RMI Expeditions Blog
RMI Guide JM Gorum led his
Five Day Summit Climb July 6 - 10 to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The team enjoyed some time in the crater before starting their descent. They will return to Camp Muir to repack and then continue to Paradise.
Congratulations to today's Five Day Summit Climb team!
The
Four Day Summit Climb July 7 - 10 led by
RMI Guide Mike Walter reached the summit today. Mike reported moderate winds with clear skies and a cloud deck below around 9,000'. The team enjoyed a bit of time on the summit. They started their descent from the crater rim around 8:30 AM PT heading for Camp Muir.
Congratulations to the Summit Climb team!
Greetings!
This morning around 9am, your ESS-Peru Team stood on top of
Nevado Urus Este! What a beautiful morning it was; light breeze, mostly sunny skies, and some high clouds over the neighboring giants made for some incredible morning light. With an unknown summit elevation somewhere between 17,600’ and 18,028’, Urus gave us a great taste of true Alpine climbing with some steep snow and a bit of rock scrambling. After a tranquil sun filled descent, we made it back to the comforts of the tents in time for lunch. We spent our afternoon eating the remaining delicacies from our cook, Raul, including pancake pizzas, more delicious soups, and the main course of Lomo Saltado and Jello. Our stomachs are full and our muscles are recovering from a weeks worth of great climbing here in the Ishinca Valley. Tomorrow morning, we bid this beautiful valley farewell and head back to the comforts of Huaraz City for a night of rest and recovery before our next Cordillera Blanca adventure.
We’ll keep you in the loop!
RMI Guides Robby,
Alan, William and Peru Team
RMI Guide Casey Grom and the
Four Day Summit Climb July 6 - 9 made it to the summit of Mt. Rainier today. Casey reported windy conditions as they began their descent from the crater rim at 7:30 AM PT. The team will descend to Camp Muir and then continue down to Paradise this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb team!
Sunday, July 8, 2018 - 4:00 PM PT
Hello Loyal Blog Followers!
Peru Expedition Skills Team here, enjoying a nice sunny day here in the Ishinca Valley. We slept in today; well deserved after our big climb of Nevado Ishinca yesterday! Per usual, we feasted for four meals today. You wouldn’t believe we’re at 14,400’ in the mountains of Peru given the fact that our diet today included fresh pineapple and melon with yogurt and cereal, yellow potato salad, dried corn and charcuterie, and pork chops for dinner! Oh boy, what a treat! It wasn’t just r+r today, however. We got a second chance to hike to the overlook of Tocllacoccha (Lake Toclla), this time without the wet weather. What a sight it was; with large glaciers pouring into turquoise water below the hulking mass that is Tocllaraju. We spent some time geeking out on crevasse rescue, and even practiced rigging rappels off the big boulders here at camp. A great day indeed! Tomorrow (tonight rather), we will make an attempt on Nevado Urus. Wish us luck! We’ll let you know how it goes!
RMI Guide Robby Young,
RMI Guide Alan Davis, William and team Peru.
Sunday, July 8, 2018 - 3:32 AM PT
The team woke... slowly, at 11,000 this morning. Everybody remarked on the value of low altitude slumber. We ate and determined to get lower in honor of the former “tropical storm” headed our way. By this morning, we were the only team left on Denali. While it wouldn’t be quite “normal” to take on the lower
Kahiltna Glacier in July during the afternoon, we decided that a try was in order. The inbound storm was a definite- and it was clear it would be snowing hard for days on end... incompatible with both climbing and flying. So we pulled down Camp at 11,000' by 11:45 AM and got moving with heavy packs and sleds. Conditions were just plain easy to the base of Ski Hill at 7,800'. And then -although we crossed a few spooky snow bridges, things were phenomenally well put together for July 7. We made fine progress to the base of Heartbreak Hill. And although our last 1.5 hours was uphill, it was free of dicey bridges and nervy crevasses. Base Camp was gone at this late date... we passed on to the traditional late season upper strip 20 minutes farther along, reaching it at 7:30 PM. K2 Aviation already had planes in the air for us as they were anxious to beat the storm for our extraction. As we crossed the range, we saw the weather moving in while our ski otters dodged cloud after cloud. We landed in Talkeetna at 9:15 PM and raced to dinner in our mountain clothing, trying to beat closing times in the conventional world. In town, we caught up with all of the neighboring teams from the past three weeks and shared escape stories. We’re all full of amazement and admiration for the mountain that we didn’t climb, but also great satisfaction for the climb that we did have together.
Thanks for keeping track of us... until the next climb.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
RMI Guides Brent Okita & Andy Bond radioed from Columbia Crest this morning with the Four Day Summit Climb teams July 5 - 8. Brent reported a fantastic day with very little wind and great route conditions. Both Summit Climb teams saw 100% of their team members standing on the summit today!
The teams will return to Camp Muir for a quick break to repack before continuing down to Paradise.
Congratulations to all
Summit Climb team members!
Saturday, July 7, 2018 - 5:17 PM PT
Ishinca Summit!
We’re happy to report that our team stood on top of
Nevado Ishinca this morning around 9 AM. At around 18,143’ high, we certainly had to put the work in, reaching the high point of our trip so far. Winds were light and skies were the brightest of blues for us today, and we sure felt lucky after some rare Cordillera Blanca snow earlier in the week. The team enjoyed pork chops tonight, and two rounds of lunch before that. We’re truly spoiled here in Peru, that’s for sure. We’re planning on resting here in the Ishinca Valley tomorrow, and getting into some crevasse rescue and a smattering of other technical skills as we continue our progression toward Nevado Urus in a few days. Thanks for following along!
RMI Guide Robby Young
Saturday, July 7, 2018 2:37 AM PST
Some days you eat the bear...
We’re down at 11,000 ft. We had lofty ambitions this morning but
Denali played hard to get. There was a mean wind blowing through much of the night and sadly right through the morning. We waited it out as long as we could but called it at mid day. Tough as it was to let go of the summit, it was pretty obvious that it was out of reach under the circumstances. We broke camp at 17 and got moving down -as did every last climber on the mountain. A storm is moving in, according to the forecasters. For that though, today was spectacular once we were on the move. There is a bunch of forest fire smoke creating a haze, but we still got great views down to the Kahiltna Glacier as we carefully walked the ridge crest, dropped down the fixed lines, dug out our sleds at 14k and pushed on around windy corner with heavy loads. We piled on down the squirrel hills and motorcycle, and came into 11,000 at 9:30 PM. Our tents went up fast and dinner wasn’t far behind. The air down here is chock full of oxygen and it isn’t nearly so cold as we’ve gotten used to. We’ll get some low altitude sleep and plot our final escape to the airstrip soon.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn & Team
The
Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guides Tyler Jones and Christina Dale reached the top of Disappointment Cleaver today at 12,300' before route conditions and strong winds forced the team to turn. The team checked from Ingraham Flats as they were on their descent and en route to Camp Muir.
Congratulations to Today's Teams!
Congratulations to all the courageous adventurers, and especially to my son, Dan! Worried about him every day, so I’m happy to hear everyone is safe and homeward-bound!
Posted by: Terry Coldwell on 7/11/2018 at 2:47 am
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