Entries from Expedition Dispatches
Wednesday, July 3, 2019 - 8:26 PM PT
Another early morning peek out of the tent provided all we needed to know about how today was going to go...not very far. With terrible visibility and the sound of high winds above, we knew that we would add another tally mark on our tent wall!
Although all of us are more than ready to head to the summit and then get out of here, we are not exactly suffering. In fact, it turned out to be a relatively nice day in camp even though the summit was still angry.
We had some Mountain Pho (ramen) on our rock terrace at the edge of camp that looks 3,000 feet down to 14,000' Camp. It was good to have the whole team eating together instead of holed up in tents because of weather.
It feels like the weather is changing in our favor. Of course, we have felt that way for days! We are in negotiations with
Denali for a summit tomorrow. Although we never have the upper hand in weather negotiations with big mountains, I think this team has put in enough hard work and patience to use as a bargaining chip. Put in a good word for us!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen & Team Siete
On The Map
All of the climbers and guides on the Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons led by RMI Guide
Pepper Dee reached the summit of Mt. Rainier via the
Emmons Glacier route around 1:00 PM PT. Pepper reports 20 mph winds and clear skies on the summit. The team will descend to Camp Schurman where they will spend the night. Tomorrow the team will finish their descent and will return to Ashford. We look forward to celebrating with the team tomorrow.
Way to go, climbers!
We woke to clear skies and beautiful weather again today, then had breakfast in the hotel and loaded up all our climbing gear and drove to the base of the
Elbrus ski resort. Once there we took advantage of the three gondolas, and a short snowcat ride to reach our new home for the next few days.
It's rather comfortable up here, as our outfitter has taken a few shipping containers and converted them into simple bunk rooms some for sleeping and some set up as dinning rooms.
Once we got settled into our new home we headed uphill on another acclimatizing hike and reached just over 14,000' before returning to camp where our wonderful cook Dasha had a nice hot lunch waiting for us.
We spent the remaining of the afternoon relaxing around camp and enjoying the views of the Caucasus mountain range which are pretty amazing since we are camped out at just over 12,000'.
Dasha has once again had filled our bellies full of delicious Russian food and so the team is off to bed now.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and comrades
On The Map
The
Four Day Climb Teams for June 30 - 3 July reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning led by
RMI Guides Eric Frank and Jess Matthews. The teams reported windy conditions and a cloud cap. They began their descent from the crater rim around 8:15 AM. The teams will return to Camp Muir for a short break before continuing down to Paradise.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb teams!
Tuesday, July 2, 2019 - 9:58 PM PT
It started snowing around 4 this morning, which was contrary to predictions. The entire day ended up cloudy, snowy and windy... about the nearest thing to a genuine storm that we have had. Forecasts still call for high pressure and nice weather out there somewhere, but it hasn’t found us yet. We gathered for meals in the shelter of the dining tent, but spent most of the day in our own tents, listening to wind and passing time. We’ll chalk it up to an extra acclimatization day, which is hardly ever a bad thing. There were a couple of calm periods and a few minutes of sun here and there, but the clouds never pulled off the upper mountain. Walking around camp in the flat light was a challenge as we’d frequently stumble into old holes dug in the snow for kitchens or caches or tents. Still, it never got particularly cold and the wind never hit more than about 25 mph, so we won’t complain too much.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Tuesday, July 2, 2019 - 7:49 PM PT
We thought today would be our day... Until it wasn't. We woke up to blowing snow and zero visibility. It made our call easy once again. We thought that it would clear up later in the morning and give us a late try, but it has not cleared up all day. Oh well, we will wait!
The team is doing well with all of the waiting at
high camp, in spite of being in tents most of the day. The weather has not been terrible at high camp, just not good enough to climb. So, more waiting, sport eating, and good weather finger crossing for us!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen & Team Siete
On The Map
Hello again everyone
It was a beautiful day here in Russia. We had a nice relaxing start to the day with a traditional Russian breakfast of porridge, eggs and bread. Then made our way to the local ski lifts to help give us a jumpstart on our hike. I didn't hear a single complaint about riding up 1500' before we started our hike to nearly the top of a
local peak called Cheget. Normally we get to hike to the top of the peak, but being so close to the border with Georgia, the Russian military had the upper part closed to climbers. Regardless, we enjoyed the beautiful views and stretching our legs a bit.
After our hike we made back to town relatively quickly thanks to the ski lifts, where we had a hot lunch waiting on us. After lunch we dropped off our gear and made a quick stop to pick up a few extra items and even managed to try on a few local hats.
We wrapped up the evening with another nice home cooked meal here provided by our ever so gracious local outfitter.
Things are good here.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and comrades!
On The Map
Monday, July 1, 2019 - 10:34 PM PT
Last night’s snowstorm was short-lived, we got perhaps one inch of new at
14 Camp. Afterward, the bulk of the night was calm and in the morning -with some of the smoke washed out of the sky- we were treated to long distance views of the Chugach Mountains to the SE and to volcanoes 150 miles or more to the South. Reports were that it was still windy high on
Denali, but in our sheltered bowl at 14,000 ft it was a calm and easy day. We did a long and lazy breakfast of coffee and pancakes which took us pretty much up to lunch. Then it was time for napping, books, TV or movies on the phones, daydreaming, drinking and eating. An enormous cloud cap formed on the upper mountain and so it wasn’t nearly as hot today as it had been, but the mild temperatures have still made life at 14K considerably easier than usual. We are all for easy. With Mike Haugen’s team waiting up at 17,000 and looking to summit tomorrow, we’ll most likely wait another day at 14,000 so as not to crowd them. The forecast is calling for dry and stable weather, giving us the luxury of dragging feet for better acclimatization before we make the big jump up for our summit bid.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
RMI Guide Bryan Mazaika and the
Five Day Climb are approaching the crater rim of Mt. Rainier. New snow fell overnight but
Bryan reports the weather is currently nice and cold up top. The teams will spend some time on the summit before starting their descent. We look forward to seeing them back in Ashford this afternoon.
Congratulations climbers!
With rain in the lower elevations, we were ecstatic to hear that our
Mt. Rainier summit climb team was above the weather system.
RMI Guide JM Gorum is the leader of this crew. He radioed in that the rope teams were currently cresting the crater rim.
Congratulations to today's summit team!
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Hi Megan, thinking of you and so proud of your accomplishments!! Glad u missed the earthquake. I hope Vicky is ok. Xo Gayle
Posted by: Gayle C on 7/5/2019 at 1:18 pm
Welllllllllllll. Lying in my comfy bed reading this and not wishing I was you guys, but then again you are all my hero’s so I guess I totally am wishing I was one of you. That’s exactly who you all are….the people the rest of us imagine to be or aspire to be. So for us….go get that mountain for all of us! You got time, tenacity and tons of people cheering you on….Mother Nature will give you her window soon. You got this, side salad!
Posted by: Shannon Henn on 7/4/2019 at 11:32 pm
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