Entries from Expedition Dispatches
Thursday, June 13, 2019 - 5:18 PM PT
Today we got a casual but cold start to begin our carry to 16,200’ at the top of the fixed lines. The route heads out of camp and ascends moderate glaciated slope that terminates at the bergshrund. From there we clip our ascenders on a fixed rope to climb the 35-40 degree slope and gain the
West Buttress of Denali. There was a lot of traffic on the Buttress from teams descending and ascending. We opted to cache our food and fuel at the top of the lines rather then play a game of red light/green light above 16,000'. The Team did well, we will make a few refinements for our second lap on the lines for our move day to 17,200’ Camp. We are all back safely at 14,000' Camp and looking forward to a rest day tomorrow. From there we will have to see what the weather does. Everyone is acclimating well and appetites have remained strong. Currently there are lots of laughs and conversations happening in our kitchen tent. We high fived Robby Young’s RMI Team on the fixed lines after their successful summit yesterday. Thanks for following along, the amazing views and beauty of the Alaska Range continue to astound.
RMI Guide Mike King
On The Map
The June 10 - 13
Four Day Climb teams led by
RMI Guides Andy Bond and Steve Gately reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Andy reported light winds, sunshine and clear skies. The teams began their descent from the crater rim around 7:30 AM. Once back at Camp Muir they will repack and continue down to Paradise. Their program concludes at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
Wednesday, June 12, 2019 - 10:00 PM PT
Greetings Loyal RMI Blog Followers!
Today, at approximately 2:20pm, our entire team stood on
top of North America! This team put in a heck of an effort and were rewarded with an amazing summit day! We wanted to call from the summit, but the only wind we had all day was the top 20’ of this climb. Despite the cold, the team spent a good joyful 20 minutes on top before making our descent back to 17,000' Camp. I couldn’t be more proud of this team today, digging deep and climbing hard! Tomorrow, we begin our long descent back to civilization. Ideally, we’ll be sleeping at 11,000’ camp tomorrow night in the thick air we miss so dearly. The weather looks like it may cooperate for the next couple days so wish us luck!
RMI Guides Robby, Nick, Joe, and Team Summit!
On The Map
Hello Everyone-
We had a nice relaxing day here in the beautiful Highlands of Ecuador. Some of the team took naps while others explored the local town of Machachi. Everyone enjoyed our down day here and and are excited to head to
Cotopaxi tomorrow for a little climbing.
The staff here at Chilcabamba has been keeping us well fed with plenty of home cooked food, and very warm with fires in our rooms.
One last night of good sleep to recharge us for our next adventure.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Wednesday, June 12, 2019 - 4:45 PM PT
After 7 days of work the Team wanted 10 hours of sleep/tent time and the guides were happy to wait until the sun hit our tents before we had a casual breakfast of hash browns, scrambled eggs and bacon. There’s not much going on today since it’s our first full rest day. People have been reading, writing in journals and walking around camp. We are just back from some fixed line rehearsal on the little hill outside of camp. This practice got everyone tuned up for a potential carry of gear on the
West Buttress tomorrow morning. To gain the Buttress we ascend a moderate slope and then get on the fixed lines with our ascenders. There is some snow currently falling through a thin cloud that is making the tents an optimal temperature for napping so with that we’ll check in after our cache tomorrow. Thanks for following along.
RMI Guide Mike King
Tuesday, June 11, 2019 - 9:47 PM PT
Greetings from 17,000' Camp!
We made great time during a beautiful sunny day moving from 14,200’ to our
High Camp here at 17,200’. The team did exceptionally well, and made quick work of building camp in the old confines of JM’s Denali Team. Some afternoon rest was had and some dehydrated high mountain food was tolerated. We’ve got a decent forecast for tomorrow...but we know that this mountain will have the final say tomorrow when we wake up. We’re hopeful for some calm winds and hopeful to make an honest go at the summit tomorrow. The team has put a ton of work into this expedition thus far, and we’re all ecstatic to be in the position we are here at 17 Camp. We’ll let you know how it goes!
RMI Guides Robby, Nick, Joe, and Team Prepped’n Ready
On The Map
The
Expedition Skill Seminar - Emmons June 8 - 13 team reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning via the Emmons Glacier led by
RMI Guide Bryan Mazaika. After two days of training the team drove to White River Camp Ground and started their ascent. The team will return to Camp Schurman for their final night on the mountain. We look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp tomorrow afternoon for the conclusion of their program.
Congratulations to the Emmons team!
The
Four Day Climb led by
RMI Guides Dave Hahn and
Hannah Smith reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Dave reported perfect conditions as the team was beginning their descent from the crater rim at 7:30 AM PT.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
Hola Amigos!
All is well here in Ecuador.
Today we had a very early start to try our luck climbing
Illiniza Norte. We left our hacienda just after 3am and after a short ride to the trailhead, the team was hiking uphill just before 4am. We hiked for about three hrs to reach the Refugio or climbers hut that sits in the saddle between the two mountains where we ducked inside for a little hot tea and coffee.
Unfortunately the weather made a turn for the worse while we were relaxing inside. However, we suited up in our climbing gear and made a valiant effort to see if we could push through anyway. But today the mountain won as the snow falling only thickened as we made our way uphill. We reached about 16,000' before calling it good.
The team quickly descended back to our hacienda were we packed up and headed for a nice warm lunch.
We are currently relaxing in another wonderful hacienda close to Cotopaxi called Chilcabamba.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Tuesday, June 11, 2019 - 5:56 PM PT
We woke up and it was cold! Our bodies aren’t accustomed to the colder temps of 14,200’ but that will change as we take a few rest days. The views of Mt Hunter and Foraker have been exceptional. Several teams moved up to
17,200’ this morning and a few are scheduled to head up tomorrow. The weather has continued to hold and looks to be improving over the weekend. We enjoyed a late breakfast of cream cheese and bacon bagels. Everyone is having some lunch in their tents and hopefully a nap to best utilize this active rest day. This evening we will build some snow walls to reinforce our camp should the weather take a turn for the worse. Not much happening at 14 Camp and that’s just fine with us.
RMI Guide Mike King
On The Map
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Glad everyone is happy and well. Hope you are all enjoying your rest day. Love seeing the amazing photos and reading the blog each day. Great news about the other teams successful summit climb. Thinking of you all. Sue and John Rogers x.
Posted by: Susan Rogers on 6/14/2019 at 6:36 am
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