The Four Day Summit Climbs led by Geoff Schellens, Brent Okita, and Gabriel Barral reached Columbia Crest today at 7:09 am. The teams reported light winds (10-20mph) and blue skies. They began making their descent to Camp Muir at 8 o’clock.
Congratulations to today’s summit teams!
RMI Guide Jake Beren and team of climbers have decided to return to Talkeetna. The group was at 11,000' this morning and making their way to the Kahiltna Glacier where they hope to be flown off the mountain later today.
Congratulations on a wise and prudent, if difficult decision. Wishing you all the best in future climbs—on Denali and elsewhere. Andrew, call me. Gary Towne
Posted by: Gary Towne (Andrew's Dad) on 6/28/2011 at 10:20 am
After all the hard work getting ready, the months of training and many miles of travel, our entire team landed in Anchorage with all our gear ready to get our Mt. McKinley Expedition underway. We are headed to Talkeetna to organize our packs and take care of the final rigging before flying into the Alaska Range later this week. Thanks to all our friends and families back home for all the encouragement and support as we leave you for a few weeks to return with an excellent adventure to share.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
To Clay and your team, I wish you all a safe and spectacular climb and will pray for glorious weather for the summit. Please take plenty of pictures to give us a taste of the view, for those of us who will forever lack the guts and skill to do what you all are doing. And if you get chilled, just think happy thoughts about the Arkansas summertime. It’s been nearly 100 degrees here all week. I look forward to following the blog. Stay strong, stay safe, and soak it up!
Posted by: Jennifer Gunderman on 6/10/2011 at 9:27 am
Jake, good luck to the crew. A special shout out to my climbing partner Clay, “Do Work Son”. It’s about 174 degrees here, wish I were there.
Hola from Ecuador. We're all safely back in Quito, on the last day of our climbing trip. We hoped to climb Cayambe this morning, but the weather took a turn for the worse. All night the wind howled; by the time I woke at 11:00 pm, a cloud had descended upon the climbers' hut, and everything was covered in ice. I monitored the weather all night and early morning, but it wasn't improving at all. It was so icy outside that we struggled to stay upright just walking outside to get into our jeeps for the drive back to Quito. We were all excited for the ascent of Cayambe, but such is life in the mountains. We had great weather for Cotopaxi, and we wouldn't have traded that for anything.
So now we're all resting and packing, enjoying Quito this afternoon. We'll be on our way back north to the states shortly. Tonight we'll have our final dinner together as a team, and celebrate our experiences on the trip.
Thanks for keeping track of our journey!
As usual, the weather didn't look all that great when we got up at 11,000’ Camp, so we dragged our feet while getting breakfast and packing up and watched things evolve.
We eventually committed to moving up and hit the trail at 11:20 AM. Hard work, as usual, but the team handled it all quite well. We had good luck in that Dominic Cifelli’s RMI Team was ahead of us breaking trail. It was fine to see RMI Guide Andy Bond's and crew coming down and we wished them a safe trip out.
We pulled in to 14,000’ Camp at 5:30 PM and began the tough work of building another camp. We ate outside this evening but will have the dining tent completed for AM.
Thursday, June 20, 2019 - 11:09 PM PT
Well, we did it and several entities tried to tell us it wouldn’t happen! Last night the weather forecast failed to mention the building high pressure and instead called for mostly cloudy skies, snow and light wind. We got up at 5 am and there were clouds over the summit and blowing snow. At 7 am the upper mountain was blue bird with a few clouds out to the North. We got the Team going and then the 17 Camp traffic jam merging onto the Autobahn formed right in front of our eyes. It’s like driving down the highway and you're thinking, “damn I am making great time” then 30-car pile up in the blink of an eye. We pumped the brakes and saw an opening, waited about 15 minutes in the sun and 15 in the shadow of Denali. A guided group had an issue and there were three ropes pulled over so we swooped into the HOV lane only to experience an average commute to Denali Pass.
From the pass we ascended towards Zebra Rocks, a steep rocky ridge that is comprised of white granite and a black rock, it’s name escapes me due to altitude, sun, exertion and a little CO from the stoves. After topping out in the mellower terrain above Zebra we meandered towards the Football Field with views of the Farthing Horn and Arch Deacon’s Tower formations. The group had put in a big effort and there were a few who thought they had reached their high point, only problem was that it was more mental then physical. We rolled through the small hills into the Football Field for a warm break just below Pig Hill. Once up Pig Hill we were in the cold wind on the Southside of the summit ridge as we rounded the Denali Horn. A short stint brought to the Northside of the corniced ridge and we were in calm air and warm. We topped out at 4:15pm and enjoyed amazing views of the lower glaciers and really all of North America cause there was nothing on terra firma higher than us.
