Entries from Expedition Dispatches
The Four Day Summit Climb led by Jason Thompson reached the summit of
Mt. Rainier early this morning. The team reported a beautiful day with clear views and winds at about 25 – 30 mph. They also reported that the route work recently done made for great climbing.
The
Kautz seminar led by Mike Haugen also checked in this morning. The team topped out via the Kautz Route and began their descent at 9:15 a.m. Mike and team will stay on the mountain one more night and be back to Ashford tomorrow.
The
Paradise Glacier Seminar led by Garrett Stevens is on day 3 of their 6-day seminar. They will spend two more days lower on the mountain before moving up to Camp Muir for their summit bid.
Beautiful day on the mountain!
We woke to a starry sky and calm winds last night, perfect conditions for our summit attempt on Chimborazo. We had altered our plans because the volcano Tungurahua, to the east of Chimborazo, was spitting out ash two mornings ago. So, instead of establishing a high camp in tents, we attempted our climb from the lower climbers' hut. We had our work cut out for us, with about 5,000 vertical feet of climbing, and a circuitous route to avoid the current rock fall hazard on the normal route up Chimborazo. Fortunately the weather cooperated all day for us, and we had a very strong and experienced team, and we were able to summit Chimborazo! We had a very, very long day of hard climbing. We started climbing in the dark, and got back to the climbers' hut a few hours after dark. We encountered steep and firm climbing conditions on Chimborazo, which made climbing and descending particularly slow as we had to concentrate on good cramponing and climbing techniques for hours on end. Our team proved up to the challenge, and we climbed safely the whole day. In the end, it was one heck of an adventure.
We're headed back to Quito now, and we should be at our hotel just slightly after noon. We'll have plenty of time to enjoy leisurely walking around the city (after a much anticipated hot shower!) before we have a celebratory dinner tonight. Then it's back to the old US of A on our respective flights tonight and tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
Monday, July 15th, 2013
It was still very calm at 14K camp this morning, but it was obvious that the next storm system was moving in. So we moved out. At 9:15 we pulled out of
Genet Basin and dragged our sleds to Windy Corner. The going was easy as others had plowed a nice trough through the recent snows. There has to be some advantage to being the very last team to come off the mountain. We made it around the corner, down the Polo Field, across Squirrel Hill and down Motorcycle in about two hours. At 11,000' we dug up our cache of food, snowshoes, and miscellaneous gear and took about an hour to reorganize. Then it was down to the main Kahiltna Glacier in excellent condition for travel. It only took us two hours to make the bottom of Ski Hill. By that point, however, glacier surface conditions were getting soggy and slushy -as expected. So we built camp to wait for the cool of night before going the last few miles to the airstrip. We need the freeze to firm up about a thousand snow bridges over crevasses between here and Basecamp. It is a relief to be low again. Our first time in over two weeks to be taking in so much oxygen with each breath. And we aren't even remotely cold after conditioning to the frigid heights of
Denali. There is a downside, of course... there are smells again. The one in the guide tent has been described as "hot garbage."
Perhaps we will make it to Talkeetna and showers tomorrow morning.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
It was another long day here in
Russia, but the team has finally arrived in beautiful St. Petersburg. We spent most of the day traveling and have just finished the day with a wonderful Indian meal and a nice stroll to stretch the legs.
Everyone is doing great and we are looking forward to taking in the sights tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
The team, as well as our luggage, is here at the Dik Dik Hotel. We caught up on some jet lag with one member saying, "Best sleep ever." After a nice breakfast, we had an orientation meeting then went straight into equipment checks. So important to take the time to start a climb with what you need for any
mountain. The team came well prepared as very little was missing.
Once the team was organized for the climb, we had time to check out the local sights. Some of the team made a trip to
Arusha, a nearby city, while others hiked around our neighborhood visiting shops, schools and an orphanage. We are all doing well and looking forward to the start of the climb tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
The
Four Day Summit Climb led by
Billy Nugent and the
Five Day Summit Climb led by
Solveig Waterfall reached the summit of Mt. Rainier just after 7 am today.
The teams reported clear skies, calm winds and pleasant temperatures. They spent over an hour on the summit before starting their descent to Camp Muir. The teams will take a short break at Camp Muir to rest and repack before continuing down to Paradise.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climbers!
