Most Popular Entries
Posted by: JJ Justman
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
RMI Guide JJ Justman and his team spent today at Ngorongoro Crater viewing some spectacular animals on day two of their safari. Check out JJ's video below.
After a relaxing evening enjoying traditionally prepared foods at La Casa Sol, we awoke to a peaceful morning. Most of the team spent some time prior to breakfast drinking coffee and appreciating our perch above Otavalo. Following breakfast we loaded the bus and headed into town to experience one of Ecuador's finest craft markets.
The market in Otavalo is full of traditional goods: alpaca garments, woven bags, various other textiles, chocolate (Ecuador is famous for artisan chocolate) and coffee amongst a variety of other goods. Some team members spent most of their time sipping artisan coffee. Others used a combination of broken Spanish and hand signals to haggle with vendors. Once we all reconvened the bus drove us to our rendezvous with the 4x4 trucks that would take us to the refuge on Cayambe.
We are now moved in and situated for the next two days. Sunday will consist of basic mountaineering skills training review. The plan is to wrap up early and wake up during the night to climb Cayambe. The entire team is getting acclimated and itching to give our first big objective a go!
RMI Guide Adam Knoff
Great news that all are enjoying the culture and ready to roll up Cayambe. Best to all of the team! Keep the pics and news coming!
Posted by: Jill Klores on 1/12/2020 at 8:48 pm
Packers are winning! Safe travels uphill to the team! Sending love ❤️
Posted by: Christine Hoag on 1/12/2020 at 6:36 pm
Posted by: Hannah McGowan
Categories: Guide News Guide Grant
Geese gabble on the banks of the Crooked River as it winds around the cliffs of lithified volcanic ash that make up our classroom here in Smith Rock State Park, Oregon. It's day nine of ten on the American Mountain Guide Association (AMGA) Rock Guide Course, a program focused on multi-pitch rock guiding and rescue techniques in fourth and fifth class terrain. This course is the first step to becoming certified by the AMGA in one of three guiding disciplines - rock, alpine and skiing.
In the days leading up to this we have worked through systems on the ground and on the cliff, and have guided each other while maintaining a play-by-play discussion to ensure that each participant learns from the mistakes and successes of the others. As participants, we are here to transition from competent recreational climbers to facilitators of climbing in a professional setting. There are myriad new techniques and subtleties that I have been exposed to in the last eight days.
Today is framed as a mock exam in which participants are put in the driver’s seat for a few pitches of climbing and descending. I do my best to put it all together - to select the best new tool in my tool box and implement it successfully. Throughout the exercise I notice how much more comfortable and confident I am with this process since the first time I was given the reins only a few days ago. I now feel equipped to enter the realm beyond recreational rock climbing.
My participation in this course was made possible by the RMI Guide Grant, and I cannot express my gratitude enough.
RMI Guide Hannah McGowan
Posted by: Leon Davis, Bridget Belliveau
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Hello from Talkeetna, Alaska! The RMI Alaska Mountaineering Seminar is underway here, and so far it's nothing but blue skies, sunshine, smiles and excitement. The team all arrived yesterday in Anchorage, and despite one delayed flight we were all able to rendezvous with our shuttle and make tracks north. A short shopping stop in Wasilla let us get all the final little treats that we'll want to eat on the glacier for the next week or so, and then we finished the drive to this quaint little town at the end of the road.
After a good night's rest, the team met this morning for breakfast at the fabled Roadhouse, followed by a stop at the ranger station to complete all our paperwork. We headed over to the hangar to finalize our packing and preparation, and then it was off to the races with training. Tent craft and now rope work, with the team learning a lot of new skills that we'll use over the course of our program.
We're scheduled to fly onto the Kahiltna Glacier this afternoon, so once we get the final weights of all our gear, we'll suit up and head into a very different world! We'll trade the trees and grass for snow and ice, but that's what we've all come to do.
Keep it tuned in for more updates, and thanks for reading!
RMI Guides Leon Davis, Garrett Stevens, Bridget Belliveau, and the expedition team
January 12, 2015, 1:30 PM PT
This is Zeb Blais checking in from high camp with a jubilant summit team. Today we topped out on Aconcagua at 2 PM in adverse weather conditions. We fought through a small snowstorm to get to the top and spent a brief time taking pictures on the summit before descending back down to camp where we are now hydrating, resting and preparing to head back to base camp tomorrow. Thanks for checking in.
