Entries from Expedition Dispatches
May 19, 2015 - 12:39 am PT
We woke to the sound of the mob leaving
11,000' Camp to move to 14,000'. Winds have prevented teams from moving up for several days, and so 11 has become a bit of a bottle neck. Happy to be tucked into warm sleeping bags and without a camp to move today, we kept dozing until the sun hit our tents. With the warmth, we smashed out a smoked salmon and bagel breakfast, and donned empty packs to retrieve the food and fuel that we cached yesterday. Back in time for an afternoon siesta, we spent some more time horizontal, and then did a quick review of our crampon and ice ax skills. A story filled dinner stretched into the night and now it's time to get some shut eye. We got the blog comments that you all posted today and read them over dinner. Many thanks. Tomorrow we'll hopefully boost some food and fuel up higher to windy corner to set us up for a move to 14,000'. Good night to all. We'll be in touch tomorrow.
RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Robby Young, Josh Maggard, and team
On The Map
May 18, 2015 - 11:43 pm PT
Hello-
Our day in
Base Camp was as busy as it can get. After a leisurely breakfast of pancakes bacon and coffee, we divided up to learn and practice beacon searches, surface hauling systems and rig our sleds for moving up river. A great day under a blazing sun that had us wondering how we can be surrounded by so much snow yet be so dang hot. Tomorrow we leave our camp loaded with five days of provisions and make our way towards Kahiltna Dome. We will talk again from Camp 1!
RMI Guides Leon Davis, Lindsay Fixmer, Bridget Belliveau & Team
On The Map
May 18, 2015, 11:16 pm PT
Hello from beautiful 14 camp!
We arrived today under sunny skies and warm temps with light winds that gusted a bit higher as we rounded the aptly named
Windy Corner.
The move took us just under 5.5 hours and everyone climbed strong and then worked extremely hard building a solid camp here in Genet Basin. Tomorrow our plan is to return to our cache at 13,600, retrieve the rest of our food and fuel, and fully set up shop here in our new location.
The views from camp are spectacular and we all enjoyed a delicious dinner of lentils and rice while familiarizing ourselves with the incredible scenery.
Our team wants to say thank you to everyone who left comments on our blog. We received them this morning and the boost in morale helped propel us into camp today!
Here are a few personal messages from the team members! Keep the positive energy coming our way!
Thanks for following along!
RMI Guide Solveig Waterfall
Hey, Christy, Phillip, gabe, Annie, things going well. Sure miss all of u. Can't wait to see u. Hoping to summit next week or so. Love u all, Brian.
To all my family and friends, thanks for cheering us on! It's quite the adventure, the views are incredible. We're staying safe and I'm proud of what we've achieved so far. Can't wait to go further! Dan
Dear fam and friends, thanks for following this wild adventure. Getting chilly as we venture up higher. Looking to hit the summit within this next week.
Love you fam, go Rangers!!
To all friends and loved ones following our progress Thnk you for the posts allis well at 14 camp love you all! Kearney Sagehorn
Love hearing all the support! For my fellow Bison, I am flying the guidon at every camp and hope to take it to the summit. "Move out the Way!!" For the family, your in my thoughts constantly and look forward to getting back home safely. Brooke, give the boys a hug and kiss for me. I love you all!
- Chris
On The Map
May 17, 2015 - 11:05pm PST
Hello All,
We awoke this morning to decreasing winds and clear skies, which gave us the window we've been waiting for to carry equipment around
Windy Corner and put in a cache at 13,600'. Our team climbed strong and did a great job managing the few wind gusts we sustained... staying balanced and efficient while moving to higher elevations. We returned to camp in the late afternoon and feasted on quesadilla's with peppers, onions, chicken, and plenty of cheese before turning in for some well deserved rest.
Our forecast is looking good and we hope to move to 14,000' tomorrow. It'll be a big day, so we'll rise early and break camp in order to give us plenty of time to get settled in our new home up in Genet Basin.
Thanks for following along!
RMI Guide
Solveig Waterfall & Team
May 17, 2015 - 10:24pm PST
Good evening all,
Today was a great day to be in the mountains! The sun shone bright this morning as we left camp for the north side of
Radio Tower. We found great conditions moving up and the ridge offered us amazing panoramas of Mt Hunter, Foraker, and Denali. The team performed very well all day and we spent the late afternoon sitting in shade to review knots. Tomorrow will be tech training intensive here at camp.
Pancakes & bacon for breakfast!
RMI Guide
Leon Davis & Team
RMI Guides
Seth Waterfall and
Kel Rossiter and the Four Day Summit Climb teams stood on the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The teams have been in and out of clouds this morning with a trace of new snow falling and calm winds. After spending some time on the summit, the teams are making their way back to
Camp Muir before beginning their descent to Paradise.
Congratulations climbers!
Good morning! We're packing up as we speak, and are scheduled to fly back to Talkeetna in the next few hours. Unfortunately we can't report another summit from yesterday. We continued to have more snow through the early afternoon and our fears for avalanche danger were confirmed when the temps climbed up later in the day. We settled for just the approach to the lower
Pika, as we tested an incredibly reactive snowpack; while no climbing, that provided a super valuable safety learning opportunity for everyone.
That's it for now, our next post will be from civilization with some pics.
Best,
Rmi Guide
Elías deAndres Martos and Team
We woke to sunny skies, and the forecasted winds didn't arrive down low where we were. After bagel, cream cheese, and bacon filled breakfast sandwiches we crashed our camp, loaded our sleds (more and more team members are naming their sleds each day - the better to curse them by), and started the climb up
Ski Hill. The steeper terrain with all of the weight of our gear was a big effort, different from yesterday's long miles with little elevation change, but the team handled it really well, and pulled into a cozy camp at 9500' this evening. A big meal of Mac and cheese fortified with bacon put everyone into food comas, and were crawling into the sacks for the night. Tomorrow, we plan to move to 11k to really start the process of acclimating. That's all the news from here. We'll be in touch tomorrow.
RMI Guides Pete, Robby, Josh, and team.
Greetings all
We departed
Talkeetna into cloudy weather and for a while there we did not think we would make it. But thanks to the skill of our K2 pilots we were able to sneak in as the skies briefly parted. As a result of our teams hard work and cooperation we now have a fortified camp. We will sleep well behind block walls and we are excited for a chance to climb the radio tower tomorrow morning. Tonight we sleep under clear blue (still) skies and just a whisper of a cool breeze.
Until tomorrow then!
RMI Guide
Leon Davis & Team
On The Map
Our
Four and Five Day Summit Climb Teams Led by RMI Guides
Brent Okita and
Ben Liken reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Brent reported clear skies, nice weather and great route conditions. The teams were able to spend so time on the summit before starting their descent back to Camp Muir.
Congratulations to today's teams!
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Critt I Love You!! Your lil sis is so proud. Keep being awesome!
Posted by: Heather Hartnett on 5/20/2015 at 6:13 am
So glad you are all well and safe. Kinda glad it’s not me freezing my butt off up there, but secretly wishing I was as strong and daring as you all. Push on to 14,000 with a warm heart of love and encouragement from us all back here Renee :-) We miss you and can’t wait for you to come back xxxxx
Posted by: Paul on 5/20/2015 at 4:22 am
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