Entries By jj justman
Posted by: JJ Justman, Steve Gately, Chase Nelson
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 13,800'
Well...there's a first for everything. And going on 22 Aconcagua expeditions here, I had a first today. Our team awoke early, had a good breakfast and then we loaded our packs and made our way uphill. Everyone did a great job today and we are all well. Except...a little bit of windburn! Man o Man was it blowing strong today! The wind was so strong we were unable to make it to Camp 1 at 16,200 feet. Instead we thought wiser and we cached our gear lower at 15,700 feet. And the team did great! Adversity is part of every climbing adventure and we all handled it very very well. The winds are supposed to be close to the same so base camp is looking very appealing for tomorrow.
Go Packers!!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
Posted by: JJ Justman, Chase Nelson, Steve Gately
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 14,000'
Greetings all!
Last night was clear and cold with the freezing level hanging just below our new home here at 14,000ft. Today is all about relaxing though and the team enjoyed a leisurely morning and some of JJ's famous scrambled egg breakfast.
Our agenda tomorrow has us carrying a load of gear to cache at Camp I (16,400ft) What this means is that we will ferry a load of gear higher on the mountain and then return back to basecamp to sleep. This will allow the team to better acclimatize while moving much needed food and gear higher on the mountain and consequently making our move day loads lighter. So this afternoon will be spent organizing and packing gear for an early start tomorrow. The team is looking forward to the challenge of heavy packs and higher elevation. Morale is high, the weather is good and we couldn't be happier!
RMI Guide Steve Gately & Team
Posted by: Chase Nelson, JJ Justman, Steve Gately
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 13,800'
Greetings from Aconcagua's Basecamp!
Started the morning with an early, very cold, stream crossing to head up the Relinchos Valley from Casa de Piedra. Today was the first day with views largely dominated by the mountain, and finally entering the high alpine environment. Strolling into Plaza Argentina Basecamp for the first time is quite an amazing sight, between the camp and the surrounding cirque. The team is getting settled in, and everyone is looking forward to a well-deserved rest day tomorrow!
RMI Guide Chase Nelson
On The Map
Posted by: JJ Justman, Steve Gately, Chase Nelson
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 11,000'
Hello from Casa de Piedra at 11,000 feet. Team Aconcagua reporting in! The team had another great day trekking now even closer to our objective. As a matter of fact, today we received our first glance of The Stone Sentinel. Another great highlight was seizing several giant jack rabbits during our trek. It is rather windy now in camp so we are going to sign off. Tomorrow base camp here we come!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
NIGEL AND TEAM
CONGRATULATIONS
AUNTIE GLORIA
Posted by: AUNTIE GLORIA on 12/20/2014 at 10:16 am
Posted by: JJ Justman, Steve Gately, Chase Nelson
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 9,000'
The gang is all here! The Aconcagua season is officially under way! Today after final preparations the team began trekking into basecamp. First stop, Leñas at 9,000 feet. The sun was shining, the condors were chirping and everyone had a great day hiking!
We now plan on enjoying our first night in the Andes. Why sleep in a tent when you can cowboy up and sleep under the stars!! Speaking of cowboys...we are hanging out with our team of Gauchos as they start the fire. The steaks just went on, the salad is made and our drinks are on their way!
Ahh yes, this is the life!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
On The Map
Posted by: Dave Hahn, JJ Justman
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Vinson Massif
The team had a relaxing and slow morning at Vinson Basecamp. Many commented on how good it had been to sleep well and warm once again. Life at Basecamp seemed a million times easier than it had before we climbed the mountain. However, yesterday's predictions and proclamations that we'd shuttle from airplane to airplane and from continent to continent... were overly optimistic. We did succeed -in late afternoon- in catching a twin otter out of VBC. There wasn't a cloud in the sky and so the high mountains of the Sentinel Range were spectacular whereas they'd been cloaked in murk when we flew in. Union Glacier camp was even cushier than VBC, naturally, and so nobody expressed great frustration when it was announced that the Ilyushin 76 would not be coming today due to deteriorating weather. We're plenty happy for the moment, sitting in chairs and eating food that guides didn't cook. The gang wouldn't mind flying tomorrow though... We'll see.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
We went for it today. The weather was greatly improved. The clouds were gone, but there were still dust devils of snow twisting off the ridges as we watched from high camp. Obviously, we hoped for a calming trend as the day went on. One of our climbers stayed in camp, satisfied with yesterday's effort. This worked out as there were two ALE "rangers" also in camp along with a guided group taking a rest day. The rest of us set out at 10:37 AM. We were in still air for the first hour, but then we went through a few gusty portions of the route for several hours. The fact that the winds weren't sustained didn't mean they were any warmer. We bundled up pretty good in down coats and pants and tried hard to keep our faces from freezing. By about 15,000 ft, we'd reached a calm area, which was a great relief as the mountain was getting tough to climb even without a distracting wind. Most were working quite hard to compensate for the lack of oxygen and the steepening snow and ice. As we worked our way out the 16,000 ft summit ridge, we found the wind again. This made it tough to enjoy the view of the Ellsworth Mountains spread for two hundred miles around and below us. We walked onto the mountain top at 10 minutes to 6 PM. Excited, but also very much on our guard against frostbite. We took a bare minimum of pictures, did quick but heartfelt hugs, handshakes and high fives, and then beat feet out of there. We were safely back in high camp by 8:45 PM.
