Entries from Expedition Dispatches
Saturday, June 23, 2018 - 9:57 AM PT
We’re moving up in the world! Today we moved up to
14K camp in style- everyone in our super crew moved well and took great care of themselves along the way. We arrived to our new home with sweltering sunshine with intermittent bouts of glitter snow and calm winds. We made our castle of a camp and enjoyed all of the things 14K camp has to offer- lounging, walking over to the NPS weather board, watching skiers and climbers coming up and down... Ain’t life grand! We intend to back carry tomorrow and reunite with the things we cached at 13,500 yesterday, then spend the rest of the day brushing up our fixed line and running belay skills before caching at 17K camp. We’re go grateful to be outside in base layers!! Thanks for tuning in and keep your fingers crossed that this great weather continues.
RMI Guide Mike Haugen & Super Crew 6
On The Map
Saturday, June 23, 2018 - 10:26 PM PT
This one started out differently. It wasn’t snowy at 3:30 AM and it wasn’t cloudy. In fact it looked pretty good for climbing. We were walking out of 7800 ft at 6 AM with a big view of
Denali’s South Face and some of its classic climbing routes. Our classic climbing route for the day was on “Ski Hill”. Once again we had heavy packs and sleds, once again we used snowshoes and ski poles. The fact that the snow surface had frozen overnight was in our favor, making for good walking. The fact that ski hill is all uphill certainly made things harder, but such difficulties weren’t exactly unexpected. We rolled into our intended site at 9500 ft by 10 AM. Building camp was easy enough in strong sunshine and calm conditions. We snoozed away the warm afternoon, or snacked, read, chatted and hydrated. Dinner in the dining tent was a picnic in the dry and calm conditions. We can no longer see Denali from this particular angle, but the view down 43 miles of the Kahiltna Glacier certainly isn’t bad. Most were in their tents again and turning in by 8 PM when the sun went behind Kahiltna Dome. A little cooler up here now as we start gaining altitude.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Saturday, June 23, 2018 - 5:14 AM PT
RMI’s 2018
Cotopaxi Express trip has officially started. All of the team members arrived safely to Quito, Ecuador. We started off the day with a trip to a cultural museum located on the equator, where we were able to straddle the line with one foot in each hemisphere. This was followed by a tour through “Old Town” Quito, visiting Independence Square where the Presidential Palace is located, as well as touring a historic church (Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus) and seeing some of the old, historic architecture. We also visited “El Panecillo”, which is a small hill where a statue of the Virgen of Quito over looks the city. After a long day of site seeing we relaxed with dinner at the well-known Magic Bean Restaurant. Tomorrow we’re off to Rucu Pichincha, a volcano outside of Quito, for our first acclimatization hike.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
Saturday, June 23, 2018 - 9:47 pm PT
Greetings from Huaraz! We're happy to announce the start of RMI's fifth season in Peru with our first day of the
Alpamayo Expedition. Everyone arrived in Lima yesterday, and we did the long drive into the Andes today. The team arrived at our hotel in time to relax a bit after the long hours on the bus, and we enjoyed a nice dinner at Hotel Andino. Stay tuned for updates on our progress!
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
Our Five Day Climb radioed in this morning to let us know they were standing on top of the highest point in Washington State! They reported bright and clear conditions. The team took advantage of the extra day built into our Five Day Program for an early summit in better weather. They will spend one more night at Camp Muir and will make their descent back to the land of fresh food and hot showers tomorrow.
Congratulations climbers!
RMI Guide Mike King and his team reached the summit of Denali, 20,310' today around 6:35 PM PT. Their June 4th Expedition met in Anchorage and has spent the last several weeks, acclimatizing, climbing and waiting out the weather. Their patience and perseverance paid off today.
Congratulations to the team!
On The Map
The Four Day Summit Climb led by Brent Okita and Casey Grom were standing on the true summit of Mt. Rainer, Columbia Crest, at 7:00 AM PT this morning. At the time of the call they reported winds at about 30 MPH and were beginning the journey back across the crater of Mt. Rainier for the descent. We are looking forward to seeing them back on our Ashford Basecamp sometime around 3:00 - 5:00 PM PT.
Congratulations climbers!
Friday, June 22, 2018 - 9:49 pm PT
We woke up very early this morning to start checking the weather. We were trying to let the mountain tell us whether to head uphill to cache some gear or to wait another day for conditions to settle down.
Denali was cryptic for awhile but finally delivered a confirmation that it was OK for us to climb by clearing the skies up high.
We jumped into action and started climbing into moderate winds. The winds stayed with us for most of the upwards climb which kept us cool as the sun finally poked out.
The team finally got the view they deserved from our cache site at 13,500'. We have been living in the clouds for too many days!
If the weather looks good in the morning, we are going to head up to 14k feet and make our next camp. Fingers crossed for high pressure!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen & Super Crew 6
On The Map
Friday, June 22, 2018 - 8:57 pm PT
The snow just kept on coming down last night. It didn’t pile up all that deeply, but it was persistent and wet. We kept checking through the early morning hours, and then through the mid morning hours after a team breakfast, but it went right on until the early afternoon. By then we’d determined to take a hint and declare a rest day. Things actually cleared up nicely by mid-afternoon and
Denali came out in all her glory. By then it was unbearably hot in the tents and would have been about ten times hotter walking uphill with big packs and sleds. We rested. It was burrito night in the main dining tent and after a great feed and some storytelling, we returned to the tents under once again cloudy skies. We’ll hope for a better morning tomorrow.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Friday, June 22, 2018 - 7:45 pm PT
It's been a Tale of Two Camps, either the Camp all sits together or they rally up the same piece of terrain at the same time. We were second on the fixed lines and after an initial moment of flailing we got to 16,200' for a break. The remainder of the day had us climbing the
West Buttress into 17 camp with amazing views of the Peters Glacier and North Summit of Denali. Light wind made some of the exposed ridge sections feel more exposed. Today was a good lesson in keeping toes and fingers warm because we didn't set any records for the 14-17 leg. Everyone is nestled in their tents drying out boots and gloves. Dinner, hydration, sleep and hopefully we'll be heading for the summit on Saturday.
RMI Guide Mike King
On The Map
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What a wonderful experience, one so many of us can only dream about so we enjoy hearing of your struggles and success’s ! May the weather remain calm so you can enjoy the sights as well as the climb..
I love you Lindsay and Matt and pray for you daily..
Grams
Posted by: Barbara Jones on 6/25/2018 at 5:23 am
Cody, you are missed and loved by many down here where it’s nice and sunny! So happy to know all is well and that your team has moved up! Prayers are being sent up daily by your family and friends who are following your journey! Uncle Mike says he is living out his dream thru YOU!
Posted by: Susie Petellin on 6/24/2018 at 6:06 pm
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