Good morning from Moscow! The whole team trickled in over the course of yesterday, showing up a bit bleary eyed and time-confused by last night. We didn’t stray far from the hotel to find dinner, catch up a bit with old friends who are part of the team, and meet new ones. Everyone made a pretty quick exit once our plates were cleaned to crawl into bed and start the process of re- calibrating our clocks. This morning, everyone is already looking refreshed and renewed, ready for our tour of the sites of Moscow: St. Basil’s Cathedral, Red Square, Lenin’s Tomb, and the Kremlin are all ahead of us. We’ll enjoy the day of sights before we turn our attention to the mountain and the real reason that we’ve come! We’ve got a great team, and everyone is excited to get to climbing so stay tuned as our expedition gets underway!
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer
The Four Day Summit Climb July 20 - 23 led by RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Megan Budge and Alex Halliday reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. The team reported good climbing conditions and moderate temperatures and a beautiful morning on the mountain.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb team!
The Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer Reached the Summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Pete reported a clear skies and light winds. The team has started their descent and are en route to Camp Muir.
Congratulations to today's team!
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons team, led by Pete Van Deventer, is currently on the Mt. Rainier summit! After a 5-1/2 hour ascent from Camp Schurman to the top, the team is basking in the sun and enjoying their time taking in the views. They will begin their descent back to Camp Schurman shortly. We look forward to congratulating them tomorrow when the team will descend off the mountain and make their way back to Rainier Basecamp.
Josh hope your staying warm and enjoying your summit climb . Love you and thinking of you. Hope you didn’t get any altitude issues! Dad Mom and Caleb and Bailey.
Posted by: Sandy Calcanis on 7/12/2017 at 5:18 pm
Happy to hear the weather permitted the team to summit safely! Thinking about and missing my husband Kyle who is climbing with his buddy Pete. So proud of you guys and thankful for the awareness it drives to Summit4Angelman. Can’t wait to reunite the family on Thursday in Phoenix! Love, Shawna, Madden, Declan & Conrad
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer led his Four Day Summit Climb July 2-5, 2017 to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The team had good route conditions and blue skies until a cloud cap engulfed the summit. The team began their descent from the crater rim around 7:30 am. They will return to Camp Muir and then continue to Paradise.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb Team!
Jim we all cannot wait to hear about your amazing climb! To all of you who climbed so glad that all went well!! Congratulations!
Posted by: Linda irvin on 7/6/2017 at 7:01 pm
My husband Luis, returned yesterday in 1 piece. After hearing all the stories, I couldn’t be more proud to be called his wife.
His physical strength, mental strength, spiritual strength & all the team effort is what helped him reach the top.
Congratulations to the team.
Thank you, Pete, Chad & Jessy for providing this experience, but I don’t think you see me anytime soon.
Elizabeth Carrasco
Posted by: Elizabeth Carrasco on 7/6/2017 at 9:38 am
RMI teams, led by Pete Van Deventer and Chase Nelson, reached the Mt. Rainier summit at 5:45 a.m. The weather is nice and at 7:05 a.m. the teams were at High Break on their descent.
Congratulations to today's summit climbers!
Many thanks to Pete, Peter and Jordan for guiding us to the summit. It was was a great reward for our journey that began in January with “small” hikes!
Cheers,
Daryl
Posted by: Daryl on 7/3/2017 at 12:23 am
Pete, Pete, Chase, and Jordan-
You guys were the best. Thank you all for taking care of me, my closest friends, and family. Adventure of a lifetime.
We last gave a shout from 7,600’ at the base of Ski Hill on our descent. It was a long day, beginning with the sun hitting 17 Camp, where we packed up all of our belongings, and headed back down the West Buttress. Conditions couldn’t have been better, and before long we were shedding layers as quickly as we could as we walked into the heat of 14 Camp. An hour of repacking and grabbing more of our gear that we had cached there as well as visiting with RMI Guide Tyler Jones’ team had us ready to move out again. By 11, the air felt thick and the temps were even warmer. RMI Guide Jake Beren and team had been nice enough to dig up our cache, so once more we repacked, adjusted our sleds, traded crampons for snowshoes, and kept beat footing our way down the mountain. We rolled into 7,600 at 10 pm, and though there was a lot of discussion of just continuing on to Base Camp, we decided to throw up the tents for a few hours. We were rewarded with spectacular light as the sun dipped behind the surrounding peaks, and it was a special last night on the glacier. By 4 am we were up and walking again. The few hours of sleep had added some spring to everyones’ step and we flew down glacier, reaching Base Camp in 2.5 hours. We parked next to the runway just as the sun hit. At 9 am on the dot, our good friends from K2 Aviation showed up in three Otters to pick up ourselves and Mike Walter’s team, and by 10 we were in flip-flops back in Talkeetna. Everyone enjoyed the ensuing leisurely day of sorting gear, showers, ice cream, coffee, a celebratory dinner, and a few hours in the classic Fairview Inn. Everyone has split now, finishing plane journey’s back home to loved ones.
