Entries from Expedition Dispatches
Posted by: Casey Grom, Leon Davis
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador
Hola from Ecuador!
Things are great here on the equator. We had a fantastic climb on Cayambe in the most amazing weather I've ever had. We started our climb by waking up at 11pm to ensure we had plenty of time for the day ahead. Everyone did a good job of getting ready in our tiny hut that was a little cramped for the 11 of us. Once the team was ready and had plenty of fresh coffee we were out the door at midnight as expected. The weather was clear and calm all night which was perfect, and the team saw dozens of shooting stars and even an amazing lightning storm far off over the Amazon. We made our way steadily up the mountain climbing close together and stopped for short breaks every hour to eat and drink. The sun rose shortly before we climbed the final steep section where we took a little time to snap pictures and put on our sunglasses. We summited just after 6am with the entire team and spent about a half hour enjoying the unbelievable view we had. Not a cloud in the sky and all of the mountains in view, it was spectacular to say the least.
The descent went relatively smooth and before long we were back at the hut tired but very happy. We took a short break then packed up all of our gear and then headed south to the always wonderful food and hospitality of hacienda Chilcabamba. Check it out for yourself.
After some much deserved and needed sleep the team spent the day relaxing around the hacienda. Everyone enjoyed the day watching the endless hummingbirds visit, playing lots of cribbage and a few of us went on a short horseback ride in the countryside.
Everyone is in great spirits and looking forward to another good night of sleep before tomorrow night's upcoming climb.
Buenos noches from Ecuador!
RMI Guide Casey Grom
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Vinson Massif
We are feeling quite lucky today. It was extremely good weather for going to the top of Mount Vinson. And there was no mystery about it. From the time we got out of the tents at high camp this morning, it was obvious that conditions were stable and that we'd be able to simply concentrate on climbing well. The team did exactly that. We left camp at 9:35 and were on the top at 3:45 PM. In fact, we passed most of the teams that had left before us, although that certainly wasn't our goal. We just wanted to move efficiently in this cold environment. On a day when about 30 climbers were going for the top, it was also quite nice for us to have the summit to ourselves for a time. Gary and Bob had the added significance to the occasion in that Vinson was the seventh continental summit for each. We could see up and down nearly the full length of the 200-mile Ellsworth chain, but our eyes were drawn continually to the sharp and lofty summits just north of Vinson, to Shinn, Tyree, Gardner and Epperly. We left the top at 4:20 and arrived back at high camp by 7 PM. Dinner was a comfortable session in our POSH tent and then we headed to bed early. Tomorrow will be another big day as we descend to Basecamp.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Congratulations to the whole team! Amazing work; may you be blessed with beautiful weather! Home soon!!!!!!!!! Lots of love, Mom
Posted by: Betty Sullivan on 12/17/2014 at 7:22 am
Hey - yes you did it!!!!
Congratulations to everybody!
Wish you a save way back under the antarctic sun!
See you soon, Hans!
Ute ;-)
Posted by: Ute Novak on 12/17/2014 at 7:11 am
Posted by: JJ Justman, Steve Gately, Chase Nelson
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 9,000'
The gang is all here! The Aconcagua season is officially under way! Today after final preparations the team began trekking into basecamp. First stop, Leñas at 9,000 feet. The sun was shining, the condors were chirping and everyone had a great day hiking!
We now plan on enjoying our first night in the Andes. Why sleep in a tent when you can cowboy up and sleep under the stars!! Speaking of cowboys...we are hanging out with our team of Gauchos as they start the fire. The steaks just went on, the salad is made and our drinks are on their way!
Ahh yes, this is the life!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
On The Map
Hey this is Dave Hahn calling from the summit of Mount Vinson, 16,067 feet above sea level, highest point in Antarctica. Our whole team is here! We got here at 3:45 local time and we're still here at about about 10 minutes after 4:00. It is just beautiful, windless, sunny, clouds, but just a few of them. So we're feeling very lucky. Beautiful day up here. We'll be in touch from High Camp.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Congratulations to Gary Johnson & Bob Sullivan who have now reached the summit of each of the highest mountains on all seven continents. An impressive accomplishment! And congratulations to Dave Hahn on his 35th summit of the Vinson Massif.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn calls from the Vinson Massif summit.
