Entries from Expedition Dispatches
Posted by: Win Whittaker, Elias de Andres Martos
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
RMI Guide Win Whittaker and his team of climbers with the Climb for Clean Air in support of the American Lung Association of the Mountain Pacific reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The Four Day Summit Climb July 15 - 18 led by Elias de Andres Martos reached the summit also. The skies are clear above with warm temperatures. The teams enjoyed some time on the summit before starting their descent. The teams will stop at Camp Muir then continue their descent to Paradise this afternoon.
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Paradise has enjoyed several days training on the mountain. Yesterday, the team practice their crevasse rescue techniques (see photo below). Today they will ascend to Camp Muir for some additional training. They will make their summit attempt early tomorrow morning.
Congratulations to today's summit climbers!
Mark Tucker checking in from Camp 2, the Shira Plateau, about 12,200 feet. We had a nice breakfast and a leisurely pace. A bit of an ascent from our Machame Camp. But a step at a time, a break at a time, and a traverse through a very mystical-kind of environment in and out of some riverbeds. A pretty enchanting walk and everybody's doing very well. I'm very pleased with the performance of the team. We're all happy and healthy. We just finished a fabulous 3-course meal and people are crawling into the tents. We're having this moon interrupt a little bit of our star gazing. It's a little bright because no clouds, clear skies. There was a bit of marine layer type sea of muck below us, but not a cloud in the sky today, perfect conditions. A little bit dusty on the trail but a little handkerchief over the nose at times worked out just fine. We're having a gas. One of our team members, Alberto, wanted do a shout out to his Pops. So, "Hey to you." He's having a good time doing really well. It will be another 6:30 up, and hopefully breakfast at 7:15, hitting the trail by around 8:00. Great day tomorrow, break some altitude records. We are hoping to go just over 15,000 feet and then back down to 12,800' for the night. Very great opportunity for acclimatization. Climb high, sleep low. It is just setting us up for success. So all is well. We'll check in tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker checking in from Shira Camp.
On The Map
Posted by: Brent Okita, Lindsay Mann, Mike Haugen
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 11,200'
The Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guides Brent Okita & Lindsay Mann were unable to summit this morning due to a lightning storm. The teams headed out of Camp Muir on two separate occasions but both times retreated to Camp Muir because of the weather. They will descend from Camp Muir around 9 a.m. We look forward to seeing the groups at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Kautz led by RMI Guide Mike Haugen reached the summit yesterday morning and returned to their high camp for a final night on the mountain. This morning they are descending to Paradise and will return to Rainier BaseCamp.
RMI Guide Garrett Stevens and the Expedition Skills Seminar - Paradise weathered the storm on the mountain last night in tents. They will be drying out today and doing more training near their camp. Tomorrow they will ascend to Camp Muir and get ready for their summit attempt.
Posted by: Dave Hahn, Mike King, Zeb Blais
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 358'
The alarm was set for 11:30 PM at 8000 ft on the Kahiltna Glacier. The rain began at 10:00 PM and continued on and off until 11:20. Rain wouldn't be considered a good thing if you were laying in your sleeping bag hoping that the glacial surface would freeze up in the night to permit safe and easy passage to the Southeast Fork and a possible airplane pickup. So at the appointed wakeup time, we had a soggy glacier, groggy climbers and a murky vision of the world. Although it is still light for twenty four hours in this part of Alaska in mid-July, it isn't very light between about midnight and four. But we made the decision, along with Rob Gowler's AMS group camped nearby, to make a break for the airstrip before the storm got worse. We were on the move by 2:00 AM and stumbling along on snowshoes in the gloom. Surprisingly, it rained no more. It was slow going at first, hitting big crevasses broadside, without being able to see them ahead of time and take evasive action. But conditions improved as we got further down glacier... there had been a great deal of new snow (bridging crevasses) the sky overhead was clearing and the snow surface was consequently freezing, and it was getting lighter. It was a great help to be backed up in route-finding by Rob and the AMS team. Together, as the last climbers on the mountain, we worked through the early morning hours. By seven, we'd solved all significant problems and found ourselves at the foot of "heartbreak hill". We climbed the Southeast Fork to the airstrip and called in the ski-planes. Conditions overhead were good, but it took a few hours until our planes could even get into the range. The bigger storm was still coming in, but all passes into the mountains were already clogged with cloud. We considered ourselves lucky to be flown out in the afternoon. What followed was a whirlwind of drying/sorting gear, connecting with the outer world again and showers and shaves. We enjoyed a fabulous West Rib victory dinner celebration, a summit certificate awards ceremony and copious amounts of laughter over our shared experiences of the past three weeks. Day 20... Trip done... all we could possibly have hoped for in defining a fine expedition.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
A HUGE thank you to Dave and the rest of the guides for escorting Anders and the rest of the team up and down this formidable mountain. We appreciated all the updates, and can’t wait to hear all the details when Anders gets home. You certainly faced some challenging weather, and your perseverance and patience paid off in the incredible summit experience. We all appreciate it!
Posted by: the christofferson family on 7/17/2013 at 4:24 pm
Posted by: Casey Grom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Elbrus Southside
What a day, what a day!
We started the day off with a nice walking tour of this majestic city with our kind Russian guide Natasha. She led us around St. Petersburg stopping by the major highlights this city is know for and educated us to its deep history. We visited the Church of the Savior of Spilled Blood, St. Peter's Square, and St. Isaac's Cathedral along with many other beautiful sites. We took a brief break for lunch and explored a little on our own. Most of the team visited the Hermitage know for its incredible art collection, while others sought out their own adventure.
