The Four Day Summit Climb August 2 - 5, 2014 with climbers from Eddie Bauer and led by RMI Guide Solveig Waterfall reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Solveig reported light winds and great weather. As of 7:20 am the team was reaching the top of Disappointment Cleaver on their descent.
Congratulations to today's summit climb team!
This is the Forbidden Peak - West Ridge team checking in for the day. We are at camp in Boston Basin enjoying beautiful weather. We will do some technical training this afternoon in preparation for our training climb up Sharkfin Tower tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
Yesterday was a rest day for us in Cheget! Most of us took it easy, relaxed, packed up gear, and did a little exploring around the Baksan Valley. Rumor has it that a few trout were caught and cooked for lunch!
Today was our travel day from the mountain to St. Petersburg. It was a pretty long day with the four-hour bus ride to the airport and then a three-hour flight. It was a pretty uneventful day, but the team is doing very well. Everyone is happy to be here in this beautiful city and looking forward to our city tour tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Hello from Kislovodsk,
As planned, we had an early start this morning, leaving our hotel at 5:45 to drive to the domestic airport. With all our bags checked we boarded the plane and flew south to Mineralyne Vody, the main airport in the Caucasus region. Then it was an hour drive to the resort town of Kislovodsk. Best known for its spas, many Russians come here to take a break from the big city life in Moscow. But we did not come here for the spas. We are here because it is the last town before we drive into the mountains. We spent the afternoon going through all of our gear, making sure we had everything needed for the climb and this team is ready.
Tomorrow we will finally see Elbrus for the first time as we approach Basecamp. We are all excited to be ending our travels and beginning the climb.
All the best,
RMI Guide Jeff Martin
The day started with our local staff serenading the team with the "Jambo" song after breakfast. It was nice to see the strong and good men who've helped us so much this week all in one place, singing, dancing and able to receive our thanks for their great efforts. We then made an effort to get out of their way by leaving Mweka Camp and descending 4000 vertical feet to the Mweka gate to end our climb of Mt. Kilimanjaro. The low clouds didn't hold back for long before dropping light but steady rains on us and the already slippery track. The trail took us through a lush and seemingly impenetrable forest... I'm sure there was much to see, but mostly we concentrated on making careful steps and avoiding falls for a few hours. We were relieved to reach easier terrain for the home stretch. Since it was still raining at the Mweka Gate to the National Park, we didn't hang around long before loading onto our expedition bus/truck and hitting the road for Moshi. Halfway back to Arusha, in better weather, we stopped for a great picnic lunch. Then it was on to our comfortable home at the Dik Dik hotel where we all got a lot cleaner and a little more pleasant as we caught up on sleep and internet. We're heading for a celebration dinner now, which will double as a farewell to Brian and Brad who are abandoning us and heading home tomorrow as we set out for our much-anticipated game-viewing safari.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
RMI Guide Jake Beren checked in from their 6,400' camp on Mt. Shuksan where they stayed last night. The team is planning to do some training today and spend another night at their current camp. They will be making their summit attempt tomorrow morning via the Sulphide Glacier.
I am very excited for all of you, I wish I could be up there to enjoy the beauty of the mountains. Congratulation and have the best day tomorrow. Best wishes Tom from your friend, Nikki
The Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide Seth Waterfall along with the Five Day Summit Climb led by Lindsay Fixmer reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The teams enjoyed some time on the summit with clear skies enjoying the views. The team began their descent and as of 7:45 am were on the top of Disappointment Cleaver en route to Camp Muir. The teams will take a short break to repack their gear and then start the final descent to Paradise.
We look forward to seeing the teams at Rainier BaseCamp later today.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb teams!
