Entries from Locations
Good afternoon from Chopicalqui Camp 1. We waved goodbye to our cook and base camp infrastructure this morning, and with the help of our invaluable porters, we ventured uphill. Four hours of straight climbing brought us to 16,075'. Now we are perched on an incredible terrace with a view of what will be our route the next couple of days. Chopicalqui sure is a more intimidating peak but we're bringing our A game in anticipation of
Huascaran. We're keeping our fingers crossed for good weather as we venture above the 20,000' mark here soon.
Stay tuned for more!
RMI Guide
Elias de Andres Martos and team
Last night a large electrical storm passed over
Mt. Elbrus. It brought hail, strong winds, and shaking thunder. We woke up this morning to find a few inches of fresh snow at our doorstep and a lack of electricity flowing through our local power grid. After our standard 8:00 AM breakfast, the winds and snow picked up considerably until it became unpleasant to venture beyond the impenetrable comfort of our repurposed shipping container homes. The forecast for tomorrow showed no improvement in weather.
We decided that instead of sitting in the wind and snow doing nothing for two days, we would ride the lift back down to town, eat pizza, and sleep in real beds. That’s precisely what we did, and it has been nothing but enjoyable. We’ll spend the tonight in Cheget, and tomorrow afternoon we’ll ride the lift back up to camp in preparation for our summit attempt on Sunday.
RMI Guide
JM Gorum
On The Map
RMI Guides Peter Whittaker and
Mike Uchal led their
Four Day Climb Teams to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Peter reported light winds and a great route. The teams enjoyed some time in the summit crater before starting their descent around 8 AM PT.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
Greetings from base camp!
We have enjoyed our time off from climbing today, after our quick and uneventful descent (aside from the astonishing views) from Yanapacha high camp yesterday.
We're ready to go for
Chopicalqui now, and so, we have spent some time repacking for our move to Camp 1 tomorrow. Everyone's excited, doing well and ready for the next objective!
RMI Guide Elías de Andres Martos and team
RMI Guide Ben Liken called from Camp Schurman on the
Emmons Route. The team left at 4am this morning breaking trail as well as shoveling their way to 13,300'. Due to the length of day and high winds, they chose to make 13,300' the high point for the day. It is currently raining at Camp Schurman. They are going to do some crevasse rescue this afternoon and plan to descend back to the trailhead in the morning.
This morning we had our standard breakfast of oatmeal and eggs at our standard time of 8 am. We then suited up for our walk up to
15,000 feet on Mt. Elbrus. The weather was pretty marginal, but it was a great opportunity to test out our various layering systems.
We spent about five hours out in the wind and snow today, made it up to 15,000 feet, and only got blown over once or twice. The views were minimal, but we had fun. That’s all for now.
RMI Guide JM Gorum
On The Map
The
Four Day Climbs led by RMI Guides Walter Hailes and Josh McDowell got a late start out of Camp Muir this morning as the teams waited out some poor weather. The late start coupled with some patience paid off for the teams as they reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning!
Walter and
Josh reported sunny skies and breezy conditions on the upper mountain. The teams are on their descent and will return to Ashford later today.
Congratulations climbers!
The team is officially on the mountain! We’re living our best lives, as they say, up here at
12,600 feet. We took advantage of a series of gondolas to get us here, but we did have to haul our duffels the last 100 feet to our doorsteps. Working smarter, not harder.
We took a short break after moving in, and then went for an exploratory jaunt above camp. After we walked as far as we felt like walking, we turned around. We did spend some time practicing our footwork and balance on steeper snow. Some team members took to boot skiing like they were born for it. Others...not. Ultimately we all found our style, and descended with class and grace back to the huts in time for lunch. The rest of the afternoon was spent relaxing, mingling with other climbers, people watching, and story telling.
Now the sun has set, and there’s no reason to be outside anymore, so we’re going to bed. We’ll check in tomorrow.
RMI Guide JM Gorum
On The Map
The
Four Day Climb July 7 - 10 was unable to climb today due to weather.
RMI Guide Robby Young reported rain and high winds prevented the group from leaving Camp Muir to make their summit attempt. Winds continued to blow this morning at Camp Muir. The team plans to descent this morning to Paradise.
Moscow is cool and all, but it’s nice to wake up in the mountains.
Cheget is a quiet little place, and there isn’t much going on in the morning hours. We had a casual start to our day, with an 8 am breakfast being the first item on the agenda. Breakfast was pretty normal fare. Eggs, toast, oatmeal. I usually can’t stand oatmeal, but here it’s basically soaked in cream and butter, so I can’t really complain about that. The team did a great job fueling up for our late-morning chairlift ride. I believe that everyone left breakfast on the edge of being uncomfortably full, which is really the sweet spot.
From the hotel it’s about a five minute walk to the bottom of our chairlift. We hopped on, and skimmed the tops of the trees for about fifteen minutes. It really was quite a stylish ascent. We had butterflies, wildflowers, and chirping birds below us, and nothing but blue skies above us. We unloaded at the midway station, and walked to the top of the next lift. At around 10,000 feet we hung out, took some photos, discussed the climb, and soaked up some sun. I think about 1/3 of the team have earned nicknames at this point. Some not suitable for print.
After we were satisfied with our day’s exercise, we rode the chairlift back down, more or less onto the deck of our lunch cafe, ate again, and then spent the rest of the day exploring town or relaxing. Tomorrow we’ll head up onto the mountain and stay there through the weekend. I think we’re all looking forward to it.
RMI Guide JM Gorum
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Hi Kim! Amazing climbing all you guys! Wishing you still another 2 great and safe climbs. Enjoy the incredible, beautiful vistas. xxx Trish
Posted by: Trish on 7/13/2019 at 10:57 am
We are all so thrilled at the team’s success and incredible experiences that you are having!
Miss you Dave!
XO
Laura
Posted by: Laura Bryson on 7/12/2019 at 5:25 pm
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