Most Popular Entries
After yesterday's summit push we were content to lie in the tent a bit longer this morning at High Camp before finally stirring. We brewed up some coffee, that while no match for a good espresso, was a very pleasant touch to the cold but otherwise clear morning, and then set about breaking camp. With all of our gear loaded into our packs, we began descending from High Camp. We reached the top of the fixed lines and spent the next hour working our way down the massive face, carefully transitioning past anchor points until the Branscomb Glacier, once a small ribbon of white below lay underfoot. The descent was uneventful and smooth - just as one would hope when descending an exposed face like that - and another half hour of crossing brought us into Low Camp where Dave Hahn and the other RMI Team were enjoying a rest day.
Dave and JJ were kind enough to brew us up a hot drink and we traded was stories from our trips while we repacked our backpacks and sleds with the gear we had left at Low Camp. With our mugs empty and our packs and sleds full, we wished Dave's team good luck and warm temperatures on their summit bid and set off down the glacier toward Base Camp. The gradual downhill pitch of the Branscomb and cold hard snow made for a fast descent on skis and we caught ourselves hooting and hollering at times as we cruised down the glacier (which, for anyone familiar with the pain of hauling a fully laden pack and sled down a glacier at the end of an expedition, is highly unusual). By early evening we had navigated the final crevasse field of the Branscomb and were pulling into Base Camp, relieve to be dropping our packs for the last time. After almost a week of moving up and down the mountain we have gotten quite good at setting up camp and within a few minutes we had our tents pitched and our camp shoes on. Tonight we treated ourselves to a special post summit dinner: cheeseburgers which we flew in with us from South America and have kept frozen for this very evening. To top it off, the rangers at Base Camp shared a few beers with us for our meal. Burgers and beer at foot of the Vinson Massif - we truly couldn't have asked for anything more.
Tomorrow we will look at the flight schedule and weather forecasts to see what our options are for beginning the trek home. We are still a long ways from anywhere and the challenges of getting ourselves out of the middle of Antarctica are not inconsequential. Nevertheless, we're happy to be down here and hoping for more good luck on the next leg of our journey.
RMI Guide Linden Mallory & Team
On The Map
Greetings from Nepal Everyone!
And welcome to RMI's first Nepal trek of 2014!
After some very long flights from the USA the team has finally arrived here in Kathmandu. Our first day was mostly spent catching up on some much needed sleep and adjusting to our new time zone, which is 9-12 hours ahead of everyone back home.
Our second day started off with the usual meet and greet where the team got to know one another and discussed the adventure ahead and made sure everyone had all the essential gear.
After a short break we headed into the main tourist center of Thamel for a quick lunch at the famous Roadhouse Cafe known for its tasty pizza.
Shortly after lunch the team set off to do a little site seeing in Kathmandu and stopped off at two of the most important sites, the famous monkey temple and the giant Boudhanath.
The evening ended with a nice dinner here at our hotel appropriately named the Yak and Yeti. And it was off to bed before our early flights.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and Crew
Posted by: Billy Nugent, Walter Hailes, Katrina Bloemsma
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 9,000'
Hey everybody out there in RMI adventure blog land. Billy here, I'm checking in with our group from Pampa de las Lenas after our walk down from Base Camp today. Hot and sunny, lots of river crossings, sore feet but some of the mule drivers are cooking up a steak asado dinner for us tonight, and then we'll hit the sack. Tomorrow we'll continue our walk out of the Vacas Valley and hit the road, and then head back to Mendoza. So the next check in, we'll be saying hello from the hotel in Mendoza. And that's all for now.
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
Billy Nugent calls in from Pampa de las Lenas.
Hello to you from blog land! I am so sorry the weather didn’t cooperate- I cannot imagine how frustrating that must have felt. I also cannot imagine having the strength and determination and skill to climb 20 thousand plus! Please accept a heartfelt congratulations for all that you did, and perhaps more importantly, all that you didn’t do. It takes tremendous courage to make smart choices.
Sending you all laughter, foot massages, delicious food, sweet rest, comfort and lots of Love,
BB
Posted by: Barbara on 1/21/2014 at 4:11 am
Jambo!
We had a great first day and night on Kilimanjaro. We awoke this morning to perfect climbing conditions. After our team breakfast we packed our bags and set out for our next camp on the Shira Plateau.
We ascended to 12,000' traveling through the "Giant Heather" zone to our camp over looking the majestic Great Rift Valley. Before reaching camp the afternoon rains began so we grabbed our rain gear and continued on. With our dining tent and all our sleeping tents set up by our great mountain staff when the team reached camp, we have remained dry throughout the afternoon and evening. We will have a nice team dinner before retiring to our tents for the evening.
The weather already looks like it is starting to clear so we'll hope for clear skies by morning when we set out on the trial again.
We will check in again soon!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Dr. Fletcher…everyone at work is asking about you and if I’ve heard from you. I’ve shared the info on this blog and we’re ALL SO EXCITED! Can’t wait to hear all about it when you return. Go Tucker & Team and GO PIRATES!!
