The Expedition Skills Seminar - Paradise led by RMI Guide Mike Haugen reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today. The team spent several nights on the mountain training for their summit attempt on Rainier and gaining knowledge and experience for future climbs. Today is the sixth and final day of this program putting their new skills to use.
RMI Guide Tyler Reid led the Four Day Summit Climb to the summit this morning. As of 7:30 am both teams were at the top of Disappointment Cleaver on their descent. It's a bluebird day on Mt. Rainier, clear skies and warm temperatures. The teams will return to Camp Muir for a short break before continuing to Paradise.
We look forward to seeing both teams at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon. Congratulations to today's climbing teams!
July 17, 2014 - 8:45 pm PT
In just under 24 hours, our climbing team went from the 17,200 ft high camp to the 7,200 ft basecamp. It wasn't remotely easy. Luckily, we had a calm start to the day which allowed us to balance carefully down the exposed and spectacular crest of the West Buttress. Things got tougher at the base of the fixed lines when we needed to virtually swim through bottomless powder snow. We reached easier terrain upon which one could walk laboriously in knee deep new snow and this ground got us to 14 camp. We did a fry-up of a few quesadillas while reorganizing gear and then set off in cloud toward Windy Corner. Plenty of snow kept us walking funny and breathing hard as we negotiated the side hills and corners of Squirrel Hill and then Motorcycle.
At 11 camp we threw up tents and downed dinner. The team wanted to just sleep for a few hours before resuming the march to BC at 2:30 AM. The early start would give our best chance at catching the lower glacier in a frozen (rather than slushy) state. We pushed on through the night gloom, a few thick fog banks and miles of glacier. It was great to see -as expected from conditions on the way in- that the lower Kahiltna was well put together. Very few crevasse crossings troubled us. Finally we got working, trudging and sweating up Heartbreak Hill. As we progressed, the weather improved to the point that with our arrival at the former site of Basecamp (nothing remains so late in the season) it was good enough to dial up K2 Aviation on the Sat Phone and seek a pickup. The K2 pilots did their normal exceptional job in whisking us out of winter and into the Talkeetna summer.
Day 21 of our climb will end with a victory dinner in town. True, we stopped a couple thousand feet short of the summit, but victory is still ours. It feels that good to have endured Denali together.
Best Regards and thanks for following,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
An amazing 21 days for the team and for those of us who climbed vicariously with you all the way up and back down! We do not regret missing the summit, since the climb is a great success in itself, proving who you all are, and allowing us “lowlanders” to share in your successes!
Dennis and Georgia
Posted by: Dennis and Georgia on 7/18/2014 at 10:30 am
Congrats on your safe return. It is always a good day when you live to climb another day. Now you can plan your next climb!! :o)
Hello this is the Alpamayo climbing team calling from base camp. It's been an awesome two days from the trails to get here. We have settled into a really nice camp at the base of the mountain. We have already had lunch and enjoying some rest. The team is doing really well. Everybody's moving pretty nicely along these elevations. Right now we are at 4,400 meters. We are going to relax for the remainder of the day, most likely do a carry tomorrow to Moraine Camp before taking a rest day the following day and continue to move up on the mountain. That's it for now and we will keep you posted. Bye.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos calls in from basecamp.
It was another beautiful day here on Mt. Elbrus! We woke to clear skies, calm winds and a amazing view of the enormous Caucasus range. (Really you should google it sometime!) We had our standard breakfast of porridge, boiled eggs, assorted meats, cheeses and coffee. Today was our planned acclimatization hike and we did just that. The team hiked for about three hours uphill and reached about 15,000 ft, which was a new record for some. We enjoyed the views took a few photos and then headed back down to camp for lunch. The remainder of the afternoon has been spent playing cards, reading and napping.
All is well and we are looking forward to having a rest day tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
The Four Day Summit Climb teams led by RMI Guides Brent Okita and Billy Nugent reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Brent reported a gorgeous day with clear skies and winds 25-30 mph on the summit but 15 - 20 mph throughout the climb. The teams began their descent from the crater rim around 7 am and will return to Cam Muir before continuing down to Paradise.
