Once we decided not to move for the day, the team slept late and gorged ourselves on a breakfast of toasted bagels with cream cheese and lockes. The rest of the morning was spent getting camp in order and digging out our walls.
Expedition life is a funny mixture of hard days of climbing and long days of sitting in the tents trying to avoid boredom. Today was the latter. We spent the afternoon avoiding the sun while we napped, read books and told stories. Being able to entertain yourself in the tent is a crucial skill on big expeditions.
Tomorrow, weather permitting, we plan to make a push up towards the 11k camp for more acclimatization and rest before we push higher on this magical massif, Denali.
RMI Guide Tyler Jones
Greetings everybody!
We are at the Altzimoni Hut at the base of Ixtaccihuatl, where we will be heading out to climb tomorrow. All is well here. We've had clearing afternoon a little bit of cloud cover over Ixta right now but looks to be breaking up somewhat. So, with fingers crossed we'll go to bed (hoping for clear skies in the morning) and head up to our high camp tomorrow. The team is doing great. We had a nice stop in Amecameca to pick up some last minute items, cruise around town and sort of check out what was going on and see some sites we may not otherwise have visited in Central Mexico. We will call in from our high camp tomorrow.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
RMI Guide Jake Beren checks in from 12000 ft on Ixtaccihuatl.
Difficult day today, waiting for the weather to clear, then scrambling like crazy in the evening to fly and finally an unintentional split of the team. As some made it in to town and some remained on the mountain for the night.
One of the finer days we've seen on the trip, weatherwise. Clear skies and calm as anything in the morning, which made us forget the cold. We were out in the glacier again, at our jungle gym of ladders and fixed lines and ice walls. The team practiced safety clips and rappel procedures and did lap after lap, without packs, with packs, with ice axes, without them... All under the watchful eyes of myself, JJ Justman, and Chhering Dorgee Sherpa.
At this point, still, the only climbers to have been through the icefall have been the icefall doctors responsible for building the route. That will change within a few days... Of course we are all quite curious as to what surprises the "new" route through the glacier holds.
In the afternoon on this fine day, our Basecamp Manager, Mark Tucker, took a foursome out for the first day of a planned four-day golf tournament in the mellow section of glacier close to camp. Tuck showed his party around the Khumbu Country Club, scoring a hole-in-one in the process (his partners now each owe him 100 rupees). Newcomer Robbie came away with the low score for the round however, with a nine under par performance.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hello, this is the Dhaulagiri climbing team calling from basecamp on Thursday, the 10th of April. We have been here now for a few days. We made some progress on the mountain. We've moved a couple of caches almost to Camp 1. We have had a few peeks of the mountain, in between a couple of severe storms that have fallen upon us. We were pretty close and a move to Camp 1 has been made. The four of us have acclimatized to that elevation, and we will try to push out there tomorrow and spend a couple of nights. The weather forecast looks favorable to us for the next couple of days. The weather here has been a little weird with really clear mornings and snowstorms pretty much every afternoon, so that has been a little interesting. We are enjoying ourselves pretty well here. Everybody is very healthy and in good spirits. We'll try to make some progress and spend our first night at altitude. We'll keep you posted with more once we make that move. We hope you are all doing very, very well. Regards from Nepal.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos calls in from Dhaulagiri's Basecamp.
Posted by: Mike Poutiatine on 4/10/2014 at 9:59 pm
Daily I am wearing a Tibetan-sourced St. Christopher-like disc to keep you all well and energized for the climbs ahead. These postings mean the world to me—keep them coming and POWER ON.
Hey, this is Seth Waterfall checking in from Camp 1 on Vinson Massif on the continent of Antarctica.
The group is doing great, we just returned a few hours ago from a carry to High Camp. We are sitting pretty now with our cache in up high and we are going to take a rest day tomorrow after three solid days of working our way up the mountain. The full team is looking forward to catching up on our hydration and doing some reading and relaxing around camp. Then we will be all set for a summit bid.
We are hoping for good weather, the forecast looks great for the next couple of days and hopefully that holds. Today was a beautiful day up on the fixed ropes and getting on the upper plateau of Vinson. We are hoping for continued sun and calm weather which has been the name of the game for last two days.
All is well here. Happy Thanksgiving to everybody back home, we are thinking about everybody. We need to stand on the top of this mountain and then we'll start heading back.
Take care,
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Best wishes to all for a safe summit specially our two Canadian girls Christine and Veronique who by the way are respectively at their 5th and 7th summit! Go girls go!! Bonne chance!
Today we left our island paradise for the mountains! After a quick boat ride we made a quick stop in the famous town of Copacabana to walk around the local market. Then it was back on the road for a few hours which brought us to the base of the Condoriri group. It's nice to be back in the mountains meeting our local support crew that will help support our climb and get our gear up to base camp at 15,500'. The team is looking forward to stepping onto the glacier for the first time and attempting our first peak on Friday!
We weathered another stormy night in our tents at Paine Grande. Some people in camp, not our group had poles snap, some unfortunately lost their entire tents. Our eight mile hike to Francis Domes included an optional 5k to the British lookout. The clouds, cold temperature & snow obscured the views from below. A few kept going in hopes of a clear-ish view while some opted to head for shelter.
We continue to enjoy classic Patagonia weather that keeps you guessing on your layer changes. Everyone is doing well and looking forward to a night in beds at the wood stove heated Francis Domes Refugio, a nice break from wind & loud tents. Today's highlight was seeing the Cuernos rock features that make up the middle of the massif.
Hi there! This is the Kilimanjaro team checking in from our high point today at 15,200 ft. All is well on the trail. The altitude is kicking in but we're all adapting. This afternoon we are going to drop back down a few thousand feet to Barranco Camp. Tomorrow we will tackle the steepest portion of our trek; the Barranco Wall.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Hello from Tlachichuca,
Upon our arrival to the Piedra Grande Hut, we heard from fellow guides that they had been turned due to bad weather the night before on Orizaba. It appears as though Central Mexico has been getting hit hard these days by the weather demons, and not just on Ixta. When we woke last night a different story was being written. It was downright balmy! It did cool off as we climbed, but we enjoyed near perfect weather as we climbed through a little bit of new snow to the glacier where most fresh precipitation had been blown far away.
The team did a great job on a huge day and we all stood on top together, with great views of Mexico's volcanoes even Ixta came out for the first time all week.
Thanks to a great team, Mexico crew and fellow guides JJ and Fernando for an awesome trip!
RMI Guide Jake Beren
Good luck guys. Hope you got lots of rest.
Posted by: Megan Berge on 6/5/2012 at 12:14 pm
Chris and all the team….Happy trecking, and safe return . We are all thinking about your adventure and you.
Posted by: Voula Likourgiotis on 6/5/2012 at 11:58 am
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