The Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide Mike Haugen along with the Expedition Skills Seminar - Paradise led by Geoff Schellens reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. As of 7 am both teams were on their descent and approaching the top of Disappointment Cleaver en route back to Camp Muir.
Conditions are beautiful this morning with warm temperatures and light winds reported from Camp Muir (10,080').
Congratulations to today's climbing teams!
Congratulations team. I was so intent on getting my post climb comma sleep I did not get to say a proper good by to you all. It was a pleasure climbing with all of you. Truly an inspiring group of folks to climb with. There was never a doubt that this entire team was going to make it “up top”. Thank you all for your inspiration. Thank you Scott for the post climb refreshment drink. Thank you Mike, Josh, and my rope team leader JM for taking such great care of us.
PS: I did wake up from my 10 hour comma sleep and thought, yes, I want to do this again!
Posted by: David Fruin on 7/12/2014 at 7:58 am
Helen and Roger, I hope you are having the time of your life. I’ve been thinking about you and praying for your safety. Stay warm and I am sure you are enjoying the beautiful view. Hugs to you both!!!
July 11, 2014 - 4:00 am PT
Good day RMI followers. The news today is sun, sun and more sun! We spent the morning reviewing mountaineering techniques in preparation for The Big Day on Mt. Elbrus! And speaking of the big day, rumor is it is going to be gorgeous! Keep your fingers crossed for us. We are all doing great and having a blast. It's nice when a team that is diverse in age can all joke around, have fun and enjoy the mountains together. The big item on my plate is deciding what song to wake the team up with. It's either Eye of the Tiger or TNT. If you have any other suggestions let me know.
Stay tuned for a call on the summit!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
July 10, 2014 - 10:32 pm PT
Hey all,
Today we awoke to just about the same weather we went to bed with yesterday, that is mostly cloudy with a little wind and snow. Knowing that we weren't walking up hill in it, we had a multiple-course breakfast of bacon, fried tortillas with sugar, bagels, eggs, and even some sausage gravy. By the time we finished up the weather had trended from poor to stormy. With winds and snow on the rise, everyone helped in building some walls and re-anchoring our cook tent. Looking above to high camp we radioed with some of the other teams. They said they were in pretty much the same weather and were staying put. The whole team is keeping vibes positive as we wait for Denali to stop what it does best.....storm, storm, storm.
All the best,
RMI Guide Ben Liken
Thanks for the birthday wishes Joe and Sean. Hope you and the rest of the team get a break in the weather soon. Cheers to all of you and have a wonderful day!
Hi, this is Leon calling from Boston Basin Camp. We had a beautiful day getting here and just enjoying an evening after dinner. All is well. Tomorrow we are having a training day and planning to head up and climb Sharkfin Tower. Tomorrow's weather looks great so we are psyched. I'll talk to you guys tomorrow. Bye.
RMI Guide Leon Davis
Hello this is the Peru climbing team. Elias speaking, Robby next to me, and the climbers are taking a break at 5,000 meters. We were supposed to have called from the summit, but heavy winds and trying to get down delayed the phone call. But we have finished our last rappel. It was a pretty interesting one- a free-hanging rappel over bergschrund. We are taking a break just to anticipate the remaining ground, which is a pretty easy travel to Camp 1, from where we will be picking up our gear and heading out to base camp. We are pretty excited about that, but we still have a couple hours to go on the glacier. We just wanted to let you know everything went well with the last of our climbs, the most challenging one, Tocllaraju, 6,023 meters. We rocked it; we are pretty tired but psyched. The route has been as challenging as any of the two guys that are here who have climbed it, have ever seen it. We are happy with the work done. We will let you know more when we can post tomorrow when we arrive in Huaraz, where we can post some pictures. Thank you for all of the support to all of you who have been following our blog. The next post will be from Huaraz tomorrow. That's it for now, 2 pm on Thursday. Tocllaraju! The Peru Seminar will be over soon.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos calling in after Tocllaraju summit.
In the North Cascades, RMI Guide Lindsay Fixmer and team reached the summit of Forbidden Peak via the West Ridge. Lindsay reported perfect weather during their summit bid and good route conditions.
Way to Climb!
Good morning, this is RMI Guide Eric Frank checking in from the summit of Alpamayo. It's just before noon here in Peru. We had a pretty amazing climb today. Woke up to gorgeous weather, clear skies. Everyone made it to the top. We are just about to start rappelling down. We will leave a message and let you know we got down safely. Thanks for following along. Bye.
Update: July 10, 2014 2:21 PM PT
The team is back at high camp safe and sound. They are packing up to head down to base camp and are looking forward to an amazing meal prepared by their base camp cook.
RMI Guide Eric Frank
RMI Guide Eric Frank calls in from the Alpamayo summit!
