Greetings from the Cordillera Blanca!
As climbers, we learn that things are constantly changing here in the mountains. Our bodies, the weather, climbing conditions, among others. For us, our ability to adapt and change plans was our alpine exercise of the day. In lieu of a summit attempt, we took another day to rest, acclimatize, and watch billowing clouds envelop the surrounding mountains this morning. We traded a climbing day for an educational day. We dove into the depths of crevasse rescue systems, and gave our bodies one more day of R&R before our summit attempts. Tonight, we begin our climb of Ishinca. Anticipation and excitement filled our dinner tent, and we're ready. Stay tuned.
RMI Guide Robby Young and your ESS-Peru Climbing Team
Today was our first rest day up on Mt. Elbrus. We managed to sleep in a little bit, usually a rarity in the mountains. After a substantial breakfast, we got a little training in reviewing some essential skills and introducing some techniques specific to the route. In addition to training, a few members of the team got some gambling in during our down time. Playing poker for toothpicks is serious business up here. We just finished dinner, everyone's gear is organized, and we are ready for an early morning tomorrow!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guides Tyler Jones and Mike Uchal lead their Four Day Summit Climb July 4 - 7, 2017 teams to the summit of Mt. Rainier today. They began their descent from the crater rim around 7 am PT. Tyler reported strong winds on the summit but decreasing winds as they were descending. The sky is mostly clear with a few high clouds. The team will descend to Paradise today and return to Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb teams!
Hello, this is RMI Guide Eric Frank calling from the Torment Basin here in the North Cascades. We are on day one of a seven-day custom climbing trip and we have the most beautiful view you can imagine right now. We climbed up out of the wooded valley up into the alpine and tonight we are going to sleep out on the glacier below the beginning of the Torment-Forbidden Traverse. It is beautiful blue skies probably the most stable weather of the summer thus far. So we're actually up here without a tent, just laying out looking at all of the expanses of the North Cascades in front of us. Tomorrow we're hoping to climb the majority of Torment-Forbidden Traverse, and then probably finish up with Forbidden on Saturday. I look forward to updating you a long the way. Take care.
RMI Guide Eric Frank
RMI Guide Eric Frank calls in from the North Cascades.
Update 5:00 pm PST
Elias and team are back at high camp and will descend off the mountain tomorrow. All is well and he will check in from Huaraz.
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Hello! This is ElÃas and the team calling from the summit ridge of Artesonraju. We’ve been climbing since midnight. It’s 10:20 local time. We’re super-psyched, but unfortunately we cannot reach the summit. We are literally a stone’s throw from the top, and it’s got a hefty cornice, and it’s very dangerous. We don’t find it worth it to continue the last 100 meters to the top, so we’re headed down. That’s it for now!
Elias calling from the Summit of Artesonraju July 6, 2017
Our final day on Denali began just an hour after the second-to-last day ended. We were up at 1 AM and walking South by three. The hoped for full-on freeze didn't quite come through. While the glacier surface was a little crunchy under the snowshoes, one still sank in a bit more than we'd have preferred. But half a freeze is better than none when there are crevasse bridges to be crossed. And we crossed about a thousand of them. We did have a few scares as team members broke through to wiggle their legs in the void before hastily crawling topside again. I think all would agree that the morning commute to the airstrip was stressful, brutally tough with big packs, and magically stupendous in terms of scenery and the feeling of accomplishment when it was completed. We were at basecamp no more than ten minutes before the big red beautiful K2 ski otters swooped in and scooped us up at 9:45 AM. The rest of the day was spent in glorious summer down in Talkeetna. We changed into cotton and sandals and sorted stinky gear. Our celebration dinner at the West Rib was a blast. We laughed and toasted for hours. A nightcap at the Fairview and a walk down to the Susitna to see the mountains at midnight made for a perfect ending to a perfect trip.
Thanks for following... we'll do it all again sometime.
Best,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons, led by Mike King, is back at camp after their summit day. The team walked into a cloud cap as they began their ascent. Winds sustained at 40 mph with gusts of 50 mph. Now back at Camp Schurman, the winds are dying down and the cap is slowly diminishing. Other than that, not a cloud in the sky.
Tomorrow they will descend from Camp Schurman and drive back to Ashford where they will celebrate their week on Mt. Rainier!
We were greeted this morning by another beautiful Peruvian morning! Our agenda today would take us to the toe of the glacier at about 16,000ft to review and learn climbing techniques that we will use on our ascent of Ishinca tomorrow morning. The approach takes about 2-3 hours and follows a track through old glacial moraine, remnants of when the glaciers used to flow deep down these valleys. At the toe of the glacier we all donned our climbing equipment and began the days learning. Our training site gives one massive view of the surrounding peaks and glaciers. Many of which are above 6000 meters. The team did fantastic today and we're all feeling really good about our climb tomorrow. We are all back at camp now where we'll take a short siesta before dinner and an early night in preparation for tomorrow. Thanks to everyone for following along. Tune in tomorrow for more!
RMI Guide Steve Gately
Today was a perfect day in big mountains! After yet another tasty breakfast in our dinning hut we set off for a solid 4-hour training climb. It was cold enough last night that we all put on crampons to help with traction. This was great training for the team, they did their homework and are physically prepared. We turned around just below 15,000’. This was a new altitude record for some of the team. Then we were back to camp for lunch a bit of a rest. Right now, we are waiting for dinner, and watching the colorful sunset on the dramatic huge mountains in all directions. This evening we meet to go over climbing equipment and tactics.
Team is in fine shape and glad to be here!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker & Team
The Four Day Summit Climb team led by RMI Guides Paul Rachele and Chase Nelson reached the summit of Mt. Rainier at 6:40am. Paul reported strong winds of about 50 mph and a cloud cap covering the crater rim. The team started their descent at 7:00am and are en-route to Camp Muir.
Congratulations to today's team!
If the guide tent is a rock’n don’t come a knock’n
Posted by: Thom on 7/7/2017 at 10:38 pm
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