Most Popular Entries

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.

On The Map

Hello from Everest Basecamp, We arrived here at Base Camp on Wednesday (April 6th) at lunchtime to a camp that had been fully constructed on top of a glacial moraine. The staff of 10 Sherpas and porters had been working weeks to carve flat sites for sleeping tents, a dining tent, a communication tent, a storage tent, a cooking tent, two bathroom tents, and a shower tent for our group (we got to shower yesterday!). It was a ton of work, but the camp is awesome, and it is located in the best spot in all of Everest Base Camp. We have so many comforts of home, including solar lights on the walkways between tents (very cool), 40+ movies, solar chargers for every kind of gadget, a propane heater for the dining tent, etc. Each of us has our own sleeping tent, which provides much comfort and quiet (especially for Sara!). Everest Base Camp sits on a glacier that is surrounded by the tallest mountains in the world. In a word, the place is incredible. Within a mile of where we are camped is Tibet (China), whose border is at the peak of a series of mountains to the north of us. In every direction is a massive peak, glacier packed, that is picturesque in beauty. I highly recommend a trek to Everest Base Camp to everyone. It is one of the most beautiful places in the world. It is also very clean. The camp has had a large clean up effort in recent years (and it shows), and all expeditions are now required to carry every last piece of garbage out with them. Dave Hahn (and RMI) put together a schedule that got our group from Kathmandu to Everest Base Camp in 10 days. This could have been done much faster (as fast as 5 or 6 days), but our goal for this expedition is not Base Camp. Our strategy (thus far) has been to go slow so that we remain healthy, and without the symptoms of acute mountain sickness (AMS). Since we arrived a couple of days ago, we have been resting, slowly acclimatizing our bodies to this altitude without headaches, coughs, queasiness, or other symptoms of AMS. So far, we all feel strong. What we wanted to avoid was having to descend to a lower altitude to deal with these issues. Going forward, we will be "climbing high and sleeping low" as well as working on our mountaineering skills. First and foremost will be working on the skills needed to climb the Khumbu Icefall, and we will go slowly so that we are fully acclimatized, and our skills are such that we can move rapidly through the icefall. I feel that we are in great hands. Climbing with Dave Hahn is like playing basketball with Michael Jordan. As we walked up the valley Dave would be recognized by dozens and dozens of people. He patiently posed for countless photographs, and spent time with almost everyone who walked up to him. Some folks just shouted out "You Da Man!" to Dave as he walked by. One Sherpa guiding a climber down from Base Camp was shouting and fist pumping at Dave as he walked by (very funny). Yet, despite all this, Dave remains so very humble and takes so much time to patiently explain things to Sara and me. We have lots and lots of questions about gear and our climb, and he always breaks everything down into simple steps that are well thought out. The guy is incredible, and given that it is his 20th expedition to Everest and all of his many accomplishments and rescues, he is a legend (we have, however, instituted a $1 fine for Dave for everyone he knows - so far its up to $56). Before coming over here to Nepal last year I really didn't give much thought to what a Sherpa does. I always just assumed that they were people who carried huge loads up the mountain. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Sherpa are a group of people that come from the mountainous region of Tibet, and because of this, are incredible high altitude athletes. But they also take great pride in their training. Our climbing Sherpa are trained in all sorts of high altitude skills, including medical care. Porters, on the other hand, don't go up the mountain, they carry many loads up to base camp and perform other duties in the camp. All of our climbing Sherpa on this trip have reached the summit of Everest, all multiple times. Truly amazing athletes and people, and never without smiles on their faces. While Kathmandu is approximately 75% Hindu and 25% Buddhist, the high mountain region of Nepal is almost entirely Buddhist (a good portion of the porters come from other areas of Nepal, and are not Buddhist, but virtually all the Sherpa are Buddhist). Religion is extremely important to the people here, and every town and important location has Stupas, prayer flags, or carvings in stones that represent the importance of their religion in everything they do. No Sherpa will go on to any high mountain (including Everest) until a Puja ceremony is performed. Our Puja ceremony is slated to take place tomorrow, and our Sherpa have spent many hours building a site for this ceremony out of stones in our camp. Sara M. will report on this ceremony in our next update. Historically, communication from Everest Base Camp has been though satellite phones. This year it was announced that 3G service would be available at Base Camp. But, this is not really the case, and our communication is not quite up to standards that we are used to. Because the cellular tower is solar powered, cell phone service works at Base Camp from the hours of about 9 am to 4 pm Nepal time, not the best time to call home to the United States. We have found that checking and sending emails still is problematic, and the most reliable way is still though (the very expensive) satellite phone. So, that's it from Everest Base Camp. We spend our rest days trying to nap, playing cards, doing puzzles, and playing Yahtzee and Apples to Apples. Sara and I have a fighting chance against Dave and Jeff Martin in Yahtzee and Apples to Apples, but Dave is rumored to be a world class Scrabble and Chess player, so we are pretending that we don't like those games for now (the RMI game box is stocked with about a dozen games, so I think we can avoid Scrabble and Chess for at least a few weeks). Last night Sara introduced Dave to all sorts of music that he had never heard before, such as Miley Cyrus, the Jonus Brothers, and even Linkin Park and B.O.B. It was quite a learning experience for Dave and Jeff. In the next few days Mark Tucker and Linden Mallory will be arriving at Base Camp, and we will be losing Jeff who will head home. We are excited to see Linden and Mark, but we will be sad to see Jeff leave. Thank you again for following our blog. Bill M.

