Entries from Expedition Dispatches
The
Four Day Summit Climb Teams for July 13 - 16 led by
RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer and Mike Haugen reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. They reported clear skies with winds around 20 mph and an over all great day. Both teams were beginning their descent from the crater rim around 7 am.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
Good evening from Alpamayo Base Camp. We had a productive day today, carrying a load to
Camp 1 at 4900meters. We set a tent up and deposited half our kit. After that, we remained up there for a while, breathing the thin air and letting the body and lungs get a taste of what's coming up. Some clouds and a drop in temps let us know it was time to head back down to base camp, and a light drizzle materialized around dinner time. Tomorrow we're going to take a rest day here at base, as we are getting excited to get moving up higher soon.
That's all for now,
RMI Guide Elías de Andres Martos and team
After falling asleep to a gentle rain last night, our team woke up to to star-filled skies. The clouds had dropped a few inches of snow up high and the glaciers suspended above camp glistened in the light of the moon. After a hasty 5:30am breakfast we shouldered our packs and climbed uphill three hours to the base of the
Ishinca Glacier. The new snow made the hard glacial ice a bit more forgiving, and we used the terrain to train on basic mountaineering techniques such as rope travel, crampon technique and ice axe arrest. After taking a break for lunch and admiring our beautiful surroundings, we got into more advanced techniques like ice screw placement and V-thread anchors.
Tonight was the current group favorite dinner- Lomo Saltado, a Peruvian mix with beef, french fries, rice and tomatoes. Delicious!
RMI Guide Robby Young
The
Expedition Skills Seminar - Paradise led by RMI Guide
Mike King wrapped up their week of mountaineering training with a successful summit of Mt. Rainier. The team will descend off the mountain and be back in Ashford this afternoon to celebrate.
Congratulations!
Pree-vēt!
Things are good here on
Mt. Elbrus and the team is excited for tonight! We did a little prep for tomorrow by reviewing a few climb techniques and then rested the remainder of the day. Our cook Dasha has done a great job of filling our bellies with plenty of good home cooked Russian food.
Everything is set and if the weather continues to hold we'll be up at 2am and after a quick breakfast hop on the snowcat to give us a bump a little further up the mountain. It will shorten our climb a little and increase our chance at reaching the highest point in Europe.
That's all for now. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
Jambo -
This group of intrepid mountaineers made quick work of the infamous
Barranco wall. Working together, climbing with style and grace and a bit of support from are great local staff our team ascended and thirty minutes later we reached the top of the wall with high fives and a good photo opportunity. We were then on our way to our new camp at over 13,000' at Karanga Camp. The weather conditions are perfect and thank goodness for kissing the Blarney Stone before the climb.
The whole team is in great shape and feeling strong, boots and equipment are performing well. We are hoping the weather continues to hold to give us the best chances to stand on top of Kilimanjaro!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
On The Map
RMI Guide Zeb Blais led the Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons to the summit of Mt. Rainier yesterday morning. The team enjoyed sunny breezy conditions during their climb. After celebrating on the summit, the team descended to Camp Schurman for their final night on the mountain.
Today the team will spend some time training as their descend to the White River Campground from Camp Schurman. We are excited to welcome them back to Ashford this afternoon.
Congratulations!
The
Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide
Peter Whittaker reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Peter reported windy conditions on the summit. The team is making their descent and we expect them back at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
Way to climb!
Greetings from
Alpamayo Base Camp! Pretty uneventful day... aside from an incredible hike through beautiful country, fueled by outstanding food from our cook and blessed by perfect weather. Yes it was an uneventful day on the mountains today.
Quite a few teams are populating BC, some going, some going down. We're planning on doing a carry up to C1 in the morning, and take it from there. Time to go to bed now,
RMI Guide Elías de Andres Martos and team
Our 14,000 feet home here in the
Ishinca Valley was draped in sunshine for most of today as we did some technical training right outside our tents. A thorough knots review and a gear prep session has prepared us for our first day on the ice tomorrow. We even had the time to sneak in an acclimatization hike this afternoon up the moraine to the overlook into Laguna Tocllacoccha. The views from there proved spectacular, as always. From our 15,200' perch, we were able to see where glacier meets lake, deep within the surrounding moraines carved out by the most recent glaciation, below the 6000m summit of Tocllaraju. For some of us, this was an exciting new high altitude record. Light rain is audible on our tent flies as we're bedding down for the night. An early wake up is in store tomorrow as we plan to spend the day reviewing glacier travel and ice climbing at the toe of the Ishinca Glacier. Stay tuned, friends.
Buenos Noches,
RMI Guides Robby Young, Eric Frank, Edwin, and the Peru Seminar Crew
P.S. Spanish climbing term of the day is "Ballestrinque", which means Clove Hitch.
Sean:
Great job very proud of you.
Dad
Posted by: Robert Brennan on 7/16/2016 at 4:54 pm
From Zev and Max: Daddy, we love you so much and are so proud of you!! Come home safely.
Posted by: Janna, Zev, and Max on 7/16/2016 at 12:09 pm
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