On The Map
PS: You coming home safe and continuing to be the coolest Dad ever is the best present I could ever have.
Posted by: Seah on 12/16/2014 at 6:16 pm
Yeah! Congratulations Pod! Stay warm on the way down and don’t forget my meteorite and penguin feather!
Loveyou, Seah and Josh
Posted by: Seah + Josh on 12/16/2014 at 6:11 pm
A great day for climbing, at last. We were out of the tents just after the sun broke the big freeze at Low Camp. Conditions looked much better today, so we ate breakfast, tore down the tents and hit the trail. Actually, we broke the trail, which wasn't too big a deal. The fixed ropes were under about two or three inches of hard wind blown snow. It was a long time on a steep angle but most of the way, the surface was perfect for our crampons. We worried that the wind might come up as we topped the ridge, but we cleared that area fast and escaped the big chill. Five and a half hours of hard work brought us in to beautiful "High Camp" at 7 PM. It was perfectly calm and sunny at 12,150 ft and we set to work building a comfortable and secure camp. We like this one to be secure since we are right on the edge of a dramatic and profound drop-off. One doesn't have to go but 75 feet to be staring straight down the 3000 ft to low camp. Looking out to the west is a shining sea of ice and low cloud stretching seemingly forever.
We ate dinner and prepped our packs for tomorrow. It just might be our summit day.
Best Regards
RMI Guides Dave Hahn
Good luck daddy! This is the moment you’ve been waiting for! Stay safe!
Love,
Tilly
Posted by: Mattie Sullivan on 12/16/2014 at 8:12 am
Hey - this must be a beautiful view: 3000 ft into the deep!! I hope weather will stay good and you´ll have an unforgetable summit-day!!!
Wish you all the best and take good care of yourselves.
And of course a special wish to Hans!!!
Ute
Posted by: Ute Novak on 12/16/2014 at 5:55 am
Quick note from RMI Guide Casey Grom on the Cayambe summit:
100% on top!
Once the team is back to camp, Casey will send photos and a dispatch.
Congratulations to the Team!
On The Map
Great work Gang! What a view. Glad to hear everyone made it up and back. Now rest and get ready for the next one.
Congratulations Squid. I knew you could do it. I’m with you in spirit!
Daddy
Posted by: Roger Osmun on 12/15/2014 at 6:20 pm
Love the pictures—hanging out on some clouds! Enjoy the next one and be safe! Go Dale!! Erin
Posted by: Erin on 12/15/2014 at 11:36 am
Despite our being very much ready to break camp and head higher, the upper mountain wasn't ready for us. When the sun finally hit at 11 AM, it was coming through streamers of wind blown snow driven from the ridge crest that -coincidentally- was to be our goal for the day. We ate breakfast and eyeballed the clouds and winds, neither of which got better as we watched. The forecast had called for light winds and light cloud cover. We had to admit, that in every other location visible to us, that prediction seemed accurate... Except the one place we wanted to go. We watched as gust after gust drove snow straight down the length of the fixed ropes. In other parts of the world, we might have attempted to fight such a wind, but in this ultra cold environment, it wouldn't have been a fair fight. By mid-afternoon there was no letup and so a rest day was declared. Five teams camped around us did exactly the same thing. Two small teams already at high camp hunkered down and reported steady 25 knot winds with higher gusts. For being a bad-weather day, it was sunny and calm where we sat, slept, read, played cards, ate and drank. Tomorrow.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Following the blog daily. Stay safe and see you soon! Love, Judy
Posted by: Judy Johnson on 12/15/2014 at 10:36 am
Hello again everyone,
All is well here in Ecuador. We had a slight technical issue yesterday which delayed our ability to send a dispatch.
