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Mt. McKinley: RMI Guide Eric Frank’s Final Thoughts

June 19, 2014

Posted by: Eric Frank, Geoff Schellens

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley

Elevation: 348'

June 19, 2014 - 9:34 am PT As the wheels of our bush plane touched down in Talkeetna last night, my mind breathed a bittersweet sigh of relief. On one hand, we were back in civilization with amazing conveniences, such as flush toilets and food with expiration dates, but the trip had not turned out the way I hoped in previous months of dreaming about it. After taxiing through the airfield, we unpacked the plane and I cataloged the 36 hours of frenzied activity leading up to that point. The weather throughout this trip was challenging. Aside from the first few days traveling up the lower Kahiltna Glacier, we battled ominous and unpredictable forecasts, and lots of marginal weather. The team did a great job of staying positive, always assuming that after the snow ended we would get our break. Day followed day, but the snow didn’t stop. It wasn’t a blizzard by any means, but just bad enough to not be able to move up high and make a summit attempt. Every morning we would get up and either watch snow fall, or see wind howling across the summit plateau. After nine nights at 14,200’ camp we were in a difficult position. We had managed to get a food cache up on the route, just below 16,000’, but the snow was presenting avalanche danger, the forecast hadn’t improved and the days were counting down. The group had a long discussion about schedules and desires, eventually coming to the conclusion that we would split ways. Part of the team would stay, join another RMI team for support and wait for better weather. The other half of us would pack up most of the gear and move downhill toward the runway. Family, friends and work obligations were calling our names. After a 15-hour, 14-mile walk through the night, we made it to the landing strip, caught a plane and found ourselves on terra firma Tuesday night around dinner time. As a guide, these trips are some of the most difficult to manage. The puzzle was one piece from coming together, but it wasn’t meant to be. The frustration was not solely ours. This has been a rough year in the Alaska Range weather-wise. When we flew onto the glacier, the summit success percentage was a depressingly low 16%. It has hardly risen since then. It would seem as though this season has been one of failure, but I prefer to view it differently. As a team, we did everything we could to be ready, the mountain simply said “no.” That doesn’t mean that we didn’t have an enjoyable trip with lots of good memories. Quite the contrary, we had several good weeks together filled with learning and bonding. I am reminded of the very applicable mountain phrase, “The summit is for the ego, but the journey is for the soul.” Final thoughts- To our three climbers- Andy, Jesse, and John. Thanks for arriving fit, ready to climb and with great senses of humor. You guys were a riot to hang out with in the cook tent, and on the rope. I have every confidence that given a decent weather window, you guys could tag the top. Unfortunately, not getting a chance to summit is sometimes part of big mountain climbing. You guys handled it with class and smiles. I hope our paths in the mountains cross many times in the future. To my fellow RMI guide, Geoff Schellens, it is always a pleasure to work with you. Good times, buddy. You are smart, patient and ridiculously strong at altitude. I felt lucky to be up there with you. To all the family, friends, armchair mountaineers and acquaintances who followed along in the last few weeks; thank you for the support. Your comments on the blog and daily positive vibes were the fuel that pushed us along up there. We thought of you in every decision, and with each picture we took. Until next time, keep warm and enjoy every moment of life. RMI Guide Eric Frank

Leave a Comment For the Team (2)

Eric, Thank you for taking such good care of ‘Patty’s little boy’. The RMI blog posts that you provided were beneficial to both excited and worried family members. We even had the reassurance of your Mom, now that is special! Also, thank you for allowing John to continue with Team Jones, No Troubles. I realize that restructuring teams in mid-expedition is not usual protocol and wanted to thank both you and Geoff for facilitating this. You allowed John to fulfill a dream! Best Regards, Kent Stenderup

Posted by: Kent Stenderup on 6/23/2014 at 11:19 am

Eric—— Thank you for the beautifully written “final thoughts”. It provided positive closure on the “Upper West Rib” expedition. I have great respect for your focus on safety and appreciate the decisions that you made. I am happy for my son , John, that he was able to transition over to Tyler’s group and continue his quest and eventual summit. I spoke with him last night after the team arrived in Talkeetna. He had nothing but praise and appreciation for your great leadership. I would like you to thank your Mom , again for me, for her words of encouragement. It really helped me! Thank you so very much!!!
Patty Stenderup
(PS—- I am still wondering where in Ohio you are from??? I am also a Buckeye.

