Entries By tatum whatford
Posted by: James Bealer, Tatum Whatford, Leif Bergstrom, Calvin Jiricko, Layne Peters, Mac Nolde
Categories:
Elevation: 12,300'
June 3: The team started their descent from Camp Muir at 7:30 AM PT today. We expect them to arrive at Paradise around 10 am.
The Five Day Climb May 30 - 3 June led by RMI Guides James Bealer & Tatum Whatford reached the top of Disappointment Cleaver, 12,300', today before deteriorating weather forced them to descend. The team is enroute to Camp Muir. They will spend the night at Camp Muir tonight and descend tomorrow.
Posted by: Casey Grom, Tatum Whatford, Nicole De Petris, Drew O’Brien, Charlie Harrison, Avery Stolte
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 12,000'
The Four Day Climb May 17 - 20 led by RMI Guides Casey Grom and Tatum Whatford reached 12,000ft today before route conditions required that they turn around. The team enjoyed a beautiful sunrise with a cloud deck below. They returned safely to Camp Muir, packed up their gear and continued their descent to Paradise. The team will conclude their adventure this afternoon at Rainier BaseCamp.
PC: Tatum Whatford
Early season is tough on Rainier. It’s more miss than hit until July 4th.
Posted by: Constantine on 6/1/2024 at 5:58 pm
We’re scheduled for a 5 day in mid-june… In looking through the blog I don’t see any successful summits this season… is there a summary we can see that provides some insight into how things are going in order to judge our chances (weather permitting) of success ?
Posted by: Doug Thompson on 5/24/2024 at 10:43 am
Posted by: Mike Walter, Tatum Whatford, Daniel May
Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades
Elevation: 9,131'
RMI Guide Mike Walter checked in to say the Mt. Shuksan - Fisher Chimney August 6 - 8 team reached the summit and have completed their descent back to the trailhead.
Nice work team!
Posted by: Mike Walter, Tatum Whatford
Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades
Elevation: 10,200'
RMI guide Mike Walter checked in this afternoon to report that the team was out of the backcountry. Despite their best efforts, the North Ridge team shifted objectives and ultimately were turned around due rockfall after attempting the Coleman-Deming route.
Nice work team!
Posted by: Tatum Whatford, Charlie Harrison
Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades
Elevation: 10,781'
Monday, July 31, 2023 - 6:00 pm PT
We woke up to a clear stary morning at Sandy Camp for our climb of the Easton Glacier. We had an all-star team of climbers that tagged the top around 10am this morning. We just got back to camp and we're enjoying some sunshine.
RMI Guide Tatum Whatford
Posted by: Tatum Whatford, Nicole De Petris, Calvin Jiricko, Bailey Servais
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons June 30 - 5 July reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today. After several days of training and ascending via the Emmons Glacier, RMI Guide Tatum Whatford and team left Camp Schurman this morning for their summit attempt. The team reached the summit around 8:30 am. It's a beautiful day on the mountain and after enjoying some time in the crater the team will return to Camp Schurman. Tonight is their last night on the mountain, tomorrow they will descend to the trailhead at White River and make the drive back to Rainier BaseCamp. We look forward to seeing them tomorrow afternoon.
Nice work team!
Nice job team! Way to go Calvin!!
Posted by: Wallis Shoppy on 7/4/2023 at 10:47 am
Posted by: Joe Hoch, Tatum Whatford, Emma Lyddan, Cal Seeley, Ben Thorneycroft, Will Ambler
Categories:
Elevation: 14,410'
The Five Day Climb teams led by RMI Guides Joe Hoch and Tatum Whatford reached the summit this morning. Joe reported a stormy night at Camp Muir and a cloudy ascent but a clear morning with light winds as they were descending from the crater rim. The teams started their descent from the crater rim a little before 7am today. They will return to Camp Muir for a quick break and then continue down to Paradise.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
Posted by: Hannah Smith, Tatum Whatford, Evan Sather, Will Ambler
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 13,500'
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons June 17 - 22 led by RMI Guide Hannah Smith made the difficult decision to turn around today at 13,500'. Hannah reported difficult snow conditions and a lack of established trail due to the new snow accumulations over the last few days. The climbers have returned to Camp Schurman where they will spend their final night on the mountain. Tomorrow the team will do some crevasse rescue training before descending to the trailhead and returning to Rainier BaseCamp later in the day.
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Kautz June 11 - 16, 2023 led by RMI Guide Eric Frank reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning via the Kautz Glacier. After two days of training at BaseCamp and Paradise the team began their ascent via Paradise. They established camp and spent the next two nights on the mountain practice and learning more alpine skills including some crevasse rescue training. This morning the team made their summit attempt, they checked in around 7:30 from just below the Wapowety Cleaver. Eric reported a beautiful day with no wind and warm temperatures. However, when they reached the summit the winds were strong. The team enjoyed a bit of time on the summit before starting their descent back to camp. They will stay tonight on the mountain and continue their descent tomorrow, perhaps with a bit more training.
Nice climbing 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
Great effort for the team in spite of the awful weather conditions this weekend. Don’t give up hope on a future summit attempt. Took me 3 times before summiting.
Posted by: Neil Schweitzer on 6/2/2024 at 12:11 pm
View All Comments