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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
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.
Posted by: Mark Tucker
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
Camp was all up and getting organized at about six this morning. It always amazes me how well the body responds to solid rest. The dramatic difference between last night and this morning was a welcomed one for sure. Everybody showed up smiling to breakfast and enjoyed a delicious imported cake that was carried up the hill in celebration of the 30th wedding anniversary of two of our team. The date was actually yesterday, one heck of away of commemorating, congrats Rhonda and Robin! Before leaving camp we held our goodbye ceremony with our mountain staff. We tipped them, which is merely normal practice when 52 men have worked their tails off to help you accomplish your dreams. Packs were shouldered one last time for the 4,000 ft and three hour descent to the Kilimanjaro National Park gate. After checking out with the park service we left the mountain with the summit in our heart and a certificate in our hands. A couple hour drive brought us back to the lodge where it all started. Cleaned up, fed and repacked for safari tomorrow has us all giddy and excited with what's has happened and what lay ahead.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
The team had a very nice rest after our last night in Kathmandu. The city was a hoot, but back here in the high country is tough to beat.
All business today. After a nice breakfast of French toast, guess we should call it Nepali toast, we started ascending to Namche Bazaar. A little overcast made for pleasant travel. We are now officially in Sagamartha National Park, which encompasses Mount Everest. We climbed more than 2,000 feet in great style and are now resting comfortably at a tea house in Namche Bazaar. Located at over 11,000 feet makes for a planned extra day here for rest and adjusting to these altitudes. So important to not ascend too quickly. The A team is consuming a lot of great food, but that is a good thing. Remember you can't run a bulldozer on a pint of diesel!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
On The Map
Nancy , I am so proud of you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!What an experience. Jackie and I are here looking at the photos of your trek…...WOW!
Posted by: mimi on 4/3/2014 at 8:58 am
Hi Liz and all your spirited team members!
So proud of you guys and wishing you all the best as you continue on a trip of a lifetime! So proud of you all!!! Very inspirational to see you guys pushing it to your limit.
Sending Love and light,
Karin
Posted by: Karin Hathaway on 3/25/2014 at 1:03 pm
Posted by: Mike Haugen, Mike Uchal
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 14,200'
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Saturday, June 22nd, 2013
Movin' on up! We woke up early and set out to cache some gear up high. Even though the sun was not on us, we thought it was warm for 14k camp. We were wrong. As we set out towards the fixed ropes that allow us to climb the steep face up to 16,000 ft safely, a cold wind picked up and made us cold...like Denali cold! I think we needed it because we were getting a bit spoiled. Once we gained the ridge, we were out of the wind and in the sun and immediately life was better.
We decided to make a cache a around 16,600' under a prominent rock feature called Washburn's Thumb. We cached some food and fuel for when we head up to our last camp at 17,000' in a couple of days.
I was really impressed at how everyone did at the altitude and on the fixed lines. Go team!
Rest day tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mike Haugen and the RMI Summit Team 6
On The Map
Lance’s little ones are off camping with the dinosaurs the next 3 days . BUt we will be thinking about you all and wish you warmer wind and fantastic next few days
Posted by: elisabeth on 6/24/2013 at 6:30 pm
Enjoy your day off, but I am sure you will find something to pass the time. This team likes to stay busy it seems. Tell Q the Bruins are at home tonight for game 6. They trail 3 to 2. Should be a great game 7 this week. Go Bruins!!
Posted by: George on 6/24/2013 at 5:05 am
Well rested from our recent international flights, our team went for our first acclimatization climb today, summiting Rucu Pichincha. Rucu is a volcano that is located just outside of the city of Quito, and the gondola-assisted approach allowed us to enjoy some very high altitude today. The summit sits at 15,413', and was a personal altitude record for many members of our climbing team; we should break that record a few more times during our stay here in Ecuador.
After riding the gondola, the climb consisted of a relatively moderate ascent on good trails to a small Col just shy of the true summit. From the Col, we scrambled for about 15 minutes up 3rd class volcanic rock to the summit. Clouds obscured our views from the top, but added to the ambiance of our team's first Andean summit. Other than some high clouds, the weather was great for our climb today. The temperatures were quite comfortable for climbing, and we had great views of Quito from nearly 6,000' above.
Our team climbed very strong today, without exception, and it is obvious that everyone has been dedicated to their training programs in the past few months. The climbers on this team have a ton of experience in the mountains, from Rainier to Aconcagua, and it definitely shows.
Tomorrow our crew will pack up in the morning and leave Quito, traveling north to our next acclimatization hike of Fuya Fuya, en route to our first major climbing objective, Cayambe.
At the risk of sounding redundant, these climbers are strong and well-prepared for this trip. Sure, we all feel the affects of altitude at this point, but that is expected. The team's collective dedication to climbing and training is allowing us to fully enjoy our experience here in Ecuador.
Thanks for checking in, and we'll provide an update after our next climb. But for now, the well-oiled climbing machine is on track.
Hasta la proxima cumbre,
RMI Guide Mike Walter & team
Ola Amigos! Greetings from 1100.00000 elevation in the Allegheny Mountain Range of NW Pennsylvania, USA. Awesome photos—you guys rock! Go Larry! How much do they pay you for that awesome mug shot that now tops their web site? Endorsements forever!
Posted by: Patti and Joe on 6/21/2013 at 9:31 am
Posted by: JJ Justman, Seth Waterfall
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Elbrus Northside
RMI Guides JJ Justman, Seth Waterfall and the Elbrus Northside team begin their journey in Moscow with a city tour before leaving for the mountains tomorrow.
