The Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons May 31 - 5 June checked in from Camp Schurman this morning. RMI Guide Walt Hailes and team returned to camp after making their summit attempt. The team reached 13,200' before high winds forced their decision to turn around. They plan to do some additional training today and spend their last night on the mountain. Tomorrow they return to the trailhead and then back to Rainier BaseCamp.
RMI Guide Walter Hailes checked in this morning from Camp Muir. The Muir Seminar team is back from their summit bid. Due to unstable snow conditions, the teams turned after Ingraham Flats. The team had a mix of weather during their week-long seminar- some spectacular views and also some stormy weather of high winds and blowing snow. They learned a lot of mountaineering skills to take home with them after a week on Mount Rainier.
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir Team along with RMI Guides Adam Knoff and Walter Hailes had a successful week of training on Mt. Rainier. The team spent the week learning crevasse rescue, setting snow and ice anchors, route finding, avalance training, and many other alpine climbing techniques. The team was able to take several walks above Camp Muir, but the winter like weather kept the from the summit. The team is on the descent and will be back at Ashford Basecamp in the early afternoon today.
Congratulations to today's team!
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
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!
Walter Hailes on the Summit of Denali June 8, 2018
Congratulation fellas! A great accomplishment for a worthy cause! All the best. D.
Posted by: Dirk Gilliard on 6/18/2018 at 2:27 pm
Way to go Chippy and Alden! So proud of you guys! Be safe heading down and can’t wait to hear all about it over a nice cold beer on our patio! xxoo Stacey (& Sean)
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
Go get em! Enjoy the views from the summit ridge on top of North America. Check out Mt Huntington and then read “Mountain of my fear” in the plane ride home.
Posted by: Tom Romary on 6/9/2018 at 7:37 am
Tyler and team, we hope you reached all of your goals today. We are looking forward to having you home soon to share all of your stories and pictures! Love and miss you! Praying for all of you, mom and dad
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
Hey Brett! Currently watching GSW vs. Cleveland! GSW are up 2 games to 0 and currently it’s the 4th quarter of the 3rd game. Score is 88-87 GSW! It’s so cool to watch your ascent! Stay safe everyone!!
Love, Tracie, Brian Erickson and Kennedy
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
You are all such an inspiration! Beautiful photos - amazing people. You got this!
Posted by: Susan Dickson on 6/6/2018 at 3:33 pm
Brett, I assume it was the bacon for breakfast that sealed the deal, not the thrill of the climb or these incredible views!! Wow…those views! Hope you’re enjoying this once in a lifetime experience. We’re all thinking of you. Dan, Audrey, Matthew and Sydney
Another beautiful day on Denali for the team. I think most folks woke up around 7 or 8 this morning, but we all rolled around in our sleeping bags for a while until the sun hit us at almost exactly 9:30. No sense in being cold if we don't have to. After the sun warmed our tents, we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, and some more limitless views. As we walked downhill to dig up our cache, Mounts Foraker and Hunter dominated the skyline while valley glaciers spilled farther than we could see. The team wasted no time retrieving their stashed goodies, and we were back in camp within an hour and a half. With the remainder of the day we snacked, napped, practiced using ascenders, and snacked some more. We will try to cache some gear above the fixed lines tomorrow if the weather is favorable. Talk to you all then.
RMI Guide Walter Hailes
Big Daddy says “Go Big or Go Home!” and don’t come home until you go big. Keep up the good work, we look forward to the untold stories upon your return.
Posted by: Chris Ewers on 6/6/2018 at 3:56 pm
Tyler, luck be with you- I told Syd where you were- he’s coming to catch up with you!!!! You better climb bigger, faster harder!!! Haha! Love Ya, D and Lo
.jpg)
Summiteers made a good call today, live to climb another day.
Posted by: Willy on 5/17/2019 at 5:02 pm
View All Comments