RMI Expeditions Blog
The
Mt. Rainier Summit Climb, led by JJ Justman, made the decision to turn early this morning. With winds gusts reaching 50 mph and new snow, the team spun at Ingraham Flats (11,200'). Safe and sound back at Camp Muir, they will eat some breakfast before the begin their descent back to Paradise.
Well we had a really nice last day in Russia yesterday. We began the day meeting with our tour guide, Galina, and headed out on a quick tour of St. Petersburg. We stopped off at St. Nicholas Church, stopped by the grand St. Isaac's Cathedral and made our way to the famous Heritage Museum. Not having a ton of time to see the thousands of exhibits so we did and express trip to see the highlights, which included a few paintings and sculptures by Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, and other great artist. It was pretty amazing to see so much art in one place and everyone enjoyed the brief visit.
We took a short break before meeting back up with our tour guide for a evening canal tour via boat of this historical city, which was a great way to wrap up a wonderful trip.
That's all for this trip! The team heads home tomorrow. Thanks for following us.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Today the group toured the Urubamba River Valley that was and continues to be a fertile farming area for the local people of Cusco. With large varieties of corn and potatoes being grown, we could see terraces that the Inca used reaching well above 12,000 ft.
We had several stops on our way to Ollantaytambo, a wonderful Incan site featuring farming terraces, ceremonial stone work and intact buildings used for storing food. Our impromptu stop to sample chicha, a fermented corn drink that locals enjoy while playing a fun coin toss style yard game also yielded two cute puppies sleeping by a fire and a guinea pig farm. Cuy, or guinea pig, is a common form of protein consumed by locals and tourists alike.
We wrapped the day finalizing our packs for an early departure. Tomorrow morning we begin our Salkantay trek to
Machu Picchu, the entire group is excited to leave Cusco.
RMI Guide Mike King
Good evening from Huaripampa, our camp on our way to Artesonraju Base. For the writer here, starting the Santa Cruz trek from this side has been a revelation of yet undiscovered beauty. We're currently enjoying an incredible dinner of fresh trout, zucchini soup and fried banana, fueling for tomorrow's hike. We're all enjoying social time and laughter inside or pyramidal dining tent.
Stay tuned on our progress,
RMI Guides ElÃas de Andres Martos, Eric Frank, Peter and team
Safari is on! That's it, I am buying a good camera. The photos taken today were impressive by one of the team members, shown on his computer screen downloaded at dinner was fantastic. To get so near a wild animal and feel no threat is an unusual experience unless you do it all the time. Such a thrill to relive the game viewing later. So many and such a great diversity in such a short time span, tough to take it all in at the moment. Look out cover of National Geographic, we are well under way.
Lake Manyara was a nice tour this afternoon after a leisurely departure from the Dik Dik hotel this morning. Tomorrow the Ngorongoro Crater, better go charge my camera battery.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
We have all assembled in the Russian capital city of Moscow. Most of the group arrived this afternoon after nearly 24 hours, or in some cases more, of traveling. Needless to say, everyone is tired, a bit jetlagged, and we're still waiting on a few bags, but psyched to be here and ready to go. We caught a great dinner down the street at a gastropub, and then are now headed to bed to sleep off the travel and be ready for our tour of the Kremlin and nearby cathedrals tomorrow. Thanks for following our
Russian adventure, we'll be in touch again soon.
RMI Guides
Pete Van Deventer &
JM Gorum and team
RMI Guide Tyler Reid and the Four Day Summit Climb July 30 - 2 August reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. The team reported cold and windy temperatures but clear skies about 8,500'. The team will return to Camp Muir for a short break before continuing down to Paradise this afternoon. We will look them at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon as they celebrate their accomplishment.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb team!
Today was a great day for the first day of our
RMI Artesonraju Expedition- incredible landscape on the acclimatization hike, a stellar crew, and great weather. We hiked up to 14,400’ to our traditional destination of Lake Churup, and we had incredible views of the range, the glacial lake and the mountain of the same name. We hiked back to town and had a team lunch before returning to our hotel for some packing and relaxing. We’re heading tomorrow to the trailhead, at the town of Vaqueria. Everyone is doing great and is very excited.
We’ll be checking from the trail tomorrow, as we camp on our way to Base Camp.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
Hello from the little Swiss oasis that is Huaraz's Hotel Andino! The
Artesonraju team had a full day of acclimating. Early this morning we taxied across the city to a local rock climbing area and snuck in a few pitches before the sun got too hot. By noon we were spent and trekked back into the city to grab some lunch. An afternoon siesta left us refreshed to walk to the city overlook and enjoy the sunset.
We are all packed up and ready to launch into the mountains tomorrow morning. Wish us luck as we embark on this adventure.
RMI Guide Eric Frank
This is RMI Guide
Mike King checking in from
Cusco. Our team has arrived with high spirits and all luggage accounted for. We spent the day touring 3 Inca sites and admiring the phenomenal rock work and immense size of the what the Inca accomplished without iron and wheels in just 80ish years. Cusco sitting at 11,400ft elevation requires the Team to acclimate before we reach 16,010 ft on our second day trekking. Tomorrow we will tour the Sacred Valley along the Urubamba river.
We will check in tomorrow, thanks for following along!
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Glad to hear all are safe- hoping your climb, though shortened, was still a great adventure!
Posted by: Nan Slone on 8/3/2016 at 11:31 am
Glad you are safe and sound.
Posted by: Marcie McGuire on 8/3/2016 at 8:29 am
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