The Mount Rainier Four-Day and Five-Day Summit Climbs reached the summit early this morning. The teams reported winds and a small cap forming, as they started their descent the winds have calmed and it is a beautiful morning.
¡Hola again from BC!
In case you missed our call this morning, here is the recap; another 100% summit success!!! Everyone did an excellent job on our climb up Urus East, a step above the previous Ishinca, on a day where we encountered steep terrain, short pitches, involved scrambles and rewarding rappels. Our views of distant Copa, where we head next, from the top, were jaw dropping; all of us can't wait to head there day after tomorrow. We're enjoying dinner as we speak, and in twelve hours we'll be hitting the trail downhill towards Huaraz for a day. Stay tuned!
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
Sunday July 5th 10:45 am PTRMI Guide Billy Nugent just called the office to check in. The team had a long, tough day yesterday breaking trail through the new snow that had fallen on the route. After sleeping in this morning, they are getting ready to depart Denali's 11K Camp. They are hoping to be at Kahiltna Base by late afternoon/early evening.
Hello, this is the RMI crew on top of Mount Urus. This is guides Elias, Peter and Robby. We are going to show you the excitement of the crew. {Cheers from the team!] I think that was loud and clear but once again 100% on the top of Nevado Urus. We're pretty psyched. It's 10 o'clock local time and we are having a great time. The weather gave us a break. Been a couple days of snow but we are under sunny skies now looking at our next objective, Copa, and if I turn around, I'll be looking at our last objective, Ishinca. Stay tuned. We'll be letting you know how we are doing on the last stretch in the next couple days. That's it from the top of Urus. Bye.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos calling from the Nevados Urus summit!
Saturday July 4th 11:00 pm PT
Our first morning at 14K camp was calm and easy. We slept in until the sun peaked over Denali's West Rib at 9:15 AM. We had a leisurely breakfast in our new POSH dining tent (stolen from Billy Nugent's RMI Team) and then we geared up for retrieving our cached food, fuel and equipment from 13,500 ft. That just took us about two hours, round trip, and then the team took it easy for the afternoon. Billy Nugent's team made the top yesterday and we were happy to share camp with them for a couple of hours as they passed through on their descent to 11,000 ft. After dinner, we had a short refresher training session on climbing fixed ropes as of course that is our next goal, to climb the fixed ropes to 16,200 ft. As usual, we'll need to see what the weather does... it started snowing again this afternoon.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
RMI Guide Brent Okita and the Four Day Summit Climb team reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Brent reported a great climbing and a beautiful day.
Congratulations to Today's Team!
Greetings!
We're ready for our next objective, Nevado Urus. We all appreciated a rest day today, after yesterday's summit on Ishinca. We spent the day learning and practicing rappelling as well as fixed line ascension in the vicinity of base camp. We also had a thorough discussion regarding expedition planning. Now we're packing for tomorrow's alpine start, hoping to tackle Nevado Urus before the forecasted weather pattern hits - grapple to snow in the mid-afternoon. That's it for now!
Wish us luck tomorrow,
RMI Guide ElÃas and team
After a relaxing evening at Casa Sol, this morning finds us in the indigenous center of Otavalo. We're spending a few hours strolling the streets and exploring the bustling Saturday market. Saturdays here are a sensory overload of sights, smells, and sounds, as the market is loaded with handmade crafts, jewelry, woven goods, art, and more. Delicious aromas from all of the restaurants and food vendors fill the air.
After lunch we'll head up to the Cayambe Climbers' Hut, where we'll spend the next two nights. It will be our first stint at sleeping up high, above 15,000'.
The plan is to go out to the toe of the glacier tomorrow to review climbing techniques, such as cramponing and self arrest with the ice axe. We'll retire early tomorrow night in preparation for our alpine start and summit attempt of Cayambe, Ecuador's third highest mountain at nearly 19,000'.
Thanks for following our adventures. We'll touch base again tomorrow from up at the hut.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
Hey, it is Billy here just checking in after a safe and successful summit bid. We got up, kind of stalled a little bit because it was a cold morning. We left around 10 pm, it took us about 12 1/2 hours round trip. We were super psyched. So we're back in camp, and like I said before everyone is safe and sound. Now we're just hoping for good weather to beat feet for the airport. That's all I have for now. We are going to eat dinner and get some sleep.
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
RMI Guide Billy Nugent calls from High Camp on Denali after a successful summit bid.
July 4, 2015 1:11 am PST
This was the day. The weather was a whole lot better than the last few days, but it wasn't perfect. A little blustery. We needed to take advantage though to get out of 11,000' and up to 14,000' Camp. Even having had a handful of teams break trail on the route before we made our effort today, we still anticipated a tough haul with knee deep snow on such steep hills. Motorcycle took longer than normal, Squirrel took longer, the Polo Fields went on forever, Windy Corner was windy (and it took longer). It was all pretty tough going until we got around the corner and reached our cache location from the other day. Finally there was less new snow, less wind and a decent track to follow. It was still uphill though. It took us 8.5 hours to cover what should have taken 6 hours, but what a wonderful feeling to roll into 14 Camp after thinking of it so much when we were stuck down below. We've got different and magnificent views now, of Denali, but also of Mount Foraker and Mount Hunter and about a thousand other peaks when the clouds allow. We did a late dinner after camp was built and then hurried in to the tents for the night. It is colder up here, and colder still when the sun goes behind the mountain. Everybody deserves good rest after such a big day.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Gary Ross, You really are going to great lengths to prove that happiness is found in being “cold, wet, tired and hungry”. I am following the RMI blog everyday and from the sound of things, you must be positively joyful!
Here at 465’ I am thinking of you and wishing you plenty of happiness along your journey up and down that magnificent mountain.
Mary
Posted by: Mary R on 7/4/2015 at 11:19 pm
We’re all rooting for you!! Happy 4th, miss you!! xoxo
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WOW !!! A dream fulfilled!! Next stop K2? It was so good to hear your voice & know that you were safely down from the climb. You are AMAZING!!!
Posted by: Momma B on 7/15/2015 at 9:00 am
Congrats Bob and Theo! So totally impressed!
Posted by: Maureen on 7/6/2015 at 3:04 pm
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