RMI Expeditions Blog
Posted by: Elias de Andres Martos
Categories: Expedition Dispatches
Greetings from the land of the "big legged ones", (term used by Magellan to refer to the natives of the Australmost part of the American continent during the Spanish expedition of 1519 trying to reach Asia going west) aka Patagonia.
We are currently in Puerto Natales, resting in our hotel right across from the agitated waters of the "Última Esperanza" (last hope) fjord.
Our bodies are tired from 24 hours of international traveling, but after a quick layover in the southern hub that Punta Arenas is for the region, we drove to the gateway of Torres del Paine National Park.
The views of the salt water meeting the towering mountains are astonishing, and the feel of being in our antipodes' "last frontier" is very real.
Sheep farms gave way to wilder land populated by foxes and "ñandúes" (ostrich like birds) and the human shelters are getting smaller and further apart.
Everyone is very excited for the adventure we start tomorrow. We will be posting next from the trails of our circuit... in the mean time, sit back and imagine what being in summer, surrounded by friends, good food and better landscape would be right now; well, we're there!
RMI Guide ElÃas de Andres Martos
Posted by: Billy Nugent, Hannah Smith
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 16,200'
We are back safely in Camp 1 after a beautiful carry up to Camp 2 at over 18,000ft. This camp in addition to being our "Camp 2" is also called Guanacos Campo 3, or Chopper Camp because there used to be the pieces of a crashed helicopter sprinkled about. Those are all cleaned up these days and virtually no trace of a crashed helicopter is left. We enjoyed sunny skies and calm winds all day today while making great time. We were three-ish hours up and just over an hour down with a nice break up at our cache site in between. The team is back down soaking up some sun and relaxing the afternoon away. We have a rest/acclimatization day on deck that will hopefully set us up well for our climb higher.
All for now...
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
On The Map
Posted by: Casey Grom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
Our Kilimanjaro trip is underway!
The team arrived late last night after their long flights from the US and after a short drive to our lodge the team had a quick dinner and headed for bed.
Today after a hearty breakfast the team met for RMI's official orientation where we did a round of introductions and discussed the upcoming plan for the next few day and the gear essentials for our climb.
We spent the remainder of the day packing and relaxing here at this tranquil and private lodge that has numerous wild animals roaming the grounds. There are two different types of monkeys here, the Velvet and the Blue. Several Dik Dik that have been rescued, a few Guinea fowl, and we even managed to see a Genet sneaking around tonight.
We are being well taken care of here at the Arumeru River Lodge by their gracious and kind staff.
Everyone is doing well and looking forward to a little uphill exercise tomorrow as we head to Kilimanjaro.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and Kili Team
Hi Rocket happy birthday I hope you have a good birthday!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Rowan Junell on 1/27/2017 at 7:14 pm
Looks amazing Uncle John hope you are enjoying this adventure
Keep safe looking forward to seeing you in Ireland
Posted by: Evan Horgan on 1/27/2017 at 2:27 pm
January 22nd, 4:29 pm PST
So don't sing at 22,000 feet, that is my recommendation. We are all back down here at high camp. The team is all back in their tents, fed and watered. What a heck of a day- about 14 hours. The team did great. Hopefully tomorrow I'll be singing again, and I guess I better write instead of talk. Thanks for following you guys. Take care.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
January 22nd, 10:29 am PST
Hello, everyone. This is RMI Guide, Pepper Dee, from the top of Aconcagua! Mark Tucker has lost his voice, but he has not lost any of his team. He started with ten climbers and ten climbers are on top of South America right now. We had a great day getting up here. Pretty clear with some intermittent snow showers, but we're all just so thrilled to be up here. When the clouds break, we can see views down the valley where we came. [lost transmission]
RMI Guide Pepper Dee
RMI Guide Pepper Dee calls from the Aconcagua summit!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker calls after safe return back to Aconcagua High Camp.
Way to go Tuck!
Posted by: KO on 1/23/2017 at 1:11 pm
What a group of badasses!! Congrats everyone. Papa, we can’t wait to see photos :)
Posted by: Jenny M on 1/23/2017 at 12:26 pm
Posted by: Billy Nugent, Hannah Smith
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 16,200'
Here we are in Camp 1 all settled in at over 16,000'. We enjoyed dinner in the late afternoon sunshine after putting in a hard day's work coming up from Plaza Argentina and are now in our tents trying to rest up and get used to the living at our new altitude. Our team performed extremely well today and made short work of the steep scree field directly below camp. We are acclimatizing nicely as the amount of effort on today's move was significantly less than on our carry just a couple days ago although I'm not expecting the night to be all peaches and cream. Your first night over 16,000' on any trip is a tough one. Tomorrow we are hoping to get another carry of food and fuel up the hill and into Camp 2 before descending back here to continue our acclimation process. Slowly but surely...
RMI Guides Billy Nugent
On The Map
Posted by: Mark Tucker, Pepper Dee
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Greetings from High Camp on Aconcagua! Today was a big move day for the team, as we established ourselves at 19,600 feet in preparation for our summit bid. We battled some gusty, overcast weather getting up here, but as of 5 pm the skies around the upper mountain are clear, if a bit blustery. We are all hoping for an unconditional good break in the weather tomorrow, which as of now is the "big day" for the team. Keep us in your thoughts tomorrow; we're all hoping for a safe and successful summit day.
Love to everyone!
RMI Guides Mark Tucker & Pepper Dee
On The Map
Good luck Fred and fellow climbers. Have a great day!
