Entries from Locations
The
Four Day Summit Climb led by
Billy Nugent and the
Five Day Summit Climb led by
Garrett Stevens were forced to call 13,000' their high point today. The teams reported high winds, low visibility, and a descending cloud cap. The teams will rest for a short time at Camp Muir before beginning their descent to Paradise. We expect to see them back in Ashford early this afternoon.
May 25, 2014 - 1:57 am PT
After several days of winds up high, and cold conditions that turned several teams around, we hit the jackpot today. We walked out of camp just as the sun hit, turning a pretty chilly morning balmy. We stopped just below the fixed lines to get ready, then headed up for our first run at them. Despite pretty blue and icy conditions, the climber traffic over the last couple days left some nice buckets for our feet scratched into the surface of the ice. Once above the lines, we headed out the
West Buttress proper, which offers some of the best climbing and views of the whole route. At the base if Washburn's Thumb, we set our cache of food and fuel, then turned back the Buttress to descend. We rolled into camp just in time for dinner and to catch the weather report. It sounds like we're going to have a proper snow storm tonight and tomorrow, with 1 to 2 feet forecast. With that news we spent some more time fortifying camp, then crawled into sleeping bags just as the snow started. We'll give you an update tomorrow and let you know how we fared.
RMI Guides Pete, Robby, and Josh
On The Map
May 23, 2014
High winds aloft again thwarted our plans to move to
high camp today.
The team enjoyed another rest day, and we have now joined forces with
Pete VanDeventer and his team, who arrived a few days ago, and together have built ourselves quite the RMI compound here in the Genet Basin.
After breakfast, Mike, Steve, and I made a quick lap down to 11 Camp to dig up our cache and retrieve any usable food items, extra gas, and personal supplies to help us extend our stint on the mountain.
We were hoping to get some promising news from the weather forecast this evening, but it sounds like we are going to have to dig our heels in and hang on, as high winds and multiple feet if snow are predicted over the next few days.
On a positive note, we scored some brownies and oreo's from a descending team, and thankfully Mike's frozen Kindle came back to life. We are now all happily entertained campers (and snackers) at 14,000', prepared to ride out this weather system!
Small miracles....
RMI Guide
Solveig Waterfall & Team
May 23, 2014 - 10:19pm PT
We took today to
acclimate and let our legs recover from a couple of good days and heavy packs. A late wake up once the sun hit the tents led into breakfast, then major architectural planning and construction of a new kitchen/dining area. Our new digs are 10 feet below the snow surface, giving us ample headroom. After an afternoon siesta, we rigged and practiced for the fixed lines, that we hope to ascend for the first time tomorrow.
The plan is to try to get our high cache of gear in tomorrow, and hopefully the weather will cooperate. We'll check back in tomorrow, but send us wishes for fair weather.
RMI Guides Pete, Robby, Josh and Team
May 23, 2014 - 11:11pm PT
We awoke to wonderfully beautiful skies and not a hint of wind. What a nice reprieve to yesterday's gauntlet with the persistent cold breeze that hit us head on all day. It was with this nice weather that we started our climb to our next camp. We knew that our loads would be heavy, but Ski Hill always manages to humble even the most fit of climbers. But try as it might to torture us with it's deceptively constant grade, the team managed well and arrived at 9500' with energy left over to build camp and get settled.
Our dinner of soup and burritos will hopefully sustain us for our next push: 11,200' camp. Thankfully, today was the last of the huge loads we'll be carrying as we plan on caching food, fuel and some personal gear here. We'll pick this cache up the following day and bring it up to our camp at 11,200'. It'll be nice to get to 11,200' where we'll finally be settled at the same camp for a number of days.
That's the news from the
Kahiltna Glacier these days.
Cheers,
RMI Guides Brent, Leah, Nick & Team
On The Map
The Four Day Summit Climb Team led by
Adam Knoff reached the summit of Mt. Rainier at about 7:00am this morning. Adam and Team reported great climbing conditions with light winds and clear skies above 6,000’. We expect the team back to
Ashford Basecamp this afternoon.
Congratulations to Today's teams!
May 23, 2014 - 7:18 pm PT
Our first night away from the airstrip here at 7,800' and it's under beautiful clear blue skies. The winds above 14,000' are moving hard but here it is calm. We walked 3.5 hrs north on the
Kahiltna Glacier to the base of Ski Hill and occupied some vacant sites. All told a pretty relaxing afternoon after adjusting to our pack & sled loads. Tomorrow we will gain 2,000' to our next camp at 9,800' which puts us near the base of Kahiltna Dome's east ridge.
Good night friends and family!
RMI Guide Leon Davis & Team
May 22, 2014 - 11:00 pm PT
Our day started great. Breakfast at the Roadhouse again and an early departure from Talkeetna, courtesy of the best air service in town:
K2 Aviation. The first hint that conditions were not warm and pleasant came when we landed on some pretty hard snow. Then getting out of the plane we were hit by a chilly wind. But, everyone was excited to be on the mountain and we just put on a few more layers.
Our climb to camp went well, though we were challenged the whole day by that irritating and cold breeze. But that sure didn't slow the team down any. Everyone really did well on this ordinarily difficult day with the heavy loads we were sporting. A quick dinner in bed and the team is now resting comfortably in their tents, getting ready for tomorrow and Ski Hill.
Thanks to the tireless efforts of Leah and Nick who have been making sure that were all fed and ready for tomorrow. Wish us calm winds and more pleasant travels tomorrow. Goodnight from 7,800' Camp on the Kahiltna Glacier.
RMI Guides Brent, Leah, Nick and the whole Team
On The Map
May 22, 2014 - 9:32 pm PT
Another pleasant day today, albeit cold and cloudy. This morning we went for a walk out of base camp toward the east ridge of
Francis. We passed the large granite face of Francis, and through old icefall debris, up into a small cirque. Great views of Hunter and Base Camp from this small snowy cove. Once back at camp we rigged sleds and packed gear for our departure tomorrow up to Camp 1. The team is excited to venture out and experience another part of the Alaska range.
Until tomorrow...
RMI Guide
Leon Davis & Team
May 22, 2014 - 6:44 pm PT
We had grand plans of moving to
high camp today, and awoke early to clear skies above and relatively warm temps. We started stoves and began the process of packing sleeping bags and organizing gear, but before the water even had time to boil, a cap began to build on the upper mountain and lenticulars formed over Mt. Foraker to our south west. We watched as plumes of snow, sublimating from the west buttress and 17,000' Camp, began to stream to the south.
Better to sit here at 14 camp and drink more coffee, we decided.... Although now we are out of coffee....
The team is in good spirits and we will keep you posted as the situation continues. Fingers aggressively crossed that this weather breaks soon!
RMI Guide Solveig Waterfall
On The Map
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Bob and Nicky…stay strong and enjoy your celebration while striving for the top! Best regards and best wishes. Nick and family
Posted by: Nick Spanakis on 5/26/2014 at 6:49 pm
Hi Marko and Team
Stay strong. Cant wait to see you at the bottom. Is there a Bloomingdale’s there?
xxoo Aunt Carolyn
Posted by: Aunt Carolyn on 5/26/2014 at 5:47 am
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