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Posted by: Brent Okita, Billy Nugent
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
Today's Four Day Summit Climbs led by RMI Guides Brent Okita & Billy Nugent reached the summit crater of Mt. Rainier just before 7 am PT. Brent reported clear skies, a windless and gorgeous day. The smoke from the Eastern Washington fires seems to have cleared and the cloud deck is below Paradise at about 5,000’.
The teams will return to Camp Muir in the late morning and then continue their descent to Paradise. We look forward to seeing the teams at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb teams!
Posted by: Brent Okita, JJ Justman
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 5,400'
The last RMI winter seminar of the season is almost complete. The team is getting close to the Paradise parking lot and we can smell the cheeseburgers already. We had a great week of training and climbing. Thanks for following along everyone.
RMI Guides Brent Okita, JJ Justman, Katie Bono & Thomas Greene
Greetings from Casa de Piedra, at 10,600' in the Vacas valley.
We woke this morning to clear blue skies and cool temperatures after yesterday's rain. The cloudless day lifted our spirits and dried our gear as we had a delicious breakfast of eggs with cheese & peppers, fresh oranges, and hot chocolate. We packed our gear for the mules and loaded up our day packs for the trek from Leñas to Casa de Piedra, and headed up the valley.
The sunny skies kept us warm as we passed guanacos and liebres (Argentine jackrabbits), and the team strolled into camp feeling strong and excited for the challenges ahead. While the wind has picked up since our arrival, we're anticipating another beautiful day tomorrow on our way to Basecamp at 13,800'. It will be an early night tonight and an early morning tomorrow, but the stoke is high and we feel good about what lies ahead. We'll check in tomorrow - until then, keep sending the positive vibes!
Cheers,
Garrett and the RMI Aconcagua Expedition
It was plenty cold at low camp last night. Namgya bravely got out of the tent at 11 AM to fire up the stoves, even though we were still in the cold shadow. The weather held, with little cloud cover getting in our way. We watched a blanket of thick cloud fill the valley below and we could see wind tearing at the mountaintops, but we lucked out with calm and sunny conditions for our five hour and ten minute climb up to high camp.
Willie Benegas and Vern Tejas managed to get their teams to the summit deespite the winds and both were back just after we got our tents built and kitchen dug out, around 8:30 PM. Vern is the new world's record holder for Vinson ascents, with 27. I have a chance to tie him tomorrow if the weather cooperates and if my climbers are feeling fine. They seem to be. Leif Whittaker, who turned 25 the day we flew out of Punta Arenas, is cruising along as if he did this sort of thing all the time. One can't help just assuming that it is in his blood, since his Dad is Big Jim Whittaker -the first American up Everest. Sashko Kedev, our cardiologist from Macedonia was thrilled with the day on the ropes today and obviously can't wait for tomorrow. Tim Amos, our producer from New York City, has been strong and steady all along. Brent Huntsman is the team geologist from Ohio and when we slow down enough to permit conversation (not often), he explains the wild "chevron" folds in the rock we are seeing.
It is calm now (12:30 AM) at high camp, we want it to stay that way.
Posted by: Seth Burns, Avery Stolte
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
Early this morning, our 5-day climb led by RMI Guides Seth Burns and Avery Stolte reached the summit of Mt. Rainier!
The team reported moderate winds, mostly cloudy skies, and cool, pleasant temps—a perfect alpine morning.
They’ve begun their descent and will spend the night at Camp Muir, with plans to return to Paradise by mid-afternoon tomorrow.
Huge congrats to the entire team on this incredible achievement!
Posted by: Hannah Smith, Abby Westling
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Everest BC Trek and Lobuche
Elevation: 11,300'
Good evening/ good morning,
Today we had an active rest. A later breakfast allowed for a casual morning full of coffee and milk tea. We sipped on our hot drinks while the sun thawed out the town. Warmed by the sun we took off on a hike uphill to the Everest View Hotel. Unfortunately for us our view was clouds. Even with the lack of mountainous views, it was still pretty and beneficial to go on the hike. Our legs and lungs are getting stronger. In no time we will be at Everest Basecamp. Once back at our teahouse in Namche we all roamed the town for souvenirs and lattes. The lattes at Sherpa Barista taste like a cup of happiness. Tomorrow we will leave Namche for Deboche. One teahouse closer to Everest Basecamp. As for now we are going to enjoy our dinner together and our heated blankets (now that everyone knows about them hidden under the mattress).
Goodnight on our side of the world,
RMI Guides Hannah, Abby, and Team
Hello!
Another day here in the Ishinca Valley, and another summit for your ESS-Peru Team! Around 9:00am this morning, we stood on top of Urus Este, around 17,800’, after a beautiful evening of challenging climbing where the team gave it a huge effort! It’s a lean snow year here in the Cordillera Blanca and the route was bit rockier than normal, but the team managed that challenging terrain exceptionally well. The weather was so nice on top that we were able to spend almost 45 minutes enjoying the views of the surrounding peaks and turquoise blue lakes that the Cordillera is famous for. We returned back to camp midday to a wonderful lunch, as usual, and took the afternoon to rest, recuperate, and enjoy our last day here in the Ishinca Valley after a week of calling it home. Dinner is almost served this evening, and we’re looking forward to catching a night back in the comforts of our hotel in Huaraz tomorrow evening. Shortly, we’ll find ourselves headed back to the hills for a closing climb to end our program with a bang! We’ll touch base from town tomorrow, and we’ll send some pics!
RMI Guide Robby, William, Alfie, and Team Summit!
Another summit conquerd. Congratulations Trey. Enjoy being back in civilization.
Posted by: Phyllis Craig on 7/23/2019 at 12:28 am
Love these posts! Congrats on another summit. Can’t wait to see the pics.
