Most Popular Entries
Posted by: Jake Beren, Josh Maggard, Leon Davis
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 358'
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Hello,
This is the RMI Mt. McKinley June 4th Expedition. The whole team is here in Talkeetna, Alaska, packed and ready to rock. Today we packed up, checked our gear and sat in on a National Park Service orientation to preview a bit of the upcoming adventure. The team is excited and ready to launch. So far the flying weather hasn't let many folks land these days, but it appears to be stabilizing just in time for us to storm the SE fork of the Kahiltna. With any luck we'll fly out tomorrow morning, so we better get some rest tonight.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
On The Map
The Four Day Summit Climb September 16 - 19 led by RMI Guides J.J. Justman and Pete Van Deventer were unable to reach the summit of Mt. Rainier today. The teams aborted their summit attempt at approximately 11,300' due to heavy winds and poor climbing conditions. The teams returned safely to Camp Muir at 7:30 a.m. PT. They began their descent to Paradise at 9:00 a.m. PT. Conditions on the Muir Snowfield are making it necessary for the team to wear crampons below Camp Muir.
Congratulations on a safe climb!
The Four Day Summit climb led by Brent Okita, Solveig Garhart and Dan Windham reached the top of Mt. Rainier today. The team reported clear skies and 20 mph winds. At 7:40 a.m. PT the teams were at 12,300' on their descent en route to Camp Muir.
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons July 3 - 8 reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning led by Mike Walter. The team will return to Camp Schurman for their final night on the mountain.
Congratulations to today's summit teams!
Hi, this is Linden calling in with a dispatch from Chukung.
What a day!
We woke this morning about 2 a.m. The winds that were bothering us yesterday afternoon had died down to just a whisper. We had a quick climbers breakfast and headed off up the mountain. We climbed and watched the moon rise over Makalu followed shortly by the sun. Sunrise caught us right at the base of the glacier. We kept climbing up the glacier to the base of the headwall. The team made great work ascending the 800 or so vertical feet of the fixed line, despite some adverse conditions. Everyone handled it well.
About nine in the morning were standing on the top of Island Peak. The entire team made the summit. We had the entire summit to ourselves, even though it's only about the size of a ping-pong table. After a few celebratory photos we headed back down the fixed line, to the glacier and back to High Camp. We packed up High Camp and walked all the way to Chukung. We arrived just before the last rays of sunlight disappeared. We dropped into our tea house tired, hungry but very happy.
We plan to walk to Namche tomorrow and arrive in Lukla the following day.
Posted by:
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mexico
Humbleness is the key ingredient for climbing mountains. To embody the notion that you, the climber, are such a small part of the dynamic equation needed to safely climb an incredible peak is as challenging as the actual climbing. Our team was faced with such a challenge once we reached our high camp on El Pico de Orizaba. Weather was not cooperating with our plans to attempt the summit as wind, precipitation, and low visibility engulfed the mountain well into the morning. Many a time, emergency situations that arise in the mountains are rarely the product of just one issue, rather many tiny poor decisions that escalate to something worse. We discussed this over as a group and agreed that if we had left in poor visibility, precipitation, tough route finding, and difficult travel with the fresh snow we were not setting ourselves up for success and safety.
The weather slowly eased it's temper as the sun began to rise revealing a beautiful, snow-covered landscape reaching down to nearly 12,500'. This unusual winter storm has left a dry, dessert-like alpine environment encased in the cold grasp of winter. A cloud cap swarmed the upper reaches of the Jamapa Glacier as our team headed out for a hike in hopes of reaching the glacier. Watching the wind whip through the mountain up high, reminded us how unforgiving mountaineering can be. The snow became deeper and deeper as we approached the last section of the rocky labyrinth just below the glacier. At the foot of the glacier, around 16,500 ft our team was knee deep in snow, gazing at the summit in awe. From this point the summit was beckoning us to climb, what looked like only a stone's throw away. This is when one must face the reality in this case of what looks so close is easily 3 hours away and with deep snow, more like 4 hours. Too long, too exhausting, too dangerous at this point to go on. Our team, satisfied with the journey and experience of climbing in Mexico, returned to the Reyes' lodge for some relaxation prior to our departure home.
