that has blown in. We're going to descend down through the smoke, potentially move a little lower to try to avoid it and get down where some trees can filter it out for us. Tomorrow continue our descent all the way out to the car and the end of our climb. Thanks for following along. We'll see everyone soon.
RMI Guide Eric Frank
RMI Guide Eric Frank calls in from the Mt. Shuksan summit.
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This is Hilda’d Dad wishing the entire team a successful climb.
Posted by: Dennis Buss on 7/12/2017 at 7:02 pm
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