Today was everything you could ask for on a rest day during a mountaineering expedition: we stayed burrowed into our sleeping bags until the sun hit the tents at Base Camp and then enjoyed a leisurely breakfast, speculating about the outcome of the weekend's games that we missed and drawing out our meal well into the mid-morning. Taking advantage of the perfect weather, we spent a few hours spreading out our equipment and once again going through our gear, culling the unnecessary items and making sure that we had everything we needed for tomorrow's move to Camp 1. In the afternoon we wandered across the moraine to an old hotel built decades ago. Now boarded up, the stone and wood structure sits awkwardly in the middle of the landscape of rocks, glaciers, and snowfields. Despite its current state of neglect, it offers phenomenal views of Aconcagua's west side and while we stood there we were fortunate to have not a cloud in sight. By late afternoon the long shadows crept back over Base Camp and the temperature immediately began to fall as we wrapped up dinner. Base Camp's 14,400' elevation is starting to feel less challenging and we are feeling well rested and ready to move up the mountain. Tomorrow we will climb to Camp 1 at 16,600' and set up camp. While we've enjoyed being at Base Camp, we are ready to move onto the next portion of the climb, we'll check in tomorrow evening from higher up!
RMI Guide Linden Mallory
The Four Day Summit Climb August 24 - 27 led by RMI Guide Mike Walter was unable to reach the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning due to poor weather on the mountain. Mike Walter reported wind, snow and rain at Camp Muir over night. This morning the teams will begin their descent to Paradise.
We look forward to seeing them at Rainier Base Camp this afternoon.
RMI's guides would like to recognize the special women behind the scenes at RMI Expeditions.
Autumn, Sarah, Lacey, Melissa, and Bridget are our office support system, ensuring that all of our trips run seamlessly. Thank you for your hard work, reliability, and flexibility. Your contributions to RMI are appreciated and recognized by all of us.
Other special mothers on staff include our shuttle drivers, Mara, Jennifer, and Lola! We could not be more grateful for your enthusiasm, support, and for your treats on warm summer days!
Finally, a special thank you to our mothers. Thank you for continually supporting our passion for exploring the mountains.
From Everest to Ashford, we wish everyone a Happy Mother’s Day.
- The RMI Guides
Hey everyone, Peter here and just checking in. We are back down at high camp. We had a very windy summit. I'm not sure if our call got out. We tried to communicate from on top. It was very cold, very windy. But we had a great successful climb today with everyone reaching the summit and we even took some time to get some great production. There should be some stills heading your way now. Some images from our climb today. Super cold. Super windy. But we're all very happy to be back down at high camp where there's just a slight breeze. And it's about 8:30 right now, the sun is still very high in the sky. Tomorrow we will break camp and see if we can make it back to base camp. We had an awesome summit day. It was beautiful. It definitely pressed us. And we're all going to sleep tonight pretty darn happy. So, that's it for now and we’ll talk soon.
Peter Whittaker checking in from high camp after summit
The Four-Day Climb with Dominic Cifelli & Sam Marjerison turned around at High Break (13,600’) today due to high winds and heavy clouds forming on the upper mountain during their ascent. The team is en route back to Camp Muir and should return to Basecamp early this afternoon.
The Four Day Summit Climb Teams Led by JJ Justman and Lindsay Mann reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. The teams reported great climbing conditions with winds of about 5 - 15 mph as they climbed above the clouds. The teams will spend some time on the summit before starting their descent back to Camp Muir.
Congratulations to Today's Teams!
Our climbing team has all arrived in Ecuador, and we just got back from our first acclimatization hike up Rucu Pichincha, a 15,400' volcano outside of Quito. Now we're traveling to the town of Papallacta, well-known for its natural hot springs, for another acclimatization hike.
Everyone is doing great with the rapid increase in altitude, but we all felt the thin air and were huffing and puffing up above 15,000'.
Thanks for checking in. We'll be in touch...
RMI Guide Mike Walter
Monday, June 17, 2013
Hello everyone. We made it back to camp after a good day of climbing. Everybody is safe and sound. We're just finishing up a little dinner before turning in for a little bit. Looks like we just beat the storm. We'll move a little lower tomorrow. That's all for now.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
RMI Guide Jake Beren checks in after their successful summit.
Well just like the Dude, Mother Nature abided (for the most part) we woke up to clear skies still air and sunshine, everything was saying go. So we did. We’re trying to hit a weather window on Sunday that looks gooood for summiting and so we chose to skip the carry up the fixed lines and give it a go in one shot.
Holy F**king Shit it was hard, but we made it. Heavy loads, steep slopes and 3000+ feet of gain with packs that could moonlight as ship anchors, we climbed to Vinson High Camp.
So absolutely proud that we were able to make it up here in such style and I’ll save you the nitty gritty for your climber to regale you with later. We take a well deserved rest day tomorrow (or today, it’s 3am) and will gear up for our summit push Sunday.
I’m sorry the weather did not cooperate with your summit attempt.
Posted by: Bob on 8/27/2013 at 9:36 am
Praying for a safe journey back down to the base camp.
Posted by: Stacy on 8/27/2013 at 9:32 am
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