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Hey, this is Dave Hahn calling down from High Camp (Camp 4) on Mt. Everest. We are just about at 8,000 meters. I hope you can hear me the winds are beating the stuffing out of our tent fabric right now. We got up here late morning today, we moved up pretty well from Camp 3, in about 4 ½ hours. Very crowded conditions on the Lhotse Face but the team was doing well and we cruised on up here. It was a beautiful day but as soon as we got into the South Col the wind was blowing. Our forecast has changed a little bit, it’s not looking like quite the great window of opportunity that we thought it would be. There are a number of teams going for the summit tonight. In fact, many of them are starting and it’s not even 8 pm yet. We may not be starting if the wind is still blowing. We are thinking we can wait it out and maybe get some better weather tomorrow. But we are ready to go if this wind drops and the crowded conditions aren’t too bad. Four team members, four Sherpa up here on the South Col and it’s exciting as always. We don’t know what’s going to happen but we are going to play our cards right. RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

After four days of living it up at basecamp, we packed up our gear and moved up hill to Camp 1 at 16,400 feet. We were lucky enough to have clear skies and calm winds the whole way to camp as we meandered through the glacial moraine above basecamp. Shortly after arriving at Camp 1, the weather turned, the temperature dropped, and snow began to fall. After a very dry winter in the Andes, Aconcagua is in desperate need of snowfall and we welcome the fluffy white precipitation as we hunker down in our tents for some rest before dinner. Tomorrow, we load up again and carry half of our food and gear to Camp 2 at 18,000 feet. The trail to higher camps gets easier from here, but the air gets thinner with every step we take uphill. Everyone is still doing well and we can’t wait to see what the upper mountain has in store.

RMI Guide Nick Scott

On The Map

The clouds were blowing the wrong way today. From East to West is somewhat uncommon during the normal pre-monsoon climbing season. But oh well, it was an enjoyable day in any case. The morning chill didn't last long at all, it was nearly t-shirt weather by the time we'd finished breakfast and the several inches of snow which had fallen in recent days began to melt fast. Tents are going up all around us now as more and more teams show up on the scene. Our nearest neighbors are Korean and Danish. The Koreans have a neat tradition of conducting group calisthenics each morning just before the sun hits the camp. Today I felt quite lazy and antisocial, sipping my morning coffee and listening to the BBC in a big down coat while watching the Koreans bond and stretch. Our First Ascent team did a little bonding and stretching today as well, but at a much more civilized hour. At ten in the morning we all marched for 10 minutes over to a little obstacle course of ladders and ice towers for some practice at rigging up and staying safe. We've got our sights set on the Khumbu Icefall now as the next big goal - the Icefall Doctors are close to having the route complete as far as Camp I and it won't be long before we are moving along and up through their maze of ladders and ropes. But we'll ease into that. The route through the Khumbu is unlike any other climbing route in the world. Great technical climbers and glacier travel experts from elsewhere will not have seen anything like this before. And such is the case within our team. Practice in walking ladders with crampons and protecting ourselves by properly clipping into fixed ropes is a good thing. When one gets to a real passage through the Icefall, one must be fast and efficient at all of this, so today we repeatedly crossed a ladder just a few feet off the ground. And then we tilted it up and crossed at forty-five degrees. Finally we tried a little vertical stretch with the ladder, all the time enabling to protect ourselves against a fall (or a collapse of the ladder) by smartly attaching ourselves to safety lines. As expected, it was a blast to finally be walking on snow with an axe in hand. Everybody seemed a little excited to kick crampon points into ice or to pull on a rope or two. It felt like climbing. After lunch, Erica and I suited up again for an afternoon glacier tour. Just for an hour, since we didn't want to overdo the exercise at this still new altitude, we tramped around on the glacier away from tents and people (and well below the icefall). We stomped up and down little walls and explored corridors within the folds of the glacier. I took Erica to a few of the places I'd marked in my GPS over the years where I'd found oddball souvenirs like busted wooden ice-axes and oxygen bottles marking the basecamps used for the original attempts on this side of Mount Everest. I was startled by the changes in the glacial surface over the course of just one year. My first trip to this side of the mountain was in the year 2000 and over the past nine years I'd gotten familiar with a number of landmarks... boulders, ice ridges and towers that stayed more or less the same, streams of water on and within the ice that tended to form up each season and follow roughly the same course, that sort of thing. But this time, Erica saw me shaking my head a lot and turning my GPS this way and that (which doesn't actually help much with a GPS, by the way) because everything seemed radically different. Large, flat, frozen ponds sit where ice ridges had thrust up sixty and seventy feet previously. New stream courses seem to be everywhere and the formerly orderly flank of the medial moraine we all camped on for years is unrecognizable. I can only assume that a massive volume of ice has disappeared from the glacier due to melt in the past year. Erica and I came back into camp. She headed for the afternoon round of "Dirty Clubs" a mysterious card game that Gerry Moffatt inflicted on the team during the trek. No money changes hands, but the daily losers have to perform all manner of humiliating public stunts. I made the rounds, admiring the organizational work that basecamp managers Jeff Martin and Linden Mallory have been accomplishing while we played on the glacier. The Eddie Bauer, First Ascent/Rainier Mountaineering Inc. Basecamp is shaping up. The word is that the hot shower may be operational by tomorrow. Now there is still enough time for a quick nap before dinner... except the light is just getting good and small avalanches keep crashing down off of the West Shoulder, Lho La and Nuptse, forcing me to keep scrambling out of my tent to watch. So much to do...

