Hi, this is Pete Van Deventer with the Elbrus-Northside crew calling in. We are back at Camp 1 after a really successful summit day. Couldn't have asked for anything more perfect. We woke up this morning to warm temps, clear skies, and not a breath of wind. We made our way up relatively quiet until we merged with the southside route at the Saddle, and then we could see the line of climbers coming from that route, but we made our own switchbacks and stayed out of the traffic and cruised up to the summit in pretty good style. One hundred percent of our folks stood on top today. A really good day all the way around. A special shout out to Josh, who ended up being pretty motivated and roped up with our local guide, Sasha, and they made another trip from there over to the east side in only about an hour, so they tagged both summits. We all descended to Lenz Rocks and stopped there for about an hour and packed up camp, and then made our way back down to Moraine Camp, Camp 1. We are tucked in here, inside our tents and we're out to enjoy a pizza dinner from Nina, the cook here. She makes amazing stuff. The plan is tomorrow to head down to Base Camp and we'll take our time getting down there and spend the evening. Then the cars will come for us the day after that to take us to Kislovodsk. Everybody will be back in touch with loved ones soon and everyone sends their best. It's been a really good day here on the northside of Elbrus. Everybody's super excited. Talk later.
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer calls after a successful Elbrus summit via the Northside.
The team has moved camp once again and everyone is doing well. It was a big day ,more than six hours and everyone handled it well. We left the Shira Plateau a bit after 8 am and had a steady ascent for 2,500' right out of camp at a steady grade. Our high point of just below 15,000' was right about noon then we had a constant descent to our new camp here at Barranco Camp at just under 13,000'. We are looking forward to another great dinner provided by the Barking Zebra staff and then a good night's rest.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
The Emmons Seminar team, led by RMI Guide Christina Dale, summitted Mt. Rainier this morning. At 12:20 pm the team was back at Camp Schurman where they will stay for the night and descend tomorrow. Christina reported that 100% of the team reached the top! Congratulations!!!
The perfect climb continued in similar fashion. We woke under clear skies at 10,000 ft. Each climber commented on how nice it had been to sleep on level ground and at low altitude. We ate one last fine mountain meal and then met, across a clearing in the forest, with our entire 54 man support staff. Philip spoke for his men, expressing gratitude and satisfaction with a week's worth of hard work on our behalf. I spoke for our gang -attempting to express our amazement and gratitude at their efforts. A few songs were sung and gifts exchanged. We set out down the forest trail and before too long were in thick cloud and eventually rain. There was some discussion later though, as to whether it was actually rain or just a particularly wet cloud we were in. It didn't really matter though, as it didn't get us very wet and it didn't last so long. We picked our way down 4,000 vertical feet of slippery trail without mishap and hit the Mweka Gate of Kilimanjaro National Park. After some handshakes, photographs and documentation, we loaded the bus and cruised downhill. Our staff hosted one last amazing lunch on our return, just above the city of Moshi, and then we hit the highway. Gasps were heard when we finally could look back and see Kilimanjaro towering over the clouds. (We hadn't seen it at all before the climb). It didn't seem possible for a mountain to be so big.
As good as the climb had been, nobody was sad to be back at our comfortable lodge with hot showers and fine food and drink. We relaxed away the afternoon and celebrated away the evening... within limits of course. The Safari awaits.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
We are that much closer to touching the ceiling of Europe. After a bit of a blustery night, things were beautiful and calm this morning. We packed up our tents, said goodbye for now to Alaska, the camp comfort dog, and headed back up our boot track from yesterday. Clouds built quickly and we wondered whether we would get wet, but the precip stayed away, and the respite from the sun was quite pleasant. We reached our new camp at 15,300' in short order, and settled into pouring our homes back together. As we crawled in for a siesta, the clouds caught back up with us, starting with first hail, and then transitioning to snow. We are now enveloped in a bit of a winter wonderland, though the first hint of sunlight will change that.
We hope to see a clear sky and calm conditions when we wake up in the morning to give us our shot at the summit. We're ready!
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer
Following this exciting climb!. Thinking of my cousin!... So amazing you can do this Robin!... Lying here warm and toasty. Hope the same for all of you!
Posted by: Stacy and Seth on 8/9/2017 at 7:44 pm
Good Luck Sonam and your climb team! We are all rooting for you at SkyKick!
Kelly and Team.
We had fantastic weather making for a fantastic day. We are so happy it is silly! Out here in the office we could not have had a better day. This morning we had a steep start right out of the gate but no problem for the "A team". There are a couple scrambling sections, and the team took it bite for bite, chewed it well. Thanks to the amazing work of our porter and our Camp and meal were waiting when we arrived. We now sit at Shira Camp, just over 12,000'. We had a great lunch now are relaxing and letting our bodies adjust to our new altitude.
Tomorrow we will head up to over 14,000'. and then down in to camp at just below 13,000'. Stay tuned!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker & Team!
All is well at Kilimanjaro Camp 1; otherwise known as Machame Hut. We are already at 10,000 feet for our first night on the mountain. Interestingly 10,000 feet here is still below tree line, whereas on Mt. Rainier 10,000 feet is way above tree line and glaciated.
The hiking today was great with a little cloud cover, which helped with very pleasant temperatures and not a whole lot of mud to get here. We are still recovering after our team member Barbara's 75th birthday party last night. We have a real fun group, everyone was chatting away between themselves and with our African guides who will accompany us the whole time up the mountain. We spent a total of about six hours on the trail and combined with jet lag should make for good sleeping tonight.
Until tomorrow,
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Ty Reid and the summit climb team were approaching the true summit of Mt. Rainier, Columbia Crest, at 6:20 a.m. The weather is warm and not smoky above 12,500'. By 8:35 a.m. the team was at the top of Disappointment Cleaver on their descent.
Congratulations to the summit climb teams!
The Five Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide Solveig Waterfall reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Solveig and team spent two nights at Camp Muir taking advantage of extra day to acclimate to the higher elevation. This payed off with a successful climb this morning! The team has started their descent and are en route back to Camp Muir.
Congratulations to today's team!
Another pretty perfect, successful day here in Russia. Sunny, clear skies beckoned us up towards Lenz Rocks, where we will make high camp. The plumes of snow we saw yesterday were still twirling their way our of the col between the east and west summits, but we had only a fresh breeze to face as we made our way up. Everyone climbed really well, hitting their high altitude glacial climbing stride. We left a small cache of food and fuel at Lenz, then opened up our strides and cruised back to camp. We'll do it again tomorrow if the weather lets us, and move up with our tents and summit gear to get in position for our summit bid. It's getting close!
Best from the Caucasus,
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer
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Congratulations Sonam! You put your heart to it and you did it! Proud of you!
Ephrem
Posted by: Ephrem on 8/11/2017 at 9:22 pm
Congrats Lisa! Can’t wait to hear all about your trip and see photos. Love, the Zaia crew
Posted by: Kelly on 8/11/2017 at 7:03 am
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