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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
The
Four Day Summit Climb July 2 - 5, 2018 reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning just before 6:30 AM PT led by
RMI Guides Brent Okita and
Chase Nelson. The teams reported steady winds of 25-30 mph throughout their ascent. They were able to spend some time on the summit enjoying the blue skies and sunshine this morning and began their descent from the crater rim around 7:30 AM PT. They will continue their descent to Paradise later this afternoon and we look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp later today.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb teams!
RMI Guide Solveig Waterfall and the Five-Day
Mount Rainier Summit Climb, along with Tyler Reid and the Four-Day Summit Climb reached the summit this morning. They enjoyed light winds and clear skies. The teams spent some time celebrating and enjoying the views before starting their descent at 8:10 a.m.
Today marks
Solveig's 100th summit of Mount Rainier! Congratulations!
Volcan Villarica warm up day...
Our goal for today was to have skis on our feet, and driving through the lush lowlands in the rain, there was a sense of disbelief circulating through the van that we would soon see snow, let alone be skiing. Next thing we knew, with Sergio at the helm (our Chilean outfitter) we were fully utilizing the Mitsubishi's 4-wheel drive capabilities to precision glide past stuck vehicles on the steep access road. High snowfall intensity from the sky, high psych intensity from our crew.
We spent the afternoon
Volcano Storm Skiing. Not to be confused with below treeline storm skiing, where the forest provides terrain definition and the ability to see; Volcano Storm Skiing involves using rocks, closed chairlifts, other skiers, and/or their tracks for definition. When in doubt, have someone else go first. If your hat says 'Guide' on it, that means you are the sacrificial lamb.
Get blasted by the wind on the way up, seek refuge in a closed lift station high on the mountain, look up at your teammates and see huge smiles, transition to ski mode. Random outbursts of laughter. Volcano Storm Skiing is awesome. Especially the part about skiing in September.
Ski bag = reunited with Jonathan. Sergio was invaluable in solving the logistics of getting it to Pucon. He lent Jon his gear for today and we never missed a beat. Tomorrow looks even stormier...
RMI Guide Tyler Reid
June 28, 2014 - 10:07 pm PT
So good to be on
Denali. So good to be on the move again. With our late flight onto the mountain yesterday evening, there wasn't so much time to be ready for the late season tradition of walking out of basecamp at 4 AM this morning. We built our camp and put priority on getting good rest instead. Our thinking was that with so much snow (30 inches from the last storm) that we might get by just fine without the early start. We'd plainly seen the lower Kahiltna Glacier during our flight and it certainly didn't look like crevasse bridges were going to be a problem. So we got up at a civilized 7:30 AM and did our organizational work and set out for a daytime
Denali departure. As we'd allowed ourselves to hope, crevasses were no problem. In fact the glacier was in better condition than it had been for late season in decades. We made three hour-long pulls with some fifteen-minute restbreaks in between. But in the end we decided not to push on to our normal first day camp goal of 8,000 feet. Despite our snowshoes, the walk was getting strenuous due to the great amount of unconsolidated new snow softening with the heat of the day. We camped at 7,000 ft where the East Fork meets the main glacier and we'll happily begin earlier tomorrow to get ideal surface conditions. Nice to see a few of the other late season guides on the move today as well, a bit of a reunion. Especially nice to hear from
Adam Knoff at 11K on the radio and
Billy Nugent on top.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
June 24, 2014 - 8:12 pm PT
Today we encountered the second oxymoron of the trip. The first, albeit not mountain related was not seeing the sun in the longest day in the norther hemisphere, hence the sunless solstice. Today's oxymoron was more exciting, helpful and might I say unexpected. At 13,500 feet there is a crucial feature of Mt. McKinley's
West Buttress Route that one must pass to gain access to Advanced Base Camp at 14,200 feet. This storied gateway is called Windy Corner. There have been many a harrowing epic here where sleds have been known to take flight like kites, ropes bend outward like giant crescent moons and rumor has it a climber was even flash frozen like a walking tuna when hit by a fridges gust. For us the corner was breathless!
Last night I had decided to make a carry of unneeded equipment and food up around windy corner because a snow storm is projected to pay a visit for the next few days. Despite having put our bodies to the test for the last four days without rest, this move seemed wise as to prepare the team to move up given our next nice weather day. Everyone's training has proven adequate and we are now in a great position for the days to come. We expect one or two more days here at 11,000 ft. Before making our next move. Everyone is happy and healthy.
Climb on.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff & Team
On The Map
June 12, 2014 9:20am PT
It looks like we got lucky with the weather and found ourselves a day to fly! The mountain is visible from
Talkeetna which seems like it is a rarity this season. All systems go!
RMI Guide
Mike Haugen & Team
Today was a relaxed travel / rest day. After a good breakfast in Puebla we loaded our van and started driving to
Tlachichuca. We arrived at Dr Reyes' historic soap-factory-turned-climbers-hostel around 10:30 and began sorting our gear on the lawn. With our gear packed for Orizaba we went in for lunch. By early afternoon we found ourselves bumping along the dirt road in 4x4 truck towards the Piedra grande hut on Orizaba. When we arrived we were surprised to find the Refugio buzzing with activity. A few other climbing teams and a large group filming a documentary will be our company for the night. We ate an early and fantastic dinner of tacos with chicken, veggies, rice, and beans as clouds swirled around offering short glimpses of the upper mountain. We are all feeling good and heading to bed early before our summit bid tomorrow.
We will check in tomorrow from the summit.
Thanks for following us on our fantastic Mexican adventure.
RMI Guide Geoff Schellens
On The Map
Greetings from
Machame Camp,
We could not have had a better day today! This was the first day on the trail and the group did great. We had the trail to ourselves and perfect weather. We heard some very distant thunder but made it to camp without any rain. It was barely an hour later when some light rain started to fall, but fortunately we were already warm and dry in our dining tent, snacking on some tea and popcorn.
We started the day at 6,000' and made it up to camp in just under 4 1/2 hours, a solid pace. We are now settled in at camp and the mountain is teasing us with grand views as the clouds roll in and out. The team is feeling really strong and happy to finally be on the mountain.
Best regards,
RMI Guide Jeff Martin
On The Map
This morning we packed up our gear and left Quito, heading south along the "Avenue of the Volcanoes". After driving through the small pueblo of Chaupi, we followed a dirt road that took us towards the goal of our second acclimatization hike: the climbing hut (refugio) on the mountains known as the Ilinizas. The hike was very enjoyable, and the weather was comfortable for hiking. Clouds and some wind came in up towards the top of our hike, accompanied by some frozen precipitation, which made the hut a welcome sight. We rested in the hut for about 45 minutes, enjoying hot tea, before heading back to the trailhead.
We are spending the night at the relaxing hacienda Chilcabamba, on the flanks on Cotopaxi. Tomorrow we will head up to the climbing hut on Cotopaxi, and prepare for the climb.
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Wow! Truly amazing Meghan! Happy 4th!!
Peg
Posted by: Peg DecFilippis on 7/5/2019 at 3:16 pm
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