Entries By henry coppolillo
Posted by: Brent Okita, Henry Coppolillo, Erika Birkeland, Michael Murray
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Five Day Climb July 22 - 26 led by RMI Guides Brent Okita & Henry Coppolillo were standing on Columbia Crest just before 7 am today. Brent reported a gorgeous day on the mountain with very light winds. The teams began their descent from the crater rim around 7:20 am. They will return to Camp Muir for a short break to pack up their gear. They will then descend to Paradise and transfer back to Rainier BaseCamp later this afternoon.
Yesterday winds were high so the team did some additional glacier travel skills and explored Ingraham Flats. These photos are from their adventure yesterday courtesy of Brent.
Posted by: Seth Burns, Henry Coppolillo
Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades
Elevation: 8,816'
Wednesday, July 19, 2023 - 3:00 pm PDT
Hi there,
It was a beautiful day of climbing on the West Ridge, nice temps and not a cloud in the sky. We are back at camp soaking our feet in the creek and enjoying a lazy afternoon.
RMI Guides Seth Burns, Henry Coppolillo and Team
Posted by: Henry Coppolillo, Leif Bergstrom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades
Elevation: 10,781'
The RMI Mt. Baker Team led by RMI Guides Henry Coppolillo and Leif Bergstrom were standing on the summit of Mt. Baker at 1:15 pm PDT today. Henry, Leif, and Team traversed the stunning North Face of Mt. Baker to scale the ice cliff of the North Ridge route. Leif reported clear skies, light winds, and great day of climbing. They will descend via the Coleman-Deming route and make their way back to camp for the night.
Congratulations Team!
Posted by: Mike Walter, Henry Coppolillo
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guides Mike Walter and Henry Coppolillo reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Mike Walter reported moderate winds, clear skies and a solid climbing on their way to the top. The team is on the descent, and will be celebrating with cold beverages and at Rainier Basecamp by the early afternoon.
Congratulations Team!
Posted by: Brent Okita, Henry Coppolillo, Trevor Katz, Sam Hoffman, Mike Bennett, Evan Redman
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Five-Day climb led by RMI Guides, Brent Okita and Henry Coppolillo, reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. They enjoyed absolutely beautiful day on top this morning with a great route and enjoyable weather.
They will enjoy a casual walk back down to Camp Muir to do some more training this afternoon and tomorrow morning. The team will return to Basecamp tomorrow.
Nice work team!
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Henry Coppolillo, Tatum Whatford
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 348'
Saturday, June 3, 2023 - 9:28 pm PT
After a another day of waiting, false starts on packing and taking down our tents, and some general finger twiddling, we suddenly got the very positive news that K2 had launched all four of their otters to come get us yesterday evening. The trusty planes hit the runway in quick succession, not unlike a military drill and we were loading duffels, packs, and sleds with excitement. We went on the slide down the runway one more time and we were off, airborne for Talkeetna. The flight out was a bit bumpy and we dodged clouds through the Alaska range to get home. It was quite evident how hard the pilots had worked to come get us.
We landed in Talkeetna and disembarked to the fragrant smell of plants, technicolor hues of leaves and grass, and gratefully removed our boots and traded for flip flops. And just like that, we had reached the end of the expedition and achieved our ultimate goal - to come home whole. We gathered at the Denali Brew Pub for a celebratory dinner and poked our head in the historic Fairview Inn for a touch more celebrating.
This morning we dried our gear, repacked bags for flights home, and got ready to head our separate ways. There is a strong bond that develops sharing tents and some trials over 23 days on a glacier. It's bittersweet to move on, but we do so knowing that this team came together in a way that made everyone stronger, they stretched to meet all of the many challenges we faced, and we came back successful. From Henry, Tatum, and myself, we would like to thank all of our team sincerely for being so strong, fun, and patient, and many thanks to everyone's families for the support and for following along. This is a long strange trip that none of us will soon forget. Flight plan closed.
