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THE WIND FELT PERSONAL
The tent slapping against my face is not my favorite way to wake up. Alas that is how the team's final night at high camp was spent. I personally continued to feign sleep until finally enough rays of sunshine peaked over the horizon that it was reasonable to start rousing everyone from their summit climb exhausted slumbers. Needless to say, most of the team was already awake due to similar wind induced tent slapping. They say it takes a village to raise a child, well they should also say it takes five climbers to take down a tent in high winds. Well teamwork made the dreamwork and soon we were headed downhill towards Camp 2 with our packs over encumbered with everything that had originally taken us two trips and a porter to get there. Camp 2 was a warm, windless paradise at what now felt like a very refreshing 18,000 feet. Sadly, we still had a long way to go to get to base camp. Thankfully, gravity assists on the downhill and the air only got thicker as we descended. Soon we arrived to an enthusiastic welcome home at Plaza Argentina with the various amenities we loved, namely fresh fruit and cerveza! The rest of the afternoon was spent reorganizing, showering, packing, eating, and celebrating our safe return. A rotating cast of our favorite base camp people stopped by for a drink and a laugh. A perfect final night enjoying the incredible hospitality of base camp. After a restless night at 19,600 and then descending nearly 6,000 feet - a well-deserved sleep will be had by all tonight.
Cheers,
RMI Guide Jack Delaney and the Sleepy Sies
New Post Alerts:
Aconcagua Expedition January 18, 2025
Posted by: Casey Grom, Nikki Champion
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Mt. Rainier Four Day Climb led by RMI Guides Casey Grom and Nikki Champion stood on top of Mt. Rainier this morning! The teams reported clear skies and light winds on the summit. They are currently on their descent to Camp Muir, where they will pack-up and refuel. We look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp later this afternoon.
Way to go, climbers!
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Mike Uchal
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Elbrus Northside
Pete and Mike-Thanks for taking great care of the team! This wife and mother appreciates what you guys do. I am looking forward to hearing all about the trip. God Bless.
Posted by: Christy Cunningham on 8/16/2017 at 1:33 pm
RMI Guide Jake Beren checks in from the summit of Cayambe.
On The Map
Posted by: Seth Burns, Joe Crawford, Bryan Mazaika, Jackson Breen, Ben Thorneycroft, David Rathbun, Erika Barrett, Nina Bridges
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
RMI Guides Seth Burns and Joe Crawford led their Five Day climb teams to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Seth radioed from the crater rim at 8:47 am. Its a goregous day on the mountain with clear skies and cool temperatures. After spending some time in the crater the team will descend to Camp Muir and spend their second night on the mountain. Tomorrow they will continue down to Paradise.
Nice work today team!
Posted by: Dominic Cifelli
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Torres del Paine
The good news, there is a TV at Paine Grande that has the ability to give us some creature comforts like the Super Bowl!
The bad news, it was broken.
After some much needed rest the team got up early for what can be a long day. From Refugio to Refugio, it's not too long, but this is our first of two side hikes on the trip. Today, was up the French Valley. What can only be described as Alpine Jurassic Park is up there awaiting. Grand vistas, hanging glaciers, dozens of waterfalls pouring down the cliff side. Breathtaking views of Fortaleza, a towering peak to the east. Unfortunately though, today was the rainiest one yet. And so we battled the deluge, and waterfall on top of the trail to get to those views that were then only teased. We at least got some glimpses and how could we complain. The historically rainy mountains down here had been good to us so far.
We took what we could get, scarfed down a quick bite to eat and headed back down to where we took the fork up the French Valley and headed off to our second to last Refugio of the trip. Frances Camp.
We warmed up our hands and bodies with some tea and cards and are now tucked in the sleeping bags we dreamt about in the downpour.
RMI Guide Dominic Cifelli
New Post Alerts:
Torres del Paine Trek February 1, 2025
Posted by: Dominic Cifelli
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Vinson Massif
Thursday, December 5, 2024 - 8:40 am PT
It is always amazing to reflect on how long it takes for anyone to dream and prepare for any large mountain, especially for one as remote as the Vinson Massif. For some that time can be measured in decades. For today we can reflect as we decend from high camp. We started from over 12,000' elevation down the fixed lines, past Camp 1 where we pick up our sleds, all the way to Vinson Base Camp. From there we flew back to Union Glacier Camp. Once we got off the ski plane we got confirmation that after dinner we are going to board our Boeing 757 to Punta Arenas tonight. Meaning we get to go from negative thirty something to nice hotel temperatures. What a change in settings.
RMI Climber Forrest Heller
New Post Alerts:
Vinson Expedition November 22, 2024
Love you Dom. Amazing
Posted by: Art Cifelli on 12/7/2024 at 12:24 pm
Posted by: Jess Wedel
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Machu Picchu
Hi dear readers!
It was our first day joining up with the Inca trail and what a day it was! Up, up, up we went from 9,800 feet all the way to nearly 14,000 feet at Dead Woman’s Pass. Step by step we walked together. Everyone did awesome and the views were spectacular. The sun was beating down on us for most of the day but just before the pass we got some reprieve as clouds moved it and cooled down the temperatures. Then we descended into our next camp, Pacaymayo, which means “hidden river”. It’s a beautiful and remote camp with views looking into the valley and no one around for miles.
We were greeted by our incredible support team with smiles and cheers! Every day we arrive to camp with our tents already set up and water ready for drinking. We couldn’t do this without them!
RMI Guide Jess Wedel and the Machu Picchu team
New Post Alerts:
Machu Picchu August 15, 2024
Technically, today was a rest day…
but we still got up early and went hiking. It would have been hard not to get out of bed with a stunning sunrise lighting up Kwangde - the giant and jagged peak across the valley to our west. We hiked up a steep hill (everything out of Namche is steep) to Syangboche and then traversed through yak pastures until we reached a tea house at 12,400 ft for our first views of Ama Dablam and Lhotse. There were some clouds playing through the area that prevented our seeing Everest. We sat outside, drank tea, and watched. At one point we could see Everest’s South Summit, but the true summit never quite cleared for us. We packed up and headed back down into Namche to rest and browse through the many shops for the afternoon.
Tomorrow we’ll push a little higher in our move to Thame.
Best Regards
Dave
Way to go, Casey, Nikki, and team! Congrats!
Posted by: Lee Hoedl on 7/30/2023 at 10:37 am
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