Posted by: Bridget on 7/22/2019 at 6:35 pm
Posted by: Dave Hahn, Hannah Smith, Chad Gaffigan, Luke Wilhelm
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 14,200'
Thursday, July 4, 2019 - 9:38 PM PT
Independence Day on Denali dawned clear and a bit gusty. Moving higher wasn’t terribly practical for us on this day, although it didn’t seem impossible. We were encouraged at our 9 AM breakfast to know that Mike Haugen’s RMI team was starting out from high camp bound for the summit. That will make our move tomorrow a great deal easier as we’ll be able to coordinate a "gear swap".
Today, forecasts called for high pressure building, hence the wind, but the prediction was that the wind would calm as the day went on, which is what we saw. It was still gusting pretty good as we set off at noon for the “Edge of the World”. Twenty minutes of roped glacier travel brought us to the very edge of the plateau we are camped upon. It is always a fun shock to look virtually straight down for thousands of feet to the glaciers below. After days of camping on a flat expanse, one can forget how high we’ve already climbed and a visit to the edge serves as a great reminder. The views of the West Rib and a portion of Denali’s South Face are stupendous and today we enjoyed smoke-free views of the southern Alaska Range. Mt Spurr and the Tordrillos seemed much closer than their hundred miles. We each ventured out on an overhanging granite boulder for a hero shot or two and a look into the abyss.
Back at camp we organized and pared down and packed for moving up.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Wow! Truly amazing Meghan! Happy 4th!!
Peg
Posted by: Peg DecFilippis on 7/5/2019 at 3:16 pm
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
We explored the sixth largest national park in Tanzania today. Tarangire is a year-round, dependable water-source for thousands of elephants. We saw families big and small of pachyderms, but also wildebeest, zebra, giraffe, gazelles and antelope. The birders in the team wee kept quite busy ID-ing "new" flappers. We roamed the savanna for hours with each former climber standing half out the open back of a land-cruiser, looking hard for the next stunning wildlife display. The land we explored is essentially a wide-open baobab forest cut by a number of rivers. Up one of those giant baobabs we spied a cat... upon closer inspection that cat -a large civet- turned out to be dead. This got us looking a bit closer at the other branches of the humongous tree, where finally we discovered a sleeping leopard. We tried to imagine the strength and skill that had gone into this leopard making a kill and then dragging his kill in his teeth while climbing twenty feet vertically up the wall-like trunk of a tree. He'd stashed the kill in a fork well off the ground to keep scavengers from bothering it while he... Or she... Took a well deserved nap.
At the end of the day, we exited the park and made a short drive to Kikoti Camp... A comfortable lodge just east of the park boundary. We watched Maasai tribesmen start a fire without matches and then perform a welcome dance for us. We joined in, eventually, in trying to jump higher.
We'll get a little more chance to see wildlife in the morning on the way back through the park.
Hard to believe that we'll begin our final day together.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Camp 1 couldn't have been quieter last night. There wasn't a puff of wind to rattle the tent fabric. No dogs barking, no trucks shifting gears, no loud parties and no roosters crowing when our 5 o'clock alarm went off. Breakfast took about an hour...not because we read newspapers...but more because our little propane canisters barely want to burn when they are cold. So we put our boots on with our sleeping bags on our laps, and we put coffee powder in our cups, and stared at a pot of icy water waiting for a puff of steam. After a few hot drinks, some cereal and a little pre-cooked bacon... it isn't so hard to throw open the tent doors and greet the day. I watched the mere hint of a cloud cap play around Lhotse summit, in an otherwise clear sky as we stuffed our packs.
Today was basically our...tag team...day. Those up the hill were dropping down while we were moving up to take control of the heights.
As planned, Peter Whittaker came through first so that he and I might have a few minutes face-to-face in order to figure out the timing of our various pushes for the mountaintop. My team of Ang Kaji, Kent, Seth and Erica marched out of Camp 1 at 7 a.m., leaving me to my meetings and the small chore of knocking down our tents for safekeeping.
Peter strapped his helmet on and dropped down towards basecamp. Ed Viesturs and John Griber weren't far behind. As I packed up the last tent and stepped into my crampons, I saw Gerry, Melissa, Lambabu and a handful of sherpas bringing up the rear in their strategic withdrawal to basecamp. We chatted for a few minutes as the sun finally found Camp 1.
A half hour later, I was cruising up the middle of the Western Cwm alone - feeling pretty good about the day and my strength...when I heard familiar voices in panic on my radio. I stopped and turned around...now sickeningly aware of an avalanche roaring somewhere down valley...out of my sight. I barged in on the radio - trying to get some clear accounting for where the slide was hitting and who was involved. Others closer and with a view began to do the same, and I shut up. I told myself I could run to the scene - the popcorn in the lower half of the icefall - in 45 minutes, but that would be for some worst case scenario that I hoped would not come to pass. I stood in the Cwm waiting through the tedious process of various teams taking attendance on the radio. My mind kept darting back to the morning in 2006, when my own radio attendance efforts came up short, and I realized I lost a friend to the Icefall. This time the headcounts came out right. It was a near miss and too close a call, but everybody was all right. I continued my walk to ABC, still intent on catching my gang. I still felt healthy and hopeful...but I didn't feel nearly as bulletproof or in control anymore. With vast walls of ice and rock surrounding me, in the world's greatest cathedral, I missed my strong, humble friend Phinjo. I'd trade a thousand pretty mountains so see his smile again...but it doesn't work that way.
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What a birthday present! I’m so proud and happy.
Posted by: Karen Oldfield on 8/1/2013 at 10:40 am
Congratulations Michael - Knew you could do it!!!
The Buckeye Nation is proud of you. GO BUCKS!!!!!
Posted by: Eric And Julia on 8/1/2013 at 9:53 am
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