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Posted by: Jack Delaney, Roland Scott
Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades
Elevation: 10,781'
Tuesday, September 5, 2022 8:10 am PDT
SUMMIT!
RMI Guide Jack Delaney called in at 8:10 am PDT from the summit of Mt. Baker. The team climbed via the Easton Glacier route. The early morning temperatures were cool, but great for climbing! The team is on the descent and will be back at their high camp at about 6,800' where they will spend the night, and plan to descend early tomorrow.
Congratulations Team!
Monday, September 5, 2022 5:06 pm PDT
Greetings from the team with the two tallest guides at RMI!
We hiked into Sandy Camp on the flanks of Mt. Baker yesterday. The hike in was slightly overcast but great temperatures for hiking with a heavy pack. Once we got to camp we quickly set up tents as the overcast clouds had become dark and threatening. Lucky for us the rain started as soon as we moved into our tents. The rest of the night was spent hunkered down inside our nice dry tents except for a brief lull in the rain that we took advantage of to boil water for dinner. This morning we awoke to dry weather with partly sunny sky's. Today we'll practice all the mountaineering skills necessary for our ascent of Baker starting in the wee hours of the night this evening!
RMI Guides Jack, Roland & Team
Posted by: Andy Bond, Matias Francis, David Price, Augi Fleer, David Shuer, Nathan Delmar
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Four Day Climb team August 9 - 12 led by RMI Guides Andy Bond and Matias Francis reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. The team enjoyed a spectacular meteor shower as they left Camp Muir on their alpine start and climbed toward the summit. Andy reported a beautiful day with calm winds and warm temperatures once the sun came up. The team was starting their descent from the crater rim just after 6:30 am PT. Once back at Camp Muir they will refuel and repack for the remaining 4.5 miles back down to Paradise.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
Wow! What an incredible experience. Definitely a special day on the mountain.
Posted by: Amanda P on 8/13/2021 at 11:28 am
Posted by: Robby Young, Sean Collon, Steve Gately
Categories: Guide News
Sean Collon: Rock climbing and mountaineering have a large number of common skills, techniques and physical requirements. Approaching rock climbs with heavy packs full of gear builds stamina, and the climbing itself requires total body strength; all of which contributes to success in the big mountains. When guiding, or on personal mountaineering trips, I rely heavily on the rope skills I have developed largely in the vertical world of rock climbing. But more than all of this, rock climbing, in and of itself, is fun. Like any type of climbing, it is physically and mentally demanding. It can be pure enjoyment, often scary and painful, but always tremendously rewarding.
Steve Gately: After a busy Rainier season, trips like this provide us with some welcomed vacation time, while also allowing us a great opportunity for continued training. With back-to-back trips to Aconcagua coming up this winter, keeping my skills sharp is important to me. One aspect that goes consistently overlooked is not only the mental capacity but also the situational awareness needed for such long expeditions. For me, rock climbing is a way to keep my assessment skills sharp. There is some inherent risk in rock climbing, similarly to anytime that we step out into the mountains. This requires you to be constantly assessing situations, risk, hazards, terrain etc. This level of awareness is invaluable. You can be as strong as the best climbers out there, but without that ability to constantly assess your surroundings and problem solve when needed, well, you won't last very long in the mountains. For me, as a guide, this is one of the most important contributions I can bring to my trips and rock climbing provides an excellent way to stay strong, keep my skills sharp, and have a ton of fun while doing it!
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Robby Young is as talented on rock as he is on glaciers and skis. He is spending the winter ski patrolling and teaching several avalanche courses in Utah and planning on a ski trip to Iceland this spring before his Denali expedition. See more of Robby's photography at www.robbyyoungphotography.com.
Sean Collon is an RMI guide, originally from Michigan, spending this winter season in Utah ski instructing at Canyons Resort and training for the AMGA Rock and Ski Instructor Courses. He has climbed rock and alpine routes all around the Pacific Northwest and throughout the country, and guiding with Dave Hahn next summer on Mt. McKinley.
Steve Gately is heading to the southern hemisphere this winter to guide on Aconcagua. Returning to Park City, UT, he will be found skiing, ice climbing and working on another short film about backcountry skiing in Utah's Wasatch Range before heading north to Alaska next summer.
Great clip! I had the honor of attending a fundraiser last night (Golden,CO) for Jeff Lowe’s “Metanoia” movie. One of the items they were auctioning off was a 3 day climb at “The Creek” with Jim Donini! Jim was there and personally offered the trip. As you can imagine, it went for a nice high bid!!
Posted by: Lori Stewart on 12/18/2013 at 7:30 pm
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Categories: Mountaineering Fitness & Training
Posted by: Adam Knoff
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Everest BC Trek and Lobuche
Elevation: 8,700'
We made it to the Khumbu! Normally I wouldn’t sound so excited but this was not an average day of travel.
Our day began with a modest 3:45 am wake-up call from our comfortable air conditioned rooms so we could get all of our luggage and bodies to the airport by 5:15. Our flight to Lukla was scheduled to depart at 6 which in theory would put us out of the smoggy Kathmandu valley and into the mountains at 7 am. Everything is good in theory until a human makes a silly mistake or Mother Nature takes the reins. In our case it was the later that began to send our perfectly good plan into a tail spin.