The Expeditions Skills Seminar - Kautz led by Jake Beren also reached the summit this morning. At 8:30 am they began their descent and will return to their camp where they will spend another night on the mountain.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
July 16, 2014 - 11:37 pm PT
Hey, this is Dave Hahn with the last team on Denali. We did make it out of 17,000’ today. We woke up, the weather was stable and we started working our way down. And sure enough, we found some deep snow, it was hard going, sometimes waist deep but we made it down to 14,000’ and then plowed through a bunch more new snow to get to 11,000'. We are taking a rest here at 11,000' and our hope, everybody is feeling pretty enthusiastic, about trying to get to the airstrip tomorrow morning. We are just going to rest a few hours and get on the trail again. We expect it to be a little bit easier now that we are down low and conditions will be a bit better than what we were dealing with.
All is well with us.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
RMI Guide Dave Hahn calls from 11,000ft on Mt. McKinley, Alaska.
July 16, 2014 - 5:12 am PT
We started our day at a reasonable hour with breakfast at 8 am, we had porridge, fried eggs, and of course plenty of the Starbucks coffee we brought along. :) After breakfast we finished the remainder of our packing and headed over the the gondola to hitch a ride further up the mountain to our new Base camp on Mt. Elbrus. Two gondola rides and one super long single chair lift delivered us at our new home just over 12'000'. Our new home is basically a retro fitted shipping container, they're brand new and rather comfortable.
After we settled in we had a nice lunch cooked by our wonderful and cantankerous cook Albina. She's a great cook, but I think is a little over worked and runs a tight ship.
After lunch we headed out to stretch our legs and continue our acclimatization process by hiking for a little over an hour and gaining well over a thousand feet. Everyone did great and we are now back at camp watching the evening clouds roll in and getting ready for dinner.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
The Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide Win Whittaker and the Five Day Summit Climb led by Lindsay Fixmer reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. The teams were able to spend an hour on the summit before starting their descent. At 7:00 am they were approaching the top of Disappointment Cleaver on their descent. The weather is beautiful with clear skies, warm temperatures and light winds.
Congratulations to today's summit climb teams!
I'm not too big of a man to admit...our adventure is officially over...and I'm actually sad. Our team took off early this morning after a grand finale here in St Petersburg. We had a tour of all the historical sites and finished with a great canal tour.
I want to thank every team member who I now consider friends. And ask my 3rd grade school teacher Ms. Buchanan, I have a tough time making friends!
Yes, we climbed Elbrus. Yes, we all made the summit. And yes, we all had a safe climbing experience...always number one on the list.
But for some reason this team was pretty much the same as all my RMI teams from the past. They were AWESOME!! I can't wait to climb with all of them again. Plans are already being made for Vinson and Aconcagua.
In the meantime, here is a short video of how we ended our time on this incredible adventure...
RMI Guide JJ Justman
July 15, 2014 - 4:21 pm PT
Hello again from Huaraz!
Relaxing day we had after all the travelling today... A two hour walk after breakfast took the team the overlook above town from where we devised the closest peaks of the Cordillera Blanca. It served also to get the blood pumping, on this the first day above 3,000 m, elevation we reached yesterday by car, so all benefits. We had a great meal afterwards (pizza from the stove oven restaurant of "El Horno", a classic in Huaraz) and an easy afternoon of pre-packing the duffles prior to tomorrow's departure to the trailhead.
We´re getting ready for dinner and an early bed time; Cashapampa trailhead and eventually Llamacorral Camp await tomorrow. Next post will be from the trails.
Best regards,
Elias de Andres Martos
Cool. Keep the updates coming. We’re watching closely and I’m posting everything to Facebook. These updates are my only link to what you guys are doing and where you are. I’m sending everything to Kenzie’s family and friends so they can follow too. Good luck fellas! Enjoy the mountains and stay away from getting caught doing the Alpine Starfish :)
Posted by: Rhea Campbell & Alex Lickerman on 7/16/2014 at 9:36 am
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An amazing 21 days for the team and for those of us who climbed vicariously with you all the way up and back down! We do not regret missing the summit, since the climb is a great success in itself, proving who you all are, and allowing us “lowlanders” to share in your successes!
Dennis and Georgia
Posted by: Dennis and Georgia on 7/18/2014 at 10:30 am
Congrats on your safe return. It is always a good day when you live to climb another day. Now you can plan your next climb!! :o)
Safe travels.
Posted by: Mary on 7/18/2014 at 3:47 am
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