The weather was beautiful today, sunny and warm, and barely a breath of wind. We took a quick trip back to Windy Corner (13,600') to retrieve the cache we left there well over a week ago. The hike back to the cache took us 15 minutes, and about an hour to ascend back to the 14,200' camp that we established yesterday. The rest of the day was spent buffing out camp and practicing fixed rope travel techniques in preparation for tomorrow. Tomorrow we plan on carry supplies up above 16,000' to get ready for our summit bid. The weather looks good for the next few days; hopefully the forecast pans out. Tomorrow will be two weeks into our expedition, and we're all excited to get up high soon.
We'll let you know how our carry goes. Stay tuned...
RMI Guide Mike Walter & Team
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
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.
The Five Day Climb June 20 - 24 reached the summit of Mt. Rainier at around 7:30 am this morning. After spending an hour on the summit enjoying their accomplishment, the teams started their descent back to Camp Muir. Once back at Camp Muir they will savor some much needed rest and enjoy a day of training on the upper mountain. After spending one more night at Camp Muir the teams will desend to Paradise and return to Rainier Basecamp in the afternoon tomorrow to celebrate their success.
Our team is all packed and ready to go, optimistic that we'll have the opportunity to fly in to Kahiltna Basecamp today. After a full day of packing on Monday, we eagerly awaited a weather window for flying into the Alaska Range, but it never materialized. Instead, we enjoyed another evening in a real bed, with hot showers and flush toilets. This morning we'll be on standby to see if the weather is flyable. The weather trend is improving, so fingers crossed that our next communication will be from a glacier! We will keep you updated.
Safe hiking! Hope the marshmallow is treating you well and the weather permits a successful climb. Enjoy the coffee and look forward to hearing any updates. Routing for you Aladdin
We went for it today. The weather was greatly improved. The clouds were gone, but there were still dust devils of snow twisting off the ridges as we watched from high camp. Obviously, we hoped for a calming trend as the day went on. One of our climbers stayed in camp, satisfied with yesterday's effort. This worked out as there were two ALE "rangers" also in camp along with a guided group taking a rest day. The rest of us set out at 10:37 AM. We were in still air for the first hour, but then we went through a few gusty portions of the route for several hours. The fact that the winds weren't sustained didn't mean they were any warmer. We bundled up pretty good in down coats and pants and tried hard to keep our faces from freezing. By about 15,000 ft, we'd reached a calm area, which was a great relief as the mountain was getting tough to climb even without a distracting wind. Most were working quite hard to compensate for the lack of oxygen and the steepening snow and ice. As we worked our way out the 16,000 ft summit ridge, we found the wind again. This made it tough to enjoy the view of the Ellsworth Mountains spread for two hundred miles around and below us. We walked onto the mountain top at 10 minutes to 6 PM. Excited, but also very much on our guard against frostbite. We took a bare minimum of pictures, did quick but heartfelt hugs, handshakes and high fives, and then beat feet out of there. We were safely back in high camp by 8:45 PM.
Best,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
All tucked into the team villa here at the Plantation Lodge, just outside of Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area, which is tomorrow's destination. We departed from the Dik Dik Hotel right on schedule and attacked the Lake Manyara National Park with eyes wide open. Great critter sightings all day! Being only two days since summit day, I was impressed with the team's level of energy. Tomorrow we are looking forward to seeing as many of the 29,999+ mammals that live in what is known as the "eighth wonder of the world."
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Come on baby! A couple more nice weather days for us and it can storm all it wants up here in the high country of Tanzania. It all boils down to needing a bit of luck when climbing big peaks like Kilimanjaro; when the mountain says no you need to listen. Even on climbs when you do not get to the top of are filled with events and memories that stick with you. I have great confidence that this entire team will stand on the roof of Africa, with safety leading the way. It is such a unique thing we do up high, to be allowed to stand on the summit is really icing on the cake. We take away an immense feeling of satisfaction on all climbs. The team has checked off all the prerequisite to get this done.
When we leave Karanga Camp tomorrow morning, our summit push begins. We'll take a bit of a break at Barafu, the high camp, then up up and away! Man, this is exciting. All the prep work that has gone into this, the great support by all involved back home, is all making this last bunch of hours a reality. We promise to make you proud of what we do, impressed on how we did it, and thank for this beautiful mountain in supplying us this adventure. All is well at 13,000' on Kilimanjaro. We will check in with you tomorrow!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Today is another rest day for the team at Plaza Argentina. After our carry to Camp 1 yesterday it serves us well to take advantage and fully acclimatize. The team is doing really well. The agenda for today is resting, eating and taking showers.
Everyone on the team says hello to family and friends...
RMI Guide JJ Justman
JJ and Team:
So very good to hear all is well as you journey along!
Praying for your spiritual journey as well as your physical safety. Take a moment if you can to…
“Fall on yours knees, and Hear the Angel voices! (On this) Night Divine!
Blessings from David’s Mom
Posted by: Ruth Sorensen on 12/24/2013 at 2:39 pm
“One does not climb to attain enlightenment, rather one climbs because he is enlightened.” - Zen Master Futomaki
Hello this is RMI Guide Mark Tucker checking in from the Dik Dik Hotel in Tanzania. We completed our safari today after an exciting night at the Kikoti Camp. There were elephants just outside our doors last night and literally brushing up against the tent. We returned to the Dik Dik to collect all of luggage, rest and relax. We had another great meal here before being transferred to the Kilimanjaro International Airport for our out bound flights.
Thanks to all of our team members for a great adventure. We hope to you all another time!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker checks in as the trip comes to an end.
Hola de Argentina...
Well our fearless team assembled in its entirety today to begin our expedition on the mighty mass of stone called Aconcagua. Haha. Pete and myself completed all of the pickups at the airport today in three separate trips and were delighted to find that none of the team members were seriously delayed and that all of the luggage has safely arrived. Mendoza is situated on the plains that approach the Andes, something like 3,000' of elevation; pretty low and subsequently really hot. The majority of us spent the day trying to recuperate from long stretches of travel by chilling (or sweating really) poolside at the hotel. Today was Sunday so most of the businesses were closed. Everything is still on schedule for hitting the trail day after tomorrow. We all enjoyed some of Argentina's famous beef and wine this evening at a great parrilla near the hotel. Everyone is really psyched for the big adventure! We'll check in once more before we hit the trail tomorrow evening.
Ciao,
RMI Guides Billy Nugent, Pete Van Deventer, Geoff Schellens, and the team
.jpg)
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
View All Comments