Hi Everyone!
We are back at 14 Camp after a great day carrying a load of food and fuel to the top of the fixed lines at 16,200'. Our team climbed strong and we were all excited to get a feel for the upper mountain and steeper snow and ice.
We arrived back in camp with enough sunshine left in the day to sit outside the tents and relax and rehydrate while our boots dried (and more importantly AIRED!) out.
The weather is looking good and we hope to move up to high camp soon and make our summit bid!
RMI Guide Solveig Waterfall & Team
There's a great German game show called "Stackenblocken" where contestants arrange objects on a desk at right angles. A judge then comes out with a framing square and a riding crop to punish the contestants who cannot make their desk "Stackenblocken". Well, the weather has been so sunny and warm here at 11 camp that the wall surrounding our camp was indeed no longer "Stackenblocken" and in fact leaned to the point where it comically collapsed... Fortunately for us there was no judge with a jockey's disposition and the blocks remained intact. We were actually able to rebuild it in a few quick minutes; turns out its not so hard on the second go around when all your materials are ready-made.
On another note, the team also spent a bit of the day retrieving our cached food and fuel from the 9,600' camp. We made such short work of our back carry that it really felt like a rest day. Good times!
More about our intrepid crew as our adventure unfolds...
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
Update: 4:04 am PTRMI Guide Mark Tucker reports from Everest Base Camp that the climbing team has safely returned to Camp 2 (ABC). They will spend the night resting, eating and recovering from the summit climb. Tomorrow, Mark is looking forward to welcoming the team back to Base Camp.
Update:10:51 pm PT
The team has safely reached the South Col. Everyone is doing well. They are going to take a quick break before continuing down to Camp 2 (Advanced Base Camp).
Mark Tucker
Update: 6:46 pm PT
Mark Tucker reports from Everest Base Camp that RMI Guides Dave Hahn, Seth Waterfall and their Sherpa team, Tshering and Kaji have reached the summit of Mt. Everest! This marks Dave's 15th summit of Mt. Everest and the third time for Seth to have reached the summit. Tshering and Kaji have both made their sixth successful summit of Mt.Everest.
The team reported a beautiful day with a cold wind. They will spend about 30 minutes on top before starting their descent.
Congratulations to all!
Congratulations, felicidades! 15 th summit!!! Great. Regards from Costa Rica
Posted by: Silke on 5/23/2013 at 7:51 pm
Huge Congratulations! You guys were patient, waited until the right time, even when all others were making their summit bids, and you always seem to be successful. Great climbing. Bill Bussey
Update 5:23 pm PST:
I received a radio call from the team. They are now on top of the South Summit! Weather continues to be okay for them; a few clouds down here at Basecamp. Sun may have an impact soon in a very positive way.
RMI Guide and Everest Basecamp Manager Mark Tucker
Everybody made it to Alaska just fine with just one not-so-minor hiccup. One duffel never showed up and had one of us spending the afternoon at REI replacing missing items. As luck would have it, we got a call from a climber in Talkeetna who had picked it up at the airport by mistake. With that behind us we were ready for a beer and turned in after our big travel day.
Today we were busy getting the incredible amount of gear needed for this adventure ready for our flight in the morning. Everyone is excited about getting started. Me too, even after all these years.
More to come soon...
RMI Guide Brent Okita
Update 3:45 pm PST:Seth Waterfall radioed in after the team made the oxygen bottle switch at the Balcony. They are are well past that point and working their way to the South Summit. A bit of traffic but not too bad. Kaji and Tshering are right there with them and report not much wind and a beautiful morning is shaping up. Rough estimate of between one and three hours to top of the South Summit. All is going very well.
RMI Guide and Everest Basecamp Manager Mark Tucker
(The map shows a point at Camp 4 with the next point marking the South Summit.)
This morning we woke up early, broke camp and flew off the Kahiltna Glacier. We are now enjoying a nice meal at the West Rib Pub. The group is doing fantastic and we all looking forward to a warm shower. All and all and incredible time with everyone.
Thank you all for the fantastic time!!!!
RMI Guide Andres Marin
Hey this is Seth Waterfall checking in from the South Col, Camp 4. We just woke up a little while ago and are getting set to have breakfast, which is kind of strange for this hour. But the winds have died down - what little wind we had. It looks to be a nice night for climbing so we are going to give it a shot. In the next half hour to hour we will put our packs on and head up towards the Triangular Face, then of course to The Balcony, South Summit, and, hopefully, for us the summit of Mt. Everest. A few teams have already started and a few more are getting ready to go. But it doesn't appear to be a very crowded night. That all works in our favor. So if everything works out for us we'll check in again from the top of Mount Everest - High Point on planet Earth. Wish us luck. Ciao
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall checks in from the South Col - getting ready for summit bid.
The weather was beautiful today, sunny and warm, and barely a breath of wind. We took a quick trip back to Windy Corner (13,600') to retrieve the cache we left there well over a week ago. The hike back to the cache took us 15 minutes, and about an hour to ascend back to the 14,200' camp that we established yesterday. The rest of the day was spent buffing out camp and practicing fixed rope travel techniques in preparation for tomorrow. Tomorrow we plan on carry supplies up above 16,000' to get ready for our summit bid. The weather looks good for the next few days; hopefully the forecast pans out. Tomorrow will be two weeks into our expedition, and we're all excited to get up high soon.
We'll let you know how our carry goes. Stay tuned...
RMI Guide Mike Walter & Team
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Hi Craig (and Team),
Good luck and keep up the great and safe work! We’re all thinking of and rooting for you back here in NC!
Craig, after working up nearly 50 sea turtles yesterday I think you may have had the easier and shorter day! :)
Best,
Greg & Diane
Posted by: Greg Lewbart on 5/23/2013 at 12:22 pm
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