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We spent yesterday packing and going through all of our equipment for our Denali Expedition. Our gear is all packed and ready to be loaded onto the glacier planes, two DeHavilland Otters flown by our amazing pilots at K2 Aviation. We’ll meet at 8am and get an update on the current weather and flying conditions. The forecast is for snow today, so it is still uncertain if we will be able to fly in to Base Camp today. We’ll keep you posted as we prepare to live on a glacier for the next few weeks. Fingers are crossed…
RMI Guide Mike Walter
The RMI Four Day Summit Climbs led by RMI Guides
Jake Beren and Z
eb Blais reached the top of Mt. Rainier early this morning. At 7:15 the teams were descending
Disappointment Cleaver en route back to Camp Muir. The teams are doing well and enjoying the blue skies and calm weather.
The
Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons led by RMI Guide
Walter Hailes reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning via the Emmons Glacier route. The team has descended to Camp Schurman where they will spend the night before returning to Ashford tomorrow.
Congratulations to Today's Teams!
RMI Guide Brent Okita radioed from the summit of Mt. Rainier, Columbia Crest, at 7 am PT with the
Four Day Summit Climb. He reported winds around 30 mph, clear skies and not super cold, it’s a “pretty nice day”. The
Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons led by Solveig Waterfall has also reached the summit.
The teams will enjoy some time on top today before starting their descent. The Four Day Summit Climb will return to Camp Muir, repack and continue down to Paradise. The Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons will return to their high camp for a final night on the mountain.
Congratulations to today's teams!
RMI Guide Win Whittaker is ascending with his team to Camp Muir today. It was a bluebird day on their hike to Camp Muir. See the team's photo below.
Another early morning saw us loading our gear and climbing into the backs of a couple of grey Russian four wheel drive vans and heading south out of Kislovodsk. Within a couple of minutes we left the city's edge and were driving through the rolling expanse of the Caucasus foothills. Intercut by deep valleys and crossed by bands of white limestone cliffs, the vast plateaus that gradually ascend to the mountains themselves are a glimpse back in time from the hustle of Moscow. Small clusterings of buildings can be found at the valley floors, lonely communities of a couple of cinder block homes surrounded by vegetable patches and fruit trees. Above, shepherds wander the plateaus keeping a careful watch over their flock's of sheep.
It was another beautiful day and above this landscape, growing ever taller as we approached, stood Elbrus. By late morning we reached the valley where Base Camp sits, alongside a couple of shepherd's huts near the edge of the vegetation. We unloaded our gear and carried all of our supplies the final couple hundred of meters across the creek and into camp. The majority of the day was spent setting up camp and repacking our gear into portable loads for the mountain. In the afternoon we went for a short hike above Base Camp, enjoying the opportunity to stretch our legs after so many days of travel. At ~8,400', the air felt cool and refreshing especially after Moscow's subway stations the other day.
Everyone is absolutely jazzed to be here, we are feeling strong and excited about the climb ahead. Tomorrow we will carry a portion of gear to our cache just below Camp 1. We will check in tomorrow after returning to Base Camp.
Today we are headed to Ixtaccihuatl via a several hour bus ride from the La Malintzi resort. It was a restful evening feasting on a parrillada and watching the Superbowl on a Spanish telecast. A well-deserved restful evening after successfully summitting La Malinche, which is hit or miss and dependent on how much argument (in Spanish) you’re willing to engage in with a heavily armed police officer. This time they left us alone, perhaps because it was such a nice day with no threat of lightning or rain.
Now we are in transit to Amecameca for some last-minute supplies. Today is mostly a travel and organization day, not quite a real rest day yet. We will update via InReach from the mountain so you can follow our progress!
RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier
Another brisk night broke clear and calm at Low Camp and when we poked our heads out of the tent this morning, we caught site of a new scene for us down here: not a cloud in the sky and not a puff of wind blowing over the mountain tops above. It was a good sign that it was time to move to High Camp. We packed up our gear, rationing down the extra wait and second sets of miscellaneous gear to keep our pack weights manageable and set off for High Camp. Crossing the upper portions of the
Branscomb Glacier to the fixed lines was warm - hot even - as the sun baked down on us and the white faces all around us reflected the rays. We were down to climbing in just a few light fleece layers and our mood matched the high temps.
