After a long day of travel yesterday, the entire team made their way to Talkeetna and spent the day packing, organizing, weighing, repacking, and finally getting all the gear weighed, set up and ready to fly.
While the weather doesn’t look promising, the entire team is primed and ready to go as soon as a weather window opens. We will wake up tomorrow morning with the goal of flying and see what the skies bring.
Until we fly, we will continue to eat warm food, drink cold beer, and enjoy all the amenities we will soon miss.
Hello from Ama Dablam Base Camp!
Are you unsuccessful when you don't reach the summit of one of your objectives?
Well, I think that if you have carefully prepared for it and put yourself in the best position for it, despite little odds in our favor according to the forecast, and you make the decision to head down because the one thing you can't control is totally out of control, then yes, you're successful.
It was windy when we arrived at our High Camp, it was windy throughout our short stay, and it was like a freight train when it was time to go. There's no way we could fight on the steep, cold and dangerous slopes of Ama's southeast ridge what "Eolus" had in store for us. So the only thing we could do, knowing that we had waited until the very last day, was to be smart and head down. Undefeated, because in the mountains what counts is telling the story. But sure disappointed to not to have been able to climb just a bit more.
But oh well, we're now back to the safety of our lodge at Base Camp, and we'll stay our descent tomorrow, eager for thicker air and why not, to start closing up our Himalayan adventure.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
We're on Ixta! Well we're actually at the Altzimoni Hut but we did get up to 14,600' on Ixta today. That means we set new altitude records for the whole team. That's always cool.
The day started with an 8 am pick up from La Malinche. Our fantastic driver, Rogelio, took us to the best breakfast in Mexico at the Hotel Mission Tlaxcala. Very nice.
Then we hit the market in the town of Amecameca for some last minute food and water before driving to the Altzimoni Hut. After dropping our gear we set out for a hike. We took the same route that we will follow tomorrow and I dropped some water at our high point. We'll pick that up on the way through on our way to high camp and I'll check in again from there.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
The rain continued to spit down on Moscow last night, although not enough to deter a few Muscovites from singing in the street outside our hotel on their way back from the bars. We left the hotel before dawn, watching daylight break over a damp and sleepy city on our way to the airport. Soon, without much trouble despite our loaded bags that far exceeded the 20 kg./passenger limit, we were checked in and boarding the aircraft. Perhaps it was due to the dreary weather but the boarding process was smooth and orderly - a far cry from the normal mad jostling of bodies that typically occurs as every Russian vies for the right to be first on the plane.
Departing Moscow we quickly broke free of the grey cloud cover and the blue skies above stayed with us all the way to Mineralnye Vody - our gateway to the Caucasus. As we approached the runway Elbrus' twin summits were shining clearly in the distance, breaking the horizon and dwarfing the hills around.
Again, all of our bags successfully navigated the Russian baggage check system and arrived with us so we were soon on the road, driving through rolling hills of wheat fields and recently harvested sunflowers to the city of Kislovodsk. A small city by most standards, Kislovodsk is a famous destination known for its natural mineral springs and it remains a popular retreat for many of Russia's well-to-do. Its main streets have recently been repaved and sidewalks widened, we are told partly in the regional preparations for the 2014 Winter Games, although Sochi remains several hours drive from here. We checked into our small hotel located across the street from the town's busy farmer's market that runs from sun up to sun down every day of the week. Taking the rest of the afternoon to explore our immediate neighborhood, pick up some groceries from the nearby store, and resort our gear again, we are at last ready to depart for the mountain tomorrow. There are still several hours of navigating the twisting dirt roads deep into the Caucasus Steppe to reach Elbrus. Assuming the good weather holds and the road are in passable condition we should reach Base Camp by early tomorrow afternoon.
The team is eager to complete our last leg of the long journey to Elbrus and we are looking forward to beginning the climb. Everyone is in good spirits and passes on their best to folks at home. We will check in tomorrow after setting up our Base Camp on the north side of Elbrus!
