Entries By walter hailes

Today the weather continued to improve as we awoke to sunny skies and the lightest winds of the trip thus far.  We headed uphill for our final carry to Camp 1 to set the stage for our time on the upper mountain. The wind wasn’t done with us yet though as we experienced several “drop you to your knees” gusts on our way up. After making it to Camp 1 and successfully caching our gear we headed back to base camp where we relaxed in the group shelter, swapped stories and enjoyed the beautiful evening alpine glow on the mountains.

RMI Guides Walter Hailes & Jack Delaney

After three nights of strong wind gust, fitful sleeping and high altitude we were all ready for a full mountain rest day today. Rest days are simple and look similar to your cat’s daily routine: eat, then nap, then casual stroll, then eat, then nap. Today, our highlights were hot quesadillas for snacks and we walked across the valley from camp to an abandoned hotel to enjoy even more spectacular views.
All around a great rest day and everyone is ready for more climbing tomorrow.

RMI Guide Walter Hailes

Monday, January 17, 2022

After a windy night with little sleep we awoke to a beautiful and sunny day. After a delicious breakfast we packed light packs to head up hill for an acclimatization hike. The wind lingered as we hiked and we remained bundled up even with the sun shining upon us. The air felt thin as we reached Aconcagua's Camp 1 at 5000m (16,000ft). After a quick lunch break the team was feeling good so we continued uphill for another hour to take full advantage of our day. Once we reached our high point we turned around and scooted downhill to a hearty meal of carne asado grilled by the porters. Tonight we hope to sleep like rocks.

RMI Guide Jack Delaney

Sunday, January 16, 2022  4:01 PM PST

After a rough first night at base camp because of the big jump in altitude, we started the day a little slow. We went for a nice casual walk to check out the local penitentes and breathe off the slight headaches that lingered from the night before. It was beautiful walking into the 15’ tall glacier spires. After lunch we got to work sprucing up our camp. The whole team worked really hard shoveling, hoeing, and raking the rock filled dirt into plush flat platforms for our tents. We will sleep better tonight partly because the tents will be more comfy and partly because making the tents more comfy was exhausting. Another beautiful day in the mountains with a great team!

RMI Guide Walt Hailes & Team

Hola Amigos! It’s finally happened, we have arrived on the mountain! After some last minute packing and eating a lot of empanadas while we waited, we got a weather window and flew into Plaza de Mulas at 14,000 feet. It was one of the most scenic and incredible helicopter flights I’ve ever been on. We settled nicely into our Basecamp, where we will spend the next several days acclimatizing. We’re happy to be here and are going to bed with full bellies thanks to the amazing food and hospitality of the staff at camp.

RMI Guides Walt Hailes & Jack Delaney

Aconcagua 2022! Yes, it’s happening. Covid delayed this trip by a full year but we are all in Argentina, healthy, happy and ready to climb.
I must thank the hard work of Jeff, Autumn, Jack and Luke for working out all the logistics of my covid related delays and making sure that this trip didn’t stop before it ever got started. The whole team is now together in the town of Uspallata, spending tonight in a beautiful hotel a few miles outside Aconcagua National Park. If the weather report holds, we will fly to Base Camp mid-day tomorrow. But until then, we are enjoying more of the friendly people, tasty food and great wine of Argentina.
Our 3 Guardsman, Alden, Brett and Chip are raising money during our climb. We welcome everyone following along with our adventure and thanks for your support and generosity.

RMI Guides Walter Hailes & Jack Delaney

Today's Mt. Rainier Summit Climb teams, led by RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer and Walter Hailes, turned due to hazardous route conditions.  The teams ascended to Ingraham Flats to watch the sunrise before descending back to Camp Muir where they had breakfast.  They left Camp Muir around 9:45 a.m. and are working their way back to Paradise.

RMI Guides Walter Hailes and Avery Parrinello led the Five Day Climb to Ingraham Flats, 11,200', this morning.  High winds overnight at Camp Muir had prevented the teams getting an alpine start and thus they were unable to make a summit attempt.  Winds at Camp Muir averaged between 40 - 80 mph with gusts as high as 93 mph around 9 pm.

Once the winds subsided later in the morning the teams roped up and traveled to Ingraham Flats to check out the conditions and see a bit of the route.  They will return to Camp Muir and descend to Paradise later this morning.

The Four Day Climb June 8 - 11 led by RMI Guides Walter Hailes and Dominic Cifelli were unable to make their summit attempt this morning.  Strong winds and blowing snow made for unsafe climbing conditions and kept the team hunkered down at Camp Muir over night.  The telemetry from Camp Muir shows wind averages ranging from mid 20 to mid 60 mph over night with gusts up to 79 mph.  When the group radioed the office this morning they were experiencing estimated 50 mph winds. The team will be descending from Camp Muir today and return to Rainier BaseCamp.  Unfortunately, today was not their day to reach the summit of Mt. Rainier.

The Five Day Climb June 3 - 7, 2021 is completing their climb today.  The teams did training at Paradise on Friday with instruction on cramponing, rope travel and ice axe arrest.  On Saturday they made the ascent from Paradise to Camp Muir.  Yesterday, they enjoyed some additional time walking in crampons and working as a rope team by walking to Ingraham Flats at 11,200'.  This allowed them to see abit of the route in the day light hours.  They planned their summit attempt for today but unfortuaty the team was unable to make a summit attempt due to high winds.  According to the Camp Muir Telemetry wind averages were 34 - 53 mph with gusts up to 68 mph.

The teams will descend from Camp Muir to Paradise and make the drive back to Ashford. We look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp later today.