So let me bring everyone up to speed. Yesterday we checked out of our warm and comfortable hacienda and made our way to the famous Otavalo market. It's the largest market in Ecuador and one of the largest in all of South American. The team spent a few hours negotiating the endless maze of goods for sale and worked on our bartering skills- some did better than others. :)
After everyone satisfied their shopping desires we headed uphill towards Cayambe, our first major climbing objective. The road to Cayambe is long, rough, and an accomplishment in itself. We were amazed that our bus was able to make it so far on what is clearly a 4x4 road. There were several times I was sure the mud was going to win, but somehow Hector, our daring driver was able to make it through. We hiked the final hour to the hut at Cayambe to help with our acclimatizing and spent the remainder of the evening relaxing.
Today the team woke early with a big breakfast and plenty of coffee. We then hiked up to the start of the glacier which is about an hour away, and spent a few hours refreshing our skills for tomorrow's climb. While out on the glacier we were not only amazed at the beautifully clear day, but also incredibly lucky to see a condor soaring not far away! Once back at the hut we reviewed the plan for the upcoming climb and got everything packed up and ready to go. A special thanks to Leon for whipping up one heck of a nice meal for everyone.
The team is off to bed now as we are waking early for tomorrow's climb. Wish us luck!!!
And one more thing... Keep your cell phones handy tomorrow morning. One lucky trivia winner will be making a satellite call from the summit if all goes well.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
Good luck tomorrow! Sending good vibes from Cali. Go Dale!!!
Love, Erin
Posted by: Erin on 12/14/2014 at 7:54 pm
So glad you all had good weather today! Hope it continues on for the summit!! Glad to see an update and that besides updating the blog there haven’t been any other issues! Keep on keeping on!
Posted by: Liz on 12/14/2014 at 7:32 pm
Today was an easy one for our Vinson climbing team. We'd planned a rest day to help with our acclimatization and so, after tearing out of bed at the crack of 11:15 AM, we had a long, slow breakfast of bacon, eggs, hash browns and hot drinks. We went for a short walk in the mid-afternoon to the base of the fixed ropes and climbed a couple of pitches to reacquaint ourselves with steep snow protocols and methods. Then it was back to Low Camp to rest up and sort gear. Weather wasn't perfect today -there were high clouds being blown from the summits of the high peaks, but it was nice and calm where we were. We'll see what we get tomorrow and perhaps we can move to High Camp.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
It was great to be in Vinson Base last night... Quiet and peaceful (once the airplanes quit bringing climbers in, that is, sometime after 2 AM). We got going this morning at the usual VBC civilized hour of 9 AM. There was plenty to do in getting sorted, getting breakfast and getting some meeting time in with the other climbing guides and the ALE staff. Eventually we got tents down, packs loaded, and our ropes tied for glacier travel. We were first out of camp at 1:43 PM. Conditions were excellent and we made great time, arriving at the 9,000 ft "Low" Camp at 6:30, having traveled 5.6 miles. Sunburn was of more concern to us than frostbite today. The views of Vinson's giant and jagged northern neighbors- Shinn, Epperly and Gardner, were stupendous. Our camp went up quick and easy. Dinner went down without any hiccups and we were in bed by 11 PM. All were warned that the brilliant sunshine would warm the tents only until 3 AM. Then, although the sun won't set, it will go behind our mountain for about eight hours and life will be cold in the shadows. We'll reemerge from the tents at 11 AM to see what sort of day we have.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Yay daddy! Stay safe and keep climbing! I’m completely done with my final exams and came home yesterday. Miss you so much!
Love,
Tilly
Posted by: Mattie Sullivan on 12/13/2014 at 11:17 am
Yay! I figured you were on your way as well. Thanks for the updates Dave! Give Gary a hug for me :-)
Posted by: Kate Prusack on 12/13/2014 at 7:11 am
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Hunny, you have this! Listen to your body and be safe. It’s okay to take things a bit slower for extra precaution. I can’t wait to hear how it went on Friday when you get back and am so proud of you! Love you!
Posted by: Liz on 12/17/2014 at 6:13 am
What a great post!!
I hope Dale got on a horse (he’s never ridden one before!) Enjoy Cotopaxi, team!
Erin
Posted by: Erin on 12/16/2014 at 11:52 pm
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