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons led by RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer reached the summit of Mt. Rainier at 8:15 am today. Utilizing a less traveled route on the northeastern side of Mt. Rainier, our Expedition Skills Seminar – Emmons captures the best aspects of summer climbing on Mt. Rainier's far-flung glaciers. The Emmons Glacier route is truly an endurance climb, beginning on the forested Glacier Basin Trail and ending on the glacier-capped summit of Mt. Rainier.
The team has one more night on the mountain and a full day of skills training before descending tomorrow. Congratulations Team!
The Five Day Climb led by RMI Guides Robby Young and Avery Parrinello climbed the Ingraham Direct route and were able to reach 11,800' before high winds forced them to turn. The team spent two days at Camp Muir on this climb and will be descending later this morining. We expect them back at Rainier Basecamp to clelebrate this afternoon.
Almost 48° north. Can be tough weather any time of year. Getting to the top is optional, getting down is mandatory. Believe that was a quote from Ed Viesturs.
Good attempt! The adventure was still exhilarating I’m sure.
My greatest accomplishment was summiting Mount Washington here in the northeast around the same time of year probably 25 yrs ago.
Still recovering…lol.
We didn’t take Sergio seriously when he said “I have a snowcat”. We were discussing the approach to Sierra Nevada, which would typically involve four-wheel drive pickups to get to where the snow starts. As our Chilean outfitter and local guru, Sergio has been with us the whole trip, and here in Malalcahuello we are staying at his ideally positioned lodge, the SuizAndina.
It turns out Sergio has two mini snowcat-like vehicles he recently acquired, and he was psyched to give one of them a try in getting us to Sierra Nevada. If all went well, it seemed possible that we'd found a loophole in the “No Shortcuts to the Top” argument. The mini snowcat would deliver us to treeline, we could spend more time touring in the alpine, and maybe get a few bonus turns at the end of the day.
Apparently the universe is on Ed Viesturs’ side. Before we even hit the snow, the mini snowcat had lost one of its tracks. These are the moments where us skiers start to panic internally. Will we make it to the snow? Will we ski today?
With one track down and Sergio at the helm, the mini snowcat still performed amazingly well in getting us up the gnarly road. When we hit the snow, it was time to earn our turns.
We ascended through mysterious Araucaria forest (monkey puzzle trees) and out on to a long alpine ridge. Cornice on one side, rocks on the other. The terrain became particularly interesting on the upper mountain, with a series of intersecting ridges, alpine bowls, and mushroomy ice features. The weather was perfect, the views endless, and we were able to ski from the highest point beneath the summit (the last 50’ was steep rime ice).
Sierra Nevada is one of those descents that just goes on forever. Photos tell the story better than words.
Chilean ski adventure to the max.
RMI Guide Tyler Reid
Greetings from Camp 3 on Aconcagua. Our team just returned after a successful summit bid with some happy and tired faces. We are looking forward to a little bit of dinner and some much needed rest before we start heading down, down, down tomorrow. All is well out here. Thanks for all the good wishes back home and we'll talk to you guys further on down the trail.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
Jake Beren calls in after the team's successful summit.
Rest days are done. We are now in the position to go for our summit. Base Camp being our goal. I feel good with the team's condition at this time. Big push up to Lobuche tomorrow, a couple thousand feet at this altitude will surely be felt by all. We are ready, bring it on. Made some head way with climbing equipment adjustments and technical training for the Island Peak crew. Any old bench around the tea house can provide a great anchor and the door to the dining room being less than a pitch away isn't all bad. Had a wonderful reunion with one of the finest Mountain Guides in the world, Casey Grom who overlaps his trip with ours for the night. Casey is such a talent in all aspects of climbing but what a challenge for him at a game of cribbage. So fun to hangout and nice to hash over logistics, since he will be climbing Island Peak a few days after us. A light dusting of snow this afternoon but clear tonight.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Dramatic pics with lots of smiles. Best of luck to all.
Posted by: Marcia Mikolaj on 5/18/2023 at 7:31 am
Hi, I wish You good luck, perfect wether, a safe tour. Return healthy! Enjoy each moment.
Elisabeth
Posted by: Elisabeth on 5/18/2023 at 5:00 am
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