Thanks so much to our team. They climbed in great style, were equal to the task when things got difficult, put up with a lot of tent time and waiting, and ultimately were able to power through a move to 17 and a summit day without having carried there. We summited an hour or so after Mike Walter’s group (the first guide service summit of the year), on the first viable summit day that had presented itself during our entire stint on the mountain. We were rewarded with incredibly clear views, warm temps, and an overall fantastic day. The views on the way out were pretty stunning as well. Thanks also to all of you for following along. Sore feet and legs are fading away but folks are already talking of their next climbs to come. We look forward to it!
Best,
RMI Guides Pete, Jess, and Jenny.
Congrats for making it to the summit Rachel ! :) Pallavi.
Posted by: Pallavi Chahal on 6/8/2017 at 12:46 am
Congratulations Rachel Calvert, Pete and team! Have been following the blog and was so pleased to hear all made the summit safely and saw the beautiful Alaska range on a clear sunny day.
Rachel - will have to catch up with you and see your photos when you are back in Australia.
Renee Duvoisin (2015 summit team)
June 2, 2017
This is Pete Van Deventer calling from Denali. It's been a long day, we have been on the move for a while. We left 17,000' Camp at about 10:50 this morning and have been on the move ever since. We went down through from the thin air up there to 14,000' Camp and saw Brent Okita and Tyler Jones there and then through 11,000' Camp and saw Jake Beren there. Now we are down in the thick, warm air of 9,600 feet the Base of Ski Hill. So we're going to stop here for the evening and eat some dinner and throw the tents up for a little bit and sleep for a few hours. Then we'll get back on the trail and get back to Base Camp for what we hope to be early morning flight 8 or 9 o'clock Saturday morning. With any luck will be back in Talkeetna before we know it. Everybody's been hanging in there really well, it's a lot of walking but the further we go down the better we all feel as they air gets thicker and temps warmer. The cold on the way in feels pretty balmy at this point after sitting what we have sat through and being as high as we have been. We're looking up at the sunshine on the summit of Denali and still lighting up the Orient Express and the Messnar Couloir some of the classic faces of the upper mountain above 14,000' and really couldn't imagine a more perfect setting than where we are right now. So, we will enjoy one more night on the Kahiltna Glacier and look forward to being in town soon.
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer checks in from 9,600 ft on their descent.
May 31, 2017
Hey, this is Pete Van Deventer. The wait is finally over we left 14,000' Camp this morning perfect guys one of the nicest mornings we have woken up to yet. We got out early before this sun hit 14 Camp and beat the rest of camp out too. Along with Mike Walter's Team we made the track up to fix lines along the West Buttress and up to our 17,000' Camp. It's a beautiful day, we are looking way down the Kahiltna Glacier with super clear skies. We really couldn't ask for much more it is warm and calm. We are all really excited and it looks like it's going to hold tomorrow. So the plan in the morning is to get up and head for the summit. We will let everybody know how that goes. The forecast looks good and conditions here look good, and the route as we can see it looks good. So everything is working in our favor at the moment. We look forward to talking to everybody tomorrow. Bye.
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer checks in from 17,000 ft Camp on Denali.
May 30, 2017
We woke up to an unexpected foot of fresh snow this morning and unable to see the Buttress above us, let alone many of our camp neighbors. Our initial plans to head uphill became questionable at best, but we crawled out of our warm tents for some breakfast burritos and hoped for a change in the weather. The skies eventually cleared and the sun began to warm the basin, but the winds persisted up high long enough to set our sights on tomorrow.
Anxious to stretch our legs, we took advantage of the warm afternoon with a short walk to the "Edge of the World" for some spectacular views of the Alaska Range. The sun brightened spirits and kept folks lingering outside their tents all afternoon to soak it up before dinner. It was a much needed lift to prepare us for our uphill push tomorrow to 17 camp and on to the highest point in North America.
RMI Guides Jess Matthews, Jenny Konway, Pete Van Deventer and team
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Crush it Sonam…
Posted by: Josh on 8/2/2017 at 1:31 pm
Wishing Robin n Lisa and all the rest of the team my very best
Posted by: Rich on 8/2/2017 at 10:13 am
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