Entries from Expedition Dispatches

Everyone (and their baggage) arrived on time in Anchorage yesterday, and we headed north to the small town of Talkeetna. We had a relaxing evening, eating dinner as a group at the famous West Rib Pub, talking about the trip, and getting to know each other. This morning we met at the the Talkeetna Roadhouse for a group breakfast to formalize our plans for packing and preparing for our upcoming expedition. Talkeetna is a small and unique town; situated on the south side of Denali National Park, it is the staging point for hundreds of climbers who venture into the Alaska Range. Town is still sleepy this time of year, just coming out of its winter hibernation; the streets are quiet, few airplanes are in the air, and patches of snow are still in the yards. When we return in a few weeks, Talkeetna will be in full swing; tourists and climbers will be walking through the streets, the air will be filled with the buzz of single engine aircraft (and mosquitoes), and all of the trees and lawns will be green. Most of the day today was spent at the hangar of our bush pilots, K2 Aviation, packing our gear and going over all of our equipment. While we all have spent months planning this trip, today was still a very busy day making sure we had the right gear for the trip, inspecting our tents and stoves, and double and triple checking everything. We also met with a National Park Service climbing ranger for a formal orientation to Denali, which included a slide show of our climbing route. We plan to fly into Kahiltna Base Camp tomorrow (weather permitting) to start our adventure. We will be in touch with detailed dispatches throughout the trip. Everyone says hello to our friends and loved ones back home. Here’s to a safe and successful trip! RMI Guide Mike Walter

A hot shower... Cotton clothes... Chairs with backs... An appetite... Easy temperatures... Brain temporarily free of Icefall fixation... Must be rest day #1. Still decompressing from the last week on high and not yet laser-focused on the coming week, which will be higher still. I am tempted to call the past week a good one, since we each came down healthy and with some clarity and confidence as to what will be next, but to be honest, it was a tough week in several ways. While things went as planned for Sara, in that she got stronger and more acclimated with each day of the past rotation, that wasn't the case for her Dad. Bill, although strong and fit, was hitting some sort of personal limit in living at Advanced Basecamp and venturing to around 22,000 ft. Ultimately, we chose to get Sara the experience she needed on the Lhotse Face while her Dad stayed below. We knew eventually that we'd need to reformulate a plan for going ahead with the expedition. Sara did climb well and strong with me to 23,000 ft a few days back. She didn't seem particularly fazed by the massive exposure and steep angles. She did a good job dealing with the distraction of other climbers (mostly Sherpas going fast up or fast down) needing to pass on the fixed ropes and a single set of steps chiseled in the ice. She didn't seem any more bothered than I was by the novelty of two helicopters hovering a few hundred meters away on some rumored film project. Sara kept concentrating on clipping her safety gear past anchors and on setting her crampons securely and on breathing steadily with each new step even though she knew a medical emergency had taken a man's life just the day before on these same ropes and in these same footsteps. Many of the Sherpas and guides we met and spoke with had some involvement in trying to mitigate the sad circumstances of the day before and it was impossible to be so high on the world's fourth highest mountain without dealing with some heavy and sad thoughts on mortality. This was balanced by the incredible beauty and expanding horizons we were granted as we climbed higher... Everest, our next door neighbor for now, just kept getting more magnificent... Until it developed a bad case of snowclouds, as did Lhotse. Although we were in view of the first tents of Camp 3, which would have made a fine goal for the day, it seemed best to turn and get a little experience descending the steep face with a little less snowfall and associated sluffs streaming down the face. At our highpoint, I pulled my GPS from a pocket and we established that Sara had just crushed her previous altitude record from her climb of Aconcagua several years back. We "arm rappelled" back down the face and tiptoed on crampon points to get across the steep bergschrund at it's base. Then on easy angled glacier again, we made excellent time down to where Bill and Linden had come out to meet us above ABC. Yesterday morning we dodged a few more snow squalls and dodgy snow bridges and we even spied a spectacular avalanche off the side of Nuptse during our journey from ABC to Everest Base Camp. It all seemed eventful and a little crazy and excessive, to be honest. Lam Babu and Uberaj joined us for the walk to Base Camp and Kaji and Dawa went all the way up to ABC with heavy loads and still caught us before we exited the Khumbu Ice fall on the way down. Tcherring and Tuck were in camp to greet us with smiles and handshakes and... even better, Kumar greeted us with lunch. We were tired but quite happy to be down. Today, we sat together and developed that new game plan for the coming weeks. Bill won't climb up with us on these next rounds... he won't go for the summit and Sara will. It isn't what we wanted going into this expedition, but it seems like the smart plan under the circumstances. Bill will write of his thoughts on the matter in coming days. Best, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