Posted by: Patty Stenderup on 6/23/2014 at 10:44 am

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Aconcagua: Justman & Team Check in from Camp 1

December 12, 2012

Posted by: JJ Justman, Geoff Schellens

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua

Elevation: 16,500'

Audio 1: Hello everyone at the RMI bloggers following Team One on Aconcagua. We are happy to report that we are up at Camp One. We actually had to make our camp a little higher. It was a little busy lower down at Camp One, but we have the upper camp at 16,500' all to ourselves. As a matter of fact this camp is so nice, we have a sit down toilet. So, the entire team is doing real well. It's a little bit of work to get up here, but everyone's feeling great. The agenda right now is to make sure that tents are buttoned down for heavy winds. However, right now we have very light winds... We're going to get a hot breakfast... (satellite connection lost) Audio 2: Hey, this is J.J. again with Team One on Aconcagua. Just to let everyone out there know. We have a lot of gear so we kind of thinned our communications down. We just have a SAT phone up here so we are going to be giving our blog via voice with Google voice and it'll be transcribed. So it may cut out, we'll try to do our best to give you some entertaining updates but everyone is just doing fantastic up here at 16,500'. We'll talk with you guys tomorrow. Everyone says hello to family and friends, and please follow along. We'll touch base tomorrow. Ciao from Argentina Camp One. RMI Guide JJ Justman

JJ Justman from Aconcagua Camp 1.

JJ continued from Aconcagua Camp 1.

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Ecuador Seminar: Hailes & Entire Team Reach Summit of Cayambe

February 10, 2025

Posted by: Walter Hailes, Nicole De Petris

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador

Elevation: 18,997'

RMI Guide Walter Hailes checked in the from the summit of Cayambe at 18,997' today. The entire group reached the summit in what sounds like great conditions.

Listen to Walter's voicemail below.

Nice work team! Congratuations!

The team has safely descended and will enjoy a bit of a rest day tomorrow along with some training.

RMI Guide Walt Hailes calls from the summit of Cayambe.

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Ecuador Seminar February 4, 2025

Gokyo Trek: Hahn & Team Return to Kathmandu

October 13, 2024

Posted by: Dave Hahn

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Gokyo Trek

We saved the best for last. The best weather at least. While we’ve had clear mornings up high, we were aware that it was still cloudy down below for much of our trip. Not today though. It was clear from the start in Lukla today and the airplanes and helicopters took full advantage. While we had coffee and breakfast in our last tea house, the aircraft were hustling in and out of the nearby strip. We headed over at our appointed times and got on a helicopter for Kathmandu. There was none of the usual stress about wondering if we could go or not. We were gone. The whole team was in Kathmandu by mid morning. Then we did about what you’d expect… showers, naps, gear sorting and shopping. We got together at the end of the day to trek through traffic for a final team dinner. After dodging mules and yaks, the potholes and taxis of Kat were no problem for us. Finally -at dinner- we could declare victory and acknowledge how thoroughly lucky we’d gotten. Things had seemed pretty uncertain at the outset. We’ll start getting back to our own side of the globe in these next days.

Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

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Gokyo Trek September 28, 2024

Ecuador Seminar: Wittmier & Team Explore Quito, Take a Hike

January 12, 2023

Posted by: Dustin Wittmier, Henry Coppolillo

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador

Elevation: 9,350'

Hello friends, families, Farmer Dave and anyone else out there who might be following our blog. We have just kicked off the first Ecuador Expedition of 2023. It started with a rainy travel day and a rainy day for our Quito city tour (although a few of us still managed minor sunburns). Today, we took our first acclimatization hike and were surprised/delighted to wake up to partially sunny skies!

The hike up Rucu Pichincha is really quite scenic. I think it’s my favorite day hike in the world that is more or less in a major metropolitan area. A gondola takes us to 13,000’ where we begin our ascent to the summit of Rucu Pichincha (13,354’). Along the way there are a variety of wildflowers and the final push to the summit is engaging, involving a short section of class 3 scrambling.

I should also mention that the team is in good health, especially thanks to the newly renovated penthouse spa here at the Hotel Mercure. Many of us have used this opportunity to cycle cold plunges and wet sauna or cold plunges and hot tubbing. Henry, the ultimate masochist, prefers cold plunge only, first thing in the morning.