Landing in Lukla, which sits at 9,000 feet literally dug into a mountain side is considered one of the most challenging places in the world to land a plane, so conditions need to be just right. Today they were anything but. By 10 am we actually loaded a bus, got transported to the plane, sat on that hot and sweaty bus for 30 more minutes then got word the conditions deteriorated suddenly so all flights were on then off again sending us back to the terminal. By 1pm, 8 hours after arriving in the terminal we had moved a total of 20 feet. As reports of continuing bad weather reached us, we knew our chances of flying were dwindling.
So enter Plan B. If a fixed wing can’t fly, sometimes a helicopter can. And fly it did! After another hour and half of finagling we rounded up two birds to take the entire group, with luggage to Phakding, our scheduled place of rest for the evening. Wait, wasn’t there bad weather up there? Yes, and because of that we had to make an unplanned landing well below our village to avoid sinking clouds and big scary mountains. So enter Plan C.
The group flew in separate helicopters with one group making it on their second attempt and myself and Eva still stuck below. After much head scratching about how to reconvene the next day, our pilot motioned Eva and I to quickly load up so he could make a last ditch attempt at keeping the group together. By some blessing of karma, the clouds parted just enough to make it happen and we landed literally as the clouds began to close in again. With blades still running we jumped out, threw the luggage off the helicopter and off he went. We were both glad to be on the ground and not heading back into the ensuing white out.
As the bird disappeared we counted our blessings and began our efforts to find the rest of our team. Twenty-five minutes after landing we were all reunited drinking tea at the Sunrise Hotel in Phakding.
A warm fire, big dinner and a couple beers prepared us for a well deserved sleep.
I was impressed how the team kept a positive outlook and rolled with the punches despite an unpredictable outcome.
Tomorrow we begin our actual trek towards Namche. Follow along for hopefully a less intense entry tomorrow.
Cheers,
I’ve read several books about climbing Mt. Everest and love keeping up with your trek!
Posted by: Donna Randolph on 3/27/2022 at 8:39 pm
Best of luck and good weather.
Posted by: Jane on 3/23/2022 at 3:39 pm
Posted by: Jake Beren, Camille Leininger, Leif Bergstrom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Mt. Rainier Summit Climb team reached the summit this morning just after 7 am. The team, led by RMI Guide Jake Beren, experienced beautiful weather with sun above the cloud deck that was settled around 7,500'.
Congratulations to the team!
Congratulation Jake + Team, Walter
Posted by: Waltero Glover on 8/28/2021 at 3:31 am
Way to go! One day!
Posted by: Bryan Lundgaard on 8/28/2021 at 3:24 am
Posted by: Eric Frank, Mike King, Jack Delaney, James Bealer, Abby Westling
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
After a week of unexpected park closures and a wonderful spring storm, our first Muir seminar of the season has concluded. Despite the less than stellar weather conditions, the team was able to shift gears and make the most of their time on the mountain. Climbers learned important skills like route planning, glaciology, snow sciences and spent several days practicing and honing their crevasse rescue skills.
Congratulations team – we hope you enjoyed your time on the mountain!
Greetings from Puebla! Today was a great day for the team to rest and explore the beautiful city of Puebla. This city is full of history, delicious food, colorful markets and a perfect place to recover for our next climb.
After a day to explore the incredible Catholic Churches built in the 1500s, the team ate dinner together at El Mural de los Poblanos, a fantastic restaurant full of classic local dishes. Puebla is known as the home of Mole.
Our next objective begins tomorrow as we head up to 14,000ft to the high camp on Pico de Orizaba!
Be safe. You are the best and most experieced guide in the world, so you really don’t need me to say “Be Safe” but we are all hearing about the conditions this year - so BE SAFE. Bill M.
Posted by: bill mcgahan on 5/19/2012 at 10:49 am
Hey Dave,
Mark Gray here. You led a climb on Rainier about 6 years ago where you were called of for a rescue of some other RMI group. It had snowed off and on through the night and we would probably would have not tried for the summit anyway. Needless to say I was amazed to even have been able to climb to camp Muir with you and have followed your Everest attempts ever since. Just wanted you to know you are in my prayers as you once again head for the the top of the world!
Posted by: Mark Gray on 5/19/2012 at 9:29 am
Sara, when I first heard about your decision not to summit, I wanted to jump to conclusions however, our friends helped me to understand what a strong person you are and we are all DEFINITELY SO VERY PROUD OF YOU. All of us were waiting to hear the story from you before being disappointed, and we all know the sacrifices you made and if you are happy, we are happy. Although summiting would have been an amazing experience, if you are okay without it, so are we. We are so proud of how far you made it and you will definitely go down in history maybe not for the summit but for the smart decision you made. You will be an example and a legend for future climbers. Hopefully when you come home, we can all catch up and you can fill us in on all of the wonderful memories you have made and you can reminisce on the climb. Yeah, we will wonder what could’ve happened but our curiosity is trumped by our happiness that you are safe and sound at home with us. Just know that we are all proud of you and you are a fantastic person and everyone who is disappointed in you, does not know your story. You know I am a harsh person and I hold you up to the highest standards, and even I am totally okay with your decision and GOT YOUR BACK.
I love you, Sara and hope you have some quick flights home because I cannot wait to see you!
Love, Kathryn M.
Posted by: Kathryn M on 5/20/2011 at 8:14 am
Sara and Bill,
We have all been following your blog and praying for you.
All we have to do is look at the incredible pictures to see that you have ACCOMPLISHED more than most of us ever would dream of even attempting. So, congratulations on your climb and the successes you experienced along the way. I think there are many folks in Atlanta who will be happy to have you back safe and sound a little earlier than the original plan.
Posted by: Jennifer Leinweber on 5/20/2011 at 6:50 am
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