The team completed their second rotation at Camps 1 and 2 and returned to Everest Base Camp today. We are glad to have everyone back down to rest and recuperate from their time up high. Even Yubarj, our Camp 2 cook, returned to Base Camp for a few days break. Nobody will be heading out of Base Camp going up hill tomorrow from our camp so we are heading to bed tonight without setting the alarm. That is a nice feeling. The team is looking forward to a warm shower and we are looking forward to hearing their stories from the last few days. It was a nice day today here at Base Camp and I headed down valley for a little bouldering. Once the team is rested we'll get them sending some dispatches with news about the last rotation. Till next time, Mark Tucker

The weather here at Everest Base Camp at 4:30 a.m. was snowing hard, so Dawa and Kaji decided not to carry loads to Camp 2. Up at Camp 2 the snow was not so heavy, so Dave, Sara, Linden and Bill left toward the Lhotse Face at 7:15 a.m. After four hours and twenty-five minutes of uphill climbing Sara and Dave crossed over the 23,000-foot mark. Dave reports a great day of training, getting used to the steep terrain, and working with other teams on the face. This sort of familiarity will help them get to Camp 3 in good shape. The knowledge and technical expertise gained on these practice runs is invaluable. Linden and Bill turned around a bit before, and supported our two high altitude mountaineers back at C2. While they were all together early that day, we had support from Lam Babu and Yubarj listening in on radio transmissions from Camp 2. One more night at Camp 2, then back to EBC for another rotation of rest. Looking forward to seeing the team tomorrow. Till next time, RMI Guide Mark Tucker

Hey Jim Whittaker! Happy 48th Anniversary of the first American on the summit of Mount Everest. Nobody from any country is on top May 1st this year. Steady progress is being made in that direction, but I would think even with perfect conditions ahead, it will still be another week before anyone summits. The Whittaker family is a big part of RMI. Jim's twin brother Lou, being the Chief Guide of RMI for years. His son Peter leading the charge at RMI now, and his brother Win involved in the family business as well. Last year I worked with Jim's son Leif on his climb of Everest. On Jim's summit day he had a Sherpa climbing partner named Nawang Gombu. Gombu, as we all called him around Mount Rainier, would work the summers with us on Rainier. He was the youngest member of the 1953 expedition which made the first ascent of Mount Everest. In 1965 he reached the summit again, becoming the first person to climb Mount Everest twice. It was always a pleasure to work with him on the mountain. Just the nicest guy, and anybody who was lucky enough to climb or spend time with him, new they were touched by a very special man. I received the sad news of his passing last week. He will be greatly missed. I had the honor of being part of the 1990 Mount Everest Peace Climb led by Jim Whittaker. Our goal was to summit on April 22, the twenty year anniversary of Earth Day. We did not get our first team to the summit until May 6th. Point being, that without much fixed line, and that early in the season, our hats go off to you Jim, for an amazing accomplishment. We should all be so proud of our team, for the respect they are showing to Jim's mountain and the effort put forth to preserve his legacy. Dave and crew did another climb up to the base of the face and back to Camp 2 for the night, they plan to give a go at the Lhotse Face tomorrow. Rest today for the Sherpa team, but just handed off supplies to be taken to Camp 2 tomorrow. Till next time, RMI Guide Mark Tucker

