It was a storm day on Mount Vinson, so we stayed put at low camp. You might wonder how such a day differs from the rest day we took yesterday... it isn't very different. We ate, we slept, we read, we listened to music, we watched TV. The weather seemed to be improving early in the day, in that wind speeds appeared to be dropping on the peaks and ridges above us. Our latest forecasts also suggested that we'd be rewarded for waiting as the outlook is for an easing in both wind and cloud for the next few days. But none of that seemed to do us much good at low camp today. The sun continually found thick clouds and murk to hide behind and so it was a cold afternoon and evening. The team didn't hang out for long in our dining tent after dinner... back to the sleeping bags with fingers crossed for a more useful day tomorrow.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hang in there ... taking full advantage of “resting up” in preparation of successfully “heading up” when it becomes safe and appropriate to do so.
Take care,
Fred K
Posted by: Fred Klingbeil on 12/16/2013 at 10:07 am
Hope the weather clears soon for you. Love that you can “watch TV”. You have more power than we do in the North Georgia mountains when it hits a balmy 25 degrees+. Be safe and good luck. We’re thinking of you.
Sunday, June 23rd, 2013
We woke up with a couple of inches of snow on the tents this morning. No storms or winds, just the friendly June kind of Denali snow.
We had a very pleasant rest day. We checked in with the camp gossip and watched a few teams head up the fixed line towards 17k. Our plan is to head up to 17,000 ft and make a camp. We have really been doing a great job of sport eating and no one has had any problems with this altitude. We are all very excited because we do not drag any sleds up past this camp.
RMI Summit Team 6
P.S. Lance wants Penny to know that he is keeping up with his dental hygiene. (But the rest of him has not washed in ten days!
Also, Uchal says Happy 2nd Birthday Lulu!
Hello Gregory Grasshopper! We all had a fun time in Austin, swimming in the Pedernales, eating, and catching up. We are thinking of you and hope all continues to go well. Midge and Pete say hi.
Love you,
Mum and Bubs
Posted by: Anne Sullivan on 6/24/2013 at 8:05 pm
Great photos and updates! Thank you, it really helps us at home feel more involved, and informed. Great progress and no more sleds. Yea! Glad to hear all are doing well and managing to have a bit of fun too. Message to Steve, love you and missing you, hope you are having a wonderful time.remember, take lots of pictures!
Another day goes by and we are still here at the 11k Camp. The winds have died down for the most part, but it is snowing and visibility is nearly zero. We're still doing well, tent bound mostly. Hopefully the storm passes soon and we can move camp up higher.
Cheers,
RMI Guide Mike Walter
We're at high camp!
It was another beautiful morning and the team made good time to our high camp which sits just over 15,000'. We are currently sitting in our hot tents awaiting lunch. Then we'll have a summit talk to make sure we are all prepared for tomorrow. Everyone is feeling well and looking forward to tonight's climb. We'll be up early and try to be walking just after 1:00 a.m. If all things go according to plan, then we should reach the summit sometime after 7:00 and hopefully before 9:00 in the morning.
We had a trivia challenge that will allow the winner a one minute call from the summit. So, if you live in Texas and your significant other has uttered "my bad baby" then keep your phone handy. And remember Texas is 9 hours behind.
That's all for now. We'll try to call from the top.
Wish us luck!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Watching your posts; watching the clock. Hopefully you have reached the summit by now. Congratulations to the entire crew on a fantastic achievement! Love you, Dan Man.
Jambo from the Ngorongoro Crater Lodge,
After enjoying a hot shower, our celebration dinner and a good night's sleep we departed the Dik Dik Hotel for our first day of game viewing in Tanzania's National Parks.
We left at 9 a.m. and made a quick stop at a local grocery store for drinks and snacks. We stopped in a town called Mesquito River where we purchased some local bananas before entered Lake Manyara National Park and spending four hours following the herds of elephant and giraffe. The cloud cover made for a nice temperature for us and the animals and we were excited to see warthog, dik dik ,superb starling, hippo, baboon, blue monkey, bush buck, impala, cape buffalo, zebra and wildebeast.
We continued our caravan to the Ngorongoro Wildlife Lodge located on the crater rim. We arrived in time to see the sunset across the plains of Africa and are enjoying the views from our big picture windows looking down into the crater.
We have a full day of game viewing in the Ngorongoro Crater on tap for tomorrow. We have planned for an early morning start with hopes of seeing the sunrise over Tanzania as we descend onto the crater floor. We are keeping our eyes out for the elusive rhino.
Everyone is doing well and enjoying our continued adventure. It should be a great sunrise!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Back to Base
The great climber and author Greg Child once wrote: "Somewhere between the bottom of the climb and the top is the answer to the question of why we climb."
