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It's a beautiful day here at
Everest Bascamp (EBC)! By that I mean its not snowing or windy, yet. We're taking full advantage by eating our fill, relaxing and doing some laundry. It's all part of the prep for our next rotation up on the mountain.
The past week at
Advanced Basecamp (ABC) was a great foundation for our acclimatization and the best part was getting on the
Lhotse Face. After all these weeks of prep it was great to feel like we were on a mountain as opposed to being down amongst the mountains. Our next trip up will be more of a test to see how our conditioning is holding up. But for now we're resting.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
On The Map
Hello again from Africa.
All is well here as we continue to have fantastic weather for our climb. Once again the team impressed me with their performance on the 1,500' high Barranco wall in just over a hour. We were one of the first groups out of camp and had most of the trail to ourselves with only a few porters passing along the way. Those that did impressed us with how they scaled the near vertical wall with 50 lbs balanced on their heads.
We then traversed over to the
Karanga Valley and descended a few hundred feet and then climbed back up and are now resting comfortably at camp. Its a beautiful camp with the summit of Kilimanjaro above us and the Karanga Valley below and we can see the forest that surrounds the mountain and the savannah beyond that. Quite a sight to say the least!
The entire team is doing great and I believe everyone is in awe over the fact that we leave camp each morning still standing and yet we always arrive with the new camp set up and waiting on our arrival.
Enjoying the good life and looking forward to moving to high camp tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
The
Four Day Summit Climb led by
RMI Guide Mike Walter reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning.
RMI Guide Brent Okita also led his team on the
Expedition Skills Seminar - Paradise to the summit. The teams reported clear skies and a beautiful day.
Both teams will descend to Camp Muir and then continue down to Paradise later this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's teams!
The
Four Day Summit Climb led by
RMI Guide Jason Thompson was forced to turn around this morning due to deteriorating weather conditions. The teams reached a height of 10,500’ before making the decision to turn back. The team is expected to arrive back at Ashford Base Camp by early afternoon for hot coffee and a slide show presentation about RMI’s Alaska Seminar. There is an open invitation for the slide show if you happen to be in town!
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons June 17 - 22 led by RMI Guide Hannah Smith made the difficult decision to turn around today at 13,500'. Hannah reported difficult snow conditions and a lack of established trail due to the new snow accumulations over the last few days. The climbers have returned to Camp Schurman where they will spend their final night on the mountain. Tomorrow the team will do some crevasse rescue training before descending to the trailhead and returning to Rainier BaseCamp later in the day.
Monday, July 5, 2021 - 9:50 pm PT
Score one for the weathermen. They weren’t kidding about this storm. It is real. Came in during the night and by morning it was snowing and blowing and we couldn’t see much. There wasn’t any question of moving camp up to 17,000 ft. In fact, we retreated somewhat. Just after breakfast, RMI Guides Dominic and Matt geared up for the toughest of missions. They trudged out into the teeth of the storm to climb up to retrieve our food cache on the West Buttress. Yes, we were proud to have just placed it there two days ago, but now we can’t afford to be separated from those supplies should avalanche conditions set up in the coming days… which seems likely. The guys had hard going, breaking trail in rapidly accumulating snow. At the 16,000 ft ridge crest they were dealing with winds easily in the 50 mph range, the kind that sound like jet engines even from way down here at 14k. We had plenty strong winds in camp, but of course we were in shelter and comfy, warm and dry. Dom and Matt grabbed the cache and bolted safely back to camp in a total of four very difficult hours. But their work significantly eased our ability to meet our new primary goal: riding out the storm.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hello from the "Himalayan Hotel" at
Pheriche!
Another incredible day in the
Himalayas, dear friends... And we can certainly say now we are going to spend the first night at high altitude, having hiked above the 4,000m benchmark.
After a rather cold night in Pangboche, we were greeted by another cloudless sky, whose sun made us ditch our layers just a few minutes after the start. Headed towards Pheriche Pass, we enjoyed astonishing views of Kantega, Tamserku (two of the most radical 6,000m peaks in the Khumbu,) and of course Ama Dablam. Like on the previous days, the mystique of the landscape is only disturbed by the heavy downhill traffic that we encounter from time to time.
While we await our dinner and as I write this post, we're also getting ready to set up for another session of nocturnal time lapse pictures before the evasive crescent moon we have vanishes.
The plan tomorrow is to rest here, to continue to acclimate taking a short hike, to visit the Himalayan Rescue Hospital next door, and, of course, stay well nourished with the momos and tea that (among other things) make us look forward to every meal.
On a side note, we celebrated on the trails a rendezvous with fellow guide Lakpa Gelu and
RMI office staff Bridget Schletty.
Regards to everyone,
RMI Guide ElÃas de Andres Martos
On The Map
Hello again everyone.
Today the team took an "active rest day", instead of just sitting around and relaxing we hit the trail for another adventure. First up was a visit to a seldom visited all women's monastery in the village of Thamo. It's about an hour and half from
Namche and is a little of the beaten path. This monastery is home to 28 women mostly who have escaped prosecution from Tibet. Their ages range from 16 to 88 and they exist solely off of donations. A few of them came out to greet us and gave us a brief tour of the new monastery they are currently building. We stayed for about an hour, had some tea and either bought a few items or made donations to help with their cause.
Next we made our way uphill to visit the first school established here by Sir Edmund Hillary in Khumjung. It sits between several small villages and has the most amazing views thus far. We could see
Everest, Lhoste, Ama Dablam and countless others. We then headed back to our tea house in Namche where the team is resting and enjoying the hot showers.
Everyone is doing great and looking forward to tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
We were greeted by crystal clear skies this morning which allowed some amazing views of
Kilimanjaro and the route ahead. The team did a great job this morning getting packed up and hitting the trail after a breakfast full of fresh bread, fresh fruits and fried eggs. Not to mention the 10 hours of sleep we had!
The trail out of camp slowly climbed out of the forest and up onto the Shira Plateau. We watched in amazement as the porters moved past us with ease while balancing loads on their heads. Our crew certainly out did themselves by having prepared another feast for lunch about half way up the climb. It was a nice surprise to arrive at lunch with the tables and chairs waiting on us.
It took us about five hours to reach our next camp on the plateau and again camp was set up and our group was happily awaiting our arrival.
Needless to say the team had a wonderful day and everyone is doing great. We will rest here at 12,200' for the night to help with acclimatization and will head up again tomorrow morning.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
Our team had a great summit day on Kilimanjaro. As we left Baranco Camp, our high camp, at 15,000' on our summit attempt there was a thin layer of clouds that insulated us and provided a nice temperature for our midnight climb. The beautiful and bright moon lit our way and our headlamps remained in our pack. As we reached Stella Point, 18,680', the wind picked up and we added more layers of clothing as we continued our ascent. As we reached the true summit of Kilimanjaro, Uhuru Peak, the winds subsided and we enjoyed spectacular views in all directions.
We have now reached Mweka Camp at 10,000' and our last camp on the mountain. It has been a long day and everyone is tired from their efforts ascending and descending this mountain. I would like to thank the team for a great job on the climb and for the mountain for allowing us to stand on the summit today.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
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I see one of you were wearing the La Sportiva Nepal Evo’s…how did they perform for today’s conditions?
Bob
Posted by: Bob Johnson on 7/27/2012 at 9:52 am
Nicely done and a great picture. It makes me hungry for my attempt in June/July 2013
Bob
Posted by: Bob Johnson on 7/27/2012 at 9:47 am
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