Entries from Expedition Dispatches
An early start, a few van rides, and a quick flight have landed us in Cheget, at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains. It ends up being a pretty full travel day getting here, but we had enough time to walk around town, sample some local beverages, and gawk at our high elevation surroundings. The pace here is much slower than in Moscow.
Tomorrow we’ll hop on a chairlift in town and do some walking around at altitude...should be pretty nice.
RMI Guide JM Gorum
On The Map
Saint Petersburg!!!
We traveled all day and have finally arrived in one of the most beautiful cities of Europe. Things went relatively smooth considering we had two van rides and one flight. We got checked into the hotel and then ran out for a quick dinner followed by a short but scenic stroll.
Everyone is very excited to explore and see this city tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and team
With perfect weather conditions, the Four Day Climb led by RMI Guide Steve Gately reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Steve reported warm temperatures and zero wind on the summit. After taking some celebratory photos and enjoying the views, the Four Day Climb began their descent from the summit shortly after 9:00 AM. The team will return to Rainier BaseCamp in Ashford this afternoon.
Way to go, climbers!
Congratulations we are so happy for everyone and Bob wishes he could have been there again
Posted by: Bob & Karen Mullen on 7/9/2019 at 9:13 am
Way to go! Especially proud of you Matt Jelinske! Can’t wait to hear all about it!
Posted by: Lisa Jelinske on 7/8/2019 at 5:36 pm
RMI Guide Jess Matthews and the Five Day Climb reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning with perfect weather conditions. The team reported warm temperatures and zero wind. After spending some time celebrating on the summit the team began their descent to Camp Muir shortly after 9:00 AM. The team will be back in Ashford this afternoon.
Congratulations climbers!
Congrats! We left some beer in Ashford for you guys to celebrate with. :)
Posted by: Derek Hertel on 7/8/2019 at 9:29 pm
Congratulations team!!! So excited for you!
Posted by: Kris Ramilo on 7/8/2019 at 7:38 pm
Posted by: Dave Hahn, Hannah Smith, Chad Gaffigan, Luke Wilhelm
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 14,200'
Sunday, July 7, 2019 - 8:47 PM PT
The fine weather continued, except there was an irritating wind blowing at 17,000 this morning when we got stirring at 7:30 AM. The wind wasn’t particularly strong or cold, but it wouldn’t go away either, so it made breakfast and packing slightly less fun. We were out of 17,000' Camp by 10:30 and walking carefully down the crest of the West Buttress. The wind wasn’t strong enough to make anybody miss a step, but it made communication tricky. Even so, we made good time down the ridge and then down the fixed ropes. Traffic is nonexistent now as the very last three or four teams of the season were all above us and going for the top in the breeze. We reached 14,000 by 1 PM and decided to build camp. Tempting as it would have been to continue on down the mountain, we have to deal now with the downside to all the fabulous weather. The warm temperatures have caused the West Buttress to shed a lot more rock than usual. We’ll try to let it cool a little before venturing around Windy Corner. An Alpine Start is called for, so we’ll keep resting in preparation for a midnight departure. We’ll try to go all the way to the airstrip from here in order to get the lower glacier in cool conditions as well.
It MIGHT be our final night on the mountain. Stay tuned.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Posted by: Casey Grom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Elbrus Southside
Greetings everyone,
Our team spent the contingency weather day hanging out in Cheget. We spent the day walking around town, enjoying the new coffee shop in town and of course horseback riding Russian style! Right now we're all relaxing before heading out to a celebratory dinner with the team. Hopefully we'll survive the vodka associated with tonight's traditional Russian celebration, hosted by our gracious local tour operator. Everyone is in good spirits and looking forward to heading to beautiful St. Petersburg early tomorrow.
Casey and Comrades
Hello from Yanganuco Base Camp. We are camped on a beautiful meadow at 3900m, currently under the rain, but with high enough clouds that we can see the toe of the glaciers above us. We got here yesterday, and after setting camp up, we spent the afternoon hiking to Laguna 69 for acclimatization; one of the major tourist destinations among day hikers in the area.
Were going to rest today, and get ready for tomorrow's move to our camp at the base of our 1st objective, Yanapacha.
Stay tuned for more!
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
Posted by: Mike Haugen, Jenny Konway, Grayson Swingle
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 7,300'
We left 14,000' Camp this morning on a mission. We were going to make it to Kathiltna Basecamp. We packed up our heavy packs and sleds and headed downhill. The weather was just right for our long haul. We had a nice breeze all day that kept us from cooking on the sometimes brutally hot lower glacier.
We worked our way well over 10 miles of glacier and finally found our way to a deserted Basecamp and airstrip.
Since it was too late for the ski planes to come and pick us up, we hunkered down, set up camp, and ate a nice dinner. We even found a couple of beers in our cache. I wonder how those got there?
RMI Guide Mike Haugen and Team Siete
On The Map
Welcome Home…almost.
Love Mom and Zeppelin
Posted by: Kristi Kennelly on 7/7/2019 at 9:46 am
Posted by: Dave Hahn, Hannah Smith, Chad Gaffigan, Luke Wilhelm
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 17,200'
Saturday, July 6, 2019 - 10:38 PM PT
We got it. Only slightly ashamed that it was such a nice day. We didn’t have to worry about frozen faces or fingers or toes. We didn’t have to battle winds. We didn’t have to watch clouds building or encroaching. A lot of the normal stresses just weren’t there today as we cruised to the top of North America and came down to high camp safely.
The stoves were burning just after 5 AM this morning and conditions were exactly the same as when we’d gone to bed... clear and calm. We hit the trail at 6:55 and did battle for two hours with the steep and intimidating Autobahn -the route from 17,200' High Camp to 18,3000' Denali Pass. We found the sunshine up at the pass and then worked a series of steep snow rolls to reach Zebra Rocks, the dramatic black and white rocks along the ridge line. Then it was up and over the ridge formed by the Archdeacon’s Tower and into the Football Field at 19,500'. Things got steep again as we worked 600 vertical feet to attain the summit ridge. The views were overwhelming with no real cloud in our gigantic slice of sky. Just a bit of smoke still, but that didn’t prevent our seeing mountain chain after mountain chain and about a thousand glaciers. We cruised out the summit ridge to gain the absolute high point at 2:10 PM for a very respectable 7.25 hour ascent. There wasn’t any wind to speak of at the summit and the temperature was probably 15 or 20 above... balmy. We limited our very pleasant stay of 40 minutes and began working downward at 2:50. Only one other team went for the top today and we high-fived them on our descent to the Football Field as we passed them still going strong for the top.
We put together a few hours of careful steps and reached camp at 6:25 PM. We were tired but plenty satisfied as we ate dinner and secured things for the night. Several of our gang shattered their altitude records today.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Congrats Luke and the rest of the team!! Glad you got to ascend on such a glorious day.
Posted by: Tom Donner on 7/8/2019 at 10:57 am
Posted by: Eric Frank, James Bealer, David Price
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Elbrus Southside
Elevation: 14,410'
The Four Day Climb July 4 - 7 reached the summit of Mt. Rainier just before 7 AM today. RMI Guide Eric Frank reported a beautiful day with clear and sunny skies above 8,000'.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
Yeah booooooiiiiiiiii! Get it!
Posted by: Nicole Hertel on 7/7/2019 at 10:51 am
I’m so proud of you guys! Way to go!!
Posted by: Melinda Lohre on 7/7/2019 at 8:35 am
-640x480.jpg)
Hope you have a great climb and beautiful weather! Can’t wait to see the pictures. Love you Tyler!
Posted by: donna shearburn on 7/9/2019 at 3:33 pm
View All Comments