Good morning friends and family!
The Alaska Seminar team here in Talkeetna is getting things done in great style. Weather is looking better with each passing hour and everyone did a fantastic job with rigging their gear. Here it is noon and we are just about ready to fly! So the team is gonna grab a last meal in town and our next communique will be from base camp!
Have a lovely day everyone,
RMI Guide Leon Davis
Hope everyone is having a great time. Mom/Grandma and Pop/Grandpa - we all miss you and love you. Have fun in the snow.
Love,
Joe, Suzanne, Lilliana, and Sophia
Yesterday we spent the whole day on hold here in Talkeetna. Today is a new day. This morning's skies are clear and we're loading up to go! We are off to climb Mount McKinley!
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer
Jon and team members:
Happy that the weather permitted your flight. Know that we are wishing you great weather for a safe climb.
With much love and aloha,
Hugs, Mom
Posted by: Kemai on 5/15/2015 at 7:49 pm
Godspeed Matt Godspeed team Pete ,Robby and Josh
We love you and proud of you Matt
Love mom dad and Michael
The Five Day Summit Climbs, led by Tyler Jones and Mike King, reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning! At 9:30 am PT, the team began their descent from the crater rim. Tyler reported no wind, sunny skies, and warm temperatures with a cloud deck around 7,000’.
Congratulations to RMI's first summit teams of 2015!
May 15th 1:30 am PT
Good evening from Pika Glacier camp. We are writing from the relative comfort of our posh tent, after a day of on and off fog, wind and snow. We're all in great spirits and hoping for the weather to clear to focus on our next objective. Enjoy a couple pictures of today's view from home. That's it for today!
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
May 14, 2015, 6:20 pm PT
Checking in here from 11,200 ft: Today we awoke to less than desirable weather for a potential carry. Gusty winds and snow prompted a welcomed rest day. The team slept in and once awake began the process of fixing up camp and repairing the cook tent. A multiple hour breakfast of eggs, meats, and hashbrowns gave way to some socializing around camp, and on and off napping. The team is in good spirits and hoping to begin the eventual process of moving to 14,000 camp as soon as the weather improves.
RMI Guide Billy Haas and the team
I hope the weather improves soon so you can continue your adventure! Chris, had a healthy baby Savannah appointment this week! The boys are doing awesome and enjoy moving you up the mountain poster we made! I’m glad you’re eating well! We love you and are missing you! Good luck to the team and stay safe! Praying for y’all
Posted by: Brooke Q on 5/15/2015 at 10:10 am
Thinking clear blue skies for you all….Chris..Dad and I love seeing the updates. Your breakfast sounded wonderful to have on the mountain…dare I let the cat out of the bag that you are Great at cooking breakfast! Oh and Landon won’t share his Elmo with Cohen…and there isn’t an Elmo for sale in Fairbanks..so Cohen has a Blue Elmo which is really Cookie Monster that Brooke found and he is happy and just thinks Elmo has a blue suit on! :c)
Take care all…Be Safe…every step upward will be amazing!
Our team is assembled, or bags are packed, and we are ready to climb onboard the airplanes and take off! We spent today going through all of our gear, packing and repacking our bags, and sorting lunch food. With all of the details dialed in, we're going to eat what is hopefully our last dinner in town for a few weeks, and catch some zzz's. Tomorrow with any luck, we'll board the planes first thing for one of the highlights of the trip: the stunning flight into Kahiltna Base Camp. We'll be in touch!
RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Robby Young, Josh Maggard, and team
May 14, 2015, 1:45 am PT
Greetings from Little Swiss camp!
We're "off rappel" for the day... and what a day! Full alpine experience. We climbed the route "Lost Marsupial" on The Throne, one of the MEGA CLASSICS in the area. We had A BLAST and everybody did a great job, but also had the opportunity to experience what alpine climbing is all about. Splitter granite on the crux pitches, snow over the upward traverses in between, and getting out of our comfort zones by climbing with a pack and mountaineering boots. Big dinner followed upon arrival to camp, following the eight full length rappels that took us off the wall, and allowed us to beat the storm that now we are under. We will keep you posted on our upcoming objectives. Best that's from the promised land of climbing that is Alaska.
RMI Guides Elias de Andres Martos, Sean Collon and team
Hi Naie & Team,
I bet the night sky up there is pretty incredible huh?
The Kurdish people have a saying, “No friends but the mountains”.
The mountain is your friend too, she will protect you.
Best wishes for a successful climb.
From Jeannie,
currently West Coast of the Southrrn Alps, NZ.
Posted by: Jean on 5/15/2015 at 5:32 am
It sounds like a great adventure! Congrats to Kyle, Paul, and the whole team!
May 13, 2015, 10:49 pm
The weather today was a bit squirrelly, but we were able to make it back down to our cached gear at 9,600' and haul it back up to our camp at 11,200'. We're all doing well out here and sitting pretty on the mountain. Our next mission will be to take a cache of food and fuel up around Windy Corner at around 13,600'. We plan on tackling that tomorrow if the weather allows us. Today would have been too windy for a foray to higher altitudes.