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Tatum Whatford, Henry Coppolillo
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 7,200'
June 1, 2023, 10:30 pm PDT
We had hopes this morning as the base camp manager said to ready everything and that planes were on the way. By 8:30 several planes hit the runway and stayed to load climbers. They departed and as the clouds edged closer, we were told they were launching planes for us and they were trying to get in. But the snow started and visibility shut down and the planes stopped landing. We kept waiting for the snow to stop and a hole to open, but it didn't come. It is now calm, but snowing prolifically. Midwinter, we would be going to sleep excited about the powder day to come. Here, we beg for it to stop so we can make our way home. But we are in a beautiful place, and we count ourselves warm, dry, and lucky to experience the power of the Alaska Range.
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer and team
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Tatum Whatford, Henry Coppolillo
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 7,300'
Thursday, June 1, 2023 - 8:25 am PT
We made it to base camp! We had a smooth, though sticking with the theme of the trip, pretty white walk out to Base camp. We got in in the early afternoon relieved to be done pulling our sleds and shouldering heavy packs. The clouds didn't promise much for flying out, but we stayed hopeful and lounged on our packs and sleds. We had left ourselves some celebratory materials and we enjoyed those. A few clearing trends and blue skies gave us hope a few times but by 8pm we accepted that we would have another night in tents and set then up, made a last dinner of burritos, and crawled back into sleeping bags. We are happy to have done our part now. No more packs or sleds, just waiting for weather to cooperate. And it is so much warmer, and easier to breathe down here!
Hopefully weather let's us fly off soon!
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer
So relieved you are on the final leg. Congratulations, Brian and team!
Posted by: Lettie Kirk Goltry on 6/1/2023 at 11:13 am
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Henry Coppolillo, Tatum Whatford
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 11,000'
Wednesday, May 31, 2023 - 1:28 am PT
Denali's 17,000' Camp is a necessary evil. It's not particularly pleasant to exist there, even when it's nice out. With our objective secured yesterday, we were all ready to get out of that high and forlorne place. We set out today to get as far from 17,000' Camp as we could. We descended the West Buttress, down the fixed lines to 14,000' Camp. After some socializing with the other teams at 14,000'. We set our goal again with the intention of getting to 11,000ft. It has been snowing quite a bit since we passed these locations. There was a good boot track in, but there was well over 12 inches of new snow blanketing the Polo Field and Windy Corner. We'll wake up early and rally to the airstrip with the hope that we can fly first thing tomorrow. Fingers crossed. Snow camping is fun, especially at altitude, but all anyone can talk about is beer and burgers, and it is time for a shower and feeling warm once again.
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Henry Coppolillo, Tatum Whatford
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 17,000'
Tuesday, May 30, 2023 - 8:26 am PT
We finally got everything to come together. It was calm and quiet in the morning and we got out of camp early, ahead of everyone else. The Autobahn had filled in and took some work and time to put a track in, across to Denali Pass. It was shady and cold, but the team worked well. At Denali Pass, we stepped into the sun and also a touch of wind - just a light breeze. It kept things cold and we continued to work up. At points we would lose the wind and it would suddenly turn so hot, then back to cold. We played that game to the Football Field, and then up the summit ridge. By midafternoon we were standing on the summit of Denali! The summit was pretty warm and we got some photos before turning against traffic and the rest of the mountain. We retraced our steps to camp and fell into bed, happy to have the first part of the mission accomplished. Now we will set our sights lower on getting to thicker air and the airstrip.
Congrats to all the climbers!
Why do when you can overdo? We love you Chris!
Posted by: Shan on 5/30/2023 at 3:43 pm
Congratulations Adam! Have a safe trip down everyone see ya soon!
Posted by: Matt & Erica Warren on 5/30/2023 at 2:10 pm
Great job everyone! Sorry I couldn’t climb with you.
Posted by: David Jesmer on 6/25/2023 at 9:01 pm
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