Entries from Expedition Dispatches
Hi everyone!
We are excited that today is over! The team spent the day traveling by car then airplane then car again. We have finally arrived in St. Petersburg and it is so nice to be here. It has been a long day but tomorrow stay tuned for some photos of our city tour and my favorite, the infamous canal tour.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
The
Five Day Summit Climb July 7 - 11, 2016 led by
RMI Guide Nick Hunt reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The team reached Camp Muir on Saturday and enjoyed their time on the mountain before making their summit attempt this morning. Conditions were very nice this morning on the upper mountain. A cloud deck sits below Camp Muir around 9,000'. Today's team will return to Camp Muir and then continue down to Paradise and Rainier BaseCamp where they were complete their program with a team celebration.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
RMI Guide Tyler Reid and the
Four Day Summit Climb Team was approaching Mt. Rainier's crater rim shortly before 7:00 am this morning. Tyler reported great conditions with a cloud deck below them around 9,000' feet.
We hope they are enjoying the views!
Hello Everyone,
All is well here in
Moscow. Most of the team arrived yesterday evening after some very long flights. As most of us are still adjusting to the massive time change we keep things simple with a little round of introductions and stepped out for a short walk and a nice dinner. Today we meet with our local tour guide and had an outstanding tour of the nearby Red Square, Kremlin as well as visiting several churches including the iconic St. Basil's. We took a short break and then headed out once again for dinner and a nice walk. Everyone is doing great and looking forward to heading to the mountains tomorrow.
That's all for now.
RMI Guide
Casey Grom and Crew
RMI Guide
Dave Hahn just checked in with the RMI Office. His Denali team was able to take advantage of a good weather window and fly off of the Kahiltna Glacier this morning. The team arrived in Takeetna at 10:00am AKDT. The team will spend some time celebrating their success before catching flights home tomorrow.
Congratulations to Dave and team, and to all of the
RMI Expeditions Denali teams for a successful 2016 Denali season!
The weather was even worse today on
Elbrus. The team spent the day back down in Cheget. We took a beautiful hike to a giant waterfall and then enjoyed lunch at a great spot with fresh trout. Tomorrow we head to St Petersburg!
RMI Guide
JJ Justman and Team
RMI Guide
Pete Van Deventer and the
Four Summit Climb team were unable to summit this morning. They encountered avalanche hazard that forced them to turn at 12,500.’ They began their decent at 7:05 this morning and should be back at Rainier Basecamp early this afternoon.
Saturday, July 9, 2016 - 8:46 p.m. PDT
As planned, today was something of a forced rest day at
11,000 ft. By virtue of our having slept through the night here -which we certainly needed- the next option would have been to travel the lower glacier in the heat of the day... Or to rest up and aim for going out tonight when it gets cold and the glacial surface is frozen and safer for travel. We are all about option two.
So the team woke late and folks talked about having gotten a real night's sleep for the first time in weeks. We ate long slow breakfasts and then went back to sleep. It is possible that this will be our last full day in the park, so many took longer looks than usual at the ice and rock cliffs surrounding and towering over us. At first the sky looked threatening, as if it might get to snowing again, but by dinner things had changed back to calm, sunny, blue skies... making us all optimistic about smooth travel out the glacier and the chance for prompt flying from the mountain tomorrow morning.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hi everyone. Today was a tough day. The team departed camp just before 3AM with moderate winds. As we climbed along the traverse above 17,000 feet the wind was getting dangerously strong. As the the team stopped to clip into climbing ropes for safety, another climber NOT on our team slipped, fell and slid down the mountain nearly a thousand feet. I was relieved to see the climber get to their feet but I am still not sure of their condition. I believe and hope they are ok. Her local guide climbed down and assisted and again, I believe all is fine.
I was extremely thankful our team did not get sideswiped as the climber fell. Needless to say, there were a few team members with very shocked expressions. Being roped up for safety we continued to climb higher. As we were approaching the long traverse into the saddle, four hours from the summit at our pace I witnessed another climber get knocked off his feet by the wind. Luckily he slid a hundred feet and stopped.
It was at that point that I needed to quit thinking and just trust my gut. Our team turned at 17,700 feet and we focused on getting back down safely. And we did.
We are all back at camp and we are now making the decision if we give the summit another shot. The forecast is not in our favor. Either way, up or down, we are focused on safety and I am sure a little fun is in store for us one way or another.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
On The Map
Due to avalanche hazard, the summit climb teams, led by
Brent Okita and
Mike Uchal, were unable to summit
Mt. Rainier this morning. Both teams topped out at 12,800,’ and are headed back down to Camp Muir.
We look forward to seeing the teams back in Ashford this afternoon.
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Some climb this time JJ…Good for your leadership and all are safe…Waltero from IN (Aconcagua ‘12)
Posted by: Walter Glover on 7/12/2016 at 4:56 am
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