RMI Expeditions Blog
Posted by: Brent Okita, Leon Davis
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
100% on the summit of Mt. Rainier!
RMI Guides Brent Okita and Leon Davis led their Four Day Summit Climb teams to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Brent reported gorgeous weather with no wind. The teams began their descent from the crater rim just after 7 am. We look forward to greeting them back in Ashford later today.
Way to climb!! Congratulations!
Posted by: Elias de Andres Martos, Robby Young
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Peru Seminar
Hello, this is the Peru Seminar and Elías and Robby and Peter with the team at High Camp on Copa. We are currently at 5,200 meters. The crew climbed really well this morning. It took us slightly less than 4 hours to move from Base Camp to here, and we are currently settled in, cooking dinner, replenishing water, and getting ready for what's ahead tonight: the biggest of our objectives, Copa, at 6,200 meters. We'll be checking in tomorrow, hopefully from the summit, and stay tuned for more. That's it for now. Everybody's doing really well, and we wish everything is good at home. Bye!
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos calls in from High Camp on Copa, Peru.
Loved the audio message from Elias. Wish all a productive night’s rest before attempting your highest and final pinnacle!
Posted by: Laura Voisinet on 7/9/2015 at 8:40 am
Gortex was the outfit of choice when we arrived at the Kilimanjaro National Park Entrance Gate this morning. Lucky for us, the rain stopped and we had nice conditions as we climbed through the rainforest on Kilimanjaro's lower slopes and the giant heather in the Moorland Zone to reach Machame Camp. The team did well and we're all our tucked in for the night at ~10,000 ft on this beautiful mountain.
Jet lag still prevails and we are looking forward a good night's sleep for our first night on the mountain. We will check in again tomorrow with our progress towards the Roof of Africa.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
On The Map
Love the pictures and hearing where you are on the climb, looking forward to the next instalment
Posted by: Emma and Alex on 7/12/2015 at 8:11 am
Mark’s blog is great - didn’t know we’d get pictures too! Y’all look like a scout troop standing by the bus after a ‘dressing down’ by the scout leader (what did you guys do?) except for Bonny who can’t help but smile. (Was she the informant?) Love to you all. Best wishes for a great climb, from the Lowlanders.
Posted by: Meg Race on 7/9/2015 at 6:43 am
Posted by: Dave Hahn, Steve Gately, JM Gorum
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 14,200'
Tuesday, July 7, 2015 - 10:56 pm PT
Not surprisingly, this morning wasn't quite right for moving higher. It was socked in, snowing and a little blustery through the night. By morning, the blustery part was finished at 14 Camp, but we could hear the big winds still raking the crest of the West Buttress, a few thousand feet overhead. The team met for pancakes in the POSH and then dispersed to do camp chores and more wall building. In the afternoon, as the storm seemed to be losing a little energy, RMI Guides Steve Gately and JM Gorum raced up to 16,200' to fetch back some of our cached food. With the extended forecast being a little sloppy, we want more supplies at 14,000' just in case avalanche conditions should develop between here and the cache site. They were up and down again in less than two hours. As we ate dinner, the upper mountain weather continued to improve. By bedtime, there was plenty of optimism that despite the forecasts, we'd get the break we need for moving to high camp.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Every extra day waiting for safe conditions to ascend is another day to spend soaking up the wisdom of Master Hahn. And pretty soon you’ll all be snow masons with the great walls you’ve been building. Good luck all on the next stage of the journey!
Posted by: Charlie Thomas on 7/8/2015 at 7:40 pm
we anxiously await the climax to the summit but happy to hear of the precautions taken by the team leaders…thinking about you Pat!
Posted by: mom and dad grengs on 7/8/2015 at 12:36 pm
After an enjoyable and well-deserved rest day at Hacienda Chilcabamba, we are headed up to the Jose Ribas Refugio on Cotopaxi today. We’ve had some good views of Cotopaxi from Chilcabamba, and the weather forecast looks favorable for the next few days. Our plan is to relax in the hut this afternoon, eat an early dinner, and hit the sleeping bags in preparation for an alpine start (likely around midnight) for our summit bid.
We’re excited for the climb, and hopefully our next dispatch will be with news of summit success!
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
Best of luck Dad! -Madison
Posted by: Madison Mason on 7/9/2015 at 9:52 am
Good luck today, Dad and Dennis!
Love,
Linds, Daniel, & Wyatt
Posted by: Lindsay on 7/9/2015 at 8:34 am
Posted by: JJ Justman, Solveig Waterfall
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide JJ Justman and the Five Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide Solveig Waterfall reached Columbia Crest, the highest point on Mt. Rainier and in Washington State, around 6:50 am. While on the summit the teams enjoyed calm, really nice conditions. The teams began their descent around 7:30 am. We look forward to seeing them back in Ashford later this afternoon.
Congratulations Climbers!
Posted by: Billy Nugent, Mike King, Sean Collon
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Hi all!
