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Posted by: Dave Hahn, Billy Nugent, JJ Justman
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Everest
Elevation: 17,575'
Hi everyone, this is JJ Justman with the Everest climbing team, sitting here at base camp another day. It is the evening, right around 8 o'clock. We just finished another great dinner prepared by our sous chef. Today we had a really great day. It was our second day of training in the Icefall. We set up a nice obstacle course and got everyone familiar with some of the ups and downs and the crosses of what the Khumbu Icefall is going to entail. Everyone's doing really well. It's nice to have some practice on some fairly solid ground before we get to the real thing. Everyone just did a tremendous job. It's really good to see great teamwork. Tomorrow we have some more teamwork with everyone- Sherpas, kitchen staff, climbing team members, Jeff [Martin] and Mark Tucker, our base camp manager. We are having our puja tomorow. That's a nice little ceremony before we actually head up onto the mountain. We'll tell you a little bit more about the puja tomorrow. Everyone's doing well. It's a beautiful night here. We're going to play a little poker, some chess and have another great evening here at Everest Base Camp. Take care everyone. Thanks for following along. Ciao.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
RMI Guide JJ Justman calls in from Everest Base Camp.
Congratulations to Casey Grom and our Liberty Ridge Climb!
Nine and 1/2 hour ascent from high camp and they will descend to Camp Schurman tonight. The team is pretty tired, but great climb and beautiful weather on top!
Arriving back into Everest Base Camp yesterday afternoon after twelve days of absence was a homecoming of sorts for me - in days since I was last here with our Everest Base Camp Trek and Island Peak team the community here at Everest Base Camp has come alive with the buzz of climbing expeditions that are now settled in. The trails that pick their way between the piles moraine, ice ponds, and clusters of tents, quite faint a few weeks ago, are wearing in and strings upon strings of prayer flags now emanate from the camps, strung up during each expedition's puja ceremony. When I diverged off the main trail that passes through Base Camp and walked into RMI's Camp, I was warmly greeted by our Expedition Team; after several days of quietly walking back into Base Camp by myself I was thrilled to rejoin the Expedition and catch up with everyone . Sitting around our dining tent in the evening we raised our steaming cups of tea and hot drinks to finally having the whole team together and our climb underway.
Clear skies greeted us this morning for our rest day and as the sun crept slowly across the valley we brewed up a fresh pot of coffee and pulled the chairs out of the dining tent to sit and watch the morning light gradually awaken Base Camp. Several teams nearby held their pujas today and the slow sound of the lama's beating drum could be heard across Base Camp while we sat there. With no other objective than to relax and recover from the days of training and walking, we enjoyed a calm morning. The early breeze that blew through Base Camp when we first awoke soon died and the sun quickly warmed up camp. While the rest of us were more intrepid, Tuck was even brave enough to stroll around Camp in shorts for a few hours. With it so warm out it was a perfect opportunity for each of us to grab a wash. After several days of walking back up the dusty trails of the Khumbu, the hot water and steam that filled the shower tent felt wonderful. Very rarely does putting on fresh clothes feel so luxurious.
Despite our objective of rest, we still had a bit of business to attend to in preparing our gear for our upcoming days of climbing. In the afternoon we spent a few hours sorting our gear and preparing for our first rotation to Camp 1 that will take place soon. After packing our warm layers, down suits, and the small necessities we will need up there, Tuck opened up the Base Camp stores for us to go "shopping" for our meals and snacks that we will need during the rotation. Much like the aisles of a grocery store, but on a far smaller but still no less impressive scale given our setting, Tuck opened up the barrels and boxes of dried fruits, salamis, cheeses, granola bars, candy bars, cookies, crackers, trail mix, freeze dried meals, hot drinks, and soups that we have here. Grabbing a zip lock bag in lieu of a shopping basket, we picked our way through selecting the items that we want to eat during the rotation. Bill jumped for the Fig Newtons and a bag of Trader Joe's Banana Chips and I spied some smoked salmon, cheese, and crackers, also grabbing a couple of handfuls of the bite size candy bars that are my weakness when sitting around the tent. Before long we had all of our snacks and meals portioned out and packed up for the move.
With the afternoon clouds rolling in and the temperatures returning to their normal chilly level, Tuck retired the shorts for a puffy coat in time to host a couple of climbers to a few holes of glacier golf around camp and a round of horseshoes. The horseshoes game came down to a nail biter one point game but thanks to some last minute technique tips from Tuck I managed to hit the winning point, ensuring our victory but sadly disappointing our guests. Nothing a fresh brewed pot of coffee and some cookies couldn't smooth over before they were soon calling for a rematch.
