Monday, June 24th, 2013
Today the team enjoyed a well deserved day of relaxation and gluttony. After three days of early starts we had a leisurely morning of coffee and breakfast burritos followed by some high intensity competitive napping. Unfortunately it was too close a match to declare a winner at this point, stay tuned for the sudden death nap-off during our next rest day. Before dinner we reviewed crampon techniques and discussed our carry to 13,200' tomorrow. Mac and Cheese with bacon for dinner should provide sufficient calories to fuel us for mañana. We have been lucky thus far with excellent weather and the forecast is looking just as good. Knock on wood, I sure hope that didn't jinx us. Thanks to friends and family for tuning in.
RMI Guides Geoff, Robby, Pete, and our stellar team
Mac and cheese with bacon?? Set another place, I’ll stop by.
I hope the good weather holds up for you guys.
-Larry Seaton
Posted by: Larry Seaton on 6/25/2013 at 8:45 am
Tommy, it’s awesome to hear you had a great day of rest! I hope you were able to find some special quiet time to journal and reflect in the amazing beauty that surrounds you. I was so happy to be able to see Brandon last night for prom. He was so handsome, just like his dad. It brought back special memories! I will be praying for the tough day ahead. I know how strong you are, though, and that gives me strength. I love you!
Rhonda
The Four Day Summit Climbs August 7 - 10 led by Billy Nugent and Jason Thompson reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning! The teams were beginning their descent from the crater rim shortly after 7 a.m. PT. They reported a beautiful day on the mountain with warm temperatures, light winds and clear skies.
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons also reached the summit today led by Linden Mallory.
Congratulations to today's summit teams!
Hello everyone!
Billy here checking in for the rest of the crew after the first official day of our Denali expedition. Today's theme: attention to detail. Lots of packing- group gear, food, hardware, clothing systems, etc. etc. After a great orientation with the park service this afternoon the team tied up all the loose ends and we are officially ready to rock and roll. Tomorrow morning we are hoping to fly in to Kahiltna Base earlier rather later but that is contingent upon the winds. The weather should be clear but possibly a bit breezy. Regardless, the pilots at K2 seem optimistic about getting onto the mountain tomorrow.
Wish us luck!
Mike would also like to make a shout out to his grandfather. He's thinking of you.
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
We awoke to another blue bird day in the amazing Ruth Gorge. The morning was spent enjoying a leisurely breakfast while waiting for the sun to hit camp. Once the sun had warmed us up from the evenings cold, we geared up and set out to do some exploring and training. We headed off across the glacier until we reached the eastern edge of the Ruth Glacier. After picking our way through the jumbled labyrinth of the broken edge of the glacier, we ascended a moraine and refreshed our mountaineering skills and learned a few new ones. Lunch was had with beautiful views of the 5,000 foot granite east face of Mt. Dickey. Then we meandered back to camp, practiced anchors, devoured some bacon cheese burgers and relaxed for the evening. Tomorrow we will combine all our technical skills acquired so far and learn crevasse rescue using a real live crevasse!
Another beautiful day and another strong effort from our crew! We took advantage of more amazing weather and single-carried all of our gear and supplies up Ski Hill to set up shop at Camp 2, which sits at about 9,600' on the upper reaches of the Kahiltna Glacier. Our guys clearly trained hard and the long hours on the stairmaster paid dividends today hauling massive loads. We rolled into camp around 4:30 which made for a leisurely afternoon getting situated and taking in the amazing views. After a hot dinner of tortellini alfredo, we all crawled into the tents and are currently waiting for the bitter cold to set in once the sun dips behind Kahiltna Dome.
That's all for now, we'll check in again tomorrow!
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
All is well here in Africa and the team is doing great.
We started early again today to stay ahead of the massive group that is climbing alongside us. We recently heard that it is the largest group ever allowed to climb together on Kilimanjaro. However they are doing a good job of staggering themselves on the trail.
We started out under cloudy skies which made for comfortable hiking but didn't help with the drying out. However, since we have arrived at camp the sun has come out and it looks like everything will dry in time for tomorrow. We hiked for about four hours today and chose not to have a sit down lunch as we were a little worried it could rain, and luckily for us it didn't.
