Entries from Locations
And our first full day in the Ishinca Valley just went by...
Sunny skies woke us up this morning, and we took advantage of them by doing a thorough session of hardware function and familiarization, as well as rope work. After a good lunch from our chef, Emilio, and we were ready for the afternoon acclimatization hike to "Tocllacocha" a glacial lake at 15,200' on the northwestern flanks of impressive Tocllaraju.
Tea and another superb dinner followed upon our return.
Tomorrow we're headed to the glacier for our full-day mountaineering school, as well as a new dose of altitude and acclimatization exercise. Stay tuned!
Our Spanish climbing word of the day is ballestrinque which means
clove hitch.
RMI Guides Elias de Andres Martos and Robby Young
Our Ecuador Volcanoes expedition is underway! Everyone (and their luggage) arrived yesterday and the team met for breakfast this morning at our hotel’s café. Today’s agenda involved an
informational tour of the historic areas of Quito, Ecuador’s capitol. Angel, our local city tour guide, led us through colonial Quito, and taught us about the history of various churches, the presidential palace, independence plaza, and the large statue of the Virgin of Quito, overlooking the city. The weather was beautiful and we even snuck in partial views of some of our climbing objectives, Cayambe and Rucu Pichincha. Cotopaxi (which is closed to climbing due to recent volcanic activity) also came into view.
Next we jumped in our van and headed north to the equator, or “mitad del mundo”, where we visited an ethnographic museum and learned about various indigenous cultures of Ecuador. We straddled the equator, with one leg in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern, as we watched some demonstrations of Coriolis Effect and our position on the equator.
We’re off now to sample some Ecuadorian cuisine for dinner!
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
The
Five Day Summit Climb Team led by RMI Guide
Mike Uchal reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Yesterday in preparation for their summit attempt Mike and the team enjoyed a short hike to Ingraham Flats. They have had great weather while on the mountain and enjoyed a beautiful sunrise from the top today!
Congratulations to today's team!
The
Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guides
Peter Whittaker,
Ed Viesturs reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Peter reported a very beautiful morning with clear skies and calm winds. The team has started their descent and are en route back to Camp Muir.
Congratulations to today's Teams!
Hi from High Camp on
Mt. Elbrus. The weather forecast is looking pretty good for a summit bid tonight! We'll be up around midnight, shooting for a 1:00 AM departure.
Today was pretty relaxing with a late breakfast followed by some avalanche transceiver training. Once that was complete we went for a short hike before lunch. After lunch we took a break and then prepped our gear for the summit push.
If everything goes as planned we should be on the summit between 6 and 7 AM our time. Hopefully I'll be calling from the top for my next check in.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
On The Map
June 29, 2016 - 1:23 am PT
We are all safe and sound back at high camp after an amazing summit day. I am proud to report that all members of our team made it to the highest peak in North America! The day started out cold but
Denali was kind to us. It turned out to be a clear and sunny day with very little wind...a rarity on this big mountain. We were just under 12 hours round trip from High Camp including a long time on the top taking pictures and enjoying our success.
We are gong to try to get up early and start our decent back to thicker air. Hopefully the weather cooperates like it has over the last few days!
Congratulations to the June 14th Denali Expedition Team!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen
On The Map
So there we were, moving into the "Blanca". A few hours of hiking brought us to the mouth of Quebarada Ishinca. With "burros" hauling the big part of our load, we arrived in style to
Ishinca Base Camp, home for the next 7 days.
Unsettled weather only allowed brief glimpses of the ice-cloaked, jagged "rajus" above.
If our senses weren't already overstimulated enough, we sat down to a dinner of fresh trout at 14,300'. Stormy skies passed leaving us with a magnificent sea of stars highlighted by the Southern Cross. Until tomorrow, "buenas noches".
-Spanish climbing word of the day; la cumbre (the summit)
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
Its a storm day for
Team Elbrus. We actually had good weather this morning and got out to do some more practice with the ice axe and crampons. We then moved into self arrest practice. By the time we finished that it had started to snow and then that turned to rain for a minute. The wind really kicked up for a few hours after that and we had a real storm for a while
We all hid from the weather and watched a movie this afternoon. Thanks to Brett for supplying the iPad. It's about 5:30PM now and there's not much wind and some sun at camp. The upper mountain is covered in a large cloud and it looks like there are more clouds moving our way. Because of that we have decided to stick to our original plan and go for the summit either tomorrow night or the next.
I'll check in again tomorrow.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
On The Map
The
Five Day Emmons Climb led by
RMI Guide Mike King reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning via the Emmons Glacier Route. It's a beatiful day with little wind and clear skies. After spending some time on the summit the team started their descent around 6:30 am PT, they will return to high camp for their final night on the mountain.
Congratulations!
We have teams on the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning!
RMI Guide Walter Hailes led his
Four Day Summit climb to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Walter was approaching the crater rim just before 7 am and reported a beautiful day with light winds.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
Lookin’ good, folks. Be careful - good hiking, trekking and climbing.
Posted by: George Nimmo on 6/30/2016 at 6:19 pm
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