Greetings from the Kili team!
We are up above 12,000' at the Shira Plateau. It's not very crowded on the mountain and our camp is set nicely to the side of the main sites. The trail was a little slick today but not too muddy and the team handled it well. The weather was warm again so the five and a half hours we spent hiking was pleasant. The food has really been excellent so far and everyone has been really surprised at how good the whole operation is here on Kilimanjaro. We are all relaxing now before dinner and then we'll get fueled up for a big day tomorrow.
That's all for now.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall & Team
Hola from Antisana Base Camp,
Here at base camp, elevation 14,400 feet, the view of the mountain, stars and surrounding landscape, as declared by the entire team is purely worth the price of admission. The team is feeling great and excited to be spending our first night in tents. The team was also psyched to break in our new base camp tent. An 8 person mini hotel perfect for dinner on cold evenings. We will be training tomorrow.
Adios for now!
RMI Guide Adam Knoff & Team
Hi everyone, Billy (Nugent) here checking in after the first official day on our 2015 Aconcagua expedition. Today was a crazy one and the team spent most of the day scrambling around trying to get everything ready for tomorrow´s departure to the mountain. One of our team members was the victim of freezing rain and thus a cancelled flight from O´Hare so she arrived in Mendoza this morning and was forced to hit the ground running. We went straight to the permit office to handle that and then made a quick stop to freshen up at the hotel before we departed for Penitentes where Grajales, our outfitter, has a packing facility near the trailhead. The rest of the team spent the morning tying up loose ends; making runs to the grocery store and gear shop to pick up last minute items before we all jumped in the van for a three-hour drive up to Penitentes in the mountains. Once we arrived we spent several hours packing and readying our loads for the mules that were broken up nicely by a great dinner at Ayelen, our hotel. Lots of things to remember means a fair bit of stress but that will all evaporate once we hit the trail tomorrow. The team is ready and in good spirits, eager to hit the trail! We´ll check in again from our first camp along the trekking route into basecamp.
All for now,
RMI Guide Billy Nugent and the gang
Lucy! St. Louis is routing for you, too! We will be reading about your progress and thinking about you! Good luck to you and the whole team! We love you!! Love from Mom, Erle, Donald, Donald Jr. & John
Posted by: Erle Broughton on 1/17/2015 at 9:15 pm
Good luck Billy and Company! I’ll be in Pete’s group following behind you guys. Getting ready to leave for Mendoza on Saturday. See you on the mountain!
Best regards,
Craig Falkenhagen
Atherton, CA
Posted by: Craig Falkenhagen on 1/15/2015 at 1:41 pm
We've got another rock star crew baby! Team 4 is at Camp 1 at 16,342' feet and everyone is feeling great! The views are getting better by the minute. A few clouds are slipping away in the distance and the breeze is keeping us cool. We are sipping hot soup and simply soaking up the sights. Tomorrow we plan on carrying more goods and gear higher up and I anticipate everyone is going to do awesome!!
If like to give a special message to my sister. Happy Birthday Jodi!!!
RMI Guide JJ Justman & Team
Hi there, this is Seth checking in from 10,000 feet on Kilimanjaro. Everyone is doing well after our first day on the trail.
We started early at the hotel, with breakfast at 6:30 this morning. I arrived a few minutes early but I was still one of the last ones to arrive. This is a motivated bunch of folks.
The drive to the trailhead was relatively uneventful but checking in at the national park entrance took a little longer than usual. The small delay was quickly forgotten after a few minutes of hiking. Everyone agreed that it felt great to stretch the legs after all the traveling.
The weather was great for the hike and we are hoping that carries over for the rest of our time on the mountain.
That's all for now.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Early this morning we made our summit attempt on Cayambe. Although we were unable to make it to the top, we gained some invaluable mountain experience and made many new personal high points. Spending the time at altitude will also help us be better acclimatized for our next two targets, Antisana and Cotopaxi. Just after leaving our break at 17,000 ft on Cayambe, we were faced with exceptionally high winds and freezing rain, conditions that just don't allow us to continue moving uphill safely. The decision was made to turn the entire team around descend back to the refugio (our mountain hut).
After making it back to our camp, we went right in to packing our gear and preparing for our descent. No rest for the weary! We made the short hike downhill to our waiting bus and started our journey to Termas Papallacta, a natural hot-spring resort that we called home for the evening. A nice, long soak in the hot springs does wonders for sore legs! The rest of our evening will be spent organizing and packing our gear, preparing for our move to Antisana in the morning.
Until next time,
RMI Guide Nick Hunt and team
Sorry about your summitt bid, good luck with the next one! Just catching up with your latest adventures. Stay safe, have fun and great posts. Hope you summitt the rest.
