RMI Expeditions Blog

Mexico’s Volcanoes: SUMMIT ON IXTACCIHUATL!

January 22, 2014

Posted by: Seth Waterfall, Geoff Schellens

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mexico

Elevation: 17,340'

Hey! This is Seth checking in from the summit of Ixta. We came up from high camp in just under five hours. We had a great climb and we are taking a bunch of photos. We are going to turn around and head back to where we stashed our packs in the crater. We will then head back to high camp and finally onto Puebla tonight. Everybody is psyched and feeling good! We will check in when we are at the hotel. RMI Guide Seth Waterfall

Seth from Summit of Ixta 1-22-14

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Congrats on reaching the summit of Ixta! You just saved our son a bunch of money by not having to attempt it a third time! Stay safe and enjoy your time there!

Posted by: Brad & Lori Briggs on 1/22/2014 at 6:43 pm

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Aconcagua: Nugent and Team back in Mendoza

January 22, 2014

Posted by: Walter Hailes, Katrina Bloemsma, Billy Nugent

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua

Thanks to everyone that have followed along... The team is back in Mendoza and enjoying some of the finer things in life: food, wine, sunshine, hanging by the pool, etc. We had a great team dinner last night and are now hanging out and lazing around while we wait for our flights back to the states and Canada. Despite not getting the summit we had a ton of fun and a hell of an adventure. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the group for being fun, hard-working, and determined. 'til next year, RMI Guides Billy Nugent, Walter Hailes and Katrina Bolemsma

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Hi—

We’ve loved following your journey, team. Thank you for sharing it : )

Posted by: Rocky the climbing pup (and Kendra) on 1/22/2014 at 6:46 pm

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Mexico’s Volcanoes: Waterfall and Team ready for Summit Bid on Ixta

January 21, 2014

Posted by: Seth Waterfall, Geoff Schellens

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mexico

Elevation: 15,000'

Hey this is Seth checking in from High Camp on Ixta, that’s just over 15,000’ for us. We came up today from our last camp. We spent about four and a half hours on the trail, everyone is doing excellent. Tents are all set up and we are firing up the stoves getting ready to have dinner. Then we will talk about our strategy for the climb and have an early bedtime. We will be getting up in the middle of the night and will head out for the summit. We will call you when we reach that point. Hope all is well back home. RMI Guide Seth Waterfall and Team.

Seth Waterfall calling in from High Camp on Ixta.

Aconcagua: Justman & Team Try to Carry to Camp 2, Turned by Weather

January 21, 2014

Posted by: JJ Justman, Mike King, Steve Gately

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua

Elevation: 16,200'

Blustery, breezy, gusty. These are all words that describe Camp One and Aconcagua as a whole right now. We are in full Viento Blanco mode right now. The white wind. The team tried to do a carry to Camp Two but the winds kept knocking us off our feet. I'm positive we could have pushed through it but we have time and there is no reason to risk someone getting hurt. So we turned around and are taking a rest day with the sun shining through the tents listening to the freight train of wind above us. Everyone is doing well and we are keeping our fingers crossed for better weather so we can carry to 18,000'. RMI Guide JJ Justman

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Diane and others, rock on!
Love the blog, what day is summit planned for?
Safe climbing, take and post some nightime astrophotography shots if you can, would love to see clear skies starfields wide image with DLSR.

Posted by: Mike Rosinski on 1/22/2014 at 12:55 pm

remember Grasshopper….all things worth having require much work to obtain. work hard with your team

Posted by: Mark Eason on 1/22/2014 at 11:12 am

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Aconcagua: Nugent & Team at Pampa de las Lenas for the Night

January 20, 2014

Posted by: Billy Nugent, Walter Hailes, Katrina Bloemsma

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua

Elevation: 9,000'

Hey everybody out there in RMI adventure blog land. Billy here, I'm checking in with our group from Pampa de las Lenas after our walk down from Base Camp today. Hot and sunny, lots of river crossings, sore feet but some of the mule drivers are cooking up a steak asado dinner for us tonight, and then we'll hit the sack. Tomorrow we'll continue our walk out of the Vacas Valley and hit the road, and then head back to Mendoza. So the next check in, we'll be saying hello from the hotel in Mendoza. And that's all for now. RMI Guide Billy Nugent

Billy Nugent calls in from Pampa de las Lenas.