Day 16-17

Waking into Namche this round through was much different than the first time.  Despite our sizable group, we were by no means the largest on the trail.  

This place is now in full swing with Everest climbers, international trekking teams and yak trains going up the valley towards Everest Base Camp.  

Even though the traffic resembled more of a US interstate than a single-track trail, we were pleased to land back at camp de base where we were welcomed with hot showers, Nepal Ice “extra strong beer” and the comforts of nice rooms with personal bathrooms. The hike was roughly 8 miles from Pangboche consisting of many ups and downs but nothing the seasoned team couldn’t handle.    

After a normal 7:30 breakfast the following morning, we set our sights on Lukla, home of the infamous dead-end runway and gateway to Everest.   Eleven miles and 6 hours after leaving Namche we strolled in with time to spare before dinner so naps all around became the team activity.   The clouds were thick as pea soup by 7 pm so our flight status was a bit unknown.   With fingers crossed we went to bed. When our alarms ripped us awake at 5 am the disheartening presence of this fog was still lingering out the window.  

We made our way anyhow, walking to the airport to check in and hope for the best. After waiting for ten hours to fly on the way in, we were not hoping for a repeat.   Two hours in we were beginning to get a bit worried and then the first plane landed.   Ten minutes later we were loaded up and, in our way, back to Kathmandu!   

Now we are clean, fed and content, celebrating a fun and successful trip. I can’t thank this team enough for a great few weeks in Nepal.   

This wraps up the Everest Base Camp and Lobuche expedition. Thanks for following!  

RMI Guides Adam Knoff and Hannah Smith and Team

Hey guys, this is the Shishapangma team. We are just calling to check in. Everybody is well. We did feel the big earthquake the other day. Both our team up at Camp 1 and our team at BC are just fine. We are going to send another team up in the direction of Camp 1 later this afternoon. We are going to start our rotations a little higher up. All is well here. We are waiting for a weather window and just hanging out. So, we hope all is well back in Ashford. We’ll be giving you a shout when we have a little more to say. That is all from Tibet. RMI Guide Jake Beren

Due to overhead hazards, the Mt. Rainier Summit Climb, led by RMI Guides Mike King and Taylor Bickford, turned at Ingraham Flats.  They reported smoky skies and a busy route.  After packing up at Camp Muir, the team began their descent to Paradise at 9:00 a.m.