Jerry and Carol Hedstrom
Posted by: Jerry & Carol Hedstrom on 1/22/2017 at 6:06 pm
Thinking of you a lot today, and hoping for a smooth and safe ascent (and descent of course). We couldn’t be prouder! :)
Posted by: Jenny M. on 1/22/2017 at 3:01 pm
Posted by: Billy Nugent, Hannah Smith
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 13,800'
Apologies, but I don't have much exciting information to report... We are enjoying a calm and partly cloudy rest day here at Plaza Argentina and tonight will be our final night in Basecamp before we make our move up to Camp 1 tomorrow. We've been enjoying the good food here as things will change higher up on the mountain. For breakfast we ate deliciously cheesy, ooey gooey, egg, onion, green pepper, and pancetta breakfast burritos courtesy of Hannah's expert level burrito rolling skills and a nice spread of pizzas for lunch. No doubt one last big dinner this evening will cap off the extravagant meals until the climbing is done and we are safely back in basecamp. We are spending the afternoon doing laundry, listening to music, reading, and making our final gear preparations. Tomorrow should be an exciting day.
Will check in next time from Camp 1!
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
Hi Dad (Jim Love),
I hope your toes are feeling better and you are enjoying some of the scenery! Proud of you!
Love,
Heather
Posted by: Heather Love on 1/22/2017 at 6:17 pm
Happy Birthday early Alec. Be safe and have fun. Love always-Mom (Kim Schulz)
Posted by: Kim Schulz on 1/21/2017 at 9:43 am
Posted by: Billy Nugent, Hannah Smith
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 13,800'
We're back from our first foray above Basecamp where we carried a load of food, fuel, and cold weather gear and cached it at over 16,000' in Aconcagua Camp 1. Some of the loosest scree fields and difficult footing on our entire route challenged us today but the team pulled through with good style. Our performance today bodes well for our chances higher on the mountain with the team staying on pace and efficiently navigating the tricky terrain. We started out around 9:30 am and were back in Basecamp before 4 PM which made for a full day but still left us time for a nap before dinner. The kitchen staff knew we were working hard today and rewarded us with a hearty dinner of steak and potatoes. Now it's off to bed with a full belly and no major plans for tomorrow...
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
Good luck Brian and the entire team! You got this! Deborah
Posted by: Deborah beggan on 1/21/2017 at 8:26 am
No milk noodles?!?!?!?!!! You
Posted by: Maude Lebowski on 1/20/2017 at 11:24 pm
Posted by: Ben Liken, Adam Knoff
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador
Hola From Otavalo, Ecuador,
This morning our team of intrepid climbers met our one man team and intrepid driver, Orgel, and headed into the not so subtle Quito morning rush hour.  Climbers heading off to a big mountain are always ready to leave the grips of the city in search for greater adventures but today Quito had a way of making sure we didn't rush off and lose sight of where we were.  Wall to wall cars made the first five miles take as long as the final 50 but rain was falling so we didn't feel rushed either way. Â
Our destination today was a volcano called Fuya Fuya, which rises to 14,700 feet, higher than Mt. Rainier, but in Ecuador is relatively low in comparison to others. We come here in January because it is supposed to be the "dry" season, but today this high, tropical landscaped proved otherwise. Light rain fell in the morning leaving Quito, but north of the city and higher up the clouds thickened and the rain turned real. In Seattle there are over a hundred ways to describe rain. I'm pretty sure today we only needed one. Let's just call it, solid. With a "solid" rain falling, we solved riddles in the trailhead shelter, ran quick sprints along the lake shore before sprinting back and did pull ups on the beams to pretend we were getting our heart rate up. All-in-all the acclimating process was short lived and we were headed down having never walked a foot uphill.Â
The rain continued to pour as we ate lunch in town and killed time before arriving at the hacienda for the evening. La Casa Sol sits high on a steep hill overlooking town and it was here that we had the day's most exciting event. With a we cobble stone street, our driver gunned it up the hill trying to get momentum before spinning out on the wet surface. It took two more goes to pull the van into the tiny parking spot and unload the bags. Ben and I had to put rocks behind the van's tires at one point to keep him from sliding backwards into the ditch.Â
As we say before a day of ice climbing in Bozeman, the adventure starts the second you get in the car.  Tomorrow's road promises to be even more thrilling! The road to the mountain....
Wish us luck on our way to Cayambe.
Saludos,
RMI Guides Adam Knoff, Ben Liken and Team
Posted by: Casey Grom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
Hello once again everyone.
We have arrived back in the digital world after another very enjoyable safari. We spent yesterday touring Tarangire National Park which is known for its elephants, in fact, it has more per square mile than any place on earth. And I can easily say it didn't disappoint! We saw hundreds if not thousands of elephants and even managed to take a break with a family, while some of them slept. There were plenty of other animals too- giraffe, zebra, hartebeest, bush bucks, Nile monitor, and many others. It was very surreal to be so close to them, and we were simply amazed at the abundance that were near the river, which runs though the park.
We never did see the cheetahs, or leopards, but perhaps that had something to do with all the lions we saw.
It's been a memorable experience for everyone and it's going to be sad to part ways with such a great bunch of folks. But now it's time to head home and share the stories.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and the Kilimanjaro/Safari crew
Thank you Casey for the adventure of a lifetime for your group and sharing for the rest of us as arm chair adventures.
Posted by: Robert Rutter on 1/20/2017 at 9:19 am
Hey Mom, your the greatest!!!!!!
Looks like a fun group, and posted pictures are beautiful. We hope your phone stays charged so you can take a lot of pictures. Dad is playing w us a lot but weather not good enough for the park yet, hopefully tomorrow. We miss you and I know Dad does too. Can’t wait to get your next text. Make good choices
Posted by: Max + Brooks on 1/26/2017 at 6:52 am
Looks awesome, are ya’ll gonna have to eat one of those little camels to survive?
Posted by: Charlie Munford on 1/25/2017 at 1:27 pm
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