As we sat at our gates waiting for our respective flights, we all began to dream, to wonder of the next climb. For some us, a return trip is on the bill. For others, a future mountaineering expedition is right around the corner. For all, a peace knowing we came home safe, friends, and hungry for more. Thank you to Tom, Casey, Ryan, Jayson, Mazzie, Seamus, Collin, and Marty for making this an amazing climbing program for RMI!
Posted by: Hannah Smith, Abby Westling
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Everest BC Trek and Lobuche
Hello readers,
We woke for our last trekking day. The trail and teahouses have gotten busier as the Everest climbing season is kicking off. While for many they are just starting their adventure, we are ending ours. By 8:30 am we were off headed down trail. We had a lot of stairs ahead of us but also lots of motivation to tackle all of them. As the morning turned into the afternoon it felt like we were going the wrong way on a one way. Hundreds of people were walking in along with train after train of mules. This must be what it feels like to be a salmon swimming up stream. We did what we could to weave through the crowds. Man do we feel lucky to have been trekking during the quiet time of the season. Eight hours later we took our last steps up the stairs leading into Lukla, the town we flew into and our starting point. We left here jetlegged, bright eyed, and clean. Now we look a little weathered and worn down, but our eyes have seen so much beauty and we have had experiences to last at least a few months before the itch to sign up for another adventure takes hold. Tonight is our last night in a teahouse. Tomorrow we fly back to Kathmandu and join the hustle and bustle of a major city. It's been over two weeks in this valley and an amazing time it's been. Now hopefully it's clear skies and smooth flying in the morning.
Goodnight all,
RMI Guides Hannah, Abby, and Team
Posted by: Billy Nugent, Katrina Bloemsma, Billy Haas
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 22,841'
12:45 pm PT
Billy called the RMI Office from Camp Cholera: Everyone is safe and sound. We will stay here tonight and descend to Plaza Argentina tomorrow afternoon.
Thank you for all the blog comments and congratulations!
8:48 am PT
Hey there, it's Billy Nugent of the team El equipo de dos Guillermos, checking in from the summit of Aconcagua. I'm up here right now with six climbers and three guides, 22,800-something feet. So what do you guys think? [Team cheers!] As you can tell a happy but tired bunch. Everyone is doing extremely well. We are definitely winded up here at extremely high altitude. We'll give you guys a jingle when we are headed back into our high camp at Plaza Cholera.
Other shout-outs. [Brief loss of transmission]
Carter, Walker, and mom I love you guys so much. Thank you for everything.
Erica, Thurston, Bella, Brent, Ally, Christian, everyone. We made it! Hurrah!
Hey guys, it's Lindsay, I made it. Thank you so much for the support and love. Love you guys. See you when I get back.
Tanya, Benjamin, and Abby- love you and I'll see you all soon.
Kathy, Kelsey, Eric, Ailie- I love you. I'm on the top of Aconcagua- woohoo! Jerry and Rhonda, John and Kathy- thanks for the support. I'll be seeing you soon.
Babs and Phil- much love from Katrina.
That's all I got unless Haas has something. I love you mom and dad [from Billy Haas].
Sorry mom and dad, love you guys too. Signing out. We'll call you from high camp.
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
RMI Guide Billy Nugent and team call in from the Aconcagua summit!
On The Map
Hey Glen congratulations you made it! Fridolin
Posted by: Fridolin on 1/28/2015 at 2:52 pm
Gerald
Sorry just had to post… We are just so proud:))) sounds like an amazing team… can’t wait to hear about it all. Sleep well under the stars. Xx
Posted by: Aliki on 1/27/2015 at 4:47 pm
Posted by: Solveig Waterfall, JJ Justman
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide Solveig Waterfall and the Five Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide JJ Justman reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Solveig and JJ both reported moderate, gusty winds; clear skies; and warm temperatures. The teams began their descent back to Camp Muir around 8:30 am. The Five Day Summit Climb will return to Camp Muir for their final night on the mountain while the Four Day Summit Climb will rest and refuel before descending to Paradise. We look forward to greeting the Four Day Summit Climb team in Ashford later today.
Congratulations to today’s climbs!
Base Camp is a busy place these days as all of the teams have arrived and the route through the icefall is now open. In the daytime climbers and trekkers are constantly milling about camp, checking in with friends and other teams to see what everyone's plans are. It's quite a scene.