A patchwork of clouds hung over the Caucasus this morning, diffusing the sunlight and hiding the morning sun. The almost sullen atmosphere didn't hold us back and we eagerly broke camp and hit the trail. The clouds kept the temperatures cool and we made great time, reaching our previous day's highpoint where we cached our gear by midday. The final 800' of climbing above the cache took us off of the well worn climber's trail below and into the continually shifting slopes of scree - small, loose rock - that makes up the glacial morraine. It is full attention walking as each step must be chosen with care to avoid slipping back down in the loose rock and we carefully picked our way upwards, soon gaining the plateau where Camp 1 resides. Perched amongst the rocky morraine alongside the Ullmalgender Glacier, Camp 1 sits at the base of the broad sweeping slopes of ice and snow that rise up to form Elbrus' twin summits and offers stunning views of the entire north side of the mountain. Off in the other direction we can gaze out across the rolling green plateaus, occasionally cut by the small dirt road that we drove along to reach the mountain. The sun had been gradually fighting its way back throughout the morning and by the time we reached camp it was another clear afternoon, interrupted every so often by gusts of wind sweeping down off of the mountain. After a solid day of climbing we set up camp and then crawled into the tents to relax for a bit before dinner. The team climbed strongly today, making it to camp in just over six and a half hours. We are tired but happy to be here at the glacier's edge. Tomorrow we will descend back to our cache to retrieve our gear in the morning and then spend some time in the afternoon brushing up on our glacier travel skills.

Hola from Ciudad de Mexico!

The American Lung Association Climb for Clean Air is off to an exciting start - the team has been arriving over the last few days and I am happy to report that everyone made it.

We spent the day exploring this vibrant city, enjoying endless tacos al pastor and some of us even ventured to the Frida Kahlo museum. 

Tonight we had our first official team meeting. We talked about the itinerary, gear, but the most important part was hearing about all the reasons why this trip matters so much - raising funds and awareness for the American Lung Association and climbing mountains while doing it. The connections to the cause all stem from love, from grief but the team is all united by a need to do something.

One thing is for certain, it’s going to be a special climb with a really special group of people.

Tonight, we sleep with the sounds of the city outside our windows, knowing tomorrow we’re off to our first of three mountains - La Malinche.