The weather could not have been better last night and early today. Right now it is snowing lightly. It can sure help to have stable weather conditions for any night at 21,300' and a major bonus to have calm weather for the first night of many at that altitude. The word from above is that the team did well during the night. So well in fact, that Dave was able to rally the team early this morning for a 7:30 a.m. departure and climb to just below the Lhotse Face. That section took about an hour and forty-five minutes. We would call that part of the day, the approach to the climb. Above where they stopped is a continuous steep climb to get up to Camp 3, which sits at 23,900' more or less. Dave reports that since we have been having daily snow, the conditions on the face have improved. What we saw in the earlier part of the month was blue ice on most of the face. The previous dry winter has created a big gap between the lower angle slopes and the steep face, which is referred to as a bergshrund. If it were a wet winter with lots of snowfall, that gap could be filled in with snow making crossing much easier. At the last meeting of the teams, we decided to send up a ladder to be placed in that area if it seemed like it would help the climbers get on to the steep section. More progress was made by the fixing team above Camp 3. Sounds like the ropes are set to Camp 4, which is the South Col (26,000'), our final camp before the summit push. More work will be needed to improve the ropes from Camp 2 to the South Col but that is huge to have the initial set in place. Dave, Sara, Bill, and Linden plan on getting on the face tomorrow. This will be a taste of steep climbing at extreme altitude. The team is right on track and fired up! Till next time, RMI Guide Mark Tucker

The team climbed from Camp 1 up to Camp 2 (ABC) today in perfect conditions. They will stick to the rough outline for now spending three or four nights at Camp 2. While at Camp 2 their main objective is taking care of themselves by eating, drinking and resting. Over the next couple of days they will climb towards Camp 3 to stretch their legs and lungs and keeping with the climb high, sleep low philosophy. Everyone is doing well and we look forward to seeing them back in Base Camp in a few days. RMI Guide Mark Tucker

The Nisqually Glacier is the most easily viewed of all the glaciers on Mt. Rainier. Facing the Paradise Visitor Center, it runs four miles from the 14,410-foot summit down to about 4,500 feet in the Nisqually Valley. At about 12,500 feet the ice forms a giant cliff where the glacier breaks apart over a large rocky step and smashes itself back together 1,000 feet below. Usually unskiable, the heavy snows this winter have filled in one side of the cliff and a continuous line appeared, begging to be skied. My friends Tyler Jones, Andy Bond and I had a random convergence in the Northwest after being on separate agendas for the winter. Tyler had been ski-guiding in La Grave, France, Andy spends his winters in British Columbia, and I had just returned from a trip to Haines, AK. Andy had recently been bombarding me with emails about how the ski conditions on Rainier were about to 'go off' so we all met up in Ashford, WA, to wait for some good weather. After a few days in town, the necessary conditions stacked in our favor, and we took the opportunity to pull off a big line on Rainier. In the Northwest, a full winter of storms on an endless conveyor belt had been pounding the mountain with snow. Now, with an approaching high pressure system, we had a few days of guaranteed sunny weather. So on Thursday, April 22, we left Paradise in a snow storm hoping that the forecast would pan out as advertised and once at Camp Muir the weather would break. Typically we could each do the trip to Muir without the aid of GPS in any conditions. We have over 200 summits of Rainier between the three of us. But this year every landmark is covered in snow, making navigation impossible without the aid of electronics. A quick consult with the GPS was all we needed to find our way to Muir. Once there, we packed into the tiny RMI hut that normally sleeps two. Poor Andy had to sleep on three coolers; it was either that or the snowy floor. The weather was pretty cold most of the night so there was no rush for us to start climbing until the sun came up. To our surprise there was another party climbing that day. They had left about an hour ahead of us and it was nice to follow their track for the first part of the day. We climbed up towards the Gibraltar Ledges route. This gave us a great vantage point of our desired ski route and I was able to take some pics in case we needed to use them as a quick-reference guide on the descent. Once we caught up to the other party, we took our turn breaking trail towards the summit. Conditions were great and we were able to make quick progress to the top. Our total climbing time from Camp Muir was four hours on the dot. Not bad for carrying skis on our backs! On top we spent some time checking out the different aspects of the mountain and taking photos of the gargoyle-like features of rime-ice; created as water vapor from the recent storm cycle beat against the mountain, freezing instantly. The wind was howling, so soon after, we clicked into our skis and started downhill towards the top of the ice cliff. The upper part of the mountain skied nicely. Rainier is like a big dome and the upper reaches aren't extremely steep and the snow was firm but edge-able. Once we dropped about 1,000 feet, however, the slope angle increased dramatically and the snow became even more firm. At 13,000' we could see directly down the glacier to the top of the ice cliff. From here we were committed, and any slip could result in a long slide off the cliff. Precise, controlled ski turns were necessary and we skied one at a time in pitches to keep an eye on each other. The line through the ice cliff was fairly straight forward. We trended gradually right, through an ever narrowing gap between big rock cliffs and the edge of the ice. The snow conditions steadily improved as we dropped lower on the mountain. In total we skied about 3,500 feet of terrain in what we considered a "no-fall" zone. The stress of all the exposure relented bit-by-bit as we descended, and by the time we exited the ice cliff section we were relaxed enough to fully enjoy the pitch out from under the cliff. We then threaded our way out of the large amphitheater formed by the ice cliff and through a myriad of crevasses onto the benign slopes of the Muir Snowfield. There were several groups of skiers there enjoying the fresh powder and sun. We stopped to chat before continuing on our way and they congratulated us on our journey. The snow was so good from here that we decided to drop below the elevation of the parking lot all of the way to the Nisqually Bridge at 3,500 feet. We knew that this could mean a long wait for a hitch hike back to the car but the day was going too well to worry about that. Plus, the lure of getting the longest ski run in the 'Lower 48' on top of a new route on Rainier was too much to resist. I think we waited for a total of 15 seconds before a really nice guy from Fort Lewis Army Base gave me a ride back to Paradise to get my car. Our luck was good all day!