Today was not unlike most of our others the last week.  Breakfast, packing then walking.  Except today we would finally reach Everest Base Camp. It is almost agonizing to see the bright yellow tents in the distance and feel like they are not getting any closer.  But three hours of steady walking landed the entire team safely at the Base Camp rock.  We were greeted upon arrival by our gracious Base Camp Staff with cookies and hot tea.  The views of the Khumbu icefall, Mt. Everest and Nupste were incredible the entire morning.   After our entrance greeting,  we hiked the final 30 minutes to our camp site and enjoyed hot showers, a great dinner and interesting sounds of far off avalanches.

Everyone is now tucked into their cozy tents ready for a good nights rest.  We  will report tomorrow after our hike back to Lobuche.

RMI Guide Hannah Smith

This morning at 8:45am everyone on the team was standing on the highest point in Mexico! We didn’t have a chance to hang out long on top because of strong winds that were bitter cold at 18,491ft. But we were able to enjoy the view before the clouds rolled in and followed us down the mountain. 

It was a difficult climb due to the strong winds, but everyone did a great job pushing through to the summit! 

We are back down in the town of Tlachichuca where we will celebrate our final night together before we fly home tomorrow. 

RMI Guide Grayson Swingle

The Four Day Climb August 28 - 31 led by RMI Guides Avery Parrinello and Jack Delaney were unable to summit today.  Climbers reached 12,300, the top of Disappointment Cleaver, before deciding to turn back due to unfavorable route conditions and warm temperatures.  The teams were back to Camp Muir just after 7 am.  They took some time to repack before beginning their descent from Camp Muir back to Paradise. We expect the groups to be at Rainier BaseCamp in the early afternoon.