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Hello to you from blog land! I am so sorry the weather didn’t cooperate- I cannot imagine how frustrating that must have felt. I also cannot imagine having the strength and determination and skill to climb 20 thousand plus! Please accept a heartfelt congratulations for all that you did, and perhaps more importantly, all that you didn’t do. It takes tremendous courage to make smart choices.
Sending you all laughter, foot massages, delicious food, sweet rest, comfort and lots of Love,
BB

Posted by: Barbara on 1/21/2014 at 4:11 am

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Aconcagua: Nugent & Team Return to Base Camp

January 20, 2014

Posted by: Billy Nugent, Katrina Bloemsma, Walter Hailes

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua

Elevation: 13,800'

Hey everybody, This is Billy. I’m back at Base Camp with the whole crew. We are all a little bit bummed out but happy to be back down at least with the thicker air here and looking forward to a home cooked meal tonight from the Grajales staff. It was a tough day up there yesterday and we spent most of the day today with heavy, heavy walk down. But everybody’s in good spirits for the most part and we’ll check in again later on as we walk out from Aconcagua. RMI Guide Billy Nugent

RMI Guide Billy Nugent checks in from Aconcagua Base Camp on their descent.

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Wow, I can’t even imagine the adventure you have had. Glad everyone is back. Oh, the stories you will share.

Posted by: Debbie on 1/21/2014 at 3:05 am

Dawn & Len,we are happy to hear all are back at base camp safe. What an incredible adventure you and your team have had! A huge thank you to your guides for making what had to have been an extremely difficult decision to turn around when you were so close. We are looking forward to hearing more when you get home. Mom & Dad.

Posted by: Sue on 1/20/2014 at 7:51 pm

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Aconcagua: Justman & Team Move to Camp 1

January 20, 2014

Posted by: JJ Justman, Mike King, Steve Gately

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua

Elevation: 16,600'

There I was, putting one foot in front of the other, over and over and over again. I knew what everyone was thinking. Who's going to the Super Bowl!! And thanks to one of our team members little go go gadgets, his wife texted the final scores. Go Seahawks! Go Broncos! Who cares, Green Bay isn't in it. The team packed up base camp and moved outta base camp. On move days the packs are always heavier loaded with tents and kitchen gear. Everyone did fantastic and we are now settled into our new home at 16,600 feet on Aconcagua. We just finished with some hot soup. It's like I always say, you have to put money in the bank. We used up some good energy getting here and you have to replenish and put energy back in to keep the bank account at a million bucks. Speaking of a million bucks, anyone want to place some bets on the Super Bowl!? RMI Guide JJ Justman

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Keeping pushing forward, dad (Lew Smith)! I know you are doing awesome! So proud of you!!!

Love ya,

Kyle

Posted by: Kyle A. Smith on 1/23/2014 at 8:50 am

Go Diane! from the Nissan TMG team

Posted by: Ed Nicholson on 1/22/2014 at 12:04 pm

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Mexico’s Volcanoes: Waterfall and Team Head for Ixta

January 20, 2014

Posted by: Geoff Schellens, Seth Waterfall

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mexico

Elevation: 12,000'

Good morning! We've moved on from La Malinche and are currently enjoying the best breakfast in Mexico at the Mission Tlaxcala. After breakfast we're headed for the village of Amecameca and then on to the base camp at Ixta. Our plan is to get an acclimatization hike in this afternoon and tomorrow head to high camp. RMI Guide Seth Waterfall

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Taylor….we all wish we were back there with you. Can’t wait to see your photos…I hope Seth makes guacamole as well as JJ and Solveig!!! Climb on my friend!!