Billy here checking in for the last time from this year's Denali expedition. Our team showed tremendous poise after our butt kicking on our first summit attempt and rested through another marginal day on the way to our eventual summit day that was absolutely beautiful. We encountered some moderate winds in the 30 mph range but generally enjoyed clear skies and decently warm temps. It took us just over 12 hours of solid work to make the round trip mission from our high camp at 17,000' and the whole team was pretty worked by the end. The next morning we awoke at a leisurely hour, packed up camp and descended the West Buttress back to Camp 4 at 14,000' where we were greeted by Dave Hahn's expedition with cheesy bacon quesadillas! Quite the treat... After picking up our cache at 14 we continued down through extremely deep snow to 11,000' where we ended up camping again because the team was pretty wasted yet again. Our final day on the mountain was surprisingly clear with only occasional sections of whiteout as we marched down the Kahiltna towards Basecamp. Except for a little excitement involving a crevasse fall the trip was mostly a slog. And as we arrived at the lower airstrip around 6 pm we could see the runway markers of the upper airstrip but were relieved to hear from Lisa that we wouldn't need to travel any further. K2 was already on the way and going to land right next to us. And just like that we were in the land of the living slamming burgers and downing beers with all of the tourists in Talkeetna. Talk about a culture shock! Needless to say, the gang went big rocking the Fairview and ended up closing down the Teepee (and nearly getting kicked out!). A proper way to end a successful Denali expedition. Too much fun!
I'd like to thank both Mike King and Sean Collon for their hard work and the good times and the rest of the team members for persevering despite crummy weather forecasts and tough odds. It's a trip I won't forget for a while.
See ya next year!
RMI Guide Billy Nugent.
Congratulations RMI and my ole buddy Doug. Glad to hear you guys had a great trip. One more notch in the belt.
Mother Goose
Posted by: John Newland on 7/8/2015 at 5:51 am
Great going what a trip ! Congrats Kevin , sober up & come home to get ready for another party.
Irma
Posted by: Irma on 7/8/2015 at 4:01 am
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer
Categories: Mountaineering Fitness & Training
There is no way around it: there are some days where fitting my planned workout into my schedule is impossible. On the days when chores and errands catch up with me and I don’t have much time to do a workout, I have a go-to workout that I know I can do in 45-50 minutes. On a day when life feels too busy and I’m tempted to blow my workout off, having a quick workout ready helps me to stay motivated and get out the door.
My workout involves a short, 10 minute running warm-up, 15 minutes of short intervals, a 5-10 minute cool-down, and a short series of core exercises. Depending on what phase of training I am in and what my goals are, I may alter the pace, number, or duration of my intervals. During my aerobic building phase, I might run at a tempo that is slightly slower than my 5k race pace for 2 minutes, recover at a light jog for 1 minute, and repeat 4 more times. This bump in pace helps to mix up my tempo and keeps my legs feeling a bit quicker, but the effort isn’t so hard that I’m building up large amounts of lactic acid. Later in the season during an intensity phase, I might push the pace of those intervals right to my threshold, or do shorter 1 minute, all out efforts, with a full minute of recovery in between. This helps to build my anaerobic threshold, and develop my ability to recover as well. The warm up and cool down are really important for preventing injuries, and I try to resist the temptation to skip or cut short either.
The light core session to close doesn’t necessarily build a lot more strength, like a dedicated strength session would be designed to do, but it gives me maintenance. I mix up the exercises, but an example workout might be:
- 3 sets of 50 crunches
- 3 sets of 20 pushups
- and 3 sets of 20 dips
- 100 crunches (feet on the ground, curling my torso towards my knees, but not a full sit-up)
- 50 sit-ups to the side (alternating sides)
- 25 leg raises (some straight on, some to either side)
- and 100 more crunches to finish
Posted by: Elias de Andres Martos, Robby Young
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Peru Seminar
Elevation: 10,000'
Greetings from Nevado Copa Basecamp, one of the most beautiful places on earth!(seriously) We all climbed this morning to this idyllic place, and ever since, our eyes have been put on the slopes of this Andean giant that sits before us. All is ready to launch tomorrow towards high camp, and our forecast is telling us we'll have the best weather possible. Everyone is really well acclimated, and the good sports reign amongst the crew. Stay tuned for the progress of the graduation climb of this 2nd edition of our Peru Seminar.
RMI Guide Elías de Andres Martos and team
We had a very long and successful day in Ecuador yesterday. It actually started the night before, with an eleven o’clock wake up call for an alpine start on our summit bid of Cayambe. The weather had improved dramatically, with a starry sky, no wind, and warm temperatures. We set out from the climbers’ hut a bit after midnight and the team topped out on the summit after nearly eight hours of climbing. Challenging climbing conditions were encountered, including steep slopes and large neve penitentes.
Everyone descended safely to the climbers’ hut and soon we were bumping down the four-wheel drive road back to town. Our drive south to our current hacienda, Chilcabamba, was delayed as roads were closed for hours for the entrance of the Pope into Quito. The Pope’s visit to Ecuador is obviously an important event, and heightened security is expected. Unfortunately for us, the timing meant we could not travel from the north of Quito to the south of Quito for hours. Our group of weary climbers finally arrived at our hacienda 22 hours after waking up to go climbing. A hot shower was about all we could muster up before hitting the sack.
After a great (but long) day yesterday, now we’re enjoying a peaceful rest day at the hacienda. Tomorrow we’re off to the Cotopaxi climbers’ hut for another climbing adventure. We’ll be in touch…
RMI Guide Mike Walter
Impressive Chuck! Tell the Pope hello!
Posted by: Jeremy Bates on 7/7/2015 at 1:54 pm
Proud of you, Chuck H.!
Posted by: Jeremy Morton on 7/7/2015 at 1:24 pm
Way to go ....so happy to here that you guys were able to summit
Posted by: Bill riggs on 7/9/2015 at 2:23 pm
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