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RMI Guide Seth Waterfall radioed in at 7:44 this morning reporting that both Four Day Summit Climb teams were on the summit of Mt. Rainier. Seth reported high cirrus clouds, low valley fog, 35 mph SW winds, and good climbing conditions. The teams spent around a bit of time on the summit before leaving the crater rim just after 8:00am.
They will descend to Camp Muir and then continue their descent to Paradise later this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's summit climb teams!
After a great rest day in scenic Puebla, our team traveled to Tlachichuca to get ready for our attempt of Pico de Orizaba. We exploded our gear in the 200-year old courtyard of our host and outfitter, Dr. Reyes. Once a soap factory, now climber's hostel, his lovely compound is now the launching pad for most climbers trying Orizaba.
After repacking our climbing gear, we sat down to a great lunch, then boarded our truck with full bellies and drove to Piedra Grande. At Piedra Grande, we set up camp and had another big meal before turning in to catch a few zzz's. We'll wake up in a few hours and give this "mountain of stars" a shot under a full moon. If all goes well, we'll send a shout from the top. Buenas noches and cross your fingers for us!
RMI Guide Jake Beren
The thick air of Elbrus Base Camp, the same air that felt so thin a mere 8 days ago, put us into a deep slumber. With a casual breakfast in the morning we gradually packed all of our gear in preparation for the van rides out of the mountains. By midmorning we were snuggly sitting in the back of our vehicle - a Russian interpretation of a '60s VW van with 4 wheel drive. Although lacking in certain onboard amenities (cup holders, anyone?), the vehicle performed its task of getting us out of the Caucasus admirably.
We returned to Kislovodsk around 4 in the afternoon and immediately jumped into the hot showers. Emerging clean and sporting a new change of clothes, we headed to dinner at a nearby cafe, mystifying the waitress with multiple orders of appetizers and entrees per person. But she rose to the challenge and brought a fantastic meal to the table, all the more enjoyable due to the 8 days on the mountain.
Tomorrow we will remain in Kislovodsk, exploring the city and relaxing a bit. We are hoping to visit some of its renowned mineral baths in the afternoon before repacking all of our gear for Thursday's flight to St. Petersburg.
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Good things come to those who wait. At 20 minutes to midnight yesterday, with the Southern Cross shining down on Punta Arenas, we left the continent. We were shoehorned into the cavernous cargo compartment of the Ilyushin 76 airplane, along with about fifty other passengers, a pickup truck and a mountain of gear and supplies. The flight took about four and a half hours and was almost completely lacking in any noticeable turbulence. We passed time by reading, listening to music and simply snoozing.
With about thirty minutes to go, everybody began layering up, tying boots, and pulling on hats and face masks. With perhaps 15 minutes to go, the flight crew turned on a new feature, a big screen TV with the outside view from the nose of the plane. It was absolutely spectacular, like a clip from "Frozen Planet" or "Planet Earth". Surreal beauty, until we felt the wheels under our seats touching the ice surface in the picture. Then it became real as the engines roared to slow the plane.
After the perfect landing, we marched out into the middle of Antarctica. After some photo-ops and handshakes, we shuffled over to a warming hut and then into a modified van for a ride across the glacier on giant tires.
It wasn't to be as far as getting straight out to Vinson Basecamp. Weather there wasn't suitable for a Twin-Otter flight, so after an early morning welcome meal, we built our tents and crashed for a few hours. The weather slowly deteriorated during the day, with cloud building up and light snow falling. That didn't stop us from spending a few hours out in late afternoon to review rope techniques. We rounded out the first day with an excellent dinner and an evening spent chatting with various adventurers on exotic missions on ice.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Glad you are finally able to get down to some serious business. Cheers.
Posted by: Mary on 11/30/2013 at 9:22 am
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Robby Young, Geoff Schellens
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 14,200'
Hello all from 14k! We made our move up today to 14,200' Camp under sunny skies and calm conditions, and moved into a beautiful camp with tent platforms, walls, and kitchen already in place, just needing a bit of buffing out. We've been napping for the last couple of hours, and are about to cook up a big burrito dinner. The weather looks to be holding for the foreseeable future, so we're going to head back to our cache at 13,000' tomorrow and try to keep the forward momentum rolling. We'll touch base tomorrow!
Cheers from the team,
RMI Guides Pete, Geoff, Robby, and all
On The Map
Hola Guapo
Checking in to see how you are doing.It seems like you’ve been away for months already!
Its exciting to check in daily to see where you are….and you are getting closer!