Since the Icefall Doctors completed the route to Camp 1 teams have been busy staking claims to the prime sites. At least one team has sent climbers to spend the night there thus starting their first acclimatization 'rotation'. The Sherpas in our team went to Camp 1 the day the Icefall Doctors completed the final leg of the route and marked off an area for our camp there. Today our team carried loads of gear to the camp. This accomplished two things. The first and most obvious is to transport some of our gear further up the mountain. The second is to aid our acclimatization by climbing to almost 20,000 feet before returning to Base Camp to recover.
This was my first trip through the icefall in it's entirety. Of course I've heard about it, read about it, and have had plenty of time to obsess about it over the last 6 days. But there's no way to really get a feel for it other than climbing through it. I have climbed on plenty of glaciers. In fact I've spent weeks on end living on glaciers. But climbing through an icefall, where the glacier drops off of a steep slope, picks up speed and breaks up into crevasses (you can fall in these) and ice towers called seracs (these can fall on you) is not a normal or common thing, even for a mountain guide.
So we got up at 2:15 am this morning and started our climb at 3am. There's two reasons to start this early. One is to get ahead of other people that may slow us down in dangerous sections. The other is to climb in the nice, cool temperatures of the night and avoid the oppressive heat of the day. Well, I must admit the 'cool' night time temps here are really ridiculously cold so getting out of my sleeping bag was the first crux of the day. From our camp it's about 45 minutes to the first big crevasses. The Icefall Doctors use aluminum ladders to bridge crevasses. On Rainier we also use ladders to cross crevasses the only difference is that on Rainier we'll use two to three ladders in a season, here there is about 35 ladders crossing crevasses and climbing up and down seracs. The Doctors do a great job of making things as safe as possible in the icefall. Of course there's the ladders, but they also place tons of rope on the route so you can always be clipped in and safe from a big fall.
Once in the icefall itself there are precious few places to safely stop for a break. The glacier is always shifting and moving so you really don't know when a chunk of ice may come crashing down. Your best bet for safety is to move quickly and to climb in control. Fortunately our team was able to stay fairly close together owing to our early departure. There were not many people for us to get caught behind and separated. We did manage to sneak in a couple of rest breaks, though we did make excellent time and we arrived at Camp 1 at the top of the icefall just before 7:00 am.
Camp 1 is a tricky place to camp. It is sandwiched in between the steep faces of Everest's West Ridge and the north face of Nuptse. Both sides of the valley are prone to ice and snow avalanches. The trick there is to position your camp so as to mitigate the danger from both sides of the valley. Also the climbing route from Camp 1 to Camp 2 currently avoids the big crevasses in the center of the glacier but passes directly under some avalanche paths on Nuptse. We were discussing the relative merits of two different campsites and where the climbing route will be the safest when a large avalanche came ripping down off of the summit of Nuptse. To our shock there was a large group of people on the climbing route, directly under the avalanche. Fortunately most of the snow and ice from the avalanche landed in the 'moat' between the glacier and the steeper slopes of Nuptse and the folks on the route, including some Sherpas from our team were only blasted with a 'powder cloud' from the avalanche. Still, this was a scary event and a reminder to be ever respectful of the power of the mountains.
Posted by: Leon Davis, Mike King, Jessie Poquerusse
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska Seminar
May 24, 2017
Today began the exercise in storm living. The low pressure south of us arrived and brought with it a foot of new snow. The team entertained themselves with funny stories over a few rounds of hot drinks and a long breakfast. In the afternoon we stretched our legs with a four mile walk on the main Kahiltna Glacier before blowing snow and a disappearing track turned us back. Thankfully a little bit of stormy weather is not enough to lower the morale of this great group of strangers become friends. Tomorrow we anticipate more snow and winds but that will not be a problem for this team. Hope everyone at home is warm and dry.
RMI Guide Leon Davis
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PATTY!!! What a place to be to celebrate your day! You have a text with a birthday surprise when you return to civilization. You must be in heaven with all that snow! Thinking about your smile and hearing your voice in my mind every moment. Love, John
Posted by: John Kudla on 5/26/2017 at 1:32 am
JGH: Hope the weather conditions are getting easier for the group and that you are having a terrific time - see u Saturday though not sure what time?
Hugs, Mia
Posted by: Mia Horgan on 5/25/2017 at 9:26 pm
Have fun & be safe - big props from Seattle!
Posted by: Stacey Guerrero on 6/8/2013 at 8:49 pm
Zurich wishes all the best and good luck for the whole team.
Posted by: Tom&Jerry;$ on 6/6/2013 at 12:06 pm
View All Comments