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Thursday, November 28, 2024 - 8:18 pm PT

Vinson Thanksgiving

It’s 1AM here the time of day is such a backdrop in Antarctica. The sun circles overhead and the only setting we get is when it hides behind one of the many unbelievable peaks surrounding us.
Our Thanksgiving wasn’t quite the same this year, we traded turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes for frozen milky ways, rock hard Swedish fish, quesadillas and steak with mashed potatoes (microwaveable pouches from back home).
And we moved!

We traveled from Vinson Basecamp to Camp 1 with a light breeze at times and snow that made for good sled pulling. Views beneath the West face of Vinson, Shin, and Tyree have us gobsmacked every time we look up. Which admittedly I wish was more. We’ll sleep here tonight in the hopes of moving to high camp tomorrow but we will see what the weather has in store. Wish us luck!!!

- RMI Guide Dominic Cifelli
 

Monday, January 2, 2023

Aside from the to be expected issues from sleepy at 14,000' feet for the first night of the trip we are all enjoying a rest day at Plaza Argentina. 

Lots of packing and sorting on the guides end and the climbers too. 

The meals continue to impress here at Grajales’ basecamp. The remainder of the day will have to team taking a short hike and enjoying the hours of sun on camp. Apologies for some of the delays in these, had a mistyped email address for yesterday’s post. Thanks for following along. 

RMI Guide Mike King

Thursday, May 13, 2021  - 9:57 pm PT

We had warm and sunny weather today and we took advantage of it to single carry all of our loads to the Base of Ski Hill. It took us 5 hours to get here, traveling on the Kahiltna Glacier with heavy packs and pulling heavy sleds.

The plan for tomorrow is to bump a load of supplies up Ski Hill to around 9800' and create a cache. Then we will return to our current camp for the night. The weather is looking good and everyone is doing well.

RMI Guide Mike Walter

Up, up and away! Team 3 had a spectacular day carrying gear up to Camp One at 16,500 feet. We brought up all the food for the upper mountain, fuel for our stoves and a little bit of personal clothing and gear. It is nice in a weird way to throw on heavier packs and get a taste of thin air. The entire team did great and in reality we probably don't need to take another rest day here at base camp. However, we will. Tomorrow we will rest and it will only provide every team member a stronger foundation for the upper mountain. There is no doubt a good part of high altitude mountaineering is about fighting the boredom. But as I sit here some team members are playing cribbage and others are playing some other game. The betting stakes Re cough drops and single sheets of toilet paper. It was nice to see the beautiful views up high on Aconcagua and we will post more exciting events from base camp and who may be out of toilet paper! RMI Guide JJ Justman

On The Map

Hi everyone, This is the Mt. Elbrus North-side Expedition checking in from our Base Camp. Today we carried a big chunk of our gear up to about 11,500' before returning to 8,500'. The summit was socked in today but the lower slopes had mostly sunny skies which was perfect for us. Our group is 100% healthy and strong and everyone is having fun. We're going to spend the afternoon relaxing and prepping for our move up to Camp 1 tomorrow. RMI Guide J.J. Justman

On The Map

The Four Day Climbs led by RMI Guides Casey Grom and Lael Butler reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning! The teams were on the summit around 7:45 am and enjoying the beautiful weather. We look forward to seeing them back in Ashford later this afternoon.

Congratulations climbers!

A painless 1 1/2 hr drive has brought us to the start of our climb, the Machame Gate. Registration with the Park Service is dealt with before we venture into the rain forest. The lush farms and vegetation here is a result of the clouds of moisture that hang at this elevation. We'll get above this climate zone at our first camp, the Machame Camp, at 10,000'.

We have met some of the mountain staff that will help us get to the top as pleasantly as possible. Many of them are friends from past trips, including Naimen, the head of our local guides staff. Our wait staff - yes, we have waiters - will keep the food chef Benson creates coming our way to keep our energy levels up. Alfred leads this team, and has been with me on every trip I've done. 

We've devoured part of the sack lunches our outfitter had provided us and are now ready to rock. 

Catch up with you at the next camp! 

RMI Guide Brent Okita

Tuesday, June 29, 2021 - 10:12 pm PT

The morning weather looked promising enough for early rising.  We launched into breakfast and made the decision to take one last acclimatization day before moving up to 14 thousand feet.  That meant that breakfast turned into brunch and that we would spend the day aggressively resting so as to be ready for a move tomorrow.  It was generally fine weather down on our part of the mountain and we got in good naps and meals and snacking sessions.  By afternoon and evening, clouds were stacking up on the mountains around us but things remained calm at 11,000 ft. 

Best Regards,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Hey-O,

A day of rest and preparation was what we needed. We started the day with a casual breakfast of breakfast burritos and coffee followed by a lot of down time. If we weren't napping, eating, or reading we were going through our gear and food separating it into piles, one that would stay with us and one that we would cache higher up. It is always a hard decision trying to decide what food to part ways with but it is always a fun moment when you are reunited in a couple days. Later in the afternoon we reviewed some cramponing techniques before heading to dinner. One of the highlights of the day was the evening entertainment, watching skiers manage their sled down motorcycle hill...lets just say there were some wipeouts but the skiers were all good sports as they skied into camp knowing they were the reality TV show of the night. As the sun started to hide behind some swirling clouds the temps dropped and it is time for bed. Tomorrow we will carry to 13,500' to off load some of our gear to make our move to 14,000' Camp lighter.

Till tomorrow,

RMI Guide Hannah Smith and team

Tuesday, July 9, 2019 - 1:11 AM PT The longest day. The weather remained stable and perfect... to a scary extent. Some of us lay awake last night at 14,000 just listening to the violent detonations of rock hitting ice and snow at terminal velocity. The high temps were to blame and those high temperatures were part and parcel of the prolonged good weather that allowed us to summit. For those monitoring the rockfall, it was a relief that wake-up time was at 11 PM. Best to be up and busy eating and packing then to be hearing rock and imagining worst case scenarios for a team passing Windy Corner ridiculously close up under the cliffs. We were walking at 12:30 AM and soon got to see the battlefields where car-sized chunks of granite had left deep tracks and impact craters on either side of the “trail”. Sure enough, in the zone where rockfall danger demanded our fullest attention, the track began to go over crevasse after crevasse and crappy bridge after crappy bridge. We struggled (as every one does) the then, surprisingly, the route got better. We were pleased to find things frozen up and easy travel far below the point where we’d been told to expect freezing. Once at 11,000' the nature of travel changed. We traded crampons for snowshoes and ice axes for ski poles. The morning/evening light was brilliant on Denali. Conditions on the lower glacier were way better than we expected. We just kept trudging as the light changed and found ourselves walking up Heartbreak Hill starting at 9:30 AM. It was 11:30 before we were at the “upper strip” on the SE Fork with all of our Basecamp caches relocated from the lower strip. Our pickup arrived just after 3 PM. We loaded and lifted off and flew into smoke as the pilots pointed their Otters toward Talkeetna. We got out of the planes in down jackets... immediately appreciating that the ambient temp at TKA was over 90 degrees F. Afternoon was then spent drying gear and reconnecting to the world. We met for a celebratory dinner at the West Rib and discussed our good fortune. Day 19 was a long one, but also a very good one. Best Regards RMI Guide Dave Hahn