Entries from Expedition Dispatches
Our Four Day Summit Climb teams reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early today. Both teams were beginning their descent from the crater rim around 6:30 am.
RMI Guide JJ Justman reported clear skies and warm temperatures. They will make a short stop at Camp Muir before continuing down to Paradise. We look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's
Summit Climbs teams! Happy Independence Day!
¡Buenas tardes! The team is back at Basecamp after a great, successful day on 18,143ft
Ishinca. Everyone climbed well up the southeast glacier, which provided a steep, yet sun-cupped summit ridge. An early summit allowed us to descend via the southweat side, completing an up and over traverse of the mountain; extra credit for everyone! We're now looking forward to an active rest day tomorrow, keeping an eye on the weather as our beautiful summit day turned into a dust of unexpected snow at Basecamp this evening.
Best regards from Perú!
RMI Guides
ElÃas de Andres Martos,
Robby Young and team
We packed our bags and left the hustle and bustle of Quito behind this morning, driving north towards the town of Otavalo for our next acclimatization climb. Along the way we had great views of Cotopaxi and Cayambe, the second and third highest peaks in Ecuador, respectively, and our major climbing objectives on this trip.
As for our objective for today, we climbed the ancient volcano
Fuya Fuya. The weather couldn't have been nicer as we summited the 14,000' peak in t-shirts. On top we had great views of Cayambe, Cotopaxi, and even the top of the ever elusive Antisana, the fourth highest peak in Ecuador.
Our team did great on the climb today, negotiating steep terrain and a little rock scramble. Now we're at our hacienda, Casa Sol, for the night where a shower, dinner, and a cerveza are on our to do list. After a good night's rest tonight we'll head to the famous Otavalo Market in the morning and then up to the climbers hut in the afternoon.
I'll check in again mañana.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
RMI Guides Leon Davis and Sid Pattison led their team to the summit of
Forbidden Peak via the West Ridge today. Leon reported great but hot weather during the climb. They also enjoyed a quiet route with only one other party climbing today.
Congratulations to our
North Cascades climbers!
The wind and snow conspired to make for a tough and noisy night in the tents last night. A few intrepid souls got out in the storm to dig away the encroaching drifts. Morning brought less wind, but the snow continued as the guides served breakfast in bed. It was slightly surreal to have the strong smell of forest fire smoke mixed in with heavily falling snow while camped so far from trees. Eventually the snow slowed and then stopped, but by that point, several feet of it had accumulated. The clouds stayed right in on us until about 8 in the evening. We were enjoying an open air dinner when the mist fell away, the sun came out and everything got beautiful. The team stayed out well into the evening, staring at Kahiltna Dome, Mount Foraker and
Denali's West Buttress. Our prospects for going up in the morning were improved as we watched several teams come down Motorcycle Hill, plowing a trail and cutting whatever tension the otherwise suspect snow-pack was under.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn and Team
On The Map
RMI Guides
Win Whittaker and
Casey Grom led the Four Day Summit Climb teams to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Win and Casey reported beautiful weather and a great route. We look forward to seeing the teams back in
Ashford this afternoon.
Congratulations climbers!
Ready to launch!
We're all set to tackle our first objective tomorrow,
Ishinca. We spent the day today training on the glacier, in the 16,300 ft vicinity. Everybody had a blast, performed well, and is excited to begin what soon will be (with permission of the mountain gods) the opening summit. Hoping to check tomorrow from "la cumbre", that's it for now.
RMI Guide ElÃas and team
Thursday, July 2, 2015 - 3:15 pm PT
RMI Guide
Mike King called the RMI Office from high camp at 17,200 ft on
Mt. McKinley. The team spend a snowy and windy night at camp last night. Today they spent the day resting and drying their gear. The team has received the forecast for tomorrow and are hoping the weather will allow them to make a summit attempt. If the weather permits, they will be heading up hill.
We wish the team luck!
On The Map
We had a successful day today, with everyone climbing strong to reach the summit of
Rucu Pichincha (~15,700 ft) on our first acclimatization climb in country. We had great weather with perfect temperatures for climbing, and good views throughout the day.
After a quick cab ride from our hotel, we rode the gondola to ~13,500 ft and then began climbing up the flanks of Rucu. The well graded trail eventually gave way to some steeper switchbacks and then some 3rd class scrambling to the summit.
It was a high altitude record for many of our climbers. We hope to keep breaking those records over the next few days once we get onto Cayambe and Cotopaxi.
Tomorrow morning we’ll pack up and leave Quito, heading north for another acclimatization climb up the ancient volcano Fuya Fuya.
Thanks for checking in. We’ll keep you up to date.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
The Four Day Summit Climb teams led by
RMI Guides Eric Frank and Solveig Waterfall reached the summit of
Mt. Rainier early this morning. The teams enjoyed clear blue skies and warm temperatures. RMI Guide Kel Rossiter led the Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons to the summit via the Emmons Glacier route.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
Thank you team leaders Elias and Robby, sounds like a great beginning for all!!
Posted by: Laura Voisinet on 7/4/2015 at 4:41 pm
Congrats Robby and team! Living vicariously through these posts. What an adventure. Greetings from sunny Traverse City fourth of July morning. Safe travels On descent.
Posted by: Victoria Sutherland on 7/4/2015 at 5:48 am
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