Hello, this is Elías and the Machu Picchu trekking team. First of all, we want to apologize for the lack of communication yesterday, but we were in such a narrow valley that our satellite phone wouldn’t pick up the signal. However, we had an awesome day crossing the Continental Divide, from the Pacific side to the Atlantic and dropping to an amazing valley, where we saw herds of llamas moving around. And we had awesome views of Nevado Salkantay, a 6,000+ meter peak, and amazing glaciers. Today we merged with the classic Inca Trail, where we are today. We are just camped here, perched on a terrace right above treeline, and it’s been an amazing day! We went from the dry Andean landscape to the rainforest we have just crossed, and we’re having an awesome time discovering this amazing land of the Inca. We’ll keep you posted tomorrow, as we have our second journey into the classic Inca Trail, and again, we have left behind the three days of incredible hiking up mountain passes in the Andes. That’s all for now! We’ll check in again tomorrow. Bye.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
Elias de Andres Martos calls in from Machu Picchu.
We had a great first day in Moscow. It started with a short walk to the heart of Russia - Red Square and the Kremlin. First up was Lenin's Tomb. It is sort of an eerie experience seeing an embalmed man who has been dead for so many years, but definitely worth it. The trick is to move just slow enough through the viewing room that you do not get the guards' attention and be told to move ahead. After exiting the tomb, we met up with our tour guide who lead us on a grand tour through Saint Basil's Cathedral, the GUM, Red Square, and finally the Kremlin. The day was certainly a mini history lesson of the czars and rulers of Russia, and of wars and power struggles, and Moscow has been around for almost a 1000 years so it gets a little complicated.
After the tour of the Kremlin and feeling like we were close to information overload, we started our walk back to the hotel for a little down time. We are back from dinner now and heading to bed so that we can leave early in the morning for our flight to our next town - Kislovodsk. We'll check in once we get settled there.
Best,
RMI Guides Jeff Martin and Pete Van Deventer
Hey, this is David Hahn with Kilimanjaro team and we are on the summit! We are at Uhuru which is 19,341 feet above sea level. And we are in spectacularly good conditions. And as an added bonus, we have the summit all to ourselves. The whole team is up here and the wind is blowing about one and a half miles per hour. And it's extremely pleasant. [Broken] ...happens to be cloaked in clouds right now, but it's still beautiful. We're enjoying being up here stepping into the throat of this great volcano. We'll let you know when we're down safe but all is going very well now. Thank you.
RMI Guide Dave HahnDave Hahn Recaps the Summit Day:
We left Barafu Camp shortly after one AM and set out for the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro. It was an absolutely splendid night for climbing as there was no wind and no cloud above. There was also no moon, so the stars and meteors and Milky Way were prominent and mesmerizing. At first it wasn't terribly cold, but of course as we gained altitude and got closer to dawn we had to contend with the big chill. We made steady progress and watched sunrise from about an hour below the crater rim. There was still no view of Africa, other than the cloud sea far below us. We reached Stella Point on the crater rim at 8 AM and made our way around the rim to Uhuru -the high point- by just after nine. It was calm and comfortable up there at 19,340 ft and so we stayed for forty minutes. Descent to Barafu took until 1 PM. Once there we packed our gear, ate a fine lunch and at 2:30 continued our descent toward the cloud sea. All were a little weary (understandably) but we made good progress in any event reaching Mweka Camp at 10,000 ft by 6 PM. It was quite a journey, from the ice and glaciers down through numerous transition zones to the start of the forests and jungles. The team was optimistic about sleeping straight through this night and at last conquering our collective jet lag.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn checks in from the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.
Brad & Brian, Congrats on the Summit for you and all your team! Can’t wait to see the photos and hear the stories. Can’t think of a better reason to get together for a few cold ones.
See you soon.
Steve
Posted by: Steve on 8/4/2014 at 9:21 am
Hope it was a great adventure for everyone! I am sure you are all ready to get a warm shower and a comfy bed! :) Have fun on the safari! Love you Babe! Heather
Way to go Jason and Harumi! Congrats to all - Godspeed!
Posted by: SueWilliams on 8/5/2014 at 8:02 am
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