Love from cold MN! Kris, Jon and Boys
January 12, 2015, 1:30 PM PT
This is Zeb Blais checking in from high camp with a jubilant summit team. Today we topped out on Aconcagua at 2 PM in adverse weather conditions. We fought through a small snowstorm to get to the top and spent a brief time taking pictures on the summit before descending back down to camp where we are now hydrating, resting and preparing to head back to base camp tomorrow. Thanks for checking in.
January 12, 2015, 9:20 AM PTRMI Guide Zeb Blais just called from the Aconcagua summit! The team did well and they will check back in from high camp.
Congratulations to the team!
RMI Guide Zeb Blais calls in from high camp after their successful summit.
Just phoned RMI and the team is down theountain and will be in Mendosa today or tomorrow! Wow- the trip down is certainly faster than the trip up! Just thought I would post this update for those who are wondering what happened to our team!
Posted by: PKW on 1/15/2015 at 8:50 am
Haven’t had an update in many days. Are you all partying it up in base camp now?
It's another day of rest for our Aconcagua team at Base Camp. Initially our team was wondering why we were going to take a second day of rest here. After yesterday's carry to Camp 1 at 16,000 plus feet the team understands. This mountain climbing is tiring work!
We had a casual morning here at base. Steve and I made our famous home fried potatoes that even brought the Base Camp cooks out to get a plateful. After breakfast we went for a walk and got a great view of base camp from a whole different vantage point. Now team members are lounging, taking showers and ordering pizzas. Tomorrow we plan on moving up to Camp 1.
If you don't mind, I need to address one of RMI's owners, the Legendary Joe Horiskey. Joe, please, no matter what happens between the Sea...what's their name again...and the Green Bay Packers, I hope we can still be friends!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
Holler mi Familia!
I hope you two are not only surviving but enjoying yourselves too. The rest of my trip in Colorado was great. Mom and I are going to see a puppet show about caring for elders with dementia on Friday…how will you be spending your Friday night? Dad I booked us a meditation retreat that takes place in Auschwitz in November. Love and miss you both!!
Dad-To a man standing at the edge of a cliff, progress is defined as taking a step backwards.
Jenny-What is happening within us, will create what is happening outside of us.
I BELIEVE IN YOU, SO YOU BELIVE IN YOU!
Love, G
Posted by: G on 1/14/2015 at 6:01 pm
Christmas cards arrived yesterday and they look great! Jenny, thanks for all of you did getting the artwork ready. David, your 30 are in the mail today, the rest will follow this week. I am going to MN this weekend so I will be home to retrieve you two intrepid hikers from ORD on the 27th. Love you both!
M/N
Jambo! Our first Kilimanjaro trip of 2015 has begun.
Everyone came in on the same flight late last night and most of us slept in a bit this morning. We all managed to get together before lunch for a team meeting followed by a gear check. In the afternoon we all packed our stuff to get ready for the mountain. We had some thunder in the afternoon as well but it never rained at the hotel. The temperature is nice and warm and that bodes well for a nice hike tomorrow.
I'll check in from our first camp tomorrow.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Last night I was woken up at 2am by a flashing outside my tent. I thought to myself, "Who is taking photos right now!?" So I took advantage of being awake and got up to use the bathroom when I realized the flashing was actually coming from an enormous electrical storm nearly 50 miles east from basecamp. With a relatively large moon out, you could see the huge towering clouds stretching tens of thousands of feet into the air and the lightning was so intense and so massive that it was lighting up basecamp. How incredible! Never have I seen such a display of lightning!
On a less exciting note the team woke up to PERFECT weather. Boring right? No, but I capitalize perfect because it truly was. Breathe less wind, blue skies and warm temps. Perfect for sticking your nose into higher altitude. Which is exactly what we did! The team made the first carry to Camp I (16,200ft) like they were walking out to retrieve the morning paper. Casually. Very impressive! We arrived at Camp I, took a short break, cached our gear and made our descent back to basecamp. I ran down ahead of the group and prepared some pitchers of juice, fresh fruit and sliced cucumber with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt for lunch. The team is now taking a well deserved siesta before dinner as we look forward to our last day in basecamp tomorrow.
RMI Guide Steve Gately
Go McCulloughs!! We’re all pulling for you. Terry, you’re missing all of the fun in San Antonio.
Posted by: Mark, Charlie, Danita, Debra, Martha, Rhonda, Jenn on 1/15/2015 at 6:11 am
Hope you are having fun! We can’t wait to see you soon! Ice cancelled school so did not travel….Lumu!!
Posted by: Angela Chapman on 1/14/2015 at 7:30 pm
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