Most Popular Entries
We are in
Mount Rainier National Park and on the mountain! The weather has been finicky this past week with a good accumulation of snow. So much snow that we were worried that the park wouldn't have the road to Paradise open.
At 11 AM the park opened the gates and we made it up. With all the fresh snow it was slow going but the team trudged on and we are busy making camp...
Denali style! We are definitely having the true feel of what the mountains can dish out. It's currently snowing hard and we are working fast on the kitchen and dining tent.
I need a hot drink!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
Adam Knoff called into the office just before 6PM. With a storm expected, the team was hoping to make it to basecamp in order to fly off in front of the storm. The weather didn't quite hold and it began to snow in the last hour upon reaching
basecamp. The team's plan to unwind in Talkeetna has been thwarted until further notice.
On The Map
Success! That's right we did it even despite the adverse conditions we have been experiencing. The weather has been less than desirable. However when we woke this morning we were greeted with beautifully clear skies. After a quick breakfast, we walked out into a calm Ecuadorian sky that spanned from the Big Dipper to the Southern Cross, one of the few places on earth you can see both. Our climb started up a rocky buttress before transitioning onto the glacier, and we enjoyed the warm night after our last few days in the snow and rain. The climb went rather smoothly and we reached the cumbre, or summit in English, just after 8 this morning. The climb took just over seven hours to reach the top with mostly low angle snow climbing and a few steep pitches to keep us on our toes. Though we walked for some of the morning in a cloud, the weather cleared just briefly as we crested the summit, allowing us views of the Avenue of Volcanoes that spans Ecuador. We could even see the Amazon!!
Currently we are rejuvenating here in
La Casa Sol just outside Otavalo. Everyone is in good spirits and looking forward to resting.
Missing all of our families and most of our friends. Hasta manana!
RMI Guide Casey Grom
Hello everyone,
Right out of camp we were faced with the only significant technical obstacle for this climb. This hurdle is the great Barranco Wall, which rises about 1000ft and looks as intimidating as it sounds. Thankfully, there is a nice narrow trail that weaves its way up and through the wall and all the way to the top. Most of it feels more like steep hiking, but there are a few places that require the use of our hands to help us climb up.
The team did an excellent job of moving steady and allowing a few porters through with their loads precariously balanced on their heads. Which was astonishing to see!
After reaching the top we took a nice break and enjoyed the amazing views of the ice ladened south face and valleys below. The team continued our hike for a few more hours up and down through a few valleys before reaching today endpoint.
All in all, it took only about 4 hours for us to reach our next camp called Karanga, named for the big and beautiful valley which it overlooks.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and Crew
A well earned day of rest. We have come to the point now in this expedition where things are now earned instead of deserved. Granted we all worked hard on our last rotation. A storm came in and bullied us into coming down a day early. The wind beat us like a naughty pet and kept camp two, our primary objective out of reach. Despite the storm, everyone did great handling themselves and proved they are ready for the final push. Now we must really focus on staying positive and healthy. Our bodies are wearing down even here at
Base Camp. The mountain, letting us touch and feel a little bit is hiding no secrets and will demand our strongest effort yet to gain her summit slopes even though our physical selves aren't as tip top as they were two weeks ago.
So now we earn it. Nothing will come easy. From here until the end we must become more adept and graceful at dealing with the hardships. The want to come home and hug our loved ones and eat fresh food and enjoy a warm shower is growing stronger everyday. All of us must embrace the spirit of climbing this mountain and believe that working hard, suffering well and giving everything we have both physically and emotionally will earn us a chance to stand on top.
These next few rest days will all blend together. Sleep, eat, drink, sleep, cards, read and so on. I personally spiced things up today when I crawled into the Gamov bag just to see what it was like and 15 minutes later had a claustrophobic panic attack and had to be let out before hyperventilating. This provided a touch of humor but all in all we now must rest and wait. We all understand what these next two weeks will bring. We came here to climb Shishapangma and we will give her our finest effort. Even during days of rest.
More on that tomorrow.
RMI Adam Knoff
As athletes, we tend to preference the training activities that we enjoy doing and are also best at. It’s entirely natural for these tendencies to crop up, but often they do so at the expense of those workouts that we don’t enjoy as much or struggle with. This can affect both the quality and quantity of those less enticing activities. For instance, as people that enjoy spending time in the mountains, your weekend five-hour hike with a pack may be the highlight of your whole week and you may find yourself pushing those five hours to six or seven, seeking out new destinations. The mid-week weight room or interval workout that you dread however may be the first item on your calendar that is expendable, pushed out by the sudden schedule conflict that arises.
Cross training is a great way to find new ways to accomplish the workouts that you don’t enjoy, and to focus on an underserved portion of your training. In general, while we want to keep the bulk of our training focused towards mountaineering (walking up and downhill with heavy weight), some training outside of that goal will still bring benefits. If you have been training a lot of cardiovascular, working on leg strength is going to help you carry your pack. Flexibility will help to prevent injuries, and keep your muscles working optimally. Thus, seek out opportunities for interesting new ways to accomplish your training goals.
