Entries By jack delaney

Friday, January 24, 2025 - 2:48 am

Hola!

We awoke early in the morning with the beautiful southern hemisphere stars shining above us. I attempted to point out constellations like the southern cross. Odds are I have lied to everyone because my memory for constellations is as bad as my Spanish. The day starts out with the team stylishly dressed in various water shoes for the crossing of the braided streams of the glacially cold Vacas river. This ice bath for our feet and calves is stronger than any cup of coffee. Everyone is now very much wide awake. Then we begin our slow but steady ascent up the Ralenchos valley. I will not bore you with all the fine details of the stunning geology, the panoramic views of Aconcagua and various sightings of adorable guanacos. All you need to know dear reader is that the trek was hard but we suffered well surrounded by incredible beauty.

Do you remember when you came home from college for the first time and your mom kept hugging you and then made all your favorite foods but like way too much? Our arrival at Plaza Argentina was just like that. We spent the rest of the afternoon waddling around camp getting settled in while taking many deep breaths as our bodies adjusted to our new altitude of nearly 14,000 feet. Finally after another incredible dinner provided by the always stellar Grajales staff, everyone was ready for sleep. It was a long day. 

RMI Guide Jack Delaney and the Sassy Six (Anne, Bill, Chris, Elburz, Jess and Tom)

P.S. they don’t know I call them that

Today was just all-around lovely!

We woke up with the sun, packed our tents and headed to breakfast. We have discovered this wonderful thing called Dulce de leche and now we smother all of our toast in it.

We hit the trail on our way to our next camp, Casa de Piedra. We weaved up through the valley for 10 miles today - always keeping our eyes out from Guanacos. Just when we were convinced we might not get a glimpse, we looked up and saw three majestic Guanacos staring right back at us. Yay!

Soon after, we popped up over a little hill and saw the yellow and white dome tents of our next camp. Just before we walked into camp, we were greeted with our first views of "The Stone Sentinel", Aconcagua.

Tomorrow we’ll head to Base camp where we can’t wait to greet our fellow RMI climbers who stood on the summit today.

RMI Guides Jess Wedel, Jack Delaney and the Magnificent 7.

Hello to all our friends and family at home!

I’m happy to report we ALL made it to Argentina and with our gear (some bags took a little longer than others to arrive but they’re all here now!)

We’ve spent the last two days in Mendoza getting to know each other, checking gear, packing, repacking, learning about what the next few weeks will look like and enjoying as much of the Mendoza-life as possible. We are headed to bed with duffels ready, full stomachs of delicious Argentinian cuisine, and a lot of excitement to finally hit the trail tomorrow.

It’s going to be an incredible adventure and after so much time planning and preparing, we can’t wait for it to begin.

RMI Guides Jess Wedel, Jack Delaney and the Aconcagua climbing team

The Four Day Climb May 16 - 19 led by RMI Guides Brent Okita and Hannah Smith climbed halfway up Disappointment Cleaver before conditions required them to turn around.  Hannah's team climbed to Ingraham Flats and worked on some ice climbing. The teams descended to Camp Muir and will be packing up and starting their descent to Paradise later this morning.

RMI Guides Dominic Cifelli & Jack Delaney led their Four Day Climb May 10 - 13 to Ingraham Flats this morning. Route conditions prevented the climbers from going further, they were able to take advantage of the nice weather to do a bit of training before returning to Camp Muir.  The teams have packed up and are descending to Paradise. We look forward to seeing them back in Ashford this afternoon.

RMI guides, Jack Delaney and Jackson Breen, had good news to report from Sandy Camp this afternoon. Their team navigated late season conditions on Mt. Baker and made it successfully to the summit! 

Nice work team!

After a few days of unsettled weather on the mountain, the Four Day Climb August 5 - 8 was able to reach the summit of Mt. Rainier led by RMI Guides Alan Davis and Jack Delaney.  The teams reached the crater rim around 6:30 am PT and enjoyed an hour in the crater.  They will return to Camp Muir for a quick stop before continuing down to Paradise this afternoon.  We look forward to seeing the teams back at BaseCamp later today.

Congratulations to today's climbers!

After some long days of walking and training, the Emmon's seminar led by RMI guide Jack Delaney reached the summit of Mt. Rainier. The team will enjoy their descent to Camp Schurman and a nice dinner before resting up for their walk out of the backcountry and drive back to Ashford tomorrow afternoon. Nice work team!

The Four Day Climb July 10 - 13 led by RMI Guides Hannah Smith and Jack Delaney reached the summit of Mt. Rainier at 6:45 am.  Hannah reported a good route, light winds and a nice route. The team enjoyed some time on the crater before starting their descent. They will return to Camp Muir for a short break before continuning down to Paradise.

Congratulations to today's climbers!

June 25, 2023 10:00am PT

It seems surreal that just 24 hours ago we were sitting on the East Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier with our fingers crossed for flyable weather. Kahiltna International Airport (KIA) could have just as easily been our home for the next week but instead we slept easily and comfortably on real mattresses for the first time in nearly 3 weeks. Today and only today the weather cooperated for us to make our escape. How did we get here? Let me tell you...

24 hours prior to the 24 hours that we just experienced...

We woke up to a mix of clouds and sunshine at 14k Camp and casually dismantled camp and packed up all our things. The weather and clouds mostly stayed below us with an occasional surge of precip and wind at camp. The walk down to 11k Camp was uneventful other than a quick reunion with Dominic Cifelli and Dave Hahn's respective RMI climbing teams. High fives were had but we kept moving, we had a timeline to meet.

Once at a 11k Camp again we located our cache, set up tents, made water and ate dinner. The clouds rolled in and out of 11 Camp like the tide on the shore. Like the tide, what was in the clouds was wet and gross. After "napping" for around 3 hours, we "woke up" at 9:30pm to get moving again to catch the lower glacier in its most stable and frozen condition. 

Sadly, the cloud we walked into below 11 Camp was hovering around 33 degrees and raining. The team was quickly covered in a layer of ice and rime. Everything - backpacks, trekking poles, goggles, jackets, pants, were incased in a 1/4 cm of ice. We trudged for several hours through this freezing rain. Eventually we got below the cloud, and everyone shed their icy armor that had accumulated. After a break at the bottom of Ski Hill to recover our cache (and thaw out), we resumed trudging on the lower Kahiltna.

A simple 3 more hours of trudging in what ended up being a fairly direct path across the Kahiltna glacier, we arrived at Heart Break Hill. It was time for the final hour of uphill that must be ascended to return to the airstrip. The team's morale stayed high, and hearts stayed unbroken. We made quick work of Heart Break Hill. Shortly after 5am, we were back at the airstrip; 19 days had elapsed since we were last here. It seemed surreal to be back. Even more surreal the weather continued to cooperate, the cloud ceiling stayed high, the sun showed itself briefly! Around 8:45am the drone of a K2 Turbo Otter was heard. 24 hours after leaving 14k Camp, we were picked up in the most wonderful red plane you've ever seen and whisked back to civilization, Talkeetna. 

Everyone has been awake for 24-36 hours at the time of writing this. There is still much clean up and packing to do before we can sleep.

The trip is over, but our memories and experiences will last a lifetime. This is the final blog from The Bond Girls. If you want to know more, contact your loved ones, they have service now! Even if they're pretending they don't...

Cheers,

The Bond Girls