We are about to sit down to our first Burrito Night of the trip, an occasion that Tuck was kind enough to wait for me to arrive here at Base Camp before serving. After close to three weeks of dining in teahouses my stomach is growling just thinking about the tortillas, fresh cheddar, and salsa. Since first working with our expedition cook Kumar in 2009, it has been a very fun experience to show him some of the western meals that we enjoy cooking and I have now given up making nachos at home as I cannot make them as remotely enjoyable as his.
Tomorrow we are getting up early for our first true foray into the Icefall, hoping to climb up to an area midway through known as the Football Field. In addition to giving us additional exposure to higher elevations above Base Camp and building our acclimatization, it is an important step for our team in putting our training and equipment into action in the lower stretches of the Icefall and preparing us for our move through it up to Camp 1 in a few days. We are feeling well rested after today and looking forward to tomorrow's climb.
RMI Guide Linden Mallory
I’ll be folowing your every step to the top. Good luck and sure steps.
Posted by: b lee mallory on 4/19/2011 at 7:40 am
Linden, good luck on the climb. We will be watching from our warm computers…
Posted by: John F. on 4/18/2011 at 5:14 am
Still at 14,200', I'm afraid. There was a cloud cap sitting on Denali at 7:45 this morning when we started checking weather. The cap meant snow and wind were working over the camp at 17,200' and so we weren't anxious to head that way without some improvement. That cap dropped lower as we ate breakfast and eventually it mingled with some clouds from below to put us in the soup. By midday it was snowing and we had to write off our chances for going high on this day. On the bright side, our team members that were suffering from minor colds yesterday had kicked those ailments by today... Vitamin C and bedrest. The gang put on climbing gear and walked up the first hill over camp, despite the steadily falling snow, just to get some exercise and some time out of the tents. Our forecasts call for more snow, unfortunately, so we had to do a bit of contingency juggling of supplies today. As we mentioned a few days back, we can't afford to be separated from our cache at 16 by avalanche conditions as our food supply at 14 Camp dwindles. This afternoon three of the guides broke trail up to the fixed lines and then ascended to 16,200' to retrieve the cache. There was plenty of recent snow to plod through and there were scars and debris piles from a few avalanches, but today things were stable enough and the mission was a success. The entire team greeted the cache raiders enthusiastically upon their return at dinner-time. We'd certainly hoped to use the cached supplies for our summit bid... and we cling to that hope. But now we have that food and fuel safely within our grasp should we need to retreat instead. The team is upbeat and optimistic... and realistic. We know we need the weather to improve in the next few days, defying the forecasts.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
HEY SPENCER!! TONTO WEST AND I ARE DOING THE GOOD WEATHER DANCE, WE WANT TO SEE YOU GUYS GET TO THE SUMMIT! BUT BE SAFE.
Posted by: TOBY EMERSON on 7/16/2011 at 8:01 am
Safety and food, altitude wished for all in the waiting game. Happiness awaits. love dinah and sue
Posted by: dinah rogers on 7/15/2011 at 6:02 am
Lots of teams carrying loads up the icefall today. This season, now in full swing. We had three Sherpa make the trip through the icefall today , one to C1 and two to C2.
Dave, Sara and Bill are doing a training run today, making a push up toward the first ladder in the icefall. This being just one of a few preliminary rotations.
Jeff Martin has started his journey home, leaving the team with all the tools and support information for a successful climb of Mount Everest. His effort will make living in this hostile environment so much more bearable, he truly is the unsung hero of this expedition.
Base Camp is pretty organized, the condition of our gear and available resources could not be better. Last year RMI made a huge investment into a solar power set up that would eliminate the need of a generator. So far it has been working flawlessly. With all the power needs to support the varied electronics, it's a wonderful addition. The days of no news is good news is a thing of the past, so with the help of a very reliable power source, loads of computers, phones, and satellite communications devices, we will try our best to bring you solid information from this amazing place.
A bit chilly today with clouds above and below, actually good climbing conditions.You would be surprised how hot it can get on the glacier if it were sunny with no wind.
I feel very lucky to be a part of this team and really enjoy the view from my office. Always tough to be away from home for this length of time, looking forward to my return. For now, the thrill of the hunt for the summit of Mount Everest is so exciting that I can't wait to see what wild events are in my future.