Climbing, and the reason we do it, is an elusive thing. There is no straightforward, definitive answer, and I've struggled with it since I began climbing in 1986. I guess to some extent it's relative to each person. For some, it may be the overall challenge. Others are motivated perhaps by a specific summit or group thereof. To each his or her own.
For me, as I labored under a heavy pack today, dragging a laden sled behind me, the question arose as it often does: Why am I doing this? Why am I thousands of miles from my children, my wife, my home and my friends, struggling in tough conditions with aching feet and a sunburned nose? Why?
It was as if the mountain heard my query. As I moved, a gentle breeze brought a layer of Antarctic ice fog up the glacial valley. The sun above was muted, and a giant, iridescent sun-dog formed above me. The frigid snow crunched beneath my feet, and massive walls of rock, snow, and ice rose in every direction. It was absolutely silent, and yet deafening in its majesty.
Yes, this is why I climb. These moments of solitude that are wholly grounding, humbling, and innately inspiring. They rarely come to me on top of a mountain, and are never predictable. But, they always come, they always inspire, and they never cease to make all the pain, cold, suffering, and challenge worth it.
I now sit in my tent at Vinson Basecamp, the sun peeking through a thick fog above. The team is all happy and fulfilled, laughter and conversation filtering around.
It's been a great handful of days on Mount Vinson. Tomorrow, or the next day, Ed, Cindy, David, and Ben will fly off on a Twin Otter, and the rest of us - Peter Seth, Caroline, Kent, and I - will stay on to do some skiing and climbing.
More adventures await.
-Jake Norton
The day began under grey and overcast skies, as opposed to the pattern we've all come to accept of sunny mornings and cloudy afternoons. Nothing much has come of those grey skies, so far, and in fact, Kaji Sherpa made a carry to the South Col at close to 8000 meters and reported calm and easy weather conditions. We expect Sherpas from several of our neighboring teams to fix rope from the Col to the summit in the next few days if the weather stays calm, which would be a huge benefit to all teams, naturally. We have just started to focus intently on our daily weather forecasts since we'll now be poking our noses up to heights where it all matters. Other than Kaji, the rest of the climbing team took it easy in basecamp, playing cards and horseshoes and packing for the coming rotation up the mountain. We've all been amazed, fortified... and simply stuffed by Kumar's culinary wizardry in the basecamp kitchen.
Hello again everyone,
The team awoke this morning to the soothing sound of rainfall. After a quick breakfast of cream of wheat and fried eggs we headed out into the downpour to test our waterproof pants and jackets. We had hopes of going on a long hike to help start our acclimatization, but after a short walk and a few rides on ski lifts we were greeted with more rain that eventually turned to snow. Although our adventure was short lived, everyone enjoyed riding the lifts, seeing the new snow and we even managed to climb just over 10,000 ft. We are excited for Elbrus.
After our brief and wet exploration we head back into town for a little last minute shopping, lunch and to make it back to our hotel just in time for a quick nap before dinner.
Dinner was nice and the team is adjusting to the fine Russian cuisine. Ever wonder why you don't see Russian restaurants in the States. Well, I assure you there is a reason. It almost seems as if there is an over abundance of Dill and the locals are attempting to eradicate it by ingesting it. For some reason they have volunteered us to help them with this.
Dill-icious!
That's all for now. The team is doing great and we are looking forward to moving further up the mountain tomorrow.
The Four Day Climb August 17 - 20 led by RMI Guides Dustin Wittmier and Mike Bennett reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The teams delayed their departure from Camp Muir a bit due to the colder tempertures, with a 2 am departure, they reached the summit around 8 am. They enjoyed some time on the summit before turning around and retracing their steps. Once back at Camp Muir the team will repack and continue their descent to Paradise.
I woke to the sound of song birds chirping by our dining tent. That could only mean one thing, that the storm had broken and we’d likely get a nice day to move camp. We woke up at 5 am and we were walking by 8 am. The storm had put 18” of new snow down. Since there were no early risers to break trail, we took that on ourselves. The day was hot and included lots of deep snow. We pulled into 11,200’ Camp at 4 pm. Camp setup, dinner and bed was all the bandwidth we had. Tomorrow we will back carry to 9500’ to retrieve our cache of food and fuel. It’ll feel like a rest day compared the effort put forth today. Goodnight.
Larry
You are very experienced with “The waiting game”!
Hang in there ... taking full advantage of “resting up” in preparation of successfully “heading up” when it becomes safe and appropriate to do so.
Take care,
Fred K
Posted by: Fred Klingbeil on 12/16/2013 at 10:07 am
Hope the weather clears soon for you. Love that you can “watch TV”. You have more power than we do in the North Georgia mountains when it hits a balmy 25 degrees+. Be safe and good luck. We’re thinking of you.
Posted by: Mom/Grandma on 12/16/2013 at 8:24 am
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