Tomorrow we will depart Quito early to head north. The itinerary of this trip has us working our way from north to south, making attempts on Cayambe, Antisana and Chimborazo. These are the 3rd, 4th and 1st highest mountains in Ecuador, respectively. We also hope to capture a glimpse of Cotopaxi, which is normally on the itinerary but was scratched this time due to recent eruptions and a moratorium on summit bids. Better to witness that from a safe distance.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

Leave a Comment For the Team (2)

Two adventurous young women! Wishing them and all of you the best on both continents.
How great to stay in touch and be able to go along on your climb laptop-wise.

Posted by: Coreen on 1/13/2023 at 11:25 pm

It’s got to be Sarah that has a sunburn in the cloudy weather :-D That’s a Hillebrand special! Wishing you all a safe journey and glad for the blog updates!

Posted by: Hannah on 1/13/2023 at 12:32 pm

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Mt. Rainier: Kautz Seminar Turns Due to Route Conditions

July 1, 2021

Posted by: Alex Halliday, Henry Coppolillo, Abby Westling

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier

The Expedition Skills Seminar on the Kautz Glacier has been training on the mountain all week in warm temperatures. This morning was their summit attempt. Due to a significant amount of icefall on the route, the team had to abort their summit bid. The team is safely working their way back to camp and are descending from the mountain today.

Leave a Comment For the Team (2)

Did the Wilson still go, or did you have to go up the fan?

Posted by: Joe on 7/1/2021 at 5:24 pm

Good effort to the team! Any comment on where the icefall was and where they decided to turnaround?

Posted by: Shawn Rezendes on 7/1/2021 at 9:43 am

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Peru Seminar: Elias & Team Summit Ishinca!

July 7, 2014

Posted by: Elias de Andres Martos, Robby Young

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Peru Seminar

Elevation: 18,143'

Hello, good morning. This is the Peru climbing team calling from the summit of Ishinca, 5,530 meters. It's 9:45 a.m. local time. I'm going to let you know how the crew is doing... [Team's happy cheers!] I hope that was a good enough sign. We had a heck of a climb this morning. The team crushed it. We are having a really good day. We've had some easy weather the last couple of days but this morning from sunrise to right now, nothing but blue skies. The views from up here are astonishing, and we'll let you know when you see the pictures. We will keep you posted of our schedule. Tomorrow we are going to take a rest day and we'll see what the next couple days bring us as we wrap up the program. We call you back and I hope everybody is doing well at home. That's it for now. RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos

Elias de Andres Martos calls in from the Inshinca summit!

Leave a Comment For the Team (2)

Awesome, Lucy and Corell!!! So excited for you and the rest of the team!!!
One more to go!
Can’t wait to hear about it all, and to see photos!

Corell- the boys are home from Philmont—Colman is filled with stories—not the least of which is waking up to a lightning-induced forest fire ~100 yds away across the creek. A nascent forest fire that their group actually alerted the nearby staff/ranger camp about, and the same fire that made the papers back here… YIKES! we are fortunate the group leader got up earlier than the others to make coffee—noticed the flames filling the trees just across the creek, then went to the tents with the sleeping boys and said, “Boys, we might have a bit of an emergency here…” Colman said they had never packed up so fast!!!!

Thurston’s group was not on same trail, but apparently saw the flames…think both groups were diverted a bit. I think the fire was finally contained a week later…
But oh my!

Hoping your adventures are challenging—- but not so dangerous!!
XOXO

Posted by: Dana Marie on 7/8/2014 at 8:53 pm

Great job, Lucy. So good to hear everyone is climbing well and the weather is cooperating. All is well in VA. Love from all 5 of us. C

Posted by: Carter on 7/8/2014 at 6:39 pm

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Mt. McKinley: Jones & Team Fly on the Mountain

May 30, 2013

Posted by: Tyler Jones

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley

Elevation: 7,300'

Thursday, May 30, 2013 Tyler and Garrett checking in from RMI Denali Expedition Number 4. Yesterday afternoon found us in the ranger station getting some good details about the route, our responsibilities on the mountain, and what we can expect to see as we climb higher. Interestingly, we also were reminded that this year is the 100-year anniversary of the first ascent. While we have the benefit of fancy new gear and a century of knowledge, the actual climb of Denali remains as challenging as it was in 1913, and our team is ready to tackle that challenge. We landed on the glacier today, and we're currently camped out in Basecamp. The mostly clear skies and warm temperatures make it hard to believe we're almost at the Arctic Circle! Because it's so warm here, we won't be heading out for our first camp until later tonight (more like early in the morning) so that the snow will freeze up and make our walking a little smoother. Everyone is excited to have gotten a smooth start to the trip, and we're hoping the weather continues to hold. We'll check back in tomorrow, keep it dialed in for more! RMI Guides Tyler Jones and Garrett Stevens

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Leave a Comment For the Team (2)

Tyler, Garrett and James -

Hi Guys!!