Sunday, July 14th, 2013
Back at 14K. A couple of long, hard, exhilarating days have come and gone. When we left 14,200' two days ago, we were happy to even have a chance at getting to 17,200'. It wasn't certain that we'd get there with the leftovers from that two-foot snowstorm. And as we moved up, we were aware that teams were coming down from 17,200' because of avalanche conditions between there and the summit. But we had a perfect day for moving up and we weren't used to perfect days on this trip... we took advantage. The going was a little slow, what with trail-breaking, but it was better than we expected to find. We were able to walk on avalanche debris for a good portion of the approach to the fixed ropes. The climb up along the crest of the buttress was spectacular and difficult with our big packs, but all handled it well. It took 8.5 hours to reach camp at 17,200'. When we got there we were overwhelmed at the generosity of the teams who'd been waiting there for days. They gave us water and helped to build our tents... And most importantly, they pointed out that recent winds had virtually eliminated the avalanche hazard on the route to
Denali Pass. They were going for the top in the morning and we were invited. It was just a matter of whether we could get camp up, dinner down, and people in sleeping bags fast enough that the team would be rested for a try on the top. The next day dawned cloudless and windless and our teams were all enthusiastic about a chance to climb. We took off at 10:20 AM just behind Rob Galler with AMS and Dennis with AAI. We'd discussed things extensively and were determined that the last guided parties of the season would work together to achieve this unexpected summit. Rob did a lot of the hard work breaking trail on the steep slopes to Denali Pass. We took over a little past the Football Field to make a route up to and along the summit ridge. Throughout the day, it seemed nearly unbelievable that on a storm-plagued trip, we'd get such a perfect opportunity for the top. The wind never blew and we were comfortable the entire day... no freezing hands, faces or feet. We hit the summit at 6:40 PM and stayed there for an hour, taking pictures, shaking hands and marveling at our good fortune. A few thousand careful steps later, we pulled into high camp at 11:30 PM.
Everyone worked to get some dinner down before turning in. The guides were up for hours more, melting snow and filling water bottles. It seemed a great gift that the good weather continued into this morning. It is always rough packing up at 17K after a summit day, but it was made immeasurably easier by the calm, sunny morning. We set out at 1:00 PM and climbed ever so carefully down the narrow ridge crest and the steep fixed ropes with our giant packs. It was quite hot by the time we reached 14,200' and it seemed a good idea to set camp rather than chancing rockfall around
Windy Corner. Tomorrow will be another big day as we'll try to make it to 8000', putting ourselves in position to go out the lower glacier early the following morning. Probably too much to ask, to get another nice day, but we'll ask anyway.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Mike Walter called today at 11:15am PST. The nearby volcano Tungurahua erupted yesterday. They are OK and received some spectacular views from the event. Tungurahua is on the opposite side of
Chimborazo relative to the groups camp. While there was a lot of ash wrapping
Chimborazo yesterday it is all below them in the clouds today. Mike and team are preparing for their summit attempt later tonight/early tomorrow morning. Mike said he will do his best to call from the summit. Wish them luck!
RMI Guide Mike Walter
Both RMI
Forbidden Peak teams reached the summit yesterday! After a leisurely breakfast, they hiked out to the trailhead, sorted gear and bid farewell. A glorious four-day program in the
North Cascades!
RMI Guides
Jake Beren and
Eric Frank
Success feels good, and we soaked it up by relaxing around our hotel today. The team spent most of the day close to the hotel on our iPhones and visiting the local market for a few trinkets.
We wrapped up the day with our post climb celebration dinner at a nearby cafe. We had a Russian BBQ with wonderful soup and a potato salad. The team received summit certificates from our outfitter and from
RMI, and made a few toast with a little vodka too.
Everyone is doing great and are looking forward to seeing
St. Petersburg in the upcoming days.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
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Congratulations to you all! you made it, crazy Uncle Dan!
Posted by: Jennifer Robinson on 7/16/2013 at 2:49 pm
Congrats to everyone. So proud of my son John and his buddy Andrew! Hope you had the time of your life!
Posted by: Pattie Campbell on 7/16/2013 at 2:30 pm
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