Posted by: Sandy Nobles on 7/28/2011 at 8:47 am
...sounds like you are having a great climb so far…shout out from middle tennessee to dr fletcher…:o)...
Posted by: doreen schulz on 7/27/2011 at 9:30 am
Travel day to Altzimoni hut.
The roads were great as we drove from La Malinche to Amecameca to do a little final food shopping and check out the colorful local market.
Then we finalized our approach to the Altzimoni hut and spent the afternoon sorting our gear, setting up tents and taking a walk to scope our route on Ixtaccihuatl.
Tomorrow we will move to our high camp and prepare for our summit attempt.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
Posted by:
Categories: Guide News
Over the last week we’ve been trekking in the mountainous area above Gorkha. This area was at the epicenter of the quake. The villages we were getting “eyes on” had previously been declared “OK” by the Indian Army by helicopter observations. But these villages were anything but OK. Most were almost totally flattened.
Don Bowie has been our fearless leader. His ability to coordinate with large NGOs, and even the UN, to facilitate supply drops to these hard hit and hard to reach areas has been amazing. And when I say hard to reach I’m NOT kidding. Our first day from Baluwa to Laprak was another precarious scramble up a 10,000′ vertical gain and unknown linear mileage over rough, broken, and treacherous terrain. The heat had us all hurting and in many places landslides made the trek in very precarious. Descending down from Laprak, through the villages of Lapu and Bhirkuna, was straight-up steep no-fall terrain through a thick prickly jungle. Landslides in this area took the trail out, so we had to bushwhack a new trail. All in all, though, we were able to deliver accurate needs assessment reports from these remote villages. Once we made our assessments we would then forward these by SAT phone to the NGOs incident command with the ability to respond by arranging to helicopter in the supplies which was our objective.
Today Don Bowie, Ben Erdmann, Jess Roskelley and Cody Tuttle left to work with the UN’s World Food Program headquarters in Gorkha to assist in coordinating overland aid distribution. For more information, on Don and team check out donbowie.com.
Whats next? Soon I’m headed back to Kathmandu then stateside to begin the guiding season on Mt Rainier with RMI.
RMI Guide Alex Barber
Appreciate the eye witness updates you have provided. Safe travels home.
Posted by: Mary on 5/12/2015 at 6:23 am
The Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guides Dave Hahn and Leon Davis reached the top of Disappointment Cleaver before route conditions forced them to turn around. When Dave called to check-in around 7:15 am, the teams were descending the lower third of the Cleaver en route to Camp Muir. They will be back in Ashford later this afternoon.
I am so proud of all of you guys! You had a dream and went for it! You are my heros!!! Be safe and come home in one piece!
Posted by: Susan Angell on 9/9/2013 at 2:29 pm
Bummer guys! We had an issue with the route two days before as well. Next time!
Posted by: Jeff Marcoux on 9/9/2013 at 11:58 am
This is Casey and team checking in from ABC, Camp Two.
Today the team awoke early, had a quick breakfast and headed out the door at 4:00 am. The team did a great job climbing all the way through the icefall, past Camp One, and arrived safely at Camp Two. The weather was quite nice today with all the members feeling good and in high spirits. Our goal for this rotation is for all the climbers to reach and possibly sleep at Camp Three. If weather continues to cooperate the first wave will push up to Camp Three tomorrow.
Posted by:
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mexico
Hi this is Seth calling from Ixta where it is currently snowing an inch per hour and blowing hard. We did not climb last night as the snow had drifted up to three feet behind our tents here at high camp. Right now we are having some hot drinks and will start packing up and trying to get back down to La Jolla. We are hoping the snow line is above there.
I hope all is well in Seattle. I found winter...it's in Mexico.
We bailed out of high camp this morning without too much difficulty. It stayed calm and wasn't even all that cold as we got up, but then snow clouds formed up and blotted out the sun and we felt the true temperatures. We got moving downward at 11:15 AM. The fixed-rope section was strenuous with our heavy packs but conditions were good and so we made fine progress. We were on the last hill overlooking basecamp at 4 PM when we saw and heard a Twin Otter flying out of VBC. This was a good thing, but it was also a little surprising as there was a good deal of cloud and fog hanging around the lower glacier. When we marched in to camp, it was great to see John and the other climbers again. We were told that the Twin Otter crew was intent on flying out to Vinson two more times in the evening and that we were slated for the second of those flights... But as that would be four or five hours off in good conditions -and conditions were deteriorating, we simply built camp again (we are getting fast) and had a pleasant dinner. Sure enough, it socked in and there were no more flights, but we didn't mind much. We are happy to be down safe and happy that the biggest part of our hard work is finished. We'll see what tomorrow brings but now things are largely out of our control.
Previous Page
Next Page
Glad that everyone is down and enjoying a burger on the ice beach. We have sauce waiting for you. Howie
Posted by: howie mallory on 12/4/2014 at 7:13 am
Love it. Burgers and beer. I know Penn’s happy!
Posted by: Kir on 12/3/2014 at 6:02 am
View All Comments