The first Denali Expedition of the 2024 Season is ready to fly to Kahiltna Base Camp. The May 5th Expedition team members met in Anchorage on Sunday and made the drive to Talkeetna where they have spent the last few days reviewing gear, packing, meeting with the Park Service and getting all the last details dialed in. The skies are clear and the group is ready to depart Talkeetna for their expedition to North America's highest peak. We look forward to hearing from them from the mountain.
The first Expedition Skills Seminar - Paradise of 2021 led by RMI Guide Alan Davis finished up their week of expedition skills training with a summit of Mt. Rainier via the Disappointment Cleaver route! The team has spent the last five days on Mt. Rainier's Paradise Glacier learning and practicing the skills needed to prepare for future mountain adventures. Today is their sixth and final day on the mountain and we are excited to hear about their week when they return to Ashford this afternoon.
The storm finally hit. Crazy clouds were forming over the upper mountain as we went to bed last night. The morning at Vinson Base was devoid of sunshine and chock full of newly falling snow. It is actually a rare thing to get five inches of powder snow in this place, like rain in the desert, but that is what we got. Flying -either to get the successful summiteers out or to bring in our next team of climbers from Union Glacier- was not happening. It was a hunker down day. The word was that the teams up the mountain were doing the same. Rest and relaxation wasn't exactly an unwelcome plan for the day for my team. Most had sore feet and tired knees after the last few big days of up and down walking. Each climber is ready to be moving on when conditions permit, of course. Juan wanted to be sure that Eva Maria knew he was wishing her a very happy 21st birthday from Antarctica.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hey everyone, Billy calling checking in again. Had a really rough day coming down the mountain yesterday, but everyone made it down in one piece. We got back to High Camp with nice weather and then the weather just kinda gradually turned for the worst through the evening. And by about 5 In the morning, we were fighting about 80 mile an hour gust of winds just battling to keep our camp in one piece. And at first light, around 6:30, we pretty much had to get out of the tents and we're just battling hurricane force winds and to get everybody's stuff together and we got everything out of Camp Cholera. Moved on down to our Camp 2 and reput up tents and cooked breakfast and filled water bottles and recuperated from the hellish evening. And after that everybody walked on down to Basecamp last night and we enjoyed an awesome steak dinner, courtesy of the great Basecamp staff at Grajales. We are all geared up, everything's been loaded on mules and we're now headed for Pampa de Lenas and tonight will be our last night on the trail and tomorrow we are headed to Mendoza. We'll check in one more time tomorrow, after we've made it safely to the road. Ciao, ciao.
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
Greetings from Camp Muir. We've had an interesting 24 hours weather wise. Last night we planned on waking up at 1 AM and heading for the summit, but when the alarm went off it was raining hard. We checked every hour from 1 to 6 am but the weather never relented so we called off our summit attempt.
We did make the best of the day though. In the morning we trained with our avalanche beacons practicing companion rescue. After lunch we set up a fixed ropes course with a rappel descent. The sun even poked out for a bit. We have one more night and we're still hoping for a shot at the summit but either way we'll be heading back home sometime tomorrow.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
We are at high camp...17,000'! No more caches, carries, or moves. We are in position to go for the summit when the time is right. People finally started summitting yesterday after the weather no bueno that we had a few days ago. We are going to watch the weather and see what are gut tells us to do. We could go for it tomorrow if the weather is perfect AND we feel like it. We won't know until Elias and I wake up in the morning and rock, paper, scissors to see who has to stick our head out of the tent first. It tends to be a bit cold in the morning at 17,000' in Alaska.
RMI Guide Mike Haugen
The Four Day Climb Teams led by Taylor Bickford and Joe Hoch radioed down this morning to let us know that they turned at 12,300' due to high winds and deteriorating conditions on the upper mountain. The team was safely back in Camp Muir by 7:45 AM PT. After drying out a little and resting, the team will descend from Camp Muir and be back in town this afternoon.
The Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guides Andres Marin and Shaun Sears reached the summit of Mt Rainier on this clear, sunny morning. They reported windy conditions with views all the way to Mt. Hood in Oregon. The teams spent about an hour on the summit before starting their descent to Camp Muir. After a short rest at Camp Muir, the teams will continue down to Paradise.
We look forward to seeing everyone at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
Congratulations!
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Hey everyone, this is Billy. I'm checking in here with our group. We are at 11,000' part way through our descent. After our big summit day yesterday, we packed up our camp at 17,000' and then moved on down. Brent Okita's crew was kind enough to cook us up some dinner at the 14K Camp, and we continued on down to 11,000', where the crew is all, actually snug as a bug, in their sleeping bags out in the open because it is so warm compared to where we've been living. We plan on getting up in the middle the night tonight and making a run for the airstrip hoping to get a flight off tomorrow sometime before the weather takes a turn for the worst. We'll give a shout when we reach Basecamp. That's all for now.
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
After a difficult night of sleep, we woke to mostly clear skies and enjoyed our first views of Cayambe up close and most of the other major volcanoes poking out of the clouds in the distance. It was the perfect mood elevator after a rough first night at altitude and very loud bunkmates in the refugio who treated us to a nice and prolonged wake up in the middle of the night. Well, tonight it will be our turn because after today's training on the glacier we are prepared to take a crack at summiting Cayambe VERY early tomorrow morning. The team is anxious but ready! Wish us luck!
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
“May the trail rise to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
May the snow fall soft after your decent.
And until we meet again may the mountain spirits hold you in the palm of their hand.”
-Slightly modified Irish Blessing
Carpe Diem Montañeros :)
Posted by: Saint Patrick on 1/14/2013 at 12:29 pm
Isn’t Morning a Great Thing?!! Have Fun!!!! Our spirits are with you All!
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Five inches of powder snow? Is it time for skiing? Be safe and hunker down! Thinking of you.
Posted by: Mom/Grandma on 12/10/2013 at 8:16 am
Larry: Your climbing report card is full of A’s - Antarctica and Alaska and Aconcagua…Congratulation…Post pics please…Waltero
Posted by: waltero glover on 12/10/2013 at 7:03 am
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