Entries By dustin wittmier
Posted by: Dustin Wittmier, Trevor Katz, Michael Murray
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons June 4 - 9 stood on the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. RMI guide, Dustin Wittmier called from Camp Schurman to report their success. The team has spent the last few days making their way from camp to camp before their climb this morning. Along the way, the team enjoyed many training oppurtunities to prepare them for larger expeditions like Denali or Aconcagua.
The team will do some more ice climbing tomorrow morning before beginning their descent back to Basecamp in Ashford tomorrow afternoon.
Nice work!
Posted by: Dustin Wittmier, Ben Luedtke, Sam Marjerison, Charlie Harrison, Bailey Servais, Mitch Valaitis
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
RMI Guides Dustin Wittmier & Ben Luedtke led their Five Day Climb teams to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Dustin reported broken clouds and light to moderate winds as the teams were ascending the Ingraham Direct early this morning. The teams enjoyed some time in the crater before beginning their descent. The climbers will return to Camp Muir for a short rest and to pack their gear before descending the remaining 4.5 miles to Paradise later today.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
Congratulations all! Excited to follow in your footsteps this weekend!
Posted by: Keith on 5/30/2023 at 4:27 pm
Congratulations to Devin and the team. Can’t wait to hear about the adventure!
Posted by: Karm on 5/30/2023 at 9:53 am
Posted by: Dave Hahn, Ben Luedtke, Dustin Wittmier, Lacie Smith, Nicole De Petris, Will Ambler
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Four Day Climb May 18 - 21 led by RMI Guides Dave Hahn and Ben Luedtke reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Dave reported broken clouds above with some sunshine coming through and warming the team as they started their descent from the crater rim. There is also a cloud deck below them at around 8,000' this morning. Once back at Camp Muir the teams will repack and take a quick break before continuing down to Paradise. We look forward to their return to Rainier BaseCamp later today.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
Congrats to the summiteers. Especially Vaughan and Zaid
Posted by: Paul Andrews on 5/21/2023 at 3:59 pm
Posted by: Dustin Wittmier, Jack Delaney, Sam Marjerison
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier and the Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir team put their training to the test and made it to the summit of Mt. Rainier today. Dustin reported calm, light winds and sunny skies as the team was walking out of the crater rim just after 8 am to begin their descent. The team will return to Camp Muir for their final night on the mountain. They reached Camp Muir on Monday and have spent the last several days working on alpine mountaineering skills. The team enjoyed time at Ingraham Flats working on their ice climbing and crevasse rescue skills. Tomorrow the group will pack up and descend to Paradise, completing their week of training on Mt. Rainier.
Congratulations to the Seminar team!
Wednesday, May 18, 2023 5:38 pm PDT
Hello world!
It's time for an update from the team up at Camp Muir. The cycle of sun in the morning and clouds / thunderstorms in afternoons haven't impacted our seminar in the slightest. We've been spending the days training and afternoons learning. Today is our last day of training before our summit attempt. We spent the morning ice climbing in a crevasse up at Ingraham flats, the guides even got in on the ice climbing fun! Our afternoon will be spent fine tuning our crevasse rescue skills and then heading to bed early to try to get some shut eye before our alpine start. Check back in tomorrow to hear about our summit attempt!
Cheers,
Dusty, Jack, Sam and The Team
Posted by: Andy Bond, Dustin Wittmier, Daniel May, Abby Westling, Ellison Boord, Sam Hoffman
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,080'
The Five Day Climb April 28 - 2 May led by RMI Guides Andy Bond and Dustin Wittmier are descending from Camp Muir this morning. The team made the most of their time on the mountain getting in a Climbing school to learn cramponing, rope travel and ice axe arrest techniques. They then ascended to Camp Muir, 10,080', where they spent two nights and were able to do additional training. Lightning near Camp Muir and high winds kept the team from making a summit attempt this morning. We look forward to seeing them back at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
Posted by: Dustin Wittmier, Lauren Macklin
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mexico
Elevation: 18,491'
With bellies full of cheese from last night’s dinner, we powered our way through a midnight wakeup. The first few hours of the route take us through “The Labyrinth”, which would be an easy place to take a wrong turn. Fortunately, we have Allen (our local guide) with us to help us efficiently navigate. Through the Labyrinth and at the base of the glacier we donned crampons and make our way up the ever-steepening slopes of the Jamapa Glacier until finally topping out on the third highest peak in North America!
