Entries from Locations
May 19, 2017
The rain fell as we debarked from the plane after touching down at Anchorage International Airport. With three hours before meeting the team Christina, JT and I reviewed paperwork and plans for the trip.
Then, one by one folks started showing up, with everyone gathered well before our 4:30 departure. A good sign of things you come.
We had plenty of time to get to know each other while awaiting our shuttle to
Talkeetna and I was struck by the ease of conversation between everyone right from the start.
Having climbed with most everyone already it was fun to catch up with folks. By dinner time the mood was even looser as we enjoyed a nice meal at the West Rib.
Most of the team showed restraint in passing up calls to have 'one' at the world famous Fairview Inn, but for those of us who showed weakness and entered those decadent halls, a proper tradition was upheld. The music wasn't half bad either.
It's now time for some rest as tomorrow promises to be quite busy as we prepare for our flight on to the mountain on Sunday. I'm really looking forward to getting that one step closer to the climb we've all been waiting for for so long.
Goodnight from Talkeetna, elevation 300'.
RMI Guide Brent Okita
May 20, 2017
We spent today building more snow walls for our camp, and trying to stay warm. Temps stayed cold today as our camp in
Genet Basin was in the clouds and snow most of the day. The morning dawned clear though, save for another lenticular cloud on Denali's summit, a not-so-subtle hint of the strong winds above.
Our team is hanging in there, but we sure would like to see a change in this weather. We'll keep you in the loop.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
We saw the sun on day one and haven't really seen it since. The trend of southern flow pushing moisture our way continues, and it snowed off and on all day. While climbing on bright, bluebird days is nice, it really doesn't get much better than conditions today. While we couldn't see a lot, there was very little wind on a piece of the mountain that is known for wind, the clouds and snow kept the temps pleasantly cool, and the fresh snow has set up creating great cramponing conditions. We cruised out of camp a bit after the main rush, which kept us out of traffic all day. A few smooth stretches later, we rounded
Windy Corner and reached our cache site. All told, the day was really smooth and pleasant, and we're feeling really good about getting a big chunk of weight uphill. On the docket for tomorrow is done hard chilling time, nap competitions, and general self care before we look to move to 14.
RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Jenny Konway, Jess Matthews and Team
May 19, 2017
This evening we are coming to you from
Kahiltna Base Camp! The team enjoyed a relaxing morning and leisurely lunch as we waited for a break in the weather. Just when we thought we would be spending another night in town, K2 gave the signal and our two pilots Randy and Barry carried us over the clouds into the range and descended into the heart of the mountains.
Now we are enjoying some late evening sun cooking dinner and setting up camp. The team is very excited to be here, especially the ladies who cannot stop smiling.
RMI Guide Leon Davis & Team
May 19, 2017
Once again we fired up the stoves early in the bitter cold of morning in Genet Basin. Another large lenticular built over the summit and the
West Buttress, this time accompanied by snow. We decided to pump the breaks once again and kept watching the weather as the sun began to crest the West Rib. But despite our best hopes, the weather never improved enough for us to break camp and move higher. Instead, we spent the day building snow walls to protect our camp against the the strong winds that are forecast in a couple of days.
Right now our plan is to sit tight through this next weather system and hope for a window of good weather early next week. With strong winds forecasted over the next few days, an bitter cold temps (lows of -38F and highs of -25 to -30), we aren't even entertaining moving to high camp tomorrow. Hopefully our time to move up will come soon.
RMI Guide Mike Walter & Team
The
Four Day Summit Climb team led by RMI Guides Casey Grom and Tyler Jones reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Tyler reported clear skies with north winds of 20 - 25 mph.
Congratulations to today's teams!
The
Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir May 14-19, 2017 led by
RMI Guides Dave Hahn and Chase Nelson spent the week at Camp Muir. The team spent time learning mountaineering skills, knot tying and crevasse rescue. The team experienced windy and snowy conditions for a portion of the week but were rewarded today with beautiful blue sky. They reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning around 7:30 and spent an hour enjoying the views and celebrating their accomplishment. Today is the last day of the program so once they return to Camp Muir they will pack their gear and continue their descent to Paradise. We look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp later today.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
May 19, 2017
Light snow overnight made everything quiet and still this morning. Camp was sleepy, as it seems everyone took the opportunity to sleep in. We munched our way through a big brunch of hash browns and eggs, and then trotted back downhill under empty packs to grab our cache. That short trip left plenty of time for naps and some chilling time this afternoon before a quick climbing skills refresher to get ready for tomorrow. We intend to trade sleds and snowshoes for crampons tomorrow and get our cache up to
Windy Corner. We'll see if the weather let's us.
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer
On The Map
Our
Alaska Mountaineering Seminar May 17 - 27 team is here in Talkeetna, packed and ready to fly...but sometimes ready is not enough. A Southwest flow over the Aleutians is slowly pushing that warm moisture that brings snow and rain to the range. So we played the game of waiting and lost the luck. Nonetheless the team here is of joyous enthusiasm and energy and we shall try again tomorrow.
We will hope for clear skies in the morning.
RMI Guide Mike King
Well, we woke early once again with optimism that we would be moving up to our high camp today. As we bundled up and crawled out of the tent, we were greeted by big, nasty lenticular clouds (UFO-looking, disk-like clouds that are indicative of high winds aloft) over the big three peaks in the Alaska Range: Hunter, Foraker, and our objective,
Denali.
We continued with our plan and fired up the stoves and made breakfast. Then we returned to our tents to stay warm as we kept an eye on the winds above. In the end, they didn't dissipate and we weren't able to move camp today.
Although we are anxious to move up and have a shot at the summit, the flip side of taking another day at 14k is that we continue to acclimate and get stronger for our eventual summit push. Hopefully we will have that opportunity soon. We'll keep you up to date with our progress.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
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Hope you caught a break and are moving up to 17 camp today. Robby, congrats on your new nephew. Good luck all. Art Muir.
Posted by: Art Muir on 5/21/2017 at 10:57 am
From my zen calendar - Your mind is the mountain before you.
Hang in there for better weather!
Love you Papi
G
Posted by: Giulia on 5/21/2017 at 7:50 am
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