RMI Guides Brent Okita & Pepper Dee led their Four Day Summit Climb teams to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The enjoyed blue skies and a great climb. They will return to Camp Muir and then continue down to Paradise.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb teams.
Hello Mark Tucker checking in from the Ngorongoro Crater event. A little IT problem, but we're going to get that worked on in the morning. Just wanted to let you know that everybody's doing great. Had a wonderful day down in the crater. Saw thousands and thousands of animals up close and in person. It was a wonderful day; everybody had a gas and we're heading to Tarangire in the morning. We'll get you back in the loop on the dispatches. All is well here in Tanzania.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Though we haven’t been in Moscow for long, we did our best to see everything we could today. We matched the fast pace of our tour guide (she looked at us and said “you are supposed to be sportsmen”), and checked out sites that seem hard to believe for anyone who was alive during the Cold War. We wandered through Red Square, silently filed through Lenin’s Tomb, where Russia spends $200,000 a year to keep his body in perfect condition, and crossed through the front gate of the Kremlin to get a tour inside and see several of the cathedrals that exist within. Each had a dedicated purpose and patron, the Cathedral of the Assumption being used for Coronations and things involving the Russian Czars, while Archangel Michael’s Cathedral was used as a burial place for Czars and Czarinnas, including the family of Ivan the Terrible.
Unfortunately, St. Basil’s Cathedral was closed today due to a national holiday commemorating paratroopers in WWII, but we strolled through the GUM, the former Soviet State Department Store, and now a high end shopping mall, stopping to ease the heat with ice cream, before a delicious lunch at a Ukrainian Restaurant around the corner. We had the afternoon free to explore or take naps, before we headed to a nice rooftop restaurant overlooking the Moscow River for dinner. Tomorrow starts early, 5.30 am, as we head back to the airport to fly to the Caucasus and refocus on our climbing objective. Tomorrow will be a travel day, but before we know it, we’ll be at base camp, staring up at the twin summits of Mt. Elbrus and beginning our climb. We’ll check in soon.
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer
Hi Kelly and Josh, hope you’re having a great time! Each day we pray for the safety of you and your team members! Take care and enjoy yourselves!
Darcy and Jon
Posted by: Darcy and Jon Schwanke on 8/6/2017 at 12:01 pm
Wish the team good luck. We pray for good weather and safe return of all team members!
Today was the perfect catch-up day. We had a leisurely breakfast at the Arumeru River Lodge and then got down to business for a little while with a team meeting. We discussed the climb to come and how to prepare for it. Those preparations didn't take very long and equipment checks were easily completed by lunch. The team took walks through the park-like grounds to see the monkeys, tortoises, exotic birds and dik diks that roamed freely about. Low clouds kept things pleasantly cool but prevented us from catching a glimpse of Kilimanjaro. Our gang enjoyed the swimming pool, which made up -somewhat- for the limited views. By evening, with all in order for the adventure to come, we simply ate, drank and relaxed... laughing over shared memories of our previous adventures.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On Sunday, the Five Day Summit Climb team hiked out of Paradise to the training area to learn the necessary skills to summit Mt. Rainier. The following day the team hike to Camp Muir for their first night on the mountain. They spent time yesterday gaining more experience cramponing and working as a rope team then return to Camp Muir to prepare for their summit attempt. All of their training paid off and the team enjoyed the views from the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning, reaching the crater rim around 5:30 am. After celebrating their accomplishment and taking photos, they will descend to Camp Muir to rest and repack before continuing their descent to Paradise. They will end their program with a celebration at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's Five Day Summit Climb Team!
RMI Guide Robby Young led the Four Day Summit Climb July 30 - 2 August to the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. The team reached the crater rim around 5:30 am and enjoyed the blue skies and warm temperatures before beginning their descent from the crater rim. The teams will descend 9,000 vertical feet today reaching Paradise (5,400') this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb Team!
Sara and Dieter, so PSYCHED for y’all! It’s been quite a journey. So proud of both of you. You went to climb the mountain. It gave you its good tidings.
With love from Kim, Daveed and Olive
Posted by: Kim, Daveed and Olive on 8/3/2017 at 7:01 am
So proud of you guys!! You both are truly inspiring. Si se puede!! <3
Good morning from Moscow! The whole team trickled in over the course of yesterday, showing up a bit bleary eyed and time-confused by last night. We didn’t stray far from the hotel to find dinner, catch up a bit with old friends who are part of the team, and meet new ones. Everyone made a pretty quick exit once our plates were cleaned to crawl into bed and start the process of re- calibrating our clocks. This morning, everyone is already looking refreshed and renewed, ready for our tour of the sites of Moscow: St. Basil’s Cathedral, Red Square, Lenin’s Tomb, and the Kremlin are all ahead of us. We’ll enjoy the day of sights before we turn our attention to the mountain and the real reason that we’ve come! We’ve got a great team, and everyone is excited to get to climbing so stay tuned as our expedition gets underway!
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer
Everyone and everything made it through. Through Amsterdam, through immigration, through customs, through the baggage carousels. We've got a climbing team ready to begin the Kilimanjaro odyssey. These folks all know one another... a good number are related... and absolutely everybody was ready to sleep at midnight when dinner broke up. Long flights and lots of movies, miles and time zones between Taos, New Mexico, USA and Usa River, Tanzania. We'll dive into the details of getting set to climb -tomorrow.
Best,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Safari time at Lake Manyara National Park. The drive into the park took us a couple hours. The animals were out in force and a few clouds helped keep the temperature nice. Our all wheel-drive Land Cruisers took us comfortably very close to thousands of native creatures. This was a pretty nice introduction to the incredible bio-diversity that Africa has, and everyone enjoyed the day. We had a nice lunch in Campsite 1 but no tent time for the team on phase two of the trip. Our lodge has received thumbs up from all. Very comfortable here at the Plantation Lodge, and the dinner could not have been better. Up early for our next park in the morning.
All is well here in Africa,
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Our last day in St. Petersburg!
The team had a great final day here in Russia. We visited the very famous Hermitage Museum, where we saw paintings and sculptures by many well-known artists including Rembrandt, Michelangelo and even Da Vinci, to name a few. It's one of Russia's great treasures and houses several million pieces of art collected over the last few hundred years. It consists of five buildings, each with three floors, and has hundreds of rooms. We did our best to take in the highlights in a little over two hours.
We took a quick lunch before stopping by the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, that's decorated almost entirely with mosaics and then wrapped up the day with a wonderful evening boat cruise to see this amazing city by water.
It's been a wonderful adventure here in Russia, but it's time to say our goodbyes and return to family and loved ones.
Thanks for following,
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
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So glad you guys made it. I know a lot of hard work over the last few months was put in. Congratulations so proud of you!
Posted by: Margie De Leon Bell on 8/3/2017 at 6:24 pm
So glad you guys made it. I know a lot of hard work over the last few months was out it. Congratulations so proud of you!
Posted by: Margie De Leon Bell on 8/3/2017 at 6:22 pm
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