Lets have a great adventure together!
Cheers,
Mark Tucker
RMI Guide
Everest Basecamp Coordinator
bill and sara, seeing you on the ladders makes me nervous, please watch your step…...love to you both and love love following along on the blog. cathy
Posted by: cathy on 4/13/2011 at 6:48 pm
Stoked to hear you have joined your team…. You are the best!!! Malamo Pono, Susie
Posted by: Susie Ellison on 4/13/2011 at 9:53 am
RMI Guide Ben Ammon and his team were 100% on the Mt. Shuksan summit! The team is currently working their way back to high camp.
Congratulations to the Mt. Shuksan team!
Posted by: JJ Justman, Kel Rossiter
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: Summit
The Four Day Summit Climb teams led by JJ Justman and Kel Rossiter reached the Summit of Mt. Rainier today. JJ reported good, but cold weather with calm winds. The teams are enjoying the views from the top and will make their way back to Camp Muir shortly.
Congratulations to today's teams.
A most excellent trip! We gelled as a team early and JJ, Josh and Gilbert were awesome. Look forward to climbing with you guys again. No one legged midgets though, please.
MP
Posted by: MIKE PROBSTFELD on 6/25/2012 at 8:38 am
Thanks to JJ, Josh and Gilbert for a great & fun trip and JP for getting the whole shootin match organized! Great way to start the summer of 2012
TVH
Posted by: Thomas Harmon on 6/24/2012 at 9:15 pm
Posted by: Elias de Andres Martos, Jake Beren, Geoff Schellens
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Guide News
Elevation: 15,584'
Hello, this is the Dhaulagiri climbing team on Sunday, the 20th. First of all we want to apologize for the lack of communication, but we're having serious problems with our SAT phone and charger and we are trying to solve that problem. We are also saddened by the news that arrived to base camp here of the tragedy on Everest. We want to send our condolences to the community of the Sherpa involved in this tragedy. Our progress here on the mountain continues. We have been able to reach almost Camp 2. We have been very unlucky with the weather. Until right now we have been the only team on the mountain, but we were able to make a carry to almost Camp 2 and spend a few nights at Camp 1. Right now the weather looks like it is favorable to us and we are hoping to take a few days of rest and make some more progress up high, hopefully getting to Camp 2 or 3 in the next week or so. Getting ready for a future summit push around the beginning of May. So we'll keep you posted on that and we hope everybody is doing well. We'll try to keep you posted as much as we can with the limited communications that we have here. Regards to all from Dhaulagiri Base Camp.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos calls in from Dhaulagiri Base Camp.
Please be wise and safe as you make your decisions. You are loved down here at sea level.
Posted by: nsb on 4/23/2014 at 11:52 am
Posted by: Win Whittaker, Pete Van Deventer
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,060'
The Four Day Summit Climb Teams led by RMI Guides Win Whittaker and Pete Van Deventer were unable to make their summit attempt due to lightening strikes and rain throughout the night. The teams stayed safely tucked in at Camp Muir. They will begin their descent to Paradise later this morning.
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Leif Bergstrom, Erika Birkeland
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 14,000'
Wednesday, May 25, 2022 - 10:13 pm PT
As the forecast promised, we watched evidence of wind evolve above us across the Alaska range today, but our home at 14,000' Camp was calm, warm, and quite pleasant. We made the most of it, repairing gear that's malfunctioned, visiting with friends across camp, and napping. Tomorrow is most likely more of the same, so we'll spend time organizing so that when the weather switch flips, we're ready. Yesterday as we headed up, another team that was taking a rest break told us that we "were a Porsche 911 turbo engine". We'll hope to fire that up on Friday.
RMI Guides Pete, Leif, Erika, and team
Hello JJ ....espero que todo bien en esta nueva expedicion ¡¡¡ un gran abrazo desde Tu otro hogar aca en la bella Mendoza¡¡¡ Cuidate bol….... you know¡¡ je cuidate y exito¡¡¡
Posted by: rodrigo on 4/14/2014 at 8:39 pm
Hey Choo,
Glad to hear you are well and relaxing up on the mountain eating good food and playing poker. Really roughing it this time..LOL! Stay safe, keep the feet healthy. Keep you and your team in our prayers. Kendra
Posted by: KAB on 4/11/2014 at 9:23 am
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