Today was a good day for our team carrying up to Camp 1. The team climbed strong with legit loads to make our future move a little easier. We enjoyed near perfect weather again on the way up to camp, ascending the moraine up to a snow patch of penitentes before gaining camp. As we made our cache weather rolled in from the west and we got our first taste of how quickly things can change up here. Our descent was beautiful in the sideways snow squall that cleared as we returned to basecamp.
Tomorrow will be a recovery day here at basecamp before we move onto the upper mountain. Now it's off to bed, buenas noches.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
DAD! This is awesome, I can’t imagine what your seeing and experiencing. Best wishes and Happy Xmas to you and the team.
One thing you always told me was “Lean into the spear.” Remember that when times get tough! love you so much and I am proud of you ...Love Bridy:)...
Posted by: Britany Fitzgerald on 12/21/2011 at 5:46 am
Richard: We are watching and reading every day…keep up the good work, sounds like you are all doing great. Hang on in those winds. mom
Posted by: Linda Robertson on 12/20/2011 at 9:01 am
Summer is here this morning, this afternoon that will be a different story.
Tsering, Kaji, and Dawa left Camp 2 a half an hour before Dave, Sara and Linden for the climb up the Lhotse face to Camp 3. Lam Babu has now arrived at Base Camp after going the other direction from Camp 2. Dave reported good conditions ,weather and route wise on the face with incredible views of the surrounding mountains.
Up above he could see some people going for the summit of Everest, yet another wave of climbers getting a chance at standing on top. It is great to see the groups getting a shot at the top over many days. instead of a lot of teams concentrated on the same window of time. I have started a push to the top a couple of times with eighty or so other climbers leaving high camp at about the same time. It's always a struggle thinking about what the near future could bring. More than often things work out but if they don't it can make for an even tougher day. Enough good experienced mountaineers can be a good thing to have around on the summit push, the right amount is a bit by chance.We will have a tight strong group that can handle most anything.
Dave and Sara have decided that 23,000 ft, a good chunk of the way to Camp 3 is going to be enough for today. They have prioritized the next rotation as the objective, the idea of sleeping at Camp 3 tonight was a good plan, but the decision we make out in the field, are the ones that make the difference. They have just radioed in that they are off the face, heading to Camp 2. Linden is still climbing toward Camp 3 to get familiar with the route and location of Camp 3, another altitude records for Linden today. He will also come back to Camp 2 for the night.
The Sherpa team worked all morning chopping and digging into the ice for tent platforms which will be used in the future. Instead of putting up the tents today they have then in a duffel bag secure to the site and will set them up on the summit push. No sense in subjecting them to wind and snow for now.
So a good day for training and working hard up high. Back to Basecamp tomorrow, for the final resting period, with the summit push as the new focus.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Sarah, I just wanted to send you a quick note to let you know how proud we all are here at Westminster. I have no doubt this is just the beginning of a list of amazing experiences for you in your life. We are thinking of you and wish you the best. Take care. Buen trabajo! Felicitaciones! Sra. Russell
Posted by: Maria Russell on 5/12/2011 at 6:03 am
Sara, we are so proud of you. We’re thinking of you all the time and enjoying the incredible pictures. Dave, the audio was great - thank you for posting it - and the blogs help those of us closer to sea level live this with you. How are the poker games going, Bill? Much love.
We are perched high above the Khumbu Glacier watching the clouds roll by. The hike to high camp was short but a challenging rocky scramble. Unfortunately, some of our team had to make the hardest decision in mountaineering and head downhill today. The health gods are not on our side this climb and a bad cough has hit us. Making the right decision in the mountains is always the safe decision. We are so proud as a team to have made it to Everest Basecamp together as one of the many highlights of the trip. The rest of us have fingers crossed for good weather for our alpine start and climb tomorrow.
RMI Guide Christina Dale
June 14, 2017
Greetings from 17 Camp. Today high winds and low temps provided a combo that will keep us from climbing Denali for another day. But our fingers are crossed that tomorrow may have something better in store for us, so please do the same down in the south land. Hopefully we will be calling you with a little bit different news. For right now the team is doing 17,000' Camp, we are hunkered down, being patient, full bellies, happy, healthy and hoping to go for the summit soon. That's all for now.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
Cheryl just got your text and hope you reach the summit tomorrow. Be careful and my prayers will be with you and your team. Love you.
Posted by: Jo on 6/15/2017 at 9:17 pm
Jim Walker—good luck on the climb to the summit. All of the Guff clan and all of Vineyard Lane is very proud of you. We look forward to hearing all about the climb in detail over some good burgundy at the Chanty. Be safe. Drew
This morning we woke up to clear skies and beautiful views. Unfortunately, as we sipped on our morning coffee the clouds began to grow and the wind picked up. Today was not our summit day, instead we got the team moving around and doing more home improvements. I can positively say that RMI Okita has the best looking camp at 17.
Today's renovations included lowering the floor of the posh ( or cook tent) and revamping the kitchen scene. After these improvements were made everyone enjoyed some reading and napping before a delicious dinner of tortellini served with a cream garlic sauce and sun dried tomatoes. The conversation was flowing over dinner, with stories of bike racing, pets, hunting and books.
Again we are optimistic about tomorrow's weather, which is calling for a high pressure system to move in.
Wishing the wind away,
RMI Guides Lindsay, Leon, Brent and team
Today was a great day. We visited the Otavalo market working on our bargaining skills. Then we returned to the San Luis Hacienda for a great lunch this afternoon. After lunch we drove towards the Cayambe hut in a torrential downpour of rain. Fortunately the rain let up and we were able to make our hike up to the hut on Cayambe (15,300'). Everybody did a wonderful job. The group is super strong and things are going really well. It’s been a great group. That is everything here from Ecuador. We will check in with our adventures from tomorrow. Ciao.
RMI Guide Jason Thompson
After the long day up the French Valley, we had a really warm and windy day into the Central area. There was a close sighting of a Condor which was the highlight. We had to just duck our heads and push forward and get over the humidity as much of the day was out of the trees and the sun was intense. We are hanging out watching clouds roll over the Torres, catching a few naps and cleaned up for dinner. Tomorrow, we’ll get up early for an attempt to see the Torres, the forecast is for rain and wind so fingers crossed.
The Five Day Climb April 28 - 2 May led by RMI Guides Andy Bond and Dustin Wittmier are descending from Camp Muir this morning. The team made the most of their time on the mountain getting in a Climbing school to learn cramponing, rope travel and ice axe arrest techniques. They then ascended to Camp Muir, 10,080', where they spent two nights and were able to do additional training. Lightning near Camp Muir and high winds kept the team from making a summit attempt this morning. We look forward to seeing them back at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
Yesterday we walked without any great difficulty from Lobuche to Everest Basecamp. Conditions were perfect, with sunshine, blue sky and no wind whatsoever. We stopped for a brief rest in Gorak Shep where we were all grateful for 3G cell coverage again (Lobuche is lacking in this respect which is why we took a couple of nights off from blogging). But we didn't linger for very long in Gorak Shep because by then we were just a short distance from our home for the next seven weeks and we were excited to finish the trek. We walked a bit more along the lateral moraine before dropping onto the actual Khumbu Glacier. By then, the only thing difficult about the travel (apart from being over 17,000 ft) was walking while looking up at a couple dozen hanging glaciers and giant peaks. We were into our basecamp by midday and eating a great lunch in our dining tent 30 minutes later. It was great to catch up with our Sherpa team and mind boggling to see the work they've accomplished in two weeks. Kumar is our incomparable chef once again, assisted by Raju, Jetta and Tikaram. Our expert team of Sherpa guides is of course led by Lam Babu who did such a great job accompanying us on the trek. In the meantime, Chhering, Kaji and Geljen were moving a lot of rock around to build camp. We just had to move into well built and anchored tents, which was pretty easy. We were excited to watch a big avalanche off the Lho La -the pass above us which is the border with Tibet. And we were happy to spend an easy afternoon and evening getting settled. The night went well, with all seeming to be adjusting well to the altitude. Morning in such a place was just as awe inspiring as you'd expect.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
It was raining at the Dik Dik Hotel this morning when we woke. Light, but steady rain kept falling as we ate a 7 AM breakfast and got ready to board the bus/truck. But 15 minutes down the road, our driver shut off his windshield wipers. Low clouds still disguised the mountain we believed was hiding somewhere out to our northeast, but things were looking up. The variety of crops in the "cultivation" zone at the foot of Kilimanjaro was quite impressive. We saw coffee, corn, avocado, mangos, and bananas all growing in a lush mix close to the Machame Gate. It took some time to get the group properly registered and permitted with the National Park but then at around 11 AM we began our ascent through a forest of tall trees. Our starting point was at about 5,900 ft, and our destination for the day was close to 9,800 ft, so there was little doubt we were in for a workout. At first we were in fog and humid clouds, but after several hours, the sun got strong and the sky got blue. We traveled on an excellent trail through the "forest" zone and into the "heather" zone and we began getting great views of Kilimanjaro and her glaciers. At around 4:30 PM we strode into a cluster of tents and admired the work of our porters and kitchen crew as we took packs off in our new home. We ate dinner in our grand dining tent and turned in early under what appears to be a magnificent full moon.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
DAD! This is awesome, I can’t imagine what your seeing and experiencing. Best wishes and Happy Xmas to you and the team.
One thing you always told me was “Lean into the spear.” Remember that when times get tough! love you so much and I am proud of you ...Love Bridy:)...
Posted by: Britany Fitzgerald on 12/21/2011 at 5:46 am
Richard: We are watching and reading every day…keep up the good work, sounds like you are all doing great. Hang on in those winds. mom
Posted by: Linda Robertson on 12/20/2011 at 9:01 am
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