We reconvened around 8 and Natasha took us on a spectacular boat tour on the many canals that intertwine this city. The day was very rewarding for everyone and I'm pretty sure everyone would love to stay longer.
It has been a wonderful adventure the last two weeks with a great team! In a way it's sad that we've reached the end of this trip. Good times were had and good friends were made!
Missing all of our families and most of our friends.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Mark Tucker calling from camp number one on Kilimanjaro, Machame Camp, about 10,000 feet. What a great day. Got out of our low lands, slick-slick. Team was already, packed, started our hike at the gate under perfect conditions. A little bit overcast, kind of cool in the canopy of the lower flanks of Kilimanjaro. What a group. So thrilled with performances today. Everybody did fantastic. And right towards the end of the hike coming into camp, the mountain started to show the upper reaches. That just thrilled one and all and gave us that last little boost to come into camp. Bit chilly right now. It's 9 or 10 in the evening and we're all bedded down after real nice meal. Everybody's got a good appetite. I have quite the international crew: three Norwegians, a Puerto Rican, a guy from Mexico and a few US on the team. Really fun getting to know them; we are all having a gas and will check in tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker calls in from Machame Camp.
On The Map
Posted by: Paul Maier, Mike Haugen
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Four Day Summit Climb led by Jason Thompson reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. The team reported a beautiful day with clear views and winds at about 25 – 30 mph. They also reported that the route work recently done made for great climbing.
The Kautz seminar led by Mike Haugen also checked in this morning. The team topped out via the Kautz Route and began their descent at 9:15 a.m. Mike and team will stay on the mountain one more night and be back to Ashford tomorrow.
The Paradise Glacier Seminar led by Garrett Stevens is on day 3 of their 6-day seminar. They will spend two more days lower on the mountain before moving up to Camp Muir for their summit bid.
Beautiful day on the mountain!
Congratulations to you all! you made it, crazy Uncle Dan!
Posted by: Jennifer Robinson on 7/16/2013 at 2:49 pm
Congrats to everyone. So proud of my son John and his buddy Andrew! Hope you had the time of your life!
Posted by: Pattie Campbell on 7/16/2013 at 2:30 pm
We woke to a starry sky and calm winds last night, perfect conditions for our summit attempt on Chimborazo. We had altered our plans because the volcano Tungurahua, to the east of Chimborazo, was spitting out ash two mornings ago. So, instead of establishing a high camp in tents, we attempted our climb from the lower climbers' hut. We had our work cut out for us, with about 5,000 vertical feet of climbing, and a circuitous route to avoid the current rock fall hazard on the normal route up Chimborazo. Fortunately the weather cooperated all day for us, and we had a very strong and experienced team, and we were able to summit Chimborazo! We had a very, very long day of hard climbing. We started climbing in the dark, and got back to the climbers' hut a few hours after dark. We encountered steep and firm climbing conditions on Chimborazo, which made climbing and descending particularly slow as we had to concentrate on good cramponing and climbing techniques for hours on end. Our team proved up to the challenge, and we climbed safely the whole day. In the end, it was one heck of an adventure.
We're headed back to Quito now, and we should be at our hotel just slightly after noon. We'll have plenty of time to enjoy leisurely walking around the city (after a much anticipated hot shower!) before we have a celebratory dinner tonight. Then it's back to the old US of A on our respective flights tonight and tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
WOW!! Nice job team! Way to go! Wishing the whole time that I was there with you!
Congrats to all of you!
Sounds like a heck of a climb!! Can’t wait to hear all about it!
Posted by: Anthony Tarantino on 7/16/2013 at 11:48 am
Hey Jeff, congrats on Chimbo! Sounds like you had another tough one, can never take the easy way, huh?!
Nicely done.
Your Argentinean tent mate.
Posted by: Greg Barber on 7/16/2013 at 8:54 am
Monday, July 15th, 2013
It was still very calm at 14K camp this morning, but it was obvious that the next storm system was moving in. So we moved out. At 9:15 we pulled out of Genet Basin and dragged our sleds to Windy Corner. The going was easy as others had plowed a nice trough through the recent snows. There has to be some advantage to being the very last team to come off the mountain. We made it around the corner, down the Polo Field, across Squirrel Hill and down Motorcycle in about two hours. At 11,000' we dug up our cache of food, snowshoes, and miscellaneous gear and took about an hour to reorganize. Then it was down to the main Kahiltna Glacier in excellent condition for travel. It only took us two hours to make the bottom of Ski Hill. By that point, however, glacier surface conditions were getting soggy and slushy -as expected. So we built camp to wait for the cool of night before going the last few miles to the airstrip. We need the freeze to firm up about a thousand snow bridges over crevasses between here and Basecamp. It is a relief to be low again. Our first time in over two weeks to be taking in so much oxygen with each breath. And we aren't even remotely cold after conditioning to the frigid heights of Denali. There is a downside, of course... there are smells again. The one in the guide tent has been described as "hot garbage."
Perhaps we will make it to Talkeetna and showers tomorrow morning.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Posted by: Casey Grom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Elbrus Southside
It was another long day here in Russia, but the team has finally arrived in beautiful St. Petersburg. We spent most of the day traveling and have just finished the day with a wonderful Indian meal and a nice stroll to stretch the legs.
Everyone is doing great and we are looking forward to taking in the sights tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
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Great pics - - have a great time and stay safe! Paul, bring us some terrific stories and great photos.
Paul Edelbrock’s sister-in-law,
Maren
Posted by: Maren Chaloupka on 7/19/2013 at 9:09 am
Go boys GO!!!!
Proud of you all! Keep each other safe and have fun!!!!
Xo,
Muffy
Posted by: Meredith Kanton on 7/18/2013 at 7:47 pm
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