We're all excited for the next stages of the climb, where we exchange snowshoes for crampons, and trekking poles for ice axes. We're also psyched at climbing steeper terrain and enjoying the ever ever impressive views.
That's the news from this end. We'll keep you up to date with our progress.
RMI Guide Mike Walter and team.
The RMI family and the mountaineering community are quite something to witness and to be a part of, if only for a trip here and there. The Mexico volcano trip this last March was exactly what I had hoped it would be, and as usual it turned out to be infinitely more. My two previous Rainier summits with RMI had made a believer out of me. Telling my family that I would be in the absolute best hands while in Mexico wasn't some shading of the truth. With the mythical creatures known as guides — Jake, Christina and Alfredo — watching out for us, we set out on a most excellent adventure to climb Ixtaccihuatl and El Pico de Orizaba.
The money, the time and the physical preparation to get the privilege of attempting to summit these glorious peaks seemed to be my primary focus prior to leaving but that was not my greatest takeaway from this adventure. The very best part of this trip, for so many of us, was the friendships that were formed as we came together as a team. From a train engineer to pilots and financial analysts to company presidents, everyone came together to embrace the experience. There aren't many venues these days where people of such different backgrounds and ages are put together to achieve a difficult goal like mountaineering. The immediate concern for one another was astounding. All of us trading what small bits of information we had that might help a teammate, sharing best practices or a piece of gear, and acts of kindness that you never see coming were happening from our first meeting in Mexico City. On Orizaba, our only summit possibility, when one of the team was going to turn back with just the guide another member offered to keep him company. What an act of selfless kindness.
The fantastic cultural experience was also something I hadn't really thought about until my arrival. Throughout our travels in Mexico we were met with tremendous hospitality. Dr. Reyes' staff at the historic climbing hostel Servimont in Tlachichuca provided us with incredible food, entertainment and service. It was a unique experience to be welcomed into that legendary place. The city of Puebla is a real gem. The architecture, the restaurants, the people; I could have spent a week entertaining myself there. To experience this place with my fellow climbers was truly a lot of fun.
Oh yes, the mountain part. Sketchy weather was stalking us the whole trip with an early arrival of Spring. The guides got us prepped and in position but no one doubted the decision to retreat off Ixta after a night at 15,400 feet. It was a night to be nice and cozy. Orizaba had wicked winds and a good snowfall prior to our arrival. Our train engineer offered his four wheeling skills and whipped that beast of a vehicle up the mountain road shaving hours off our hike to the Piedra Grande Hut. What a hoot! Of course it was a classic challenging RMI mission; methodical, focused, safe. We didn’t have the best visibility until our descent but summiting was another incredible event to share with my new climbing family! The experience was a thing of beauty; the mountain, but more so the excitement and spiritual moment for each of us being up there. A huge thanks to RMI, my fellow climbers, our guides, and all the folks who supported us. I will continue to practice my rest stepping in Kentucky and very much look forward to my next adventure.
May 12, 2015 11:00 pm PT
Hello everyone!
We tackled our third day of Mt. McKinley climbing today, which brought us to camp at 11,200'.
The team did exceptionally well and we made great time, rolling into camp before it became uncomfortably hot on the glacier.
Once here we had a big task ahead of us, constructing tent platforms and a kitchen and bathroom. Thankfully we were able to make use of some old walls and platforms that only required minor adjustment to make them workable for our tents, saving us at least an hour of hard labor. The bathroom and kitchen required the most effort, but the team rotated through the shoveling and we now have a luxurious Posh House dining area which we enjoyed over a filling dinner of mac and cheese with bacon and broccoli.
We are all tucked in now, enjoying the last few minutes of sunlight in camp in the comfort of our sleeping bags, looking forward to a nice rest and short day tomorrow. Our plan is to sleep in a bit later than the last few mornings, and then return to our last camp to retrieve our remaining food.
We'll check in again tomorrow!
RMI Guide Solveig Waterfall and the team!
For Daddy to Be of a Princess…doctors appointment went well and she is growing and perfect! The boys are taking care of Mom.
Thinking of all of you at Camp 11,200 this 48 degree morning from Washington DC…I’m so happy for your progress up the mountain~
Thank you for all the updates…and allowing us to be a small part of this adventure your on. Proud of you and wishing you good weather…Keep moving on up!
Posted by: Dave and Melissa Quantock on 5/14/2015 at 2:28 am
For Eric and all you hockey fans at Camp 11,200’: Rangers just won 2-1 in OT! Stepan nets winner. Tampa Bay series starts on Sat. Keep that Stanley Cup “beard” growing, and keep on chugging Ricky et al! Dad/Alex
Posted by: Alex Alimanestianu on 5/13/2015 at 8:10 pm
Hope everyone is having a great time. Mom/Grandma and Pop/Grandpa - we all miss you and love you. Have fun in the snow.
Love,
Joe, Suzanne, Lilliana, and Sophia
Posted by: Joe on 5/22/2015 at 6:02 am
Lookin good! All the best from the NC gang.
Posted by: Chad on 5/17/2015 at 11:49 am
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