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Posted by: Avery Parrinello, Hannah Smith
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador
Elevation: 15,000'
Good morning all,
After enjoying a relaxing day at Casa Ilayaku the team is ready to get back to business and start walking uphill. A two hour drive brought us to the basecamp for Antisana. A quick duffle shuffle and gear sort gets us psyched and ready for our early departure, hopefully to the top this time. It's early to bed to rest the eyes and body. Fingers crossed the weather cooperates this time.
Happy belated Valentines Day to all our loved ones,
RMI Guides Avery, Hannah, and Team
With perfect weather conditions, the Four Day Climb led by RMI Guide Steve Gately reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Steve reported warm temperatures and zero wind on the summit. After taking some celebratory photos and enjoying the views, the Four Day Climb began their descent from the summit shortly after 9:00 AM. The team will return to Rainier BaseCamp in Ashford this afternoon.
Way to go, climbers!
Posted by: Mike Haugen, Pepper Dee, Gloria Roe
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 14,000'
June 26, 2017
Today was a well deserved rest day! Yesterday was quite the endeavor and I think everyone was happy to not have an alarm clock to answer to. We stayed cozied in our sleeping bags until the sun hit our tents and the warmth beckoned us out around 9:45 am. Emerging from our tents we wet straight into a leisurely Quesadilla breakfast, a special request by Pepper Dee, who turned 26 today! Later in the day we took a walk to the Edge of the World and everyone got to strike a pose while peering out over the vast expanse of glaciers and mountain peaks. I may be bias but I think the best picture involved a blow up couch that the birthday boy had hauled up all the way from base camp! We finished the day off with a quick dinner and chat about plans for tomorrow. If the weather cooperates we will be headed to 17,000' camp in order to be in position for our summit bid! Yeehaw!
Good night from 14!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen
On The Map
Julian… AMAZING!!!
Nice work pulling it up to 17K on the big wall and fixed lines.
The photo back down at The Edge in 14 camp is spectacular. Happy that you and your team that have amazing weather. Saturday looks like it might dump metres of snow again, but then you’ll be back in the clear. Best of luck!!! Stay safe.
Stephen
Posted by: Stephen Wright on 6/28/2017 at 11:03 am
What kind of pose did you strike Gloria!
Posted by: Michelle Weekly on 6/28/2017 at 1:11 am
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Saturday, June 7th 10:36 PM PT
Greetings from our home at 7,800' at the base of Ski Hill.
Today we carried big loads up to 9,600' camp and made a cache. This allowed us to get in some mileage and take a day off the sleds. It also gives us a lighter move day tomorrow and every little bit helps! Just before dinner it started to snow and we retreated to tents to rest up for the upcoming day. Cross your fingers for clearing skies and we'll make the most of them.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
George, Don’t forget to look up and enjoy the view! Cyndi
Posted by: Cyndi on 6/9/2014 at 5:40 am
Jake…Hope you and the team are able to tag the summit…Godspeed…Thanks for your help on Rainier two Septembers ago…Waltero
Posted by: waltero glovedr on 6/9/2014 at 5:27 am
Woke up this morning to beautiful blue skies up here at the Cayambe hut with views of the mountain, Antisana in the distance, and a sea of clouds blanketing the lowlands. It was a bit of a rough night being our first evening sleeping at over 15,000' but everyone took it in steed and felt much better once we were moving around and enjoying a not so rustic breakfast. After downing breakfast burritos and coffee we packed up for a day of training and set out from the hut for the glacier. After about an hour and change of scrambling up a buttress, we hit the glacier and geared up with helmets, harnesses, ice axes, and crampons refreshing up on some of our basic climbing skills. Clouds came in and out, we chilled and boiled... Then headed back to the Refugio to eat dinner and get to bed early for tomorrow's alpine start. If the weather continues doing what it has been we should be poised for a good crack at the summit.
Wish us luck!
RMI Guide Billy Nugent and the gang
On The Map
So exciting! Good luck Charlie and the team! Can’t wait to hear how it goes :)
Posted by: Anna on 2/16/2014 at 7:16 pm
Go Dad GO.
Love reading about what you are doing.
Ken, Alex and Sophia
Posted by: Veronica on 2/16/2014 at 7:10 pm
The RMI Vinson teams traded places this evening. It was a day of wait-and-see as far as flying was concerned. High winds at Union Glacier, high winds in the intended flight path through the Ellsworth Mountains, and big winds that we could see on the upper slopes of Vinson. But things began to calm as the day went on and there was continued hope that the flight would happen before the day was out. I'd just sat down to dinner with group one at Vinson Base when news came that group two was in the air headed our way. Kara, Juan, Piotr, and Spencer packed fast and watched the ski equipped twin otter make a perfect uphill landing on the Branscomb. It was great to see Bill, Sarah, Fatima, and Larry emerge from the plane. The two teams mingled and compared notes as the plane was unloaded and reloaded. We were all happy to hear that team 2 was treated to such a fine time during their several days stay at Union. And I believe team 2 was relieved to see that team 1 had managed to come through a Vinson climb appearing happy and no worse for the wear.
Then it was load up time and I said goodbye to team 1. We shared some wonderful times together. Rumor has it that there are Ilyushin flights scheduled as early as tomorrow, so perhaps they'll be luckier on their Antarctic exit than they were on their entrance. Team 2 bedded down for the night at VBC... Ready to climb.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
It’s great to hear that team 2 had an exciting plane trip and is now at Vinson Base. Have a great climb Larry.