Our Five Day Summit climb led by Seth Waterfall made a successful sunset summit of Mt. Rainier last night and are now resting back at Camp Muir. Our Four Day Summit climb led by Adam Knoff made it to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The Four Day team was 100% to the top. Both teams had clear skies and light winds.
Congratulations to today's teams!
No sooner had I proclaimed a "season of no snow" than it got busy snowing. About three or four inches our first night at Lobuche and then another two inches yesterday afternoon. Both days were sunny to start and then gave way to big dark cumulus clouds with thunder and lightning to finish. The snow hasn't made the walking any more difficult for those of us with ski poles, boots and gaiters. The ultra-bright new snow surface, combined with intense high-altitude sunshine, can be hard on uncovered skin or eyeballs, but all of us are taking great care in those departments.
New snow down in these parts doesn't necessarily mean that the upper reaches of the big peaks are getting it, but one can hope. There isn't much question in my mind that the normal Nepalese route to the top of Mount Everest is easier and safer with ample snow cover. Particularly if it will be a busy and "crowded" season as this one shows every sign of being, then it will be best to have the loose rock covered with snow and frozen firmly in place. We can worry about such things more in a month or so. For now though, I won't mind if it snows each afternoon.
These last days on the trail have been extremely busy and congested, not quite like Interstate 5 through Seattle, but busy as heck with foot traffic nonetheless. Much of the Khumbu Valley is focused -in these weeks- on the Everest business, and as we come within a day or two of the mountain, all of that "traffic" becomes concentrated on a single segment of trail. Our expedition is one of perhaps thirty trying to move tons of gear by porter and yak-train to the head of the valley right now. Additionally, numerous and large trekking groups along with Everest climbing teams are all on the same trail and in the same few teahouses now. That isn't all a bad thing. Last night, the dining room of our Lobuche teahouse felt something like a school reunion for me, what with Scottish David Hamilton -the leader of the Adventure Consultants team- showing up. I'd last seen him in December in Antarctica. Ang Dorje, who has been living with his family in Eastern Washington and building wind turbine towers since I last saw him on Everest, was in the room. So was Austrian Walter Laserer, who was skiing around the upper reaches of Alaska's Kahiltna Glacier when I bumped into him in July. There was Lobsang, who'd led a trek I was on in the year 2000. Passang, who'd led the Hillary Step and been key to my tagging the top in October of 2006, was over standing by the stove.
Yesterday, I accompanied Ed Dohring on a round-trip hike from Lobuche to Basecamp. His GPS calculated that we moved over 11 miles in the process, and we did it in pretty good time, considering that we stopped nearly every 200 feet for me to say hi to another friend or acquaintance from the mountains. It can be a lot of fun, but at times it can be overwhelming to meet casually and between yak horns and tails for a moment with a climber or Sherpa that I've shared life-shaping expeditions with. Ed Dohring is now on his way home, as was planned all along. We finished his trip with that exploration of Basecamp, which is already quite impressive with tents popping up in every direction. While there, we sat outside eating plates of rice (our Sherpa team already has things up and running and ready for the team's arrival tomorrow) and gazing up at the jumble of the Khumbu Icefall. We could see the Icefall Doctors pushing the route of ladders and rope in the upper "popcorn" section, perhaps a third of the way through the Icefall. We dropped back down to Lobuche in the swirling snows and rejoined the team for a last night together. Ed and Erica said goodbye to each other this morning, as he left for Namche and we left for Gorak Shep.
A gorak is a big black bird that lives up high, a lot like a raven. Gorak Shep then translates to "dead raven," which doesn't truly do the place justice. Or maybe it does. Not much of a "town" up here in this large, sandy, dusty flat spot on the lateral moraines of the Khumbu. The place is important to trekkers, as it is the jumping off point for the short hike up Kalapathar. KP -at around 18,500 ft- is the lowest part of a ridge which merges into steep and sharp Pumori, and when one finishes hiking all of that ridge that can be hiked without specialized tools, one can get a big and famous view of Everest, Lhotse and Nuptse. Or... one can go to an internet cafe... at 17,000 feet and 25 rupees per minute... the web is in the Shep.
Our team is spending a final night on the trek. Tomorrow we'll go into Everest Basecamp and begin focusing more on the climb.
Posted by: Hannah Smith, Ben Luedtke, Daniel May
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 9,000'
Howdy howdy,
We woke up for the last time on the mountain.
We opened our eyes to a frosty dome tent as we packed up our sleeping bags and got ready for breakfast. Today, we headed down the valley towards the park entrance. 8hrs and 17miles later, we arrived at Lenas, our first camp we stayed at 16 days ago.
We started our expedition with a carne asada dinner and ended it the same way. Bellies full of steak, potatoes, veggies, red wine. Our bellies no longer rumble and are now instead very full. The team earned this glorious meal cooked by a spectacular chef. With a light breeze we are headed to our sleeping arrangements, some in tents, others sleeping under the stars.
It's a surreal moment looking back at being at 19,600' just yesterday and now sleeping on the valley floor. Tomorrow, we finish our trek out to the gate entrance, concluding our 17-day trip up and down Aconcagua. Everyone is ready and excited for the hotel amenities - top on the list is a shower, a reliable toilet, clean clothes, and a comfy bed.
For now, we are content laying in the dirt after a long day hiking.
Buenos noches,
Godspeed to the climber in the red beret!
Posted by: Jenny French on 1/26/2023 at 6:58 am
Congrats Hannah to You and your Team! You all Rock!
Farmer Dave
Posted by: Dave Kestel on 1/26/2023 at 3:22 am
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
Good Luck. Hope you can summit soon!
Posted by: Mom Haugen on 7/2/2011 at 3:59 pm
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