Hope you enjoyed your burritos tonight…...we had a four-star dinner of Kraft Mac and cheese and succotash; you aren’t missing much!
missing you! STAY STRONG! YOU CAN DO IT!!!
xo Guapa and Maya
Posted by: marion and maya on 6/27/2013 at 9:04 pm
Tom, I hope your trip is going well. We’re all waiting for your triumphant return. As Rhonda said, we’re putting updates together for everyone following you and can’t wait to hear all about it. Stay safe, stay warm, and in Eric’s words “Think snow!”
Cheers
Posted by: Milo on 6/27/2013 at 5:36 am
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Vinson Massif
Just like that, we went from a high cold camp on Vinson to a low, warm (relatively) camp on the Union Glacier. It was hard work, as usual, knocking down tents, getting packed up, and getting in some breakfast this morning, but we did it. We started walking down the mountain at 10:30 AM. The fixed rope descent was a workout with the big packs, but it all went smoothly, as did repacking for sled travel at Low Camp. A few beautiful hours of glacier trudging brought us to Basecamp. We packed, repacked and enjoyed the sunshine and big views of Mount Vinson as we waited for our airplane. The Twin Otter swooped onto the strip and we loaded up. Our flight back to Union was even a little more spectacular than usual as our pilots wanted to check on a few climbers in a seldom visited cluster of steep mountains just south of the Vinson and Craddock Massifs. We landed at Union just in time for a delicious sit-down (in chairs, that is) meal in the grand dining tent. It was fun to see all of the other climbing teams again and to catch up with the ALE staff. Quite a change for my small team after these past few days of solitude. We are living in the lap of luxury now and are perfectly positioned to catch our flight north on Dec 29th, should conditions allow it.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
RMI Guide Casey Grom checked in via satellite phone on Saturday night, September 22 at 10:01 p.m. PT from the summit of Kilimanjaro, The Roof of Africa. Casey was very happy to report that all team members had reached the summit it was a perfect day, sunny and beautiful. "It is a fantastic day up here" Casey said.
After spending some time enjoying the views the team will descend to the 10,000' Mweka Camp for their last night on the mountain.
Congratulations to Casey Grom and all of the Kilimanjaro September 15th team members!
On The Map
Posted by: Joe Hoch, Alan Davis, Cal Seeley, Evan Redman, Charlie Harrison, Robert Whyte
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Four Day Teams with RMI Guides Joe Hoch and Alan Davis reached the 14,410' summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. The team climbed from Camp Muir to the Summit in 6 ½ hours. The climbers and guides spent some time on the Summit enjoying the sunrise before starting their descent at 7 am.
Congratulations Team!
Posted by: Billy Nugent, Kel Rossiter
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 11,000'
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In the movie "Spinal Tap" there's a comical part where the rock god explains to an interviewer that, whereas most amplifiers only go up to ten, his "goes to eleven" in case he's really rocking out and "needs that extra push." Well, our strong team definitely needed no extra push in making it to 11K camp today.
After a calm night at 9600' we woke to clear skies and prepared to "go to eleven." After caching some gear and food in a snow hole ( which we'll pick up tomorrow) we enjoyed the feeling of dramatically lightened packs and sleds as we moved up. Arriving in camp the team had its first experience with building a true Denali-style fortified camp. Some people were shoveling, some were cutting blocks, some were carrying them: everyone was working hard and in an hour or so we had a veritable Great Wall in place. Everyone enjoyed the upper body workout and the concrete results. The sun sets late at 11K (it's about 10pm now and still brilliant) and folks are settling in to a well-earned sleep.
Tomorrow will be a "half-rest" day: we'll be making a three-hour trek to retrieve our cache, but without the work of breaking down and setting up camp we'll be able to also rest and acclimatize.
RMI Guide Kel Rossiter
On The Map
The rain was borderline torrential in Quito last night, but as we got closer to our acclimatization hike, it let up for us. We had a great hike today, topping out on Cerro Fuya Fuya at over 14,000 feet! The team again did a great job climbing up this mountain and making the most of our time up high. Tomorrow we will head to Otovalo and do a little exploration of the market town. Afterwards it's up to the Cayambe hut! So far so good down here.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
I swear that is the rare specie of Ecuadorian houli in the red jacket.
Posted by: John Loschky on 2/12/2013 at 8:02 pm
Hurray! Keep up the good work.
Posted by: Caroline on 2/12/2013 at 4:39 pm
Best of luck everyone! Thinking of you and looking forward to hearing from you from the top!
Posted by: Missy on 2/18/2011 at 6:02 pm
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