Entries from Expedition Dispatches
The Four Day Climb Teams led by RMI Guides Mike King and JT Schmitt reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Mike reported clear skies with wind gusts of 45 mph and sustained winds at 35 mph. The teams have started their descent and are en route back to Camp Muir.
Congratulations to today's teams!
Friday, August 23, 2019 7:11 PM PTThe rains came shortly after we finished our breakfast this morning, and refused to let up until 3 o'clock this afternoon. We spent the majority of the day passing the time in our tents before finally getting out for a little training this evening. The views cleared in time for us to enjoy them while eating dinner, and we're all ready to head for the summit tomorrow! RMI Guide Ben Ammon & Team
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Mike Uchal
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Elbrus Northside
Our Elbrus Northside team has returned to the U.S. and had a bit of time to work through the jet lag of jumping nine hours back in time on the return trip home. Our time in St. Petersburg was spectacular. The city has the feel of Old Europe, and is often compared to Venice because of the numerous canals and rivers that crisscross the city. Founded by Peter the Great, and the capitol of the Russian Empire for nearly 200 years, St. Petersburg is still considered the cultural capitol of Russia. We arrived mid afternoon with enough time to take a stroll around the city, before a delicious dinner at the Jerome, a perennial favorite restaurant year after year. The following day we took the city by storm, following our tour guide Olga as we walked as many of architectural and public space sites as we could fit in. From St. Issacs Cathedral with it's colorful mosaics, massive pillars, and scars on the facade left over from the 900+ day siege of St. Petersburg during WWII, to the luxurious Summer Gardens of the Romanovs, St. Petersburg displays the wealth, opulence, culture, and liveliness of the Tsar era. We spent the afternoon wandering through the massive winter palace of the Romanovs, now home to the Hermitage Museum. We spent the evening on a delightful canal tour by boat, and our last dinner in Russia. St. Petersburg averages only 60 days of sunlight each year, but our impression was far different - blue skies, comfortable temps, nice breezes on the canal, it was everything that summer should be and a nice refresh after our time on the mountain.
International climbing trips at their best are about far more than just the mountain or the climbing. The cultural and historical sites we saw, the insight into their history that we gained, and the people we met along the way are just as important. We had a number of interactions with teams of Russian climbers in camp, eager to understand how and why we had come so far to climb their humble mountain. The stories we read in the news, on either side of the ocean, can paint the other's countries as adversaries and opponents, but everyone we met was overwhelmingly friendly. As one climber in a hut one evening put it, "The people you meet in the mountains - they are good people." That was true of the climbers we met, and most certainly true of our team as well. Watching everyone work through the tough days, have their great days, and come together in difficult moments - such as setting up tents at 15,000' in a blustery 35 mph wind - is one of the joys of guiding and climbing, and it was such a pleasure to work with this team. Thanks so much to them, to our local outfitter, to Sasha, our local guide, translator, and fixer of all, and thanks to everyone who followed along. We’ll be back at it next year!
RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer and Mike Uchal
We had some nice cloud cover that kept our walk to camp nice and cool. Once we arrived the clouds cleared to reveal awesome views of the North Cascades and of our Mt. Shuksan climbing route up the Sulphide Glacier. We are training to prepare for our summit attempt tomorrow.
RMI Guide Ben Ammon
It was sleep-in day at Barranco Camp. We didn’t start slurping coffee until 7:30 this morning and breakfast at 8:00 was a leisurely affair. There were several good reasons for going slow and dragging feet. Barranco Camp is a beautiful place and absolutely worth spending a little more quality time in. But strategy-wise, we wanted to give neighboring teams and their associated porters the chance to get out ahead of us and to clear the tricky ledges and scrambly bits of the Great Barranco Wall before we committed to it. Secondarily, we knew we didn’t have a long way to go to reach Karanga Camp. So it was 9:40 before we put on our packs and followed Gama to the start of the wall. The strategy worked... while we didn’t exactly have the track to ourselves, there weren’t any big bottlenecks or traffic jams and we were able to figure out the tricky rock moves without much pressure or stress. In truth, the great majority of the “wall” is just walking or careful walking. And we did all of that well. We gained about 900 feet in elevation and popped out on top of the wall to easy terrain and gorgeous views of Kibo and the rest of the world. As usual, the rest of the world -with a few exceptions- was under the sea of white cloud lapping at the slopes of the mountain a thousand feet below.
We had tea and snacks at that 13,900 ft high point and then carried on traversing to the east. After another hour we’d reached the steep walled Karanga Valley. Our camp sat on the opposite rim, so we dropped down a dusty trail to the valley floor and marched up the opposing flank to our home for the night. Karanga Camp is at virtually the same altitude we slept at last night -13,000 ft, so we hope to solidify our acclimatization before moving higher tomorrow. We made it here in four hours,allowing plenty of time for rest, for kite flying, and for more of Tosha’s great cooking.
Best Regards
Dave Hahn
Stay vertical!
Posted by: Jeff Tracy on 8/24/2019 at 6:01 am
The SUMMIT awaits. Congrats to all for a great hike so far…and yet to come. Excited for summit pics. High fives and hugs to Peter Jacqueline and Steven!
