Entries By jm gorum

RMI Guide JM Gorum led his Emmons Seminar team to the top of Mt. Rainier this morning.  The team was 100% to the top!  They will be on the summit for photos and taking in the surrounding vistas prior to starting their descent.  The team has been training on Mt. Rainier all week and will end their seminar tomorrow.

Congratulations to JM and his team!

RMI Guide JM Gorum led his Five Day Summit Climb July 6 - 10 to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning.  The team enjoyed some time in the crater before starting their descent.  They will return to Camp Muir to repack and then continue to Paradise.

Congratulations to today’s Five Day Summit Climb team!

RMI Guide JM Gorum called to let us know that the Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons Team were on the summit of Mt. Rainier. The team put their week of training to work and climb via the Emmons Route on Mt. Rainier. JM reported cold and windy temperatures, but a great climbing route.  The team is on their descent back to Camp Schurman where where they will spend the night before hiking out tomorrow.

Congratulations to Today’s Team.

This morning the Mt. Rainier Five Day Summit Climb teams, led by Pete Van Deventer and JM Gorum, reached the summit.  They reported 10 mph winds and a thin cap, but otherwise a nice day.  They are currently descending back to Camp Muir and will return to Ashford Base Camp this afternoon.

Sat 6/9/2018 9:42 AM

Hello friends and family,

We are slowly getting moving this morning after yesterday’s 13 hour summit day. It was long but everyone moved with confidence up and down. We celebrated with a midnight mountain house dinner back at camp and went straight to bed.

Today’s goal is to descend back to 11,000 ft camp. The only down side to a smooth, quick trip is that we will have to pick up and carry out all our extra food, but I would pick that over a long trip with bad weather everyday.
If the weather continues to cooperate, we will fly off the mountain first thing tomorrow and the next time you will hear from us will be from the sunny street of Talkeetna. Thanks for following along with our Denali adventure Alden, Brett, Chip, Tyler, JM, and Walt.

Safe travels,

RMI Guide Walt Hailes & Team

On The Map

Friday, June 8, 2018 9:18 PM

Hello friends and family from the summit of Denali! This is Walter Hailes and the climbing team with Alden, Chip, Brett and Tyler had a successful summit day today and we are enjoying a beautiful, sunny, almost windless summit. Couldn’t get any better.  We got to climb with Pete Van Deventer and team and had a good time switching leads with them. We got to enjoy lots of fun summit photos and beautiful blue skies with Pete and Team. We are back at camp now, we’re going to have a late dinner. We are probably going to wake up pretty late in the morning and head back to 14,000’ Camp.  We will keep you informed with our dispatches until we talk to you again.  A lot of love and safe travels.

We’ll talk to you soon. Bye.

RMI Guide Walter Hailes & Team!

Thursday, June 7, 2018 - 11:27 PM PT

Well, we left our cozy home at 14,000 ft on Denali this morning. When we woke, we had clear views of the route, and could see that winds were calm. As we packed up and started moving, visibility decreased and snow started to fall. We slowly poked our noses a little further, halfway expecting the weather to turn us around, but it never did. It snowed most of the day, but it was relatively warm, and winds were very light. It was almost perfect, we just missed out on the views. Regardless, we have settled in to our new neighborhood, and are enjoying the warm 10 PM sun. We just finished dinner, and are tucking into our sleeping bags to stay nice and toasty. If the weather allows, we’ll go for the summit tomorrow morning. Wish us luck!

RMI Guide Walter Hailes

On The Map

Wednesday, June 6, 2018 - 4:43 PM PT

We were all set to climb to 17,000’ Camp this morning but Denali had other plans for us. By 8 am this morning we could see strong winds blowing across our climbing route on the Buttress. We decided to put the move on hold until the winds slowed. Luckily, Mike Walter’s team at 17 Camp provided hourly updates on the weather situation and we eventually decided that the weather was too severe to climb into today.
Not all was lost though, we took some time to remodel our mountain kitchen and built a new outhouse. Obviously important facilities when waiting out bad weather.
We will wake again tomorrow planning to move and see what the weather allows.

RMI Guide Walter Hailes

Tuesday, June 5, 2018 - 5:35 PM PT

The team enjoyed an excellent rest at 14,000 ft. today. We started the day with breakfast burritos. These weren’t just any breakfast burritos. These burritos were so expertly prepared that they earned the coveted Alden Mills “Best Breakfast of the Trip” endorsement. After breakfast, we lounged, drank second and third rounds of coffee, and planned out the rest of our day. The planning was not very hard, since we really didn’t have much to do. We took a walk out to a feature appropriately name the Edge of the World, and gazed 6,000 ft down into the NE fork of the Kahiltna Glacier. On the walk back to camp, the team practiced some rope skills that will greatly enhance our efficiency on summit day. After the hard work was done we ate as much cheese, sausage, and bread as we could in preparation for our summit bid. Now we just wait for a weather window to move to High Camp, and head for the top. The team sends their best to everyone following along back at home.

RMI Guide Walter Hailes

On The Map

Monday, June 4, 2018 - 7:41 pm PT

BEST DAY YET! It finally feels like we are out climbing, not just on a long walk uphill dragging sleds. We started the day with some blueberry pancakes and bacon. It left our mountain kitchen messy but was a tasty way to start the day. Then we got all geared up with our ascenders. Ropes and packs and headed up the headwall right out of camp. The high temperature is about 5 degrees F, but in the sunshine we are climbing in a single layer and loving it. We will take another scheduled rest day tomorrow in prep to head to the summit as soon as the weather allows.

Best wishes to all our family and friends, we miss you all.

RMI Guide Walter Hailes

On The Map