January 12, 2015, 9:20 AM PT
RMI Guide Zeb Blais just called from the Aconcagua summit! The team did well and they will check back in from high camp.
Congratulations to the team!
RMI Guide Zeb Blais calls in from high camp after their successful summit.
On The Map
Just phoned RMI and the team is down theountain and will be in Mendosa today or tomorrow! Wow- the trip down is certainly faster than the trip up! Just thought I would post this update for those who are wondering what happened to our team!
Posted by: PKW on 1/15/2015 at 8:50 am
Haven’t had an update in many days. Are you all partying it up in base camp now?
Posted by: Kim Wright on 1/15/2015 at 7:42 am
Posted by: Seth Waterfall, Pete Van Deventer
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide Seth Waterfall and the Five Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer reached the summit of Mt. Rainier shortly after 7 a.m. The team spent about 90 minutes on the summit enjoying light winds and clear skies before beginning their descent to Camp Muir. Once back at Camp Muir, the team will rest and re-fuel before continuing their descent. We look forward to greeting them in Ashford this afternoon.
Congratulation's Climbers!
Congratulations. We’ll done. We are sitting in a bar in Moscow with Putin, he wishes he could be with you guys. Dad
Posted by: Donald Norris on 9/21/2014 at 11:48 am
I’m so proud of you all!! What an accomplishment! I can’t wait to hear all of the details.
Posted by: Rina Norris on 9/21/2014 at 11:07 am
Hey everyone this is Billy checking in and letting you know that we are back down at high camp after a really successful summit day with near perfect weather. The crew is exhausted but in good spirits. Tomorrow we are going to pack up camp here at 17,000’ and beat feet for the airstrip. Hopefully we will get to the airstrip on Sunday and be able to fly. That is all weather dependent of course. So we will check in when we get to base camp.
Ciao,
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
It is 1:30 AM, the sun is still shining brightly out and I've just crawled in the tent. It has been a long day -in lots of good ways. Once the sun runs into the western rib of Vinson at around 3 AM, we don't get it again until 11:30. That is the downside of being so close in to the massive west wall of Vinson, but there are upsides. We get an incredible view of this 2,000 meter face of rock and snow with its three immense ice strreams tumbling downward in the slowest of motion. We climbed the northern end of the wall today, carrying a load of supplies up a thousnd meters or so to high camp. A snowstorm had been forecast, but instead we got nothing but intense sun and a giant blue sky. It was literally the perect day for climbing in Antarctica. Most of our day was spent working up a long section of fixed rope. Before we'd gone very far up the steep snow we were treated to unlimited views out to the west. Ice, ice and more ice... Way out to the horizon where it usually gets tough to tell the divide between Earth and sky. It took us six and a half hours to get up to high camp, which we reached at 8 pm (we don't do early starts in such a cold place when camp is in shadow) and we were back down at low camp again by 10:30. Dinner was a welcome chance to sit around and talk over the roar of our stoves. It does take hours to melt all of the snow we require for water after such a long day out.
Tomorrow we may move up to high camp, or we may rest for a day... It depends on how strong the gang looks at our 11:30 breakfast, and on whether that snowstorm finds us.
We had a great acclimatization hike today at the Ecological Reserve Pasachoa, an ancient volcano which now hosts a cloud forest ecosystem. We hiked up to 12,300', and everyone did great. The weather was nice today, and it was great to stretch our legs and work our lungs a little bit. The altitude of this hike will serve us well, as tomorrow we're off to the climbing refugio at the Ilinizas, where we'll hopefully gain an altitude of over 15,000'. Then we're off to a Hacienda on the flanks of our first climbing destination, Cotopaxi.
This evening we enjoyed fine Ecuadorian cuisine on before leaving Quito; adventurous palates even tried the Ecuadorian delicacy of fried guinea pig (cuy) and the locally fermented corn drink called chicha. We're all enjoying the culture of Ecuador and the conveniences of Quito. But we're also very anxious to head for the mountains and leave the city behind. Tomorrow we'll do just that.