We are relaxing here at Camp 2 on top of the Shira Plateau that overlooks the Great Rift Valley. It's incredibly beautiful and we even have a nice view of the upper mountain too.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Hey, everybody this is Billy calling and checking in from Ecuador on the Ecuador’s Volcanoes trip. The crew woke up yesterday morning at the Hosteria San Luis, where we enjoyed some really nice facilites after our hike on Cero Fuya Fuya. We went to the famous Andean Market in Otavalo where the crew got a chance to see all the local handicrafts and eat some crazy foods, all the cool stuff that’s for sale on a super busy Saturday market. It was a real treat that we were there on a Saturday.
Then we geared up and headed up to the hut on Cayambe. The road was in super bad condition. So, we ended up having to run laps with the 4x4 thru some deep mud while the rest of the crew was walking along the way. Vans couldn’t get within 10 km of the refugio.
But everybody is up here right now. We are taking a rest day. We did a bit of training and we are hanging out. Hopefully getting geared up for a summit attempt tonight. The weather has been super awful all day. Lots of clouds, blowing snow, lots of wind and everything around us is covered with ice and rime
Currently the weather is improving so we are keeping our fingers crossed for tonight and we’ll take our first crack at a big volcano.
So, we’ll call and check in tomorrow and let you know how it goes.
Signing off for now,
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
RMI Guide Billy Nugent checks in from the Cayambe Hut.
We woke up to howling winds, blowing snow, and cold temperatures. Not a good climbing day. We stayed in the tents most of the day and did some sport eating to make sure that we are energized for our summit bid when the weather clears. The sun finally came out and the winds died down in the afternoon. It turned out to be a gorgeous afternoon and evening. Keep your fingers crossed for us that the weather holds through tomorrow!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen
We have been following your progress and think that you have been fortunate so far in the weather gods! Keep it up! Stay safe and we wish you great luck on your summit climb.
Posted by: Ruthann Rossiter on 7/2/2011 at 8:12 pm
Greetings again from Cuzco,
We had a great first day of official activities, with a morning packed of visits to the main monuments of the city. From the amazing, earthquake proof Inca walls of Koricancha, to the 16th Century Cathedral, we did also, without noticing, start our acclimatization process by stretching our legs across this ancient city. Gear check and hike briefing with our local outfitter filled the afternoon. We look forward to yet another day of discovery, along the Sacred Valley Of The Incas tomorrow.
Best regards,
RMI Guide ElÃas and team
Hey everybody. This is Casey Grom checking in again with the RMI Everest Base Camp Trek and Island Peak Climb. Just wanted to let everyone know that all is well. We left Pheriche yesterday and hiked for a few hours. It was up the eastern-most valley in the Khumbu region to a little village called Chukung. Unfortunately, I was not able to get reception where we were staying. No cell service or wifi up there either. We had a great night, great food, and got up this morning to a little dusting of snow on the ground. We had a leisurely breakfast and got everything packed up. And then the team set off this morning around 10 AM. We hiked for about three hours further up the valley to the the base of Island Peak. Our wonderful support staff hiked ahead of us and had our dining tent and even had a hot lunch ready for us. All of our sleeping tents were set up right as we pulled in. We are a little spoiled to say the least. Anyway, the team's doing great. We're just relaxing right now inside the tents and will continue to rest this afternoon. We'll do some training tomorrow and then we're hoping tomorrow night we'll make our summit bid. So that's all for now, hope everyone back home is doing well and we'll check in again soon.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
So happy everyone is doing well. I’m sending my love and warmth your way!
xoxo
Posted by: Sydney on 4/3/2014 at 1:56 pm
GO DAD!! Just saw the pic of you and Lee at the base of the icefall- maybe that’s been a few days ago? Maybe you’re at the base of Island? Jealous, but so happy for you. Fond memories of a DECADE ago on Pisco- proud of you.
Mac and cheese with bacon?? Set another place, I’ll stop by.
I hope the good weather holds up for you guys.
-Larry Seaton
Posted by: Larry Seaton on 6/25/2013 at 8:45 am
Tommy, it’s awesome to hear you had a great day of rest! I hope you were able to find some special quiet time to journal and reflect in the amazing beauty that surrounds you. I was so happy to be able to see Brandon last night for prom. He was so handsome, just like his dad. It brought back special memories! I will be praying for the tough day ahead. I know how strong you are, though, and that gives me strength. I love you!
Rhonda
Posted by: Rhonda Kitchen on 6/25/2013 at 7:21 am
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