Congrats to all the climbers who summitted La Malinche, Iztaccíhuatl and Pico de Orizaba! We now just spend the night at Dr. Reyes’ soap factory museum before most of us head home tomorrow.
WOOOO congrats Anne and crew!! 3/3 summits, that’s amazing!
Posted by: Corey on 2/20/2023 at 3:55 am
Congratulations Dustin, Lindsay, Steve and Team! That is So Cool!!!
Farmer Dave
Posted by: Dave Kestel on 2/20/2023 at 3:26 am
Posted by: Dustin Wittmier, Lauren Macklin
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mexico
Elevation: 7,000'
This morning we head towards Pico de Orizaba, one of our main climbing objectives of the trip, relaxed and rested after two nights and a full day in Puebla.
Rest day activities were varied, as usual. Some intrepid folks made their way to Cholula, where you can view and hike up ancient Aztec pyramids. Others explored art exhibits in Puebla and while others just fully relaxed. RMI Guide Lauren Macklin and I found our way to a brand-new bouldering gym before enjoying afternoon lattes at my favorite coffee roaster in town.
The evening was capped with a nice dinner at El Mural de los Poblanos where we sampled some local mezcals, ate delicious traditional foods and shared our rest day stories with the group.
Puebla feels to me like the world's biggest little city and is the place to stay when in this region. There is a ton of history, great outdoor activities and it’s more laidback than Mexico City. We could easily spend the duration of this trip having a spa day in Puebla and drinking fancy wines at rooftop bars. But alas, we have a mountain to climb. On to Pico de Orizaba!
RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier and team
All the Best on Orizaba Dustin and Team!!!
Posted by: Dave Kestel on 2/17/2023 at 10:00 am
Posted by: Dustin Wittmier, Lauren Macklin
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mexico
Elevation: 7,000'
With dust in our eyes (it hasn’t snowed here since early January) and a dream in our hearts (no matter how dirty and tired we are, we all continue wanting it), we awoke at 12:45am this morning to climb Iztaccíhuatl (Ixta). Actually, we were all awake around 10:45pm to overhear the saga of two of our climbers trying to get a mouse out of their tent. Either way, these alpine starts always seem to come a touch too early.
Our day started with a sleepy ascent of “The Knees” section of the route. Once atop “The Knees”, there was a moderate wind that stuck around all day. Most of us wore parkas for nearly the entire climb; it was chilly but beautifully clear. Once the sun came up, we could clearly pick out skyscrapers in downtown Mexico City, which is unassumingly, the fifth largest city in the world.
The group powered through cold, wind and dust and everyone who made the attempt today also reached the summit! Congrats to this bus full of climbers who will enjoy their well-deserved Tacos Arabe in Puebla this evening.
BEAUTIFUL sky, those clouds omg! hope yall are enjoying some of the most well-earned tacos on the planet right now :D may all your future rests be mouse-free and your summits be as gorgeous as this one!
Posted by: Corey on 2/16/2023 at 7:54 am
Hey Dustin! Thank you for all the updates! Brings back such cool memories! All the Best to yopu and your team for your next climb !!!
Farmer Dave
Posted by: Dave Kestel on 2/16/2023 at 3:48 am
Posted by: Dustin Wittmier, Lauren Macklin
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mexico
Elevation: 17,340'
Feliz Día de San Valentin :)
We are now settled in at high camp on Ixta after a day of good Mexican eating and a four hour hike with heavy packs.
Everyone is in good spirits as we enjoy another nice sunset and prepare for our first big summit attempt of the trip.
Posted by: Dustin Wittmier, Lauren Macklin
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mexico
Elevation: 10,000'
Today we are headed to Ixtaccihuatl via a several hour bus ride from the La Malintzi resort. It was a restful evening feasting on a parrillada and watching the Superbowl on a Spanish telecast. A well-deserved restful evening after successfully summitting La Malinche, which is hit or miss and dependent on how much argument (in Spanish) you’re willing to engage in with a heavily armed police officer. This time they left us alone, perhaps because it was such a nice day with no threat of lightning or rain.
Now we are in transit to Amecameca for some last-minute supplies. Today is mostly a travel and organization day, not quite a real rest day yet. We will update via InReach from the mountain so you can follow our progress!
perfect weather and summit dogs?! what a great start!! congrats Anne and Lauren (and the rest of the crew!) wishing you more successful summits both this trip AND alaska when we get there! :)
cheers, Corey
Posted by: Corey on 2/14/2023 at 6:09 am
Awesome Dustin!!!!
Posted by: Dave Kestel on 6/9/2023 at 4:05 am
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