Posted by: Mark on 12/11/2013 at 6:38 am
Enjoy Vinson! Hope the team has a great experience down there!
Love to Fatima,
Peter
Posted by: Peter Williamson on 12/11/2013 at 4:51 am
Posted by: Geoff Schellens
Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades
September 3, 2013 AM
Hi all! Kirk, Harry, and I had a very nice hike into the low bivy site on Mt. Shuksan yesterday; partly cloudy, but completely dry. Last night we had a few light showers and then it opened up on us this morning around 8 - 9 a.m. It has given us a little reprieve but is now starting to rain again. We're relaxing in tents and hoping for another break this afternoon so we can get some training in. Everyone is in good spirits despite the weather and some wet boots from this mornings rain storm. Thanks for checking in!
September 3, 2013 PM
Our hopes came true! The weather broke this afternoon and we were able to get outside and get some training in. We're taking a break right now but will head back out and take advantage of the dry weather and train some more. The forecasts predicts decent weather for tomorrow so we may try to climb. I'll keep you posted on our that goes. We'll check in again tomorrow!
RMI Guide Geoff Schellens
Glad to hear you are out and about because we all know camping is in-tents! Love to you all
Posted by: Beth on 9/3/2013 at 5:52 pm
Posted by:
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador
The team enjoyed a delicious dinner at the Hacienda San Luis. We're a colorful bunch of climbers, and the evening was filled with belly laughter.
After a good night's rest, we packed up our bags and headed north to visit the world famous Otavalo indigenous market. We are currently enjoying the market as I write this. Here you can buy all sorts of hand-made items, ranging from alpaca and sheep wool woven goods to wood carvings to jewelry to artwork. The whole experience is nearly overwhelming to the senses; vivid colors, a unique shopping experience, locals dressed in their traditional clothing, and a beautiful setting surrounded by the Andes all come together to make this an unforgettable experience.
After a few hours of enjoying the market, we will regroup for lunch and then make our way up to the climber's hut on Cayambe for the night. Tomorrow we will rest, acclimate to the altitude, and review climbing techniques like cramponing and ice axe arrest, in preparation for our summit bid.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
This is the RMI Alaska Seminar checking in from 7,300 feet on the Kahiltna Glacier. We awoke to another beautiful day, beautiful lenticular cloud over Denali this morning as we looked out tents. We quickly saddled up our gear and headed to training. We enjoyed some training on the fixed lines and were lowered into a crevasse.
All day it seemed like we were in a snow globe with warm sun on us through the clouds but continual snow. Kind of amazing up here how you can be in a base layer with it snowing and still feeling the warmth of the sun, but we somehow managed to do that today.
We are all settled in tonight and everyone is resting comfortably. It is another cool night. The clouds moved in and it was snowing lightly again when we went to bed. We are looking forward to another nice day tomorrow. Take care.
RMI Guide Andy Bond
We seem to be repeating ourselves here in the Khumbu, saying "that couldn't have gone any smoother" over and over. Sure enough we got out of Katmandu right on schedule yesterday morning with an easy flight in a Dornier 228 twin engine prop plane. We all survived the uphill landing in Lukla, had a fine breakfast there and then hit the trail at around 8 AM. There are twelve of us at the moment, plus Raju and Lama Babu (our climbing sirdar). We'll be joined any day now by climber Michael Brown, but for the moment, there are four climbers, four guides, two trekkers and two team managers and everybody is walking well. The gang walked just fine on somewhat crowded trails yesterday, through farms and small villages to Phak Ding. There we moved into Jo's Garden, a traditional "tea house", for the night. It is a peaceful place, with the Dudh Khosi -a river of constant whitewater- flowing furiously past and erasing all other sound. For many of us, the night was our first of full sleep in what seemed like a week -what with the hectic packing, repacking, flying, packing, more flying, early starting and jet-lagging. Today all seemed to be in good moods and good health and so we joined the busy trail again for the walk upriver. By late morning, we'd entered the National Park and found a nice outside table at a cafe for lunch. A few plates of rice and potatoes later and we got back into the walking. We tackled the notorious Namche Hill and cruised past about a hundred trekkers, porters and pack animals all grinding up in low gear. Conditions were just perfect for gaining about 2000 vertical feet since the ample cloud cover and a few gentle breezes kept the heat tolerable. But the clouds did rob us of what could have been a first view of Everest from the trail. No matter, we'll see it soon enough. The team is tucked in at Camp De Base, a fine lodge in Namche, the "Sherpa Capital" as everyone calls it. We'll spend three nights here, trying to get used to the big jump in altitude (we are up around 11,500 ft now) and enjoying the shopping, communications and social opportunities of this bustling and spectacularly placed town. Tonight, since it will be the first at true altitude, we won't be able to drink much alchohol... but if we could, we'd be toasting Mark Tucker's mom, who turned eighty back in California. Happy Birthday from the RMI Everest 2010 team!
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Congratulations we are so happy for everyone and Bob wishes he could have been there again
Posted by: Bob & Karen Mullen on 7/9/2019 at 9:13 am
Way to go! Especially proud of you Matt Jelinske! Can’t wait to hear all about it!
Posted by: Lisa Jelinske on 7/8/2019 at 5:36 pm
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