Entries By dave hahn

The Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir May 21 - 26, 2017 led by RMI Guides Dave Hahn and Steve Gately have spent the week training at Camp Muir.  Today they made an alpine start for their summit attempt.  The team reached the summit around 8 am and was able to enjoy the views.  Dave Hahn reported a light cloud cap on the summit and otherwise good conditions.  The team will return to Camp Muir today for their final night on the mountain.  They will complete their program tomorrow and wrap up with a celebration at Rainier BaseCamp.

Congratulations to today’s team!

The Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir May 14-19, 2017 led by RMI Guides Dave Hahn and Chase Nelson spent the week at Camp Muir.  The team spent time learning mountaineering skills, knot tying and crevasse rescue. The team experienced windy and snowy conditions for a portion of the week but were rewarded today with beautiful blue sky.  They reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning around 7:30 and spent an hour enjoying the views and celebrating their accomplishment. Today is the last day of the program so once they return to Camp Muir they will pack their gear and continue their descent to Paradise.  We look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp later today.

Congratulations to today’s climbers!

None of us minded getting up early today at Union Glacier.  We packed our bags and knocked down our tents one more time.  Then we drank a bunch of coffee and waited for the big plane to come in.  We had a ringside seat for the 11 AM landing out at the Ice runway.  It didn’t take long for the ground crews to get it unloaded and to get us on board.  We were off deck by noon and had a smooth and easy 4.5 hour ride back to Punta Arenas.  Then it was time for showers and a fine dinner out with friends.  We celebrated a truly enjoyable climb in an extraordinary environment.  Tomorrow we’ll fly some more and we’ll eventually go in different directions.  But we won’t soon forget what we accomplished together.
Thanks for following.

Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

There was optimistic talk yesterday evening of a flight to South America today. The weather didn’t cooperate, but we certainly didn’t mind another day in the heart of Antarctica. We ate well, we rested, we rode fat tire bikes on a 10k groomed trail, we watched clouds come and go, and we mingled with other “tourists” and staff of ALE (our logistical company).  Everybody wanted to know about our big storm and just how hard the wind really blew. 

Union Glacier camp feels like a major city compared to our small camps on Vinson.  Ski planes come and go at all hours, snow cats and snowmobiles roam about, folks come and go from skiing and climbing, from excursions to the coast and the pole.  It is a bustling crossroads in the middle of a beautiful nowhere.  It is hard to interact with so many well-traveled people without hatching plans for the future.  Our immediate future involves northward travel and word has it that the IL76 will be in tomorrow morning.  We could be in South America tomorrow evening. One day at a time though. 

Best Regards,
Dave Hahn

We started the day -as usual- in a cold cloud at high camp.  We are finishing it in bright sunshine and relative warmth at Union Glacier.  It was a hard day of down climbing with heavy packs, but by late afternoon we were in Vinson Base where a plane was waiting just for us.  Our tents are up in a flat place tonight and the team is happily chatting with explorers, adventurers, scientists, guides, pilots and hard workers from around the world -all mixed in the comfortable ALE dining tent. 
Chances are good that we’ll fly to Punta Arenas tomorrow. 
More as time allows.

Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Not much wind at high camp this morning, but a heck of a lot of cloud when we checked it at 7 AM.  Seemed like this was to be our opportunity though.  We breakfasted in fog and light snow and got ready to climb.  Nothing had changed by the time we got roped up at 9:45.  We set off into the murk.  Not a great day for pictures… but walking in a whiteout means there are few distractions.  We took a quick rest break every hour or so and went steadily higher and colder.  Light winds came up with face freezing potential as we neared the top, but almost miraculously, we lost all wind and even got a touch of sun as we went out the summit ridge.  We hit the tippy top at 5:30 and liked it so much we spent 30 minutes up there.  It took us three hours and ten minutes, mostly in cloud, to get back to high camp.  Thankfully, there we got some late night sunshine to enjoy dinner by.  The team is tired, but as you can imagine, we’re also pretty happy right now as we drift off to bed. 

Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

[Transcription of audio call from the summit]
Hey, this is the RMI 2016 Mt. Vinson Climb, We are on the summit of Mount Vinson, all of us! 100%, a team of 5 right up here on top! We climb through clouds all day, but here on the top we are looking up looking up at blue sky. It is calm on top. This team is done a great job. We’ll let you know we get back to high Camp and everything is good, and that’s what we expect because everybody is climbing strong.

That’s all for now, high from the top of Antarctica.

On The Map

Finally in position.  We moved up to Vinson high camp today (12,300 ft).   It was calm at Low Camp this morning when we climbed out of our tents, but it really didn’t look that great up high -from our vantage point.  There were still big wind sculpted clouds attached to the high summits.  Our radio conversations with friends at high camp told a different story… they said it was calm and warm at high camp and folks were headed for the top.  We geared up… dragging our feet just a bit in case the weather turned obviously bad.  But it didn’t.  We left our longtime home at low camp (9,200 ft) at 1:40 and cruised up in about six hours.  Fog overtook the team about half way up the ropes though, and stuck with us to high camp, so we didn’t have any views.   We reached camp about when the summit teams were getting back.  They’d been above the clouds on the top.  With all of our team feeling good and strong, it didn’t take much time to build our camp, eat dinner and get to bed.  We ‘ve got a big day coming up tomorrow.  Perhaps we’ll get some views along the way. 

Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

The wind finally quit this morning, about 20 minutes before the sun hit to start a much better day.  It still wasn’t a climbing day for us though.   There were still winds blowing snow off the ridge we needed to crest.  They were dying down, but not quickly enough for my tastes.  We dug out and dried out down at Vinson’s Low Camp… Licking our wounds, so to speak, after the epic storm.  The team up at high camp seemed to have survived the blow and similarly, dug out and rested today.  The teams with us at low camp went for a late afternoon start on moving up,  We’ll give it a shot tomorrow.  Finally with a couple of days of semi stable forecast in our favor.  After several days of a constant roar it is great to be back to profound silence… the kind that stretches to the horizons. 

Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

Let’s get the exaggerations out of the way at the start… Winds today at Low Camp were between 70 and 80 mph.  Except those figures are probably right, judging by how many times the gusts demolished the snow walls protecting our tents.  Those walls were made of blocks we could barely lift.  The storm is well and truly upon us… And upon everyone else too for that matter.  There wasn’t any moving from camp to camp today -or carrying of loads.  It was hunker down and hang on day.  The storm didn’t let much sun through to warm us either, so life was grim.  Conversation in the tents was tough to accomplish with the tent walls snapping like machine guns in your ear.  Walking outside the tents was bound to include getting knocked to the ice a few times.  But we are still hanging in, here at Low Camp, waiting to catch a break.  The views we did have today were quite dramatic, with giant wind sculpted clouds diving off the high peaks.  We can’t quite say yet that we’ve been through a full on Antarctic storm yet, because it ain’t over.  Soon though. 

Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

When the late morning sun hit Low Camp, we looked up and saw that we didn’t actually want to be up high today.  The forecaster got it right and a storm was easing onto the Vinson Massif.  It wasn’t too bad at first, but we knew that one of the teams we’d been climbing alongside of had been forced to turn back from a summit attempt.  Our day down low was spent in getting ready for a blow.  The gang built strong snow walls and dug in.  The storm hit Low Camp with surprising intensity around six in the evening.  Winds got up to thirty and forty miles an hour and have stayed there (with higher gusts) for hours -it is midnight now.  We’re tucked in now and listening to the roar.  We are hoping our high camp friends are behind big fat snow and ice walls.  We are happier to be down here for this event.  Yesterday’s mishap now seems like a blessing in disguise. 

Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map