An accomplished skier and mountaineer, RMI Guide Tyler Reid knows a thing or two about exciting ski mountaineering trips and the Chile’s Volcanoes Ski Mountaineering Expedition stands out as one of his favorites. Tyler sat down to reflect on ten of the best things about skiing the Chilean Volcanoes:
10. The Timing. September is an amazing time to be skiing, and a healthy dose does wonders for your patience level while waiting for the Northern Hemisphere winter.
9. Pisco Sours. The perfect cap on any ski day.
8. Araucarias (Monkey Puzzle Trees). Combined with the volcanic lunar landscapes, these add to the prehistoric nature of the subalpine landscapes, and you get the sensation you might run into dinosaurs at any moment.
7. Young Volcanoes. Villarica’s summit crater is a boiling cauldron. Llaima last erupted in…2009!
6. 4 Volcanoes in 10 Days. Many expeditions are lucky to climb one mountain in 10 days.
5. The Proximity. The relative spacing of these four mountains could not be more perfect. Less car time, more skiing.
4. Light Backpacks. Most international expeditions involve hauling heavy loads. Not really the case on this trip. Three out of four of these peaks we ski with day packs.
3. The Corn. There’s something about Southern Hemisphere corn that’s extra buttery (corn snow that is).
2. The Country. Chile is a land of otherworldly landscapes, interesting culture, and incredibly friendly people.
1. Aesthetic Lines. The ski descents themselves are even more impressive than the summits.
Find out more about skiing Chile’s Volcanoes this September on RMI’s Chile’s Volcanoes Ski Mountaineering Expedition…
First and foremost, please tell me Argentina won. Please. This morning our team awoke to beautiful clear skies. The twin summits of Europe's highest peak were shining and in the faint distance several climbers could be seen on the upper slopes.
Lower down we prepared our packs and after a hearty breakfast we laced up our boots and pulled up our knickers for a good day of acclimatization. The entire team did fabulous as we made it above Pastukhova Rocks with an end altitude of 15,500 feet. I swear some of the team wanted to just keep climbing to the top!
Now, we are back at camp recovering from a great day in the Russian mountains.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
July 9, 2014 - 10:34 pm PT
It wasn't such a bad day to start. There was plenty of blue sky overhead at 6 AM and a little wind to contend with up high, but the day had potential to be just right for moving to 17,000 ft. The team was feeling good and ready. But we held off, talked some on the radio to friends at 17K (teams up there were staying put, not going for the top) and we watched the weather deteriorate. The winds increased, a cloud cap formed on the mountain and the rest of the sky began to cloud up. Before it clogged up completely, we roped up and took a short walk to "The Edge of the World" to look down on the Northeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier. We belayed each other out onto the overhanging prow of rock for hero shots. Then we headed back to camp and hunkered down in the tents for an afternoon of light snow and heavy cloud. We'll hope for better weather tomorrow.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
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9. Pisco Sours. The perfect cap on any ski day.
8. Araucarias (Monkey Puzzle Trees). Combined with the volcanic lunar landscapes, these add to the prehistoric nature of the subalpine landscapes, and you get the sensation you might run into dinosaurs at any moment.
7. Young Volcanoes. Villarica’s summit crater is a boiling cauldron. Llaima last erupted in…2009!
6. 4 Volcanoes in 10 Days. Many expeditions are lucky to climb one mountain in 10 days.
5. The Proximity. The relative spacing of these four mountains could not be more perfect. Less car time, more skiing.
4. Light Backpacks. Most international expeditions involve hauling heavy loads. Not really the case on this trip. Three out of four of these peaks we ski with day packs.
3. The Corn. There’s something about Southern Hemisphere corn that’s extra buttery (corn snow that is).
2. The Country. Chile is a land of otherworldly landscapes, interesting culture, and incredibly friendly people.
1. Aesthetic Lines. The ski descents themselves are even more impressive than the summits.
Find out more about skiing Chile’s Volcanoes this September on RMI’s Chile’s Volcanoes Ski Mountaineering Expedition…
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Congratulations team. I was so intent on getting my post climb comma sleep I did not get to say a proper good by to you all. It was a pleasure climbing with all of you. Truly an inspiring group of folks to climb with. There was never a doubt that this entire team was going to make it “up top”. Thank you all for your inspiration. Thank you Scott for the post climb refreshment drink. Thank you Mike, Josh, and my rope team leader JM for taking such great care of us.
PS: I did wake up from my 10 hour comma sleep and thought, yes, I want to do this again!
Posted by: David Fruin on 7/12/2014 at 7:58 am
Helen and Roger, I hope you are having the time of your life. I’ve been thinking about you and praying for your safety. Stay warm and I am sure you are enjoying the beautiful view. Hugs to you both!!!
Posted by: Vickie Davis on 7/12/2014 at 5:50 am
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