The Five Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide Adam Knoff reached the summit of Mt. Rainier yesterday afternoon in cold and windy conditions. The team descended back to Camp Muir for the night. The Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide Brent Okita reached the summit this morning and reports blue skies on top with a cap beginning to form. Both teams will be back in Ashford later today.
As planned, the climbing team was up at midnight and on the trail shortly after 1 AM. There were stars and a big bright moon, but plenty of clouds as well. It was tough to know just what we could expect in the weather department. Yesterday afternoon and evening had produced a couple of inches of new snow on the ground, starting just uphill from our camp. We set out walking in it. The best thing was that there was no wind. We made pretty good time, stopping roughly every hour to rest. Predictably, it was tough going. It was dark, unrelentingly steep, and progressively colder as we ascended. We were breaking altitude records for a number of the team. But we had extremely good and capable help from our guide team. Freddy Kileo's crew of Vendelin, Francis, Eliapenda and Kundasai, along with Oswald, really came through. Everyone felt challenged by the climb, but the team rallied in the face of all the difficulty and discomfort. We pulled up onto Stella Point on the crater rim just at sunrise, which was stunning. But at Stella, we also got hit with some pretty mean wind gusts. We pushed on toward Uhuru Peak, the highest point in Africa, and conditions improved. We weren't alone up there on this beautiful day, but we weren't paying too much attention to other teams. There was excitement and pride in the fact that our entire team had made it to the top. We shot some happy pics and shook hands and hugged. Chris and Jeffrey Hendricks celebrated their one year anniversary on the summit.
We didn't spend too long at 19,340 ft above sea level. It was cold and we wanted to get down to more abundant oxygen. Leaving the top at 7:30, we were back down to Barafu Camp by 10:30. We brunched, packed our bags and got on the trail again. In the course of the afternoon we dropped another 5,000 vertical feet to 10,000 at the Mweka Camp. We are back in the giant heather zone and looking forward to finishing the descent tomorrow.
Best Regards
RMI Guides Dave Hahn
RMI Guides Seth Waterfall and Tyler Jones reached the summit of Mt. Rainier! The Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir team enjoyed beautiful, warm weather on top and after taking summit photos, began their descent at 10:00 a.m. The team will stay at Camp Muir tonight and descend to Paradise tomorrow afternoon.
Congratulations to today's summit climbers!
We awoke at dawn. Not all that impressive because dawn is at least 8 hours a day this time of year. Once awake we had a beautiful cruise down to our cache at the corner of the Kahiltna Glacier with great visibility in the early morning light. We loaded our packs and reveled in the absence of the sleds/anchors and even picked up the pace a bit to help with our acclimatization. Back at camp it was second breakfast, a nap and a bit of technical review before dinner. Tomorrow, if the mountain allows, we will carry towards 14 camp and return to 11,200 feet to recover.
That's all from here, the team is doing great and looking to take it higher tomorrow!
RMI Guide Jake Beren
Way to go Eric! We are all following along with your journey here. Your two nephews and goddaughter wish you good luck and are anxiously awaiting your return. Noah and Ethan climbed the big sand dune at Warren Dunes this past weekend and Noah asked if it was as big as the mountain you were climbing. I told him it was close…
Posted by: Zach Schafer on 6/12/2012 at 8:24 am
Bob, keep it up bro, I know you can do it, one step at a time. You have a great team and the best of guides…to the top!
Yesterday we moved from 11,000 ft camp to our current home at about 14,200 ft. We spent the entire day in a cloud with a little snow but it was still quite warm.
Today we are relaxing and enjoying another sunny day on the flanks of Denali. We picked up our cache this morning and had the rest of the day to rest and recuperate. Everyone is having a great time and we excited to keep moving higher.
RMI Guide Walter Hailes
Jambo!
We are all back at the Dik Dik Hotel where it all started not so long ago. Since then, we have climbed a Big Mountain and seen wildlife galore. We had some tough moments and most recently some very easy ones. We have made some new friends and had a chance to visit with past ones.
All and all, we had a great time.
It was nice to have you following our dispatches. Thank you.
I look forward to starting my next dispatch in March with Namaste, when I return to Nepal for yet another expedition on the Big Everest.
All the best,
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Last night at high camp, it just didn't seem like we would get a chance to make the top of Aconcagua... it was snowing and socked in when I sent yesterday's dispatch. But then, just before darkness came on, the snow stopped and the clouds dropped. During the night there were occasional waves of intense wind that could be heard coming from miles away, but these were short bursts and sure enough, at 4 AM the stars were out and the wind was gone. Our stoves were cooking by 4:15 and we were walking out of camp by headlamp at around 5:15 AM, bound for the summit.
We had crampons on all the way and were lucky to be on snow for about 95% of our journey. Peter mentioned that he'd done the same climb without once touching snow, just loose rock, so we were happy with the conditions. It wasn't terribly cold and once we found sunshine things were quite pleasant. We lost that sunshine when we began the long, long traverse to the base of the Canaleta. There were perhaps a hundred other climbers going for the top today, but we ended up nearly in the lead by half-way up the steep and direct Canaleta. This broad gulley is about 800 vertical feet... easy at sea level, I'm sure, but beginning at 22,000 ft makes it somewhat challenging. We were challenged, but all did well, the extra nights at high camp had worked in our favor for acclimatization.
We popped out on the summit at noon and enjoyed a sunny and wonderful hour up there. We were victorious and thrilled with the new views... but several of us cried like babies as we remembered our friend Fede and his tragic passing on the summit of Aconcagua all too recently. We left the top at 1 PM and walked quickly into a snowstorm. Not a vicious snowstorm, there was little wind, but a socked-in, steady snowfall. It only took us two hours to make it back to high camp and so we knocked the tents down and set out walking for basecamp. We were anxious to get down and rejoin the rest of our team who'd descended yesterday.
In Basecamp by about 6:30, we had a fine reunion dinner and made plans for our walk down-valley begining tomorrow.
An improbable summit became a treasured moment with great friends close to 23,000 ft above sea level. All are safe, all are down the hard part of the mountain.
The team tried to summit today, and as usual we performed like a well oiled machine. Unfortunately we weren’t able to make it to the top due to adverse and unexpected obstacles that again, the team handled exquisitely. We put in a track up to Denali pass and hope to make it up again in the coming days.
Today was not a super nice day, but it was nice enough! We cached additional food and supplies at 13,500 and felt great. This puts us in position to move to 14,000' Camp when we are ready and weather allows. It looks like the weather should be decent tomorrow before the next round of storms come in. Stay tuned to follow our progress tomorrow!!
Our team has made it to high camp after a great day of climbing. We're perched just below the Upper Curtis Glacier with outstanding views of Mt. Baker and the higher reaches of our climbing route, the Fisher Chimneys.
We're hoping the fair weather lasts long enough to give is a shot at the summit. Despite the gloomy forecast, the team is upbeat and fired up from an exciting day making our way through the Chimneys and up Winney's Slide. The Slide is nearly a full pitch of ice at this point and made for a bit of fun right before camp.
We'll check in soon. Wish us luck with the weather!
RMI Guides Zeb Blais, Steve Gately and team
Congratulations Uncle Chris!
Posted by: Jen Maseda on 5/20/2014 at 10:36 am
Well done to my sister Carmela and my brother-in-law Max Brouwer, i am so proud of you guys!!! Mariana xxx
Posted by: Mariana Pinillos on 5/18/2014 at 12:52 pm
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