We're in Kislovodsk! Today we made it one step closer to the mountain. We had an early start in Moscow and then caught a 2 hour and 15 minute flight to Mineralnye Vody. From there it was just an hour drive to the city of Kislovodsk where our hotel is. Once we checked into the hotel, everyone sorted their gear while Pete and I went to a supermarket. We picked up some fresh food for basecamp. We'll be getting an early start tomorrow for the 4x4 road to camp.
Here's a shot from the awesome pizza place we went to for dinner.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
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
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!
Hello everyone. It's Team Elbrus checking in from our camp at the Barrels. The process of getting up here at 12,000 feet involves riding two trams and one chairlift. After we arrived I introduced our team to Albina, our Executive Chef. I do not say cook because that would be an insult. Her meals are out of this world!
After our lunch we packed a light pack and went for a walk uphill. After a brief refresher on the rest step we made it up to enjoy the view at 13,000 feet. Now sitting back at camp we are wearing our bath slippers, listening to music and eating summer sausage and crackers.
Everyone here says hello and we will let you know how our acclimatizing day goes tomorrow. Cheers from The Team!
RMI Guide J.J. Justman
It’s great to see the photos and videos!!! No comment re any potential clumsiness on Charlotte’s part—- but her aplomb, given the water drop, while on camera is remarkable!!! Way to go, Team Bemiss!!!
Posted by: Dana Marie Buchanan on 7/26/2012 at 8:13 am
Hey John! Watching your progress, and wishing I was there. Best of luck, Brother!
Hello from Mount Everest Base Camp. We've been up at 17,500 ft for two nights already and it is beginning to feel like home. We had high hopes for continuous communication possibilities this year, since we were hearing so much about the 3G cell service at Base Camp... but the reality is that we are still mostly on a dirt road version of the information super-highway. We didn't have much access to cell or web services when we trekked from Pheriche to Lobuche in new snow under overcast skies. Things were cold in Lobuche, but not unpleasant as we passed the evening hours playing games in the dining room of the Eco Hotel. We stretched our legs some with a hike along the lateral moraine of the Khumbu Glacier and Bill and Sara got good at identifying the dozen or so Himalayan giants piercing the horizon around us. In the afternoon of our Lobuche rest day, we were excited to visit with Linden Mallory and his team of trekkers and climbers. They'd already spent a few nights at Everest Base Camp and were excitedly bound for Island Peak. Bill and Sara have climbed several times in the past with Linden and were naturally happy to see him again. When he completes his Island Peak climb and trek he'll make his way back up to Everest Base to join our team at about the point when we are getting into the Khumbu Icefall.
Two days ago, myself, Lam Babu,and Bill and Sara marched out of 16,000 ft Lobuche and took just four easy hours to reach Base Camp at 17,500 ft. It was wonderful then to meet our Sherpa team and to reunite with Jeff Martin, who'd sprinted ahead to help get the camp set up. Camp is indeed set up and we were amazed at the hard work the Sherpa staff had accomplished in chopping out level tent-sites and rolling boulders around to carve out a camp on this rough section of glacier. Now we've made the transition from tea-houses to tents... but it hasn't been that tough a transition. We are eating quite well now since Kumar, our chef of the past several RMI Everest expeditions, is back in the driver's seat and cranking out excellent meals. These first few days are purposely light on activity so that our bodies can catch up to the altitude, but we don't seem to be having a lot of trouble that way. It is nice now for each of us to be in our own tents and to be able to sort our climbing gear and clothing without moving to someplace new each day. New tents are popping up all around us as other teams get close to Base Camp. As expected, we were one of the first climbing teams to make it in for the season. We've already gotten to chat with the doctors of the "Everest ER" the clinic set up by the HRA about two camps away from us. Later today we'll walk a little with our ice axes in hand, just for some light exercise, and tomorrow we are looking forward to our Puja ceremony... asking the blessing of the gods before we put ourselves at risk on this giant mountain.
The cell service may not be robust at Base Camp (it seems to be mostly a 9 to 5 kind of thing, due to a reliance on solar power, we suspect) but the glaciers are still functioning pretty efficiently up here. We are getting used to the sound of big ice avalanches on the steep faces around camp. Snow conditions seem much the way I've come to expect them in the past few years... it looks like it has been quite dry again in these high mountains. The Khumbu Glacier in the vicinity of Base Camp has just been melting steadily throughout the year, without much surface replenishment... although it is relatively cold now, there is already some water flowing in the streams. The word is that the Icefall Doctors have already pushed the climbing route close to the Camp I area, which is good news... we can't tell too much about the Icefall from looking up at it... it looks just as mean and ridiculous as ever, but it is nice to know that a path has been found through it once again.
Best Regards,
Dave Hahn
Bill & Sara & Dave, et al,
Great work to make it to Base Camp healthy. Love that great acclimatization schedule. Enjoy Puja today, and good luck in the Icefall. Kudos to the Icefall Doctors! Praying for safe passages through it for y’all.
Posted by: Mac Bridges on 4/9/2011 at 4:38 am
Yeah, I was the guy whose knees couldnt take any more, thanks again, Good luck on your climb.
As a kid I remember snow days being a little more fun than this. The team emerged from hibernation and were greeted by less wind, but a lot more snow - both key ingredients to our second straight rest day. We spent most of the morning uncovering and digging our tents out while Chef Joey cooked up some delicious breakfast burritos - a fair trade if you ask me. The team passed the time lounging in the posh, playing games, and learning that some are much worse at spelling than others. The weather finally cleared (kinda) in the afternoon, and we crawled out of our cocooned tents to soak in the sun. Days like this are what the Bond Girls prepared for.
Hoping the sunshine continues to hold so we can venture out of our little camp tomorrow and push toward 14k.
Tuesday, July 2, 2013
Still here in base camp in case you were wondering. It is snowing with poor visibility. There were some "sucker holes" in the clouds that gave us some false hope at midday today.
We did get out and get some exercise today. Everyone in camp that is waiting to fly got on their skis/snowshoes and stomped down a runway in the snow. We all took it quite seriously since we want the airstrip to be ready when the weather is good enough to fly!
Everyone is happy and healthy and ready to be off the mountain. Cross your fingers!
RMI Mt. McKinley Summit Team 6
P.S. Lance wants his girls to know he loves them and will be home soon.
P.S.S. Steve will call Tania, mom and dad, & Bill and Lisa as soon as he is off the mountain.
There is an insane amount of cold diet coke in the fridge. Just saying. Jack and I loveyou, Quinn!!!
Posted by: Liz & Jack on 7/3/2013 at 7:27 pm
Steve and Grasshopper,
Congratulations on achieving the summit! So happy you were able to persevere through. Thinking of you this holiday, stay safe. Working on sending clear weather your way:)
Robin(pinky)
Posted by: Robin Biedrzycki on 7/3/2013 at 6:51 pm
Hello from Pheriche! 14,042 feet but who's counting. After a nice dinner, the team is tucked away for the night. Lot's of hiking in all directions today. Nice to have such great Sherpa support to be able to offer many options. A few new altitude records for the team. Another day of perfect weather, and trail conditions in great shape. We are now above tree line, but lots of bushes still keep us thinking we are where life forms can survive. It is a rather tough environment to be in, we welcome these islands of paradise called tea houses. Plan is to take a rest day here tomorrow. Some day hikes and a bit of training for my crew that will go with me to Island Peak in the not so distant future. The surrounding peaks of Taboche (21,309') and Cholatse (20,784') always impress. Crazy to think that the real big ones are up this valley and around the corner. Looking so forward to reuniting with those views.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guides Tyler Reid, Sean Collon and a team of clients spent the last five days learning the art of Ski Mountaineering. The team explored Mount Rainier's incredible winter snowpack and accessible but challenging technical terrain. The team spent the days on the mountain learning and practicing a variety of ski specific technical skills. The trip culminated with an ascent to Camp Muir (10,060') and the team will enjoy an exciting 5,000' ski descent today.
We're here! High camp on Kilimanjaro where we'll be going for the summit tonight.
The walk here was straight forward and everyone is in good shape. We again walked like the seasoned climbers that we have become.
It's busy on the mountain and even our amazing camp staff couldn’t hold the prime spot we usually use this time around. It's hard work supporting us climbers. Not only is our entire camp transported each day, but something as simple as water needs to be brought in from someplace. Today at Barafu, the porters must go back to Karanga Camp, then another 30 minutes just supply us. How amazingly strong and hard workers our porters are, and so kind and generous too!
Today we’ll have a hearty lunch, followed by a very light dinner so we can hit the sack by 6:00. Our plan is to wake up at 11:30 pm and be walking at 12:30 am. This should allow us to hit the summit rim around sunrise, and the summit, Uhuru Point an hour later.
Wow Julie and Brent you never seize to surprise me with your athleticism and enthusiasm for the great outdoor. Love to join you one day. Jody
Posted by: Jody Jacobs on 12/2/2023 at 7:18 am
Thanks so much for the great updates and beautiful pictures. You are all climbing to the summit right now. I’m so excited for you! Thank you so much to the guides and staff for making this an amazing experience for my family. Happy trails!
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James and Team
Good to hear things are progressing well. Looking forward to following your ascent and blog. Stay safe.
Fred K
Posted by: Fred Klingbeil on 8/27/2013 at 4:33 am
Paul(my mountain man),
I’m extremely proud of you! I love you and miss your presence. Cannot wait to climb with you in May!
Sherri
Posted by: Sherri on 8/26/2013 at 12:32 pm
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