Anaerobic: Nearly all ball sports have a heavy anaerobic interval component to them. Think about the last time you watched or played a soccer game: players spend a good portion of the time walking or jogging up and down the field without the ball, interspersed with flurries of dead out sprints to or with the ball. Pick your favorite and try to find a pickup game or league nearby. Similarly, tennis, racquetball, and squash all will get you to that anaerobic zone. Mountain biking is another great natural interval sport, as it boosts your heart rate on nearly every climb, with a recovery roll afterwards.
Strength: Rock climbing gyms and yoga studios are a great place to seek out alternative core strength options. Both activities engage a large part of the core and upper body, and have a great community component to them. While it has a strong cardiovascular focus, swimming also trains the core and upper body in a low impact way.
Flexibility and balance: Yoga is probably the most common flexibility activity that most people do today. There are lots of different classes with different focuses. If a class you tried wasn’t working, check out a different type. Often, studios offer a “yoga for athletes” class, where the focus on flexibility in the key problem areas for most athletes is increased. You can also jump outside of the box and join a gymnastics class.
Endurance: If you dread the long workouts, there isn’t a great substitute for them, but you can vary your activities. Start a rotation of running, cycling, hiking, swimming, and rowing. Give yourself another goal and boost by periodically signing up for races so that you have immediate goals that you are working towards. Ultimately though, there is no substitute for long endurance training.
Cross training won’t fully prepare you for your next mountaineering adventure, and it shouldn’t make up the bulk of your preparation, but it can add some spice and give a boost to a neglected portion of your overall training. Seek out the fun opportunities and figure out how they fit into your plan.
_____
Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts here on the RMI Blog!
With 80 mph winds and a blinding snowstorm at
Camp Muir, it is a perfect day to conduct training inside. Our bunkhouse serves a cozy atmosphere in the storm allowing us to learn essential
expedition skills. If we were in tents all we would be doing is hanging on!
Our team is in great spirits and we are waiting out the storm until we venture outside. In the meantime, we're going to continue to sip coffee, lecture and do some rope work.
Stay tuned!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
Today we experienced superb climbing conditions as we bumped equipment and food to our cache at 14,000' camp.
We began with a steep climb out of
11,000' camp, up "Motorcycle Hill" and "Squirrel Hill" then enjoyed a mellow walk across a part of the route called the "Polo Field." We stopped just shy of the infamous "Windy Corner" at 13,200'. Guides and clients prepared to battle the harsh winds by dawning wind layers and face protection. We even made sure to have goggles readily accessible. When we rounded the corner however, we were greeted with only a light breeze. As a team we are constantly preparing for the worst and hoping for the best; the wind today turned out to be the best.
With our cache stocked, we headed downhill back to our camp. Despite some clouds, we were still greeted with a view of the Peters Glacier, the Direct West Buttress and Father and Son Wall. We were reminded how truly huge this place is, and satisfied to see that we are making steady progress. The entire crew had their strongest day yet.
We are currently back in camp hold up in our tents. It seems that in this place we are either working our tails off, or comatose and resting. Now we are the latter.
We look forward to seeing what kind of weather greets us tomorrow. We hope to move up to 14,000' at some point in the next few days if the group feels strong and weather permits. Well keep you posted. For now, it's back to food and rest.
RMI Guide Tyler Jones
On The Map
Greetings from our rest day here at
Plaza Argentina. After a lazy morning lounging in our tents we convened in our weather port for a terrific brunch of bacon, eggs, and of course REAL coffee. Most of us felt a bit ragged from our first night at nearly 14,000' but after a solid meal everyone seems to have bounced back and they're all enjoying another beautiful day reading, playing cards, and the like.
Leon and I are spending the afternoon drinking mate and packing up our supplies for tomorrow's carry up to Camp 1.
Adios,
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
On The Map
Thursday, May 18, 2022 - 12:46 am PT
We took our time over coffee and breakfast burritos this morning, enjoying the slow start and the warming sun that doesn't hit camp until 9 am. Satiated, we left camp and moved quickly downhill to our cache at 9600', relishing the opportunity to stride it out and cover ground. We passed a lot of teams headed towards 11,000' Camp, slowly trudging under the loads of big packs and full sleds. With our cache retrieved, we worked out way back uphill to our cozy camp. Overall, 11,000' Camp felt like it doubled in size today and lots of folks were strolling around, enjoying a warm afternoon. We'll look to continue our momentum tomorrow caching a load of fuel and food up high near Windy Corner.
RMI Guides Pete, Leif, Erika, and team
Previous Page
Next Page
Glad to hear that they opened the gates. Hope you guys are having a great time. I can’t wait to read more about your week. Have a great time Denali Style!
Posted by: Richelle Pullis on 4/9/2013 at 5:40 am
Good to hear you two are back on the mountain! I was up there 2 weeks ago, 1st one in the parking lot and on the route! Broke the trail in 3-4 ft. of fresh powder up to Panaroma point! That was alot of work but fun! But we made it to Muir and it was a awesome day! Hope to see you out there this year! Have a great week!
Posted by: Larry Schultz on 4/8/2013 at 9:58 pm
View All Comments