Before sunup on the 24th of May, the RMI Everest climbing team left Camp III at 24,000 ft on the Lhotse Face, bound for a shot at the top of Mount Everest. The only trouble was that everybody else on the mountain had the same idea at the very same time. We were shocked to see how many climbers were already on the fixed lines. Estimates ran to as many as two hundred, although it was later figured that a fair proportion were simply doing carries to the upper camps and weren't intent on staying at Camp IV or climbing for the summit. Suffice to say that we couldn't set our own pace for climbing, but eventually, by keeping going when other teams elected to take breaks, we made it into the open above the difficult Yellow Band at 25,000 ft. The Geneva Spur didn't present a significant barrier to our reaching 26,000 ft by late morning. There we found a steady wind and our Sherpa team building tents on the South Col. It was easy enough for our team to get in and start re-hydrating and resting for a summit climb, but it was tougher trying to get a read on the conditions that climb would be undertaken in. A quick count revealed about fifty other tents pitched on the Col, and a few impromptu meetings with other climb leaders decided us that perhaps in excess of a hundred climbers would be going for the summit that night. The winds continued and the latest forecasts confirmed that a ribbon of 50 mile-per-hour air would still be menacing the mountain for a further 24 hours. We looked at the steep triangular face and saw that its middle third would entail loose rock with a good chance for some of that getting kicked loose onto teams below. So there were three things that didn't work well for us… rock, crowds and wind. We made preparations for a climb, but we also began to explore the possibility of delaying 24 hours and shooting for May 26th as a summit day. We each knew that we'd be putting all our eggs in one final basket by doing such a thing. We had resources for such a delay, but we didn't have unlimited resources. If we skipped the 25th, with its known problems, we'd have to take the 26th with its unknown problems… or go home without a summit. We tried to hedge our bets, telling our Sherpa team that we'd still prepare to get up in the night unless the winds were still blowing. At 10 PM, long after the other teams had left for the top and were to be seen as a Christmas parade all up and down the Triangular Face, the winds were still strong. We committed to the next night. It was a slightly surreal day, as always, hanging out at 8000 meters on May 25th. We wondered whether we'd missed our shot as the neighboring teams came down with a summit under their belts and not too many bad stories to tell, after all. Yes it had been windy and cold and crowded, but most seemed to have done ok and there certainly weren't new tragedies to report. Finally, in the late afternoon of the 25th, the winds began to die down. That was encouraging, but our headcount for the coming summit day was less encouraging. We'd assumed we'd be up the hill with perhaps fifty climbers, but as we prepared dinner and turned in, we'd become aware of about 80 or 90. And nearly all of these climbers were leaving quite early for the top (as in about 7 or 8 PM). There was no way to beat them out the door without simply aiming to summit in the middle of the night (a bitterly cold and slightly unrewarding proposition). We'd set out afterward and take our chances on being able to pass people when we needed to. Our alarms rang at 10 PM and we ate, drank and geared up for two hours in delightful stillness. The South Col was dead calm and quiet with the wind absent and the vast majority of the climbers already well up toward the balcony. Lam Babu Sherpa would stay at the South Col, just in case, while Tsherring, Kadji and Passang accompanied the four person climbing team. We set out at midnight and four hours later topped the balcony in perfect conditions. A half hour later we experienced an incredibly colorful sunrise and things got slightly easier, even as we took on the steep slopes below the South Summit. At the South Summit around 7 AM we crested to see an amazing and at first, frightening, phenomenon. There were at least a hundred climbers lined up waiting to descend the summit ridge. At any given point there seemed to be about 8 climbers simultaneously on the Hillary Step and dozens upon dozens on the tricky rock features between us and the step. We decided we had no choice but to sit and wait patiently in the small dip past the South Summit. There was no practical way that we could pass so many climbers on such awkward terrain. The wait turned into an hour-and-a-half, which made each of us quite nervous… since such a thing is very much the definition of not being in control of one's climb… but then we each had to remind ourselves that conditions were benign. There was zero wind, the sun was shining and there was plenty of time left in the day. Also, we salivated at the prospect of having the mountain to ourselves after the long conga line of climbers passed on their way down. Finally we stood up, shouldered our packs and shook off the cold. It didn't take long then to scramble across the ridge, up the Hillary Step and onto the summit. It turned out that three or four climbers were on the summit from the Tibet side, but that didn't stop us from thoroughly enjoying about 55 minutes on top. We had unlimited views and a very happy team as we connected with Lam back at the South Col, Yuberaj at Camp II and Mark Tucker down at Basecamp. The descent took just a matter of hours, since there was virtually no traffic left high on the mountain. We came back into the South Col feeling satisfied, but also knowing that the big work of the day was yet-to-come. We needed to pack up camp and descend a mile to ABC in the Western Cwm. With heavy packs and hot down suits we slid down the ropes for hours and hours. Past the Geneva Spur, past the Yellow Band, past Lhotse Camp IV and Everest Camp III… down to the part of the face that suddenly seemed to be melting under our very crampons. In the space of two days, spring had turned to summer and it seemed the climbing season was supposed to be over. We were greatly relieved to hit the bottom of the wall in safety and to trudge into ABC just after sunset. Morning still held a little anxiety for us as we each knew we'd have to successfully wend our way through the Khumbu Icefall one more time. The word was that it was crumbling and collapsing and heating up. And that turned out to be true, but we saw that the Icefall Doctors were doing a magnificent job keeping a route cobbled together through the mess. We took our time and placed our feet carefully and eventually hit all of the comfort and safety of base camp by mid-afternoon on the 27th of May. The 28th was shower-and-pack-and-keep-fingers-crossed-day for the climbing team. Showering and packing for the obvious reasons, but keeping fingers crossed because the Sherpa team still had a final day of working in the Icefall to get all the gear down. Their strength and skill and our finger-crossing worked because they emerged victorious and unscathed by mid-day. The climb was over. By the morning of the 29th, we'd heard that there were long delays for those attempting to get fixed-wing flights from Lukla. The monsoon had worked its way into the lower valleys already and the weather was sloppy with cloud and rain. Instead we arranged a series of memorable helicopter rides from base camp to Kathmandu. There was plenty of hurry-up and wait… there was awe at the beauty of mountains and gorges seen from the air, there was sheer terror at the power of thunderstorms on small aircraft, there was gratitude for the skill of the pilots we'd watched performing miraculous rescues all season long… and at the end of the day yesterday, there was an easy dinner in a Kathmandu restaurant and a comfy hotel bed. Soon there will be home. Thank You Very Much for keeping track of our expedition. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn