What do you do in Antarctica when you want to kill time? you eat, sleep, read, play games, write in your journal and.... do first ascents. Not a bad program, isn't it?
After a great breakfast of french toasts and beautiful lunch, I headed out with Nick, Victor's client, to do one more line on the north face of Mount Russman. It takes about 30mins down the now well travelled ski track to the base of the face. There, we trade skis for crampons and poles for ice aces. Victor followed behind with the Union Glacier camp head chef, Gavin.
Today's line was a mix of steep snow and steeper ice with wild mushroom formations stacked on top of each other. The climbing was smooth and we moved quickly through this untouched terrain. As we neared the top, huge cornices were towering overhead and the terrain was steeper than what it had seemed like from the bottom. We topped out 2hours after leaving our skis. We radioed in to camp to notify them of our success on the route and to let them know that we were headed straight back to camp. It's requirement and we need to communicate with camp on a regular basis while out in the field.
This was Gavin's first first ascent, just like it had been for Richard Parks a few days ago. So, he got to name the route. He offered a few names, but the one that stuck with "Route du Jour". It was a perfect fit for a chef and also because this is realy what it is like: we wake up in the morning and wonder which route is going to get plummed that day, much like a chef decides on what menu he is going to prepare.
We just got news that we are likely not flying tomorrow night. So, there might be more "Route du Jour" to come!
We waited for the sun to rise this morning before packing up camp and heading back to our cache. We cooked burgers for lunch while repacking our sleds for the long haul back out of the Ruth Gorge. After some difficult hours of travel we arrived at the Mountain House airstrip. We made a quick camp and enjoyed our last evening in the gorge. All is looking well to fly out tomorrow morning.
June 27, 2014 - 11:11 pm PT
At 8 PM this evening we were blessed with the first glimmer of sun in two and a half days. This isn't completely out of the ordinary for this neck of the woods but more surprising, even to me with eight Denali expeditions, was the amount of snow that fell during that sunless stretch. Four feet would about do this storm justice but when you are living in a nylon house that can collapse under a moderate burial of drifting snow it felt more like ten feet. This morning at breakfast while in the posh house, a one pole pyramid cook tent set up to fit the entire team, shook and sagged under the constant loading of falling flakes, Jay Lampas asked if this snow storm qualified as "epic" yet? I didn't want to sound too fragile and make him believe this was the "storm of the century" but I did have to concede that four feet in two days was a touch "epic". Of course the main worry of the team is how this massive blanketing will effect our upward progress. I didn't have an exact answer but I do know we will be sitting still on Saturday no matter how brilliant the weather because of the avalanche hazard that awaits above us. Safety is always the number one priority so we will move to 14,000 feet only when we know it is safe to do so. Hopefully our dwindling lunch food and Cosmo magazines can hold us out until we can get to the cache of food we left at Windy Corner. We are all looking forward to a night with no 2 am wake up calls for shoveling duty. Maybe full dreams will be of the upper mountain. All the best from McKinley Team Knoff.
Yup! We are now swimming in Torch Lake after a “forever” winter in Northern Michigan! As we follow you up Denali we can see that the snows have not left all places to date! We hope you get a break in the weather and your journey will be able to move forward. Ken
Posted by: Ken and Kathy Masck on 6/29/2014 at 4:45 am
Happy birthday Wheeler! I hope the weather cooperates!
Greetings from high camp at 19,600 ft! Today we made use of a good forecast and the first break in the wind in recent memory to move up. Now we are in striking distance of the top, getting ready for dinner before an early bedtime. The team again performed well getting here and if this calm weather holds, we will go for the top tomorrow! We've enjoyed everyone's comments and the crew is in great spirits having put forth an impressive effort so far. With any luck we will only head uphill for one more day before starting the long return to Mendoza. Wish us luck!
RMI Guide Jake Beren
The Kilimanjaro Family Climb began the ascent today, climbing through the rainforest on Kilimanjaro's lower slopes to reach Machame Camp at 9,800'. Check out their video dispatch below.
RMI Guides Peter Whittaker & Seth Waterfall
Best Wishes on a SAFE and super climb! You will never forget this adventure & it brings back wonderful memories of January 2007, when my son & I made the climb. Soak up the sights, smells and sounds!!!
Monday, June 24th, 2013
Only 3000 feet to go!
We woke up around 4:30 this morning and packed up our 14k camp. We headed uphill towards the fixed lines and hit them as the sun began to beat down on us. It was a stark difference from the other day when it was ridiculously cold from the wind.
We worked our way up the fixed lines and gained the ridge on top of the West Buttress. We picked up our cache as we followed the ridge towards 17k camp. By the time we got to camp we were plenty tired. We dug in deep to protect us from the big winds that can happen at 17,000 feet on De-gnarly. Dehydrated meals and hot chocolate in the tent... bed time!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen and RMI Summit Team 6
Well hello all.
Last week temperatures were frigid. I am happy to say today was downright balmy. We'll take it.
We spent our entire day today going over some critical information. Laying the ground work for crevasse rescue. A lot of information was downloaded and everyone seemed to grasp the concepts. Knots, anchors, rappelling into a crevasse, self extrication from a crevasse were some of our topics on this beautiful day.
Kahiltna Base Camp is getting busier by the day. More and more climbers are showing up to head up Denali, other friends are finding success on various routes on the Mini Moon Flower and the North Buttress of Mt Hunter with this current stretch of superb weather.
Word on the street is temperatures are about to get really hot the next few days. We will let you know how that plays out.
Everyone is doing great and says hello.
RMI Guide Jason Thompson
Early morning in the Caucasus found us loading our duffels into the back of our van and heading from the base of Mt. Elbrus towards Mineralnye Vody. The three hour drive brought us out of the mountains and into the broad sweeping farmlands to the north, the craggy hillsides gradually replaced by fields of wheat and expanses of sunflowers. The road was a bustle of activity, with the markets in little towns we passed brimming with people, their cars parked number to bumper along the edge of the road. And like our drive to the mountain a week ago, the cows once again idled lazily in the lanes like moving road blocks, causing traffic to swerve around them.
Check In at the Mineralnye Vody Airport is a true mad house, hundreds of people jamming towards two check in counters. The concept of a line is a forgotten thing as people jostle their bags for position in the stiflingly hot air of the cavernous room. Once again, thanks to some "creative route finding" we got our bags checked and escaped to the "calm" of the waiting area - which thanks to air conditioning, made the wait much more bearable.
After an uneventful two hour flight we emerged from the plane in Moscow. The reports of stifling heat and thick smoke led us to have some trepidation about arriving, but we found the skies relatively clear and the temperatures quite reasonable. After collecting our bags we raced unto the city, past decaying communist era housing blocks and shiny car dealerships. In the oncoming lanes cars packed the expressway as Muscovites sought to escape the city foe the weekend, but the driving for us was quick and easy.
Passing the Kremlin and crossing just over the Moscow River we arrived at our hotel. After dropping our bags in our rooms we strolled back across the Moscow River and alongside the walls of the Kremlin to Red Square. The perfect summer evening brought locals out in force and the pedestrian walks were crowded with people lounging on benches and chatting casually.
The entrance to Red Square is always stunning, with the onion shaped domes of St. Basils Cathedral standing on the horizon, the giant expanse of cobblestones flanked by the red brick walls of the Kremlin and the ornately decorated facade of the GUM, the former State Department Store turned high end shopping mall. We strolled across the Square, examining the boxy marble mausoleum where Lenin still resides, beneath the colorful domes of St. Basil's, and passing over the painted lines drawn across the Square to direct the military vehicles during state parades. It is a special experience to spend time in a place that remains both fascinating and elusive in our collective history and we were awed by it.
After eating dinner we walked back across the river and through parks packed with young Muscovites socializing amongst the trees and fountains. We found it interesting that the play sword fighting seems to be a popular activity right now amongst the younger generation, as does Iron Maiden t-shirts and black eyeliner - certainly a change of pace from the rural mountain towns of the Caucasus where we have been spending our time recently.
With the sun setting and night arriving we returned to our hotel. Tomorrow we return home and end our trip here. It has been a fantastic adventure and a wonderful climb.
Our early flights (heli) back to Kathmandu were nearly seamless, the team was on the ground here by 8:30 am. Hot showers and changing into cotton clothes was first on the list followed shortly by some amazing pizza for lunch!
Then the team spilt up and some of us went for massages and other explored and shopped their way back to the hotel.
We finished the night off with more outstanding food from ‘Le Sherpa’ and some great stories and hilarious moments from our adventure.
It has been a wonderful time with a great team and it will be sad to say goodbye, but we are all looking forward to getting back home to our loved ones.
After sending the dispatch last night we listened to the weather from Kahiltna Basecamp. With the weather, basecamp also reads a trivia question. And guess what? We won it! What is a group of ravens called? An unkindness. And what an unkindness they will do if you don't bury your cache deep enough. So today when we arrived to our cache spot at 10,000', we made sure there would be no unkindness done to our belongings. Once again it was an early start to our day. A few snoozes to the alarm to let the weather clear up a bit led to some oatmeal and packing up half our gear. Carrying half our gear will allow our move tomorrow to be a little more enjoyable. The team cruised up ski hill, stepping over several crevasses, and making easy work of the first major uphill of our journey. Clouds took away most of our views but every once in awhile parts of the mountain showed its beauty. It was a good day and we also got our first taste of moving downhill. Sitting at camp looking up, it's amazing how much more terrain we need to cover. In due time we will get there. Tomorrow we will repeat what we did today plus a little to bring us to 11k camp. Getting to 11k is a great feeling because it will be our first camp we truly get to nest into and enjoy a rest day. For now, we have four minutes till the weather comes on, so we will end it here.
Yup! We are now swimming in Torch Lake after a “forever” winter in Northern Michigan! As we follow you up Denali we can see that the snows have not left all places to date! We hope you get a break in the weather and your journey will be able to move forward. Ken
Posted by: Ken and Kathy Masck on 6/29/2014 at 4:45 am
Happy birthday Wheeler! I hope the weather cooperates!
Posted by: Kenny on 6/28/2014 at 9:33 pm
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