Mid afternoon found us beginning to climb the large 3,000' face off of the glacier to the upper plateau of the
Vinson Massif. We put our heads down and made solid, steady progress up the lines that run up the face. We paused at series of ledges partway up for a quick bite to eat and a drink and then continued upwards, reaching the top by early evening. Another hour of climbing a gentle glacial slope brought us into high camp and we quickly set about hacking a flat tent platform into the ice and frozen snow. Once the ground was level and the tent was up we built a long snow wall out of blocks of snow to buffer us in the event of winds later tonight.
After we were finally settled, we took a moment to venture over to the edge of camp where a sheer face drops away to the Branscomb far below. The view was nothing short of spectacular. The Antarctic Ice Sheet stretched out as far as we could see, shimmering on the horizon in the evening light. Below us, the Branscomb Glacier flowed around the foot of the face and down past Base Camp where it melted into the sea of ice. Above us, the summits of Shinn and Epperly stood watch over the landscape with
Vinson's true summit hiding just behind the ridge line above High Camp.
It was a solid day of effort to climb up here and set up a warm and comfortable camp but we're all feeling well and happy to be up here. If the weather holds we hope to make a summit bid tomorrow or the following day - depending on conditions.
RMI Guide Linden Mallory & Team d'accord
On The Map
The Mt. Rainier
Four Day Summit Climb led by Mark Falender reached the summit at 6:00 a.m. this morning. At 7:15 he radioed from 13,000’ on their descent reporting blue skies, a bit chilly and light winds. Congratulations!
The
Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons led by Seth Waterfall are traveling to the White River Campground beginning their approach to Camp 1.
The Ecuador Volcanoes climbing (and all of our luggage) has arrived in
Ecuador! Everyone arrived in the country by early this morning and hit the ground running. We spent the bulk of the day on an interesting and educational tour of colonial Quito, visiting the Presidential Palace, the Basilica, and various other points of interest in southern Quito, also known as Old Town Quito. Our local city guide, Jorge, is extremely knowledgeable and happy to share the wealth of information he has about the history, culture, politics, and religion of
Ecuador. As always, it's a pleasure to work with Jorge.
After a typical Ecuadorian lunch of empanadas, locro de queso (potato soup with cheese & avocado), and fritada (fried pork with corn and plantains), we headed to the Equator. We visited an ethnographic museum and stood straddling the Equator, with a foot in each hemisphere (see photo).
We're all still a little weary from a long travel day to get here, and I'm sure everyone will sleep well tonight. Tomorrow we had head out on our first acclimatization hike. We'll be in touch tomorrow to let you know how it goes.
Cheers,
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
This morning we woke up early, broke camp and flew off the
Kahiltna Glacier. We are now enjoying a nice meal at the West Rib Pub. The group is doing fantastic and we all looking forward to a warm shower. All and all and incredible time with everyone.
Thank you all for the fantastic time!!!!
RMI Guide Andres Marin
Day 2 greeted us with clear skies and beautiful views of the upper
mountain. The day starts with "morning tea" delivered to our tents at 6:30 followed by a medium tub of warm washing water. The team did great getting ready and we made it out of camp right at 8 am. Today is one of the shorter legs being just under three miles all total, however we ascended a little over 2,000' getting to camp. We stopped about half way for the nice sit-down lunch that our staff had ran ahead and prepared. Clearly we are being spoiled! But this is vacation after all.
It took a little over six hours to get to Camp 2. Its called
Shira Camp because it sits atop the massive Shira Plateau at just over 12,200' and overlooks the Great Rift Valley below.
Everyone is doing well and are looking forward to a good night's sleep.
Hakuna matata!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
Our son, Alex, is on the trip. Stay safe everyone and have an amazing adventure!
Jackie Woolley
Posted by: Jackie Woolley on 5/13/2021 at 7:10 pm
An endurance climb, expedition style, good luck to all, you will be so proud!
Posted by: Bill Bussey on 5/13/2021 at 6:47 am
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