Entries from Expedition Dispatches
The
Five Day Summit Climb Team led by RMI Guide
Mike Uchal reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Yesterday in preparation for their summit attempt Mike and the team enjoyed a short hike to Ingraham Flats. They have had great weather while on the mountain and enjoyed a beautiful sunrise from the top today!
Congratulations to today's team!
The
Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guides
Peter Whittaker,
Ed Viesturs reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Peter reported a very beautiful morning with clear skies and calm winds. The team has started their descent and are en route back to Camp Muir.
Congratulations to today's Teams!
Hi from High Camp on
Mt. Elbrus. The weather forecast is looking pretty good for a summit bid tonight! We'll be up around midnight, shooting for a 1:00 AM departure.
Today was pretty relaxing with a late breakfast followed by some avalanche transceiver training. Once that was complete we went for a short hike before lunch. After lunch we took a break and then prepped our gear for the summit push.
If everything goes as planned we should be on the summit between 6 and 7 AM our time. Hopefully I'll be calling from the top for my next check in.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
On The Map
June 29, 2016 - 1:23 am PT
We are all safe and sound back at high camp after an amazing summit day. I am proud to report that all members of our team made it to the highest peak in North America! The day started out cold but
Denali was kind to us. It turned out to be a clear and sunny day with very little wind...a rarity on this big mountain. We were just under 12 hours round trip from High Camp including a long time on the top taking pictures and enjoying our success.
We are gong to try to get up early and start our decent back to thicker air. Hopefully the weather cooperates like it has over the last few days!
Congratulations to the June 14th Denali Expedition Team!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen
On The Map
So there we were, moving into the "Blanca". A few hours of hiking brought us to the mouth of Quebarada Ishinca. With "burros" hauling the big part of our load, we arrived in style to
Ishinca Base Camp, home for the next 7 days.
Unsettled weather only allowed brief glimpses of the ice-cloaked, jagged "rajus" above.
If our senses weren't already overstimulated enough, we sat down to a dinner of fresh trout at 14,300'. Stormy skies passed leaving us with a magnificent sea of stars highlighted by the Southern Cross. Until tomorrow, "buenas noches".
-Spanish climbing word of the day; la cumbre (the summit)
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
Its a storm day for
Team Elbrus. We actually had good weather this morning and got out to do some more practice with the ice axe and crampons. We then moved into self arrest practice. By the time we finished that it had started to snow and then that turned to rain for a minute. The wind really kicked up for a few hours after that and we had a real storm for a while
We all hid from the weather and watched a movie this afternoon. Thanks to Brett for supplying the iPad. It's about 5:30PM now and there's not much wind and some sun at camp. The upper mountain is covered in a large cloud and it looks like there are more clouds moving our way. Because of that we have decided to stick to our original plan and go for the summit either tomorrow night or the next.
I'll check in again tomorrow.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
On The Map
The
Five Day Emmons Climb led by
RMI Guide Mike King reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning via the Emmons Glacier Route. It's a beatiful day with little wind and clear skies. After spending some time on the summit the team started their descent around 6:30 am PT, they will return to high camp for their final night on the mountain.
Congratulations!
We have teams on the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning!
RMI Guide Walter Hailes led his
Four Day Summit climb to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Walter was approaching the crater rim just before 7 am and reported a beautiful day with light winds.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
June 27, 2016 - 11:08 pm PT
Another murky day, weatherwise. It was snowing lightly when we checked things at 6:45 AM, but it was calm and there were hints of clearing in some of the cloud layers stacked above us. We got up and had a slow and substantial breakfast as we watched the skies. With a few patches of blue showing, the decision was made to go on up for our carry. We left camp at about 10:15 and were promptly surrounded again by calm and listless clouds. It was a relief to be spending a day without our sleds and to be in crampons instead of snowshoes. The terrain, beginning with "Motorcycle hill" right out of camp, was steeper than any of the ground we'd covered to date, but that was nice too. We all felt a bit more like climbers with ice axes in our hands at last. The team wound up and across "Squirrel hill" to get to the lesser angled "Polo fields" below the end of
Denali's West Buttress. At least we think those were the granite walls of the Buttress... we couldn't really see very far up it in the clouds. Conditions stayed windless though, so we pushed on to Windy Corner. Nobody seemed disappointed that it wasn't living up to its well-earned reputation. We cached the provisions we'd been carrying there at about 13,300ft, digging a big hole and burying it all to keep the ravens from attacking. Then it was an easy and uneventful hour back to camp with light packs and still not much for views. We were down by 4PM and taking naps and sipping water by about 4:30. Tomorrow is a rest day, so we are less concerned than usual by the continued light snow and ever-present murk.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Hi from Huaraz,
Official Day 1 of the expedition started this morning with an excellent acclimatization hike to "
Puca Ventana" some 1,800ft above town. Good weather and better views, made a great morning for the team. If any of us doubted the hike made the heart pump enough blood to start triggering the acclimatization process, we found a stopped car in need of a jump to start, so we proved to be good Samaritans, and give the guy a push.
Some delicacies afterwards and a gear check to make sure we got what we need starting tomorrow, and we called it a day. A relaxed evening packing and enjoying the local food and fantastic facility of our hotel, is taking us to bed excited to start the journey into the Ishinca Valley first thing in the morning.
Our next post will be via our satellite phone, untill we come out to go to Copa.
Best regards, and stay tuned!
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
Ha, fBook challenged, apparently also RMI website challenged…. Will post reduced photos and movies when I land in NH with Wi-Fi, or feel free to email me for full resolution. Y’all were great. Moe
Posted by: Moe on 7/3/2016 at 5:41 pm
Hi guys, you were a great bunch. Got some great photos, and good sliding movies complete with whooping. I just got back to Boston, waiting for bus,
Posted by: Maureen Horgan on 7/3/2016 at 5:36 pm
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