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Jambo!
Today we visited the Ngorongoro Crater. It was a bit cloudy and cool on the way in this morning so we visited with the friendly Maasai Village for dancing and shopping. The hut life may not be for everyone but it is their way of life and they have adapted just fine. Visiting the village is a nice option to pick up some handmade trinkets and support the local economy, then down in the crater we went. Still a bit cool so we were all glad to have brought some of our fine First Ascent warm gear to make the safari vehicle ride more comfortable. The cats and rhino tried to hide but our pro spotter-of-a-driver was able to point out these magnificent animals. We were in awe of all the types of animals that lingered around the beautiful forest of huge Acacia trees. Luckily we spotted some lions just before we left the park entrance just beyond the crater.
The team is doing well and looking forward to our five-course dinner at the luxury
Plantation Lodge.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
The Four Day Summit Climb August 2 - 5 led by Win Whittaker and Jason Thompson reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today! The teams reported a beautiful day on the mountain. They experienced light winds, warm temperatures and were able to enjoy the views from the summit. There is a cloud deck currently below Camp Muir at approximately 7,500'. The teams are currently en route to Camp Muir and will continue their descent to Paradise this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb!
Hi RMI this is Linden Mallory calling, it’s about 10 AM on Monday morning and we are calling from Denali Base camp.
We made it down this morning. We woke up about midnight last night and had the beginnings of a descent freeze, so we decided to pack up and see how the glacier treated us. We fired up the stoves and cooked up some breakfast and then we were walking in the middle of the night. It was a long but relatively uneventful walk down the glacier. We picked our way down and made it to Base camp about an hour ago. Right now we just packed up all our gear and we are waiting on the airplanes to come and pick us up. We have some low hanging clouds but we are fairly optimistic, a few planes have made it in.
So hopefully our next call is from Talkeetna. We'll check in and let you know how it goes.
RMI Guide Linden Mallory
Bueno dias from Ecuador. Yesterday our team reached the summit of (the nearly 20,000') Cotopaxi! When we awoke at midnight, it was snowing lightly. By the time we had breakfast and were ready to start climbing, the snow had let up; some clouds lingered, but stars were visible. The weather for our climb remained excellent: mostly clear skies, calm wind, and relatively mild temperatures. Our team stood on the summit at 7:15 a.m., and was treated to excellent views of the 20,700' Chimborazo, the Ilinizas, and the active volcanos, the Pinchinchas, which rise above Quito. After descending, we traveled out of Cotopaxi National Park to our current location of the hacienda La Cienega. This beautiful hacienda was built in the late 16th century, and has a rich and interesting history, including having housed the first volcanological study of Cotopaxi, and a European geographical expedition to measure the meridians.
We all enjoyed hot showers and a great dinner, before getting some much needed rest. Today we will travel north to our next hacienda, Guachala. We'll rest our legs today before starting our next climb, Cayambe. Tomorrow morning before heading to the climbers' hut on Cayambe, we'll visit the world famous market at Otovalo.
We'll keep you up-to-date with our whereabouts.
Thursday, May 18, 2023 - 8:31 am PT
Yesterday's weather started out looking pretty decent, but it shut down pretty quickly and we were forced to remain tent bound. This morning is much nicer and we should finally be able to move to 11,200' Camp. We'll check in again soon, hopefully from up higher.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir led by RMI Guides Dave Hahn and Nikki Champion spent the week at Camp Muir honing their alpine mountaineering skills. While the spring storms kept the team from making their summit attempt, they had a valuable week of training the will prepare the climbers for future expeditions on Aconcagua and Denali.
During the week the team learned route planning and preparation, avalanche forecasting, instruction regarding Leave No Trace practices and environmental considerations; and a discussion/demonstration of knots, anchors leading into crevasse rescue.
The team will be descending today returning to Rainier Basecamp early this afternoon.
The Mongolia team has made the jump from Olgii in Western Mongolia back to the capital,
Ulaanbataar. We are enjoying the cosmopolitan feel of the city and a final cultural event today - visiting a 13th century recreation of Chinggus (Ghengis) Khan's kingdom and palace. Tomorrow morning we all catch flight home to our love ones.
Thanks for following along!!
RMI Guide Eric Frank
Sunday, June 23, 2019 - 8:50 PM PT
What a beautiful day! We are so thankful that the weather has been amazing so far. We will definitely not be fooled into thinking that the mountain won't throw some weather our way soon!
We had a long day bringing a bunch of food, fuel, CMC's, and extra warm clothing up to our next camp at 14,000'. The climbing was great and the crew had a good time. It was nice to be able to see
Denali again since our view is obstructed at our camp at 11k.
We all earned our afternoon naps before a hearty dinner of Tasty Bites Indian food with rice.
We are all excited to move up to 14k tomorrow... if the weather is nice to us!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen & Team Siete
On The Map
This morning we awoke to stars above, starting our climb in beautiful weather. On the long traverse to the saddle between the mountain’s east and west summits we had a spectacular sunrise, and views deep into the Caucasus. This evolved quickly though into whiteness, as we climbed into a chilly cloud cap.
Despite the weather we were able to ski right off the top and while visibility was marginal, the snow was excellent by
high altitude ski mountaineering standards. In my experience, any 6000’ spring descent usually starts a little scratchy up high, has a magic perfectly sun softened middle section, and finishes a little too soft. That’s exactly how today was, but the magic middle section also included the magic of bursting through the clouds to a world of color, light and contrast beneath. Worth the price of admission as someone said in the moment.
Now our team is back in the lowlands safe and sound, soaking up oxygen as thunderstorms roll through the valley. Life is good here in Russia.
RMI Guide Tyler Reid
On The Map
The starry skies that covered us when we went to bed gave way to a thick cloud deck and by 5am this morning it was blowing and snowing on our tents in
Condoriri Basecamp. Thankfully the team all slept hard from our efforts the day before and by the time we started breakfast at 8am only a thin dusting of snow and partly cloudy skies remained.
This set us up perfectly for a relaxed day of travel. After breaking down the tents, we hiked out of the valley and met the transport vehicles.
Even though only 20 odd miles separate the Condoriri Valley from Huayna Potosi the terrain requires back tracking through the edge of La Paz, making the trip closer to three hours. We were rewarded with incredible views of the mountain, which grew larger and more stunning as we arrived at our refugio.
This evening the team is relaxing and enjoying a reset before our next big push.
RMI Guide Eric Frank
Welcome back on low-altitude land! Kudos to the great guides who made it happen.
Alysse in the Forest
Posted by: Alysse on 7/11/2011 at 4:26 pm
Glad to hear everyone is safe and sound, can’t wait to hear all the stories. Thank you Linden for all the reports and getting everyone up and down safely.
Posted by: Toni on 7/11/2011 at 3:50 pm
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