Entries from Expedition Dispatches
Friday, June 26, 2015 - 11:40 pm PT
We made it... almost. We left our camp at 11,200 feet around 4 am this morning. The group was traveling quickly in spite of heavy packs and sleds. All was well until we encountered a wet, snowy drizzle around 7,800 feet. We trudged on knowing the end was just a few hours away. When we finally reached
base camp, the snow stopped, but the clouds did not permit planes to come and pick us up. The rest of the day consisted of napping, to compensate for the lack of sleep over the past few days, and hoping for clear skies tomorrow. RMI Guides
Pepper and
Uchal are working on their clear skies interpretive dance in the event that we wake up to clouds tomorrow.
RMI 7 "El Siete"
On The Map
Friday June 26th 9:13 pm PT
Our weather took a dive. But our timing and luck have been pretty good anyway. We were up at 1 AM this morning and on the trail by 4 AM (getting breakfast and gearing up while tearing down camp takes a while the first time). The clouds were getting lower and lower until about 7 AM when we were swallowed up by the murk. Wet snow was falling by 8:30, but luckily we were pulling into our intended camp at 8,000 feet by 9:15. So we were indeed lucky to get flown on before the weather deteriorated and happy we were able to make use of what otherwise might have been considered a storm day today.
Just as the snow began to fall, we met up with
Mike Haugen's victorious team on their way out. Nice to see them, even if just in passing. Once our new camp at the base of "Ski Hill" was built, we climbed in to rest away the late morning and afternoon. Dinner was under the shelter of our POSH tent in a well-dug dining/kitchen snow pit.
Aside from the weather, glacier conditions were quite good for traveling today and we had very few issues with the multitude of crevasse bridges that needed crossing.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
We're up at the
Jose Ribas Refugio on Cotopaxi at 15,953 ft. Tomorrow is climb day on Cotopaxi so we're hitting the sack early tonight in preparation for our alpine start. We'll check in again tomorrow and let you know how things go.
RMI Guide Mike Walter and Team
On The Map
Friday, June 26, 2015 - 2:47 pm PT
It is a snowy day here at Camp 4...The gang is currently chilling in the tents and posh on our first scheduled
rest day that just happened to coincide with a change in the weather. Spirits are high and we are keeping our fingers crossed for marginally better weather tomorrow and a hopeful carry up to high camp.
Quotes of the day:
"Don't tell me how to eat my Oreos!" - Sean
"How are geriatrics and RMI guides alike? It depends..." - Art and Doug
"The wise man chooses nachos." - Mike
"I gotta save Canada from those gosh darn moose..." - Marc
"I love pico de gallo!" - Billy
RMI Guide Billy Nugent and Team
On The Map
The
Mount Rainier Four-Day Summit Climb, led by Seth Waterfall and Mike Soucy, reached the summit this morning. Seth reported a nice day and 10-15 mph winds from the North. As of 7:38 a.m. the teams began their descent from the crater rim.
Congratulations to today's summit climbers!
Our climbing team had a great morning climbing to within a few hundred feet (16,500') of Iliniza Norte's summit (16,818'), before the wind was too intense and we had to turn around. Climbing up the rocky, exposed ridge from the climbing hut, the clouds would momentarily part, affording us intermittent views of Iliniza Norte's austere summit, covered in rime ice. The climbing was a very enjoyable 3rd class rock scramble and everyone did great. The wind was literally making it hard to stand up, much less climb a high altitude mountain. So we retreated back to the safety of the climber's hut. After a bowl of soup and a cup of tea, we descended back down the trail to our vehicles. Now we're at the beautiful hacienda Chilcabamba, outside of
Cotopaxi National Park, where we're resting before heading out to climb our final objective, Cotopaxi. We'll keep you in the loop...
RMI Guide Mike Walter
Friday June 26th 12:30 am PT
We are on our way down!! After waking up when the sun hit our tents at 17,000, we packed up and headed downhill. Although sore and tired from a long summit day, we made good time down to 14,000 feet. We met up with
Billy Nugent's group and had a healthy round of hugs and high fives. We picked up some cached gear and partook in the time honored tradition of fitting twice as much gear into a pack than should be possible and carrying said pack down another 3,000 feet to
11k Camp and our awaiting sleds. We are currently in a holding/napping pattern at 11k. We are going to walk early in the morning towards base camp and the landing strip in hopes of an early flight to Talkeetna. That is weather dependent of course!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen
On The Map
Thursday June 25th 10:16 pm PT
Hola from a sunny day up here at 14k. We enjoyed a lazy morning with a good coffee session in the posh before getting down to the business of retrieving our cache down near
Windy Corner. A couple of hours was all it took and we were back in camp up in the Genet Basin in time to greet
Mike Haugen's crew on their descent from high camp after their successful summit bid yesterday. Tomorrow's plans call for our first complete rest day of the trip that will hopefully set us up for a strong performance as we venture onto the upper mountain in the coming days. The weather may get a bit funky but hopefully it'll be nothing that will slow us down. More on our story as it develops...
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
On The Map
Thursday June 25th 10:15 pm PT
Our exit from Talkeetna was nearly as smooth and easy as our arrival in the
Alaska Range turned out to be. We had our traditional Roadhouse breakfast and then headed for the hangar. By 10:00 AM we were loading onto K2 Aviation's ski planes and taking off for the mountains. We had a couple of good views of
Denali and Foraker, the giants of the range, despite a fair amount of cloud and forest fire smoke in the air.
Basecamp at 7,200 feet on the Southeast fork of the Kahiltna Glacier was nearly deserted when we came in... just the way we like it. We set camp, reviewed glacier travel techniques and got used to fabulous views when the clouds lifted. By early evening a few other guided teams flew in and we chatted with the leaders, since we'll likely be seeing each other a bit in the weeks to come. There was a lot to get done on this day- there always is at the start of a big climb. But we got it done and the team is now resting. We were early to bed and we'll be early to rise tomorrow in the hopes of catching easier and safer conditions for travel in the cold part of the day. From what we could see from the airplane, the first part of our climb will be made easier by excellent snow coverage on the glacier surface.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Thursday June 25th 10:00 a.m. PT
RMI Guide Dave Hahn sent us a couple photos as they were embarking on their flight to
Kahiltna Base. Once the team is situated on the glacier and moved into their first mountain camp, Dave will check in with us again.
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We can’t wait to hear from you, Dadio!!!! Love, Margaret
Posted by: Margaret on 6/27/2015 at 5:19 pm
Go Pepper and Uchal! We want you guys home so dance-away, dance-away, dance-away all and get those planes in : ). Miss you, Doug, stay safe.
Posted by: Chris on 6/27/2015 at 3:34 pm
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