We'll keep you up to date on our adventures.
It sounds pretty romantic, and lots of people envy my job. And, I must admit, I'm pretty happy with what I do for a living, and count my blessings every day. But working as an expedition photographer is not always a piece of cake. This goes for me shooting stills, as well as Gerry Moffatt, Kent Harvey, and John Griber shooting our video footage. While I cannot speak exactly for them, I can give an idea of what my days on the hill are like.
Being a photographer on an expedition does not really put you into a special category. There are no chairlifts or trams waiting for us; we must climb the mountain just like anyone else, acclimating, moving up and down, and capturing images along the way.
Along with the standard equipment all of us - Ed, Peter, Melissa, Dave, Seth - carry on the hill, I also have my photo equipment. I've always been a Nikon shooter, and this is my 6th Everest expedition using Nikon gear. So in my pack is a Nikon D300 camera, chosen for its superior image quality complemented by reasonable size and weight. In addition to the D300 body, I have a handful of lenses: a Nikon 18-200mm, Nikon 50mm, Sigma 10-20mm, and a Nikon 80-200. This selection gives me a fantastic range while keeping the weight reasonable. I also bring along my Nikon SB-800 flash unit and an SC-28 remote cord for filling in faces and dark areas in this contrasty environment. Oh, and of course, extra batteries, cleaning supplies, a variety of filters, and a tripod.
My personal M.O. on all expeditions has always been to disrupt the flow of climbing as little as possible while shooting. Certainly there are times when the environment and risk enable me to set up shots and choreograph the scene. But, more often than not, my style is to catch what I can by moving ahead of the climbers and capturing them in real time, in real situations. (You can imagine trying to ask climbers in the Khumbu Icefall to stop for a few minutes under tons of tilting seracs while I compose a shot - not even nice to contemplate!) This style, while my preference, creates some challenges, as I am in a constant game of leapfrog, setting up a shot, shooting, repacking my gear, and shuffling ahead as fast as possible to get ahead of the climbers and find the next spot for a good image. Not easy, but it is an added challenge I strangely relish.
The other challenge with expedition photography is the need to be constantly thinking, looking around at the terrain with a creative angle, trying to find a new perspective on the environment at hand. While this terrain is so spectacular that pointing and shooting often works, the nut for me to crack is how to find a new perspective, how to tell a different story in a single frame and show what perhaps has not been shown before. This requires constant attention to the task at hand, for moments missed may never come again. But, again, this is a cerebral game which adds depth and enjoyment to the climbing at hand.
When looking at the end of the day, I must admit I long a bit for the days of film. Way back then, in the late 1990s, we'd shoot film during the day, pack it away after sunset, and the day was done- but, no longer. Digital, despite its great benefits, has caused quite a bit more work for us photographers. When the day is done, I now take my compact flash cards into our production tent, fire up my solid-state Asus laptop, download my images onto a hard drive, make a backup copy on another drive, and then edit the day's work. Select images are spotted for dust and blemishes, captioned, resized, saved to a thumb drive, and handed over to our field producer, Cherie Silvera, for transfer via satellite phone with the day's text and video dispatch.
It all makes for a long day, to say the least, but, I wouldn't change a thing about it. I love the honor of capturing the amazing people on our team and the stunning environment, and the chance to share those images and moments with a greater audience. It was, many years ago, images by Ansel Adams, Galen Rowell, Barry Bishop, and other greats of mountain photography that first inspired me to tread in the mountain realm. Their images shared with me a place I could scarcely imagine, bringing a new world to my doorstep in Topsfield, Massachusetts. It was through their lenses that a passion was discovered and ignited within me, and my one hope as I photograph our team and our climb is that I may share that same sense of wonder and enjoyment that hit me long ago.
Enjoy the images, and climb on, wherever your trail may lead...
Previous Page
Next Page
nice to see you arrived and are on your way. have a great climb. wishing you all great weather.
Dawn
Posted by: Dawn Pearson on 8/8/2013 at 3:18 pm
So glad the 3 Meffes are stateside- we all can’t wait to hear about your awesome adventure!
Susan
Posted by: Susan Clayton on 8/8/2013 at 9:13 am
View All Comments