It’s a beautiful day here at Everest Base Camp. RMI Expedition Leader Dave Hahn and our team of climbers and Sherpa left Base Camp early this morning en route to Camp 1. The team made great time through the Khumbu Ice fall and up to almost 20,000'. They are now tucked in comfortably at Camp 1. Their plan for tomorrow is another early start to climb up to Camp 2. The Western Cwm can get quite warm with its high ice walls and an early start will get them through with some cooler temperatures. The team will spend several nights at Camp 2 (21,000') to acclimatize. While at Camp 2 they will be accompanied by climbing Sherpa Lam Babu and Tsering as well as our cook Yubarj. Two members of our Sherpa staff, Kaji and Dawa, went to Camp 2 a few days ago to ready the camp for the team’s arrival and have now returned to Base Camp. I attended a meeting today here at Base Camp to discuss the plan for getting the rope up to the South Col and finishing the route work. Things went well at the meeting with a great amount of support and cooperation amongst the teams. Life is good here on the glacier. Till next time, RMI Guide Mark Tucker

On The Map

Today is our third and final rest day before we head back up the Ice fall to begin our second rotation. If all goes as planned, this rotation will consist of spending one night at Camp 1 and then four nights at Camp 2 before returning back down to Base Camp. Our plan after that is then to rest for a couple of days, then to climb back up to Camp 1 and 2 and sleep as high as Camp 3 before returning back down. This would be our third rotation and the final rotation before our summit bid. Then we will rest for a week or so. If all goes well, we will make our summit push sometime in the latter part of May. Mentally and physically, this next month will be the hardest month of my life. I worry that I won't be physically strong enough to climb through all of these rotations, and that I might lose my focus. It's so mentally difficult climbing down when it took so much effort climbing up to that spot, but I do know that every time I do climb up to a point where I've been before I feel stronger and I can breathe easier. I also completely understand why we have to climb up and down for acclimatization purposes, but doing so has been a huge challenge. As difficult as it may seem, the first month of this trip has been one of the most extraordinary experiences of my life and I know this second month will be just as amazing. I've met some incredible people, and never in my life have I been more breath taken at the place that I'm in. Base Camp has begun feeling like home. I want to say hi to all my family and friends, and I want to thank everyone for the comments and support. Sara McGahan