It’s been a great expedition and the summit on a great day is just icing on a 20,320’ cake. Tomorrow we descend to 14 Camp and from there the weather and fatigued legs will dictate when we hit the airstrip. There’s still a lot of terrain to cover and we have to collect all our cached gear, food, trash and human waste. The full packs and sleds to the airstrip will be a rite of passage for the Team, they don’t know yet but their hearts are going to break on the last hill into the airstrip but beers and burgers heal all of Denali’s aches and pains. Thanks for following along, this isn’t the last post but we might not get to another one until we hit Kahiltna Glacier Regional airport...no fake prestige airline clubs just some buried treats in the snow for an amazing group of climbers who have been an absolute pleasure to spend the last 16 days with.
RMI Guide Mike King & Team
UPDATE:
Sunday, June 9, 2019 - 8:27 PM PT
The team is all safely back at high camp. Everyone did an excellent job on the way down. - JM
Sunday, June 9, 2019 - 5:24 PM PT
This is John Michael Gorum, calling from the summit of Denali believe it or not, at long last and multiple attempts, we made it! Beautiful day, climbing in light layers and light gloves. [We are] taking photos and some snacks on top and about to head back down. I will send an email update when we get back to camp. All right, you'll hear from us later.
RMI Guide JM Gorum
Congrats to you for a long, challenging and incredibly successful climb!
We could not be any more happy for you and the other climbers.
GREAT JOB!!
Tom and Becky
Posted by: Tom and Becky on 6/11/2019 at 8:29 am
Congratulations to all the team quite an achievement ;;well done beautiful photos beautiful clear skies ;my French man is right behind you guys they did a gear climb to camp 5 return to camp 4 .monday 10 th June ;so maybey a summit attempt in the next few days ; his satellite connection is not great so i have been following you guys ;;nice job;;;
We had a nice relaxed departure from Karanga camp this morning. After just a few short hours on the trail we found our selves at our high camp on Mt. Kilimanjaro, Barafu Camp. We are moving well today and the same steady tight team pulled into camp. We already emptied our packs and adjusted the load to ready for our summit attempt tonight.
We have our food packed for the summit and enjoyed a hot lunch at camp. We are relaxing this afternoon and taking a rest before an early dinner. After dinner we will try to get a few hours of sleep before our midnight wake up call and game on! The weather continues to stay nice, just a few low clouds now and again but no complaints here. The local support staff has yet to miss a beat and we really appreciate the help. Go team Go. Will try and call you from the top.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Hi Mark!
We missed your call—sorry. And it didn’t work when we tried to call you back. This experience sounds wonderful. We’re happy for you and we love you.
Mother & Daddy
Posted by: Maury & Eviemail Address * on 8/11/2014 at 4:20 pm
We are looking forward to seeing your celebration pics from the summit! Stay safe and enjoy!
Thursday, July 2, 2014 – 4:43 PM PT
Yesterday our team experienced the unparalleled vistas of a clear sky at 16,200’ on Denali as we were finally handed a nearly perfect day. We loaded up three days of lunch and snack food plus a few personal items for our carry to the top of the fixed lines which crest Washburn’s Ridge—the most stimulating section of Denali’s West Buttress Route. The team did great learning how to jumar. All members of the St. Angelo family and Jay and Mary Lampas hit personal altitude records. Fatima did a great job breaking trail down the lines, literally paving the way for thirty other climbers on the same program as us.
The population of 14k camp has increased dramatically. What once was a camp that resembled a wide cow pasture with wandering wildlife now resembles a city with distinct neighborhoods on main thoroughfares. Just like a city, this can create traffic jams when multiple teams, all roped together, try to move around at the same time. This sudden influx of guided teams means we will need to wake up at 4 am, while the temperature here sits around 5 below, just to beat the crowds and avoid a bottleneck.
This afternoon we had a lengthy breakfast which leaned more along the lines of a leisurely brunch. We then took a beautiful stroll to an incredible precipice called the Edge of the World. Great weather allowed us more breathtaking views and inspired us for the hard days to come. Hopefully our next contact will be from high camp.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff
It's here! The final RMI Aconcagua expedition of 2014! The team of climbers and Guide extraordinaire Katrina and myself are set to go. We had a great time in Mendoza and Penitentes and we are revving to go. We have a day of sunshine ahead of us to get to our first trek camp at Pampa de Las Leñas. Follow along to see how much fun we have on Aconcagua.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
The team looks great. Bob, I am so proud of you. As I write this on 2/13, I know you have all been doing great. Enjoy this fabulous, difficult, amazing trip. Jeanette
Posted by: Jeanette on 2/13/2014 at 10:58 am
Hey Rich…stay warm and safe. We love you! Mom and Dad
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Congratulations on a wise and prudent, if difficult decision. Wishing you all the best in future climbs—on Denali and elsewhere. Andrew, call me. Gary Towne
Posted by: Gary Towne (Andrew's Dad) on 6/28/2011 at 10:20 am
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