I feel like I should be up there with you! I’ve been following Logan and Brent and they have been having great climbing conditions so far. I hope it holds together for you.

By now you’ve probably learned that James Choo and I were tentmates on Aconcagua. He’ll carry his weight-you can depend on him. Fred Klingbeil was also in the tent with us and I see he has posted on the blog and is following along. Hi Fred!

My poor substitute for Denali this year is going to Elbrus in July. I was on Kilimanjaro this past February. I’ll be at Elbrus with Casey and he and I were also at Kilimanjaro.

Good luck and climb safe. I miss you guys. XXOO

-Larry Seaton

Posted by: Larry Seaton on 5/31/2013 at 11:06 am

have an excllent trip and we’ll see if we can get the elmendorf guys to give a gentle flyby

Posted by: stump on 5/31/2013 at 9:04 am

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Mt. McKinley: Jake Beren & Team - Expedition Ends

June 24, 2012

Posted by: Jake Beren, Elias de Andres Martos

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley

Elevation: 348'

A few hours ago we were sitting on the glacier, Heartbreak Hill already a fading memory. Now we are back in Talkeetna, showered and fed and reconnecting with life off of the mountain. Our final day's walk was truly magnificent, with the light of the solstice in full effect as we marched downhill into thicker and thicker air, gaining strength as we went despite the accumulation of many days of work and little sleep. Waiting a few hours for a flight in the warm sun in the stillness of the Southeast Fork took the title as my best airport experience ever. Once again we are all happy and healthy, glad to return to everyone back home safely and with an excellent time with friends on The Great One. RMI Guide Jake Beren

Everest Base Camp Trek: Tucker and Team Visit Lama Geshe

March 27, 2012

Posted by: Mark Tucker

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Everest BC Trek

Elevation: 13,950'

We woke to a bluebird day and enjoyed a view of Ama Dablam while we ate breakfast. But bluebird often comes at the cost of warmth, so after a breakfast of (oh, you already know what we ate) we bundled up and hit the trail. The first part of the trail lead us through a forest of evergreen and rhododendron and sloped downward to a bridge across the Imja Khola. Once across the bridge the forest gave way to scrub and the trail started up. It was easy to overlook the effort of climbing with stunning peaks vying with chortens and Buddhist memorials for our attention. Mid-morning found us in the village of Pangboche. Our plan was to visit the Lama Geshe for a blessing and we arrived just as he was finishing up his morning clean-up and relaxing in the sun. We spent the next hour with him. He performed the blessing ceremony and we shared a cup of yak butter tea with him. I would gladly experience the ceremony again; but once is enough for yak butter tea. I should have taken Mark's advice. Personal note: I have been accused of being a Buddhist shaman in another life and I swear the Lama Geshe and I had a connection. Leaving the Lama, we wound our way through the village with views of walled fields below us. The trail was punctuated by many memorials for climbers and Sherpa. It was a reminder that the mountains belong to no one and that we are here as their guests. It is with respect and caution that we must undertake this trek and climb. We stopped for lunch in Orso at a small place with a delightful sun room overlooking the valley. It was there that we met a man who was apparently suffering from AMS that was waiting for a helicopter to take him to a lower elevation. He said he had been waiting for about four hours already and his local guide was off trying to sort things out. It was impressive to see Mark assess the situation and take action. He had the guy drinking electrolytes, pressure breathing and forcing food down in no time. Within 20-30 minutes he was sitting up saying how much better he felt and talking to us. The helicopter showed up a couple minutes later which was impressive on a whole other level. In either case, both Kim and I feel lucky to have such a competent team leader. As has been the pattern in the afternoons, the weather rolled in so we beat feet out towards Pheriche. It was a short hike, but included an appropriate amount of up before we rolled down into town. Not long after we arrived the other RMI team rolled in. We're now one big happy RMI family - if only for the night. --John A big shout-out to Ms. Barnes 5th grade class today! We are taking a lot of photos of erosion for you.

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Mt. McKinley: RMI Guide Eric Frank’s Final Thoughts

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Peru Seminar: Elias & Team Summit Ishinca!

Mt. McKinley: Jones & Team Fly on the Mountain

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Mt. McKinley: Jake Beren & Team - Expedition Ends

Everest Base Camp Trek: Tucker and Team Visit Lama Geshe

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