RMI Expeditions Blog
Jambo! Our trip has begun. The group has been filtering in over the last couple of days. Today at breakfast was the first time we were all together as a team. We spent the day going over info about the trip, in general, and the mountain, specifically, and then I had a look at everyone's gear.
Everything is looking great and we are set for an early departure tomorrow.
Kilimanjaro came out of the clouds right at sunset and I was able to snap a pick from the top of the water tower here at the hotel.
I'll check in from Camp 1 tomorrow.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Summit! The
Mount Rainier Summit Climb, led by Adam Knoff and
Pete Van Deventer, reached the top this morning and began their descent just before 8:00 a.m. There were some gusty winds and clear skies. We just received an update from
Adam Knoff that the team is leaving Ingraham Flats and will be back to Camp Muir in about an hour.
Yesterday morning I flew into Kathmandu. It was my first daytime flight into this wondrous city. It was beautifully clear weather, and seeing the
Himalaya from the air provided an awesome perspective -- with
Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and many other peaks visible on the horizon. This is my third 8000-meter expedition, with previous expeditions to Cho Oyu and Shishapangma. My goal for this expedition is to climb Manaslu (8156m)- solo and without bottled oxygen.
Today I had a relaxing afternoon catching up with my Nepalese friends on the outskirts of Kathmandu valley. Drinking Nepali Raksi (moonshine) and Chhaang (rice beer) along with some quite tasty finger foods - with no ill effects this morning - hopefully I'm working up some immunity to Nepalese microorganisms. However, the heat and humidity of Kathmandu have me daydreaming of Manaslu’s glacial base camp. I’m excited to be back in Nepal!
The next two days I will busy myself with buying supplies and packing for the trek in. I plan to depart on the 2nd of September for Arughat, a small village in central Nepal. From Arughat it is an eight-day trek into Manaslu base camp. This time of year is hot, humid, and wet; I am packing my umbrella as the trek starts in the lowland rainforest.
RMI Guide Alex Barber
RMI Guide Dave Hahn and the
Mount Rainier summit climb team reached the summit in clear, calm and chilly conditions. The team spent some time on top marveling in the views and then began their descent at 9:25 a.m. After a successful summit yesterday, the Five-Day Muir Summit Climb team, led by
Jake Beren, is on their way down from Camp Muir. We look forward to congratulating the teams in Ashford this afternoon!
The
Mt. Rainier Four- and Five- Day Summit Climbs, led by
Billy Nugent and
Jake Beren respectively, reached the summit this morning! It was a cold day on top with winds steady between 10-15 mph. The teams are doing well as they descend through a cloud cap hovering on the mountain top.
Congratulations to today's summit climb teams!
The last week before the start of an expedition or climb can be a hectic and stressful period. Between packing and repacking your bags and squaring away your work and life to be gone for a few days (or a month!), there is a ton to do. It might be tempting to forego your workouts during this period in order to rest up. Still others might channel their stress into a last week of intense training.
Rest is important, but so is maintenance of your fitness. This is the period to taper your training plan, striking a balance somewhere in between the two extremes.
The ultimate goal of the taper period is to reduce fatigue (physical as well as mental and emotional), while maintaining fitness. There are four main parameters that you can vary in your training to create a taper: intensity, volume, frequency, and duration of the taper.
Intensity is the only variable that doesn’t change. You should continue to do your workouts at a similar intensity to what you have built up to. This means that your aerobic workouts are still slow enough that you stay in your aerobic zone, but at the same time, your
intensity workouts such as intervals and strength are still done at or above the level that your have been training at. Achieve the reduction in fatigue that is requisite of these workouts by varying the volume and frequency instead
Volume should be greatly reduced during the taper period. Research recommends that training volume be reduced by 50-70 percent for endurance athletes. While this may seem like a radical drop in training, the reduction in volume will eliminate training fatigue, while the maintenance of intensity will maintain your fitness. Reducing your training volume also opens up time in your day to complete other tasks that need to be taken care of before you go!
Frequency of workouts can also be reduced to lessen the training fatigue. If you have been doing multiple workouts a day, drop to just a single workout per day.
Duration of the taper can vary. For a very aerobic and endurance based sport such as mountaineering, about a week is ideal.
To apply this to your training regime, think about the schedule of workouts that you have been following already. Your aerobic workouts are a great place to dramatically reduce your volume; a two hour workout could be reduced to just an hour or 45 minutes of easy aerobic work at the same pace you have done your longer workouts at (resist the temptation to push the pace harder). In your interval workouts, take longer rest breaks between intervals, and cut the number in half, while still doing a quality warm-up and cool-down. With strength workouts, maintain the same weights, but reduce the number of sets and repetitions per set.
This period is also a great time to focus on
stretching and recovery for your body. Take special care with your nutrition, recovery routine, and sleep habits to allow your body to recover from the training fatigue of the last several months, and you will show up in peak form!
Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts here on the
RMI Blog!
Hi this is Seth along with the group. We are on the way to the airport after a great last day on Safari.
We awoke this morning in Kikoti Camp and after a great breakfast we hit the road. We traversed back through
Tarangire National Park and were lucky to catch a few more glimpses of a pride of lions. After that we made our way back to Arusha, did some shopping and came back to the Dik Dik Hotel.
Everyone has had a great trip but after two weeks away, I think most everyone is excited to return home. As for me I am sticking around for another trip and I am really looking forward to heading back up on the mountain.
I'll be checking in again soon!
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
RMI Guides Garrett Stevens and Casey Grom led their teams of
Four Day Summit Climbers to the summit of Mt. Rainier today. Garrett reported a thin cloud cap starting to form but a pretty nice day overall. Winds were very low on the lower portions of the mountain but had increased near the summit. The teams will spend a bit of time in the crater and then descend back to Camp Muir. After a short break the teams will continue down to Paradise and conclude their program with a short celebration at Rainier BaseCamp.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb teams!
Well, we're all safely out of the mountains after a great week of climbing and training on
Mount Shuksan's Sulphide glacier. Our climbing team gained proficiency moving in diverse terrain in the mountains, including crevassed glaciers, steep snow and ice, and 4th & 5th class rock. We also practiced lots of knots and hitches and crevasse rescue systems.
We packed a lot into the past week, and the weather was perfect throughout. Our team was strong and cohesive and we all reached the summit Mount Shuksan in good style. It was a pleasure to climb with everyone. Nice work team!
RMI Guide
Mike Walter
The Four Day Summit Climb teams led by
RMI Guides Geoff Schellens and Adam Knoff reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today under sunny skies. The teams spent a little time on the crater before starting their descent around 7:30 am. Once at Camp Muir the teams will take a short break and continue down to Paradise.
Congratulations to today's
Summit Climb teams!
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I saw a picture but I could have photo shopped myself in that picture as well.
Posted by: Geoffrey on 9/4/2014 at 6:41 pm
GO STERLING
Posted by: BILL RYCHLIK on 9/2/2014 at 7:16 am
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