Best,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Congratulations to everyone. Greg, we toasted you a couple of times on Sat night. Safe trip back buddy.
Kim
Posted by: Kim Morgan on 12/8/2014 at 10:01 am
Congrats Greg!! So happy & excited for you! Safe travels home ;)
Kel
Posted by: Kelly on 12/7/2014 at 12:03 pm
We were fresh out of good weather today. Ran out sometime during the night. By morning, the high peaks were capped with wind-sculpted clouds and things had a decidedly unstable look. We procrastinated...ate breakfast and watched the progression of cloud formations. We got a weather forecast from Vinson Basecamp around noon, and decided to go for a walk. The thinking was that we'd be climbing in relative calm for several hours, in which time the day could turn sparkly and fine. That isn't what happened though. After a couple of hours and perhaps 1,300 feet of vertical gain, we were in wind and cloud... The times when we were granted better visibility, we could see more wind and cloud up higher. Ultimately, the decision was made that -with the "normal" cold temperatures (-15 to -20 F) we were enjoying, we couldn't fight against very much wind. We turned back to high camp, intent on waiting out this non-storm. The gang cut snow blocks to beef up the tent walls and we dug in just in case a real storm shows up. We are hopeful that morning will bring better things.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
G. Barber, to think all this time Bruce has been carrying your stuff. What?!?! Cute chics, rum, penguins - craziness (I thought it was the intrinsic value of climbing that allured you.) Enjoying the trip reports and comments from loved ones. Remember: when in doubt, build snow blocks. Patience. Hang in there team!
Posted by: Kerry on 12/5/2014 at 7:59 pm
Hi Greg, sounded like a tough day, but the team made a good call. You have good time - stay safe, buddy.
All the best,
Bruce and Joyce
Posted by: Bruce Tocher on 12/5/2014 at 3:48 pm
Our luck with the weather continues. It was another perfectly calm, blue-sky, sunny day on Mount Vinson. We took full advantage, moving up from Low Camp to High Camp. It is plenty of work to break camp and hit the trail in this cold environment. This "morning" it took us about 2.5 hours. We were walking by 1:45 PM. We had the advantage today that we were all familiar with the route and the fixed ropes -thanks to our carry on the same terrain two days ago. This time we shaved about forty five minutes off, reaching 12,150 ft High Camp in five hours and fifteen minutes. We set to building camp and digging in, which took a few more hours of hard work, but eventually we were all sitting face to face in a freshly excavated dining room. We talked over exactly how summit day might work out for tomorrow. After dinner, the team pitched in to build some snow-block walls, just in case the wind comes up. Then folks wandered about a hundred feet west to look over the edge. It is a stunning view, peering over this dramatic and abrupt escarpment to see almost every footstep we've made to date. In the distance, the Nimitz Glacier is prominent and beyond that it seems that we can see forever on the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. The team went to bed ready to go for the top, we'll see if our weather luck holds.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Peter/Dad and Team—we’re thinking positive thoughts about the weather and hope for a successful day today/tomorrow!
Posted by: Nathaniel and Allidah on 12/4/2014 at 8:13 pm
Good luck in your summit bid Mr. Barber and Team!!!
Posted by: The Pages on 12/4/2014 at 12:21 pm
We knew it was going to be a cold morning here at Low Camp, the sun doesn't make it around the mountain until 11:15 AM, but it was still somewhat shockingly cold. True, we are in 24-hour daylight, but any shadow reminds you very quickly what the actual air temperature is. We ate breakfast and put our crampons on for a day of carrying loads as we warmed up in the sun. Before too long, we'd begun the fixed rope section of climbing on the way to high camp. This section of steep and continuously firm snow meant that the day would be about vertical gain and not a great deal about distance covered. It took six hours to make it the 3,500 ft to high camp, which sits at 12,500 ft. Since it was perfect, cloudless weather, we could see forever as we got higher. But what we could see was ice, ice and more ice. Our timing was perfect, pulling into high camp just as Linden Mallory and his small team were getting there after their summit. Todd Passey, ALE's guide, was in camp with his team as well and very generously shared cups of hot water with the gang. We cached food and fuel there and then got moving back toward Low Camp, which we reached at 11 PM. It was a big day, finished off with a midnight supper in the POSH tent. Our climbers were excited for the new vistas, but also for the great sense of accomplishment in getting such a tough day under our belts. We'll rest tomorrow, and hope to move up the following day.
Best,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Way to go! I’m glad the climb is going so well.
Posted by: Peggy Halstead on 12/2/2014 at 9:09 pm
Proud of you guys - Tom, Haldis, and Chris!!! Have fun tomorrow reaching your goal and enjoying the views. Look forward to hearing all about it when you get back.
Posted by: Keith on 12/2/2014 at 3:52 pm
Life Is Good!!! Be safe, guys. Oxoxo
Posted by: Chris on 12/20/2014 at 5:48 am
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