Entries from Expedition Dispatches
May 13, 2015, 10:49 pm
The weather today was a bit squirrelly, but we were able to make it back down to our cached gear at 9,600' and haul it back up to our camp at 11,200'. We're all doing well out here and sitting pretty on the mountain. Our next mission will be to take a cache of food and fuel up around Windy Corner at around 13,600'. We plan on tackling that tomorrow if the weather allows us. Today would have been too windy for a foray to higher altitudes.
We're all excited for the next stages of the climb, where we exchange snowshoes for crampons, and trekking poles for ice axes. We're also psyched at climbing steeper terrain and enjoying the ever ever impressive views.
That's the news from this end. We'll keep you up to date with our progress.
RMI Guide Mike Walter and team.
On The Map
May 12, 2015 11:00 pm PT
Hello everyone!
We tackled our third day of
Mt. McKinley climbing today, which brought us to camp at 11,200'.
The team did exceptionally well and we made great time, rolling into camp before it became uncomfortably hot on the glacier.
Once here we had a big task ahead of us, constructing tent platforms and a kitchen and bathroom. Thankfully we were able to make use of some old walls and platforms that only required minor adjustment to make them workable for our tents, saving us at least an hour of hard labor. The bathroom and kitchen required the most effort, but the team rotated through the shoveling and we now have a luxurious Posh House dining area which we enjoyed over a filling dinner of mac and cheese with bacon and broccoli.
We are all tucked in now, enjoying the last few minutes of sunlight in camp in the comfort of our sleeping bags, looking forward to a nice rest and short day tomorrow. Our plan is to sleep in a bit later than the last few mornings, and then return to our last camp to retrieve our remaining food.
We'll check in again tomorrow!
RMI Guide Solveig Waterfall and the team!
On The Map
May 12, 2015 10:15 pm PT
Team is ready for our first objective: tomorrow morning we will be switching to multi-pitch mode and conquer our first big route. We had a great day training on (and summiting) "
the Munchkin." We spent the day on its south ridge and east face rehearsing for steep snow and technical rock. Everyone is doing great and we all look forward to checking in with more accounts from the outstanding routes we are about to tackle.
Good evening!
RMI Guides ElÃas, Sean, Andy and the team.
The
Five-Day Muir Summit Climbs, led by Brent Okita and Zeb Blais, turned at the top of Disappointment Cleaver this morning due to weather. Cloud deck is currently at 8,700'. Both teams left Camp Muir just after 9:00 a.m. PT. Brent sent some photos as they descended this morning (shown below).
May 11, 2015 11:00 pm PT
Greetings!
Warm temperatures, clear skies and pristine snow is what we enjoyed today. Our first full day in the
Pika entailed a thorough review of our different anchors, crevasse rescue systems and scenarios, and a tour of the glacier to check the approach to our upcoming routes. Keeping a close eye on the ravens, whom are after our kitchen and tents, we enjoyed a massive production of tortellini at dinner. This will fuel us for our first objective tomorrow, when we'll try our first summit while mastering transitions, protection and descents on rock and snow.
Best regards,
RMI Guides
Elias,
Andy, and
Sean
May 11, 2015 9:10 pm PT
Greetings from the
Kahiltna Glacier! Our team is making steady progress, and we're currently at our camp at 9,600'. The weather has been beautiful since we were able to land on the glacier on Sunday. The climbing is strenuous, as always, as we carry heavy backpacks and pull full sleds. This morning we tackled "Ski Hill", our first real significant incline, followed by rolling glacial terrain until we reached camp. Camp is all set up and we are busy cooking dinner. We'll try to rack out early tonight for some well-earned rest. Tomorrow we plan to make a cache of equipment here, at our current camp, in order to lighten our expedition loads. Then the plan is to then move up to the 11,200' camp; we'll come back for the cached gear the following day. That's the plan at least. Our plans are always at the mercy of the weather in the mountains.
That's it for now. Everyone is healthy and in good spirits. We'll touch base again tomorrow, hopefully from 11k camp.
RMI Guide Mike Walter and the team
On The Map
May 11, 2015 12:51 am PT
Hi everyone!
We finally had a break in the weather and were able to fly on to the glacier this morning. After days of waiting in
Talkeetna, we were all eagerly anticipating our flight this morning. We took off just after 9 am, and once on the glacier we packed and organized our gear quickly in order to make the most of the day.
We are now snug in our tents at the base of Ski Hill (7800') after a long but satisfying day covering the relatively flat lower glacier.
Our group climbed strong, and tomorrow we're looking forward to moving camp farther uphill.
It's nearly midnight and we've all had a big day, so we're going to get some rest and we'll check in again tomorrow!
RMI Guide Solveig Waterfall and the team
On The Map
May 10, 2015, 9:28 pm PT
We woke today in Talkeetna to beautiful weather and were able to fly on to the
Pika Glacier before noon. We spent the day building the camp that we'll be calling home for the next week, and also had time for some avalanche education and training. For now, we are in and out of light clouds and snow, but things are relatively calm, temperatures are mild and all of us are excited to be in Little Switzerland after a weather day in Talkeetna. Fingers crossed for blue skies in the coming days!
RMI Guides Sean Collon, Elias de Andres Martos and Andy Hildebrand
May 10, 2015 11:50 am PT
RMI Guide Leon Davis checked in from Talkeetna. The weather improved this morning allowing RMI Mt. McKinley May 5th Team led by Mike Walter to fly to Kahiltna. This same plane then loaded Leon and Team to fly from Kahiltna Base Camp to Talkeetna.
The Alaska Mountaineering Seminar - Alpine led by Elias de Andres Martos was also able to fly from Talkeetna today and have been flown to the Pika Glacier to start their expedition.
Greetings from Talkeetna, Alaska!
We are wrapping up our first day of the
Alpine Skills Seminar. Everybody arrived on schedule to Anchorage yesterday, and a rainy drive took us to the gateway of the Alaska Range. As planned, we spent the morning getting ready with the pertinent logistics prior to loading the bush plane equipped with skies to take us to the glacier. As our appetite climbed for what we hoped to be the last served meal of the week, the thick clouds brought the rain (snow in the range) that would keep us grounded.
We took advantage of the delay, and practiced some skills at the K2 Hangar. We got familiar with our tents, reviewed knots and hitches and mastered crevasse self extrication to make the most of a wet afternoon. Our hopes are to fly tomorrow morning straight onto the Pika Glacier. We´ll keep you posted!
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
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For Daddy to Be of a Princess…doctors appointment went well and she is growing and perfect! The boys are taking care of Mom.
Thinking of all of you at Camp 11,200 this 48 degree morning from Washington DC…I’m so happy for your progress up the mountain~
Thank you for all the updates…and allowing us to be a small part of this adventure your on. Proud of you and wishing you good weather…Keep moving on up!
Posted by: Dave and Melissa Quantock on 5/14/2015 at 2:28 am
For Eric and all you hockey fans at Camp 11,200’: Rangers just won 2-1 in OT! Stepan nets winner. Tampa Bay series starts on Sat. Keep that Stanley Cup “beard” growing, and keep on chugging Ricky et al! Dad/Alex
Posted by: Alex Alimanestianu on 5/13/2015 at 8:10 pm
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