Posted by: Debbi LaPrevotte on 1/21/2014 at 4:44 am

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Mountaineering Training | Training With Trekking Poles

January 19, 2014

Posted by:

Categories: Mountaineering Fitness & Training

The use of trekking poles during climbs (in appropriate terrain) can dramatically reduce your expended effort, allow you to move more efficiently, and ultimately let you climb longer and further. Trekking poles help us to balance, taking some of the work away from the small muscles in our feet and ankles responsible for balancing, and involving the core and skeleton instead. They also help enormously when it comes to managing a large and unwieldy backpack. There are ways to use and hold trekking poles that improve their efficiency. A common question is how long should the poles be? For climbers’ purposes, trekking poles should be significantly shorter than most would think: right around hip height. By setting our poles at hip height, and holding the pole by placing the palm on the top of the grip and draping fingers over the pole, the skeleton can take much of the load from the pole, reducing fatigue and effort. The shorter height allows the bones of the arm to stack over each other, taking the load rather than the muscles. Remember, this is not cross country skiing and having the pole tall and out in front of you only means more, yet less effective, work for your arms. Another element to think about is how overly active arms can actually create more exertion for your body. Imagine that you were hiking up a set of stairs. Now put a tall pair of poles in your hand, and hike the same stairs while you try to push yourself up with the poles at the same time. Rather than two of your limbs working hard to move your mass uphill (lots of work already!) all four are doing the job; only your arms, working out in front of you, act as levers instead of pistons (like your legs) so they are mechanically much less suited to the task. But, by moving your arms and trying to push on those levers, your heart rate will rise with the extra exertion; the result is a higher heart rate, earlier fatigue, and less efficient use of your system if your poles are out in front of you (like a cross country skier). Even with the poles set to hip height, we see this happen often on steep rolls, when climbers don’t lower their grip on the pole to keep their hands at a comfortable height. Once the hands are above the heart, they have little effect on balance or upward motion, and the heart has to work harder to pump blood uphill to them. Through small steep terrain features it's key to choke up on your poles to avoid this. These are not absolute principles but suggestions. Play with them during your training to teach yourself to move more comfortably and efficiently with poles. It will pay big dividends on your next climb, and can help to take some of the training stress of hiking up and downhill with heavy packs, off of your joints, helping to prevent injury! Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts here on the RMI Blog!

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Thanks for the tips! Would definitely want to have a trekking pole myself brought on hiking.

Posted by: Marge on 5/25/2016 at 10:57 pm

I’m doing the Ironman Lake Tahoe as a training program for my Mountaineering goals. What are your thoughts? If I do well with the Ironman at 6,000+ feet in elevation will this be more than plenty of training? I have 9 months until the race. After the race I expect to be in the best shape of my life.

Posted by: Will Beaubien on 1/26/2014 at 6:44 pm

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Mexico: Waterfall & Team Acclimate on La Malinche

January 19, 2014

Posted by: Seth Waterfall, Geoff Schellens

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mexico

Elevation: 10,000'

Hey this is Seth checking in from La Malinche over here in Mexico. We just had a great day climbing up the mountain actually of La Malinche. We made it to just about 13,500' from our cabanas here at 10,000 feet. It was getting to be around 4:15 at that point so we turned around, descended back down here to 10,000' and just finished with a nice dinner and we're getting tucked in. There's actually TVs in the room here so we were able to pipe in the Seahawks-49ers game. We started a fire in the fireplace and we're gonna watch them. [Connection lost.] Tomorrow the team will depart La Malinche and drive toward Ixtaccihuatl's Altzomoni Hut. RMI Guide Seth Waterfall

RMI Guide Seth Waterfall calls in with a team update.

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RMI Expeditions Blog

Mexico’s Volcanoes: SUMMIT ON IXTACCIHUATL!

Aconcagua: Nugent and Team back in Mendoza

Mexico’s Volcanoes: Waterfall and Team ready for Summit Bid on Ixta

Aconcagua: Justman & Team Try to Carry to Camp 2, Turned by Weather

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Aconcagua: Nugent & Team at Pampa de las Lenas for the Night

Aconcagua: Nugent & Team Return to Base Camp

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Aconcagua: Justman & Team Move to Camp 1

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Mexico’s Volcanoes: Waterfall and Team Head for Ixta

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Mountaineering Training | Training With Trekking Poles

Mexico: Waterfall & Team Acclimate on La Malinche

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