Posted by: Erin Anton on 8/23/2019 at 1:00 pm
Posted by: Robby Young, Leon Davis
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guides Robby Young and Leon Davis were standing on the summit of Mt. Rainier at 7 AM PT today. Robby reported a beautiful warm day of climbing with a light breeze. The team will spend some time on the Summit before starting their descent.
Congratulations to today's teams!
Great job Steve!
Posted by: Hugh Gallagher on 8/23/2019 at 2:52 pm
Awesome job guys! Love you both so much! Andy and Peter rock!
Posted by: Patricia Petersen on 8/23/2019 at 1:28 pm
Our night at Shira was calm and quiet and not terribly cold. There wasn’t much frost on the tents at 6:30 AM when we rolled out of bed. Mt Meru -our 15,000 ft volcanic neighbor to the West- was standing proudly on the horizon above low clouds. Kibo was cloud-free above us. After the usual deluxe breakfast, we set out around 8:15 for higher places. Walking was easier than yesterday as the altitude gain was more gradual and the terrain much more open and broad. The vegetation -at first- was like a high chaparral mesa in the American West, but as we climbed toward the base of Kibo, the vegetation played out to just a few simple grasses. Within a couple of hours, we’d broken altitude records for half the group as we passed 14,000 and ultimately 15,000 ft on our way to the “Lava Tower” at 15,200 ft. The upper sky stayed largely free of clouds as we reached our high point at the tower. Our fabulous staff had a picnic lunch waiting for us. We lounged about in the strong sunshine until 1 PM before throwing on packs again for the descent toward Barranco Camp.
There were a few steeper spots that required full attention on the walk down, but much of our afternoon was on easier grades that allowed for sightseeing. There were lava caves and waterfalls and groves of scenecios and lobelias. Up above was the gigantic and precipitous south face of Kibo with snow and ice fields clinging improbably to the mountain. Near 3 PM we cruised into another expertly constructed camp -this one at 13,000 ft below the Great Barranco Wall. Then we got into our familiar afternoon pattern, snack, drink water, nap, stare in wonder at the beauty around us. By nightfall, the stars above were outrageous and some of the lights from Moshi were showing through the clouds below to complete the magical scene.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn & Team
Stay vertical and enjoy the popcorn. It’s the best on earth.
Posted by: Jeff Tracy on 8/23/2019 at 4:18 am
Many thanks for news
have a good next step
best regards
Posted by: jean lambotte on 8/22/2019 at 11:35 pm
Unless you are at Camp Muir, 10,080', this morning you most likely can't see Mt. Rainier. Fortunately for the Four Day Climb August 19 - 22, that's exactly where they were. With a little patience, improving weather and a bit later start from Camp Muir the Climb teams were able to reach the summit shortly after 7:15 AM today. RMI Guide Casey Grom reported light winds and clear skies about 7,200'.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb team!
Yay! Jennifer so proud of you!!!! What a feat! You are amazing!!
Posted by: Mariah Moody on 8/22/2019 at 4:08 pm
JJ, GOLD STAR!!!!!!!
Posted by: Brand Strategy Team on 8/22/2019 at 4:04 pm
We did get a peek at Kilimanjaro this morning before breakfast. The glaciers and icefields were seemingly hanging at impossible angles on Kibo’s flanks. But since -at Machame Camp- we were just in the top layer of a sea of clouds, the views didn’t last too long before we were within the soup again. Nieman introduced our Barking Zebra staff after breakfast -we are supported by fifty men- and then we were treated to a couple of songs as everybody danced and clapped along.
Then it was time to get walking at 8:30 AM. Immediately out of camp, the trail got a little more difficult than what we’d encountered yesterday. The trail became a series of rock steps, like a giant stairmaster up through a corridor of giant heather that became a little less giant as we got higher. Eventually we ended up walking along a ridgeline above the clouds. We had great views of Kibo (Kilimanjaro’s central peak) and could look around as the vegetation changed with increasing altitude. Large white-necked ravens flew acrobatic and aerobatic maneuvers in the thermals around us. We began turning to the north and climbed a few small rock walls to get out to the Shira Plateau -west of Kibo. From this 13,000 ft high point for the day, we then had an easy walk down to our camp at 12,600 ft. It took us five hours on the trail, which meant we had most of the afternoon to lounge about in Shira Camp, getting used to the altitude, stocking up on food and water. The clouds came back over in late afternoon, depriving us of a much anticipated sunset, but when we came out of the dining tent after dinner, things had cleared and we had world class views of the night sky. The Southern Cross, the Milky Way, Jupiter and Saturn were all easily visible and making it tough to get inside our sleeping tents for the night.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
The Four Day Climb August 18 - 21 reached the summit of Mt. Rainier on a windy morning. RMI Guides Brent Okita and Joe Hoch and the summit climb teams spent a short amount of time at the crater as the winds are increasing. They will continue their descent to Paradise and return to Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
Congratulations team! https://www.instagram.com/tideworksmountaineers/
Posted by: Tideworks Mountaineers on 8/21/2019 at 8:19 am
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Hope Jeremy Wallace and friend are on this climb. Congrats to all and have a safe descent.
Posted by: Robert Wallace on 8/24/2019 at 11:33 am
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