RMI Guides Jess, Josh and “LOS CHIVOS” 

Hola from 16,000 ft on the northern flanks of Ecuador’s most famous mountain, Cotopaxi. We apologize for not sending a dispatch yesterday because we were so excited to get here, we simply forgot. I assure all of you faithful followers the effects of altitude on memory are minimal, I just forget things naturally.

Once moved in last night we endured a very restless evening because apparently the workers knew we were coming and couldn’t stop painting, pounding, dragging and talking well into the night.  So this morning we drank our coffee, packed our bags and headed to the glacier for some skills training unrelated to our climb. The weather is a vast improvement over the weather on Cayambe and all the teams that climbed last night made it to the top.

Not it is 4:30 pm and the hut is busting with tourists and climbers hoping to attempt tonight as well.  Everyone is in good spirits and excited to climb!  We all feel our chances are good.

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s dispatch.

RMI Guide Adam Knoff

Our first day on safari brought us to Lake Manyara. A small national park that borders Lake Manyara known for its tree climbing lions. The team spent about four hours driving around the park and saw an abundant amount of wildlife. Elephants (so close at time we could almost touch them), giraffe, zebra, hippos, wildebeest, Cape buffalo, hundreds of baboons and lots of other monkeys. Everyone had a great day and enjoyed just relaxing while taking in the views. To top the day off we arrived at our home for the next two days at an amazing lodge called Ngorogoro Lodge. The team just finished a wonderful meal and are off to bed. Enjoying the icing on the cake, so to speak! RMI Guide Casey Grom and Crew

The Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide Mike Walter reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. RMI Guide Brent Okita also led his team on the Expedition Skills Seminar - Paradise to the summit. The teams reported clear skies and a beautiful day. Both teams will descend to Camp Muir and then continue down to Paradise later this afternoon. Congratulations to today's teams!

Waking to perfect conditions, clear and near windless, we decided to saddle up and move on up to Genet Basin and make a new home at 14,000 feet. Our hard work yesterday really paid off, leaving us with a perfect trail to camp. It was even downright hot as we pulled into camp and we found a great camp left to us by our friends now living at 17,000 camp. Thanks. It was still tough, but our team held together well and turned in early for some much needed rest. Tomorrow we will most likely retrieve our cache and spend the afternoon relaxing and preparing for the fixed lines higher up. Cross your fingers for some high pressure. A week would be plenty. RMI Guide Jake Beren

On The Map

Mark Tucker here calling from Chukung. I'm not sure which one I like better Phakhing or Chukung. Pretty tight-laced. The teams in great shape up here. It was a nice about two and half hour about 2000-foot gain hike from Dingboche. It was just enough to get the blood flowing and breathing level up and still making that acclimatization effort. It's going real well, real happy with how the team is doing. The weather socked in once we got here to our tea house, and perfect timing for that. We hung around and had some food and fuel and did fine there. And then just in time it cleared up for perfect views and photos of fresh snow, on the white, tall Himalayan peaks that are surrounding us. We met up with our local guide, Perba and assistant/cook, Raz. We got a couple of nice guys. They helped out with Linden so they got all the recent information for the route, so that is great to have as well. Couple of nice guys and so thankful to have them with the team. So back in 1953 was the first ascent of Island Peak. It was made by a prestigious team. They were training in preparation for an ascent of Everest. One of those guys was Tenzing Norgay, who accompanied Kili on that famous day. So it makes you wonder if things go well here for Kim and John, could this be a stepping stone for the Big E? Maybe next year? I guess time will tell. RMI Guide Mark Tucker

On The Map

The May 9–12 Four Day Climb enjoyed a beautiful morning on the mountain, with clear skies, calm winds, and cold temperatures. RMI Guide Dominic Cifelli led the team to 13,000 feet before route conditions prompted a turnaround. The climbers will return to Camp Muir for a brief rest before continuing down to Paradise this afternoon.

PC: Dominic Cifelli