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Two in the morning rolls around fast over here. It did today, at least. That is when I got up to stuff a few last things in my pack and meet Ed Viesturs for breakfast in our dining tent. I think we both were focused and keyed up for a journey through the Khumbu Icefall and thus were not too picky about breakfast. Instant coffee and rice porridge did the trick for me. We walked a little before 3 a.m., at first in some fog, but then under stars and a big moon by the time we'd gotten our crampons on at the start of the climbing route. Ed graciously allowed me to go first so that I could set a pace I might live with and complain less about.
I'll admit that my natural tendency might have been to be a little insecure over having Ed Viesturs, one of the world's great aerobic athletes, two steps behind me where he could see just how feeble and weak I might turn out to be on any given day. But ...the short sleep, the rice porridge and bitter coffee must have worked the perfect magic, because I didn't feel feeble and weak as we crossed the first ice ridges. I actually felt ready to go climbing ... ready to feel my heart and lungs ramp up, ready to get some sort of burn going in my leg muscles.
The plan was actually two plans that came together. I swear I don't have any great love for the Khumbu Icefall. I wouldn't generally go through it without good reason, but when I hope to guide someone through it, I've come to value previewing the darn thing first myself. It can be wildly different from year to year (and from the beginning of a climbing season to the end), and I like to know where the hazards are and where reasonable rest breaks might be hiding. Ed, with his goal of going for the summit without oxygen, has to continually push himself in the weeks and months leading up to that attempt. He needs and wants all the exercise that he can squeeze in ...preferably at altitude. And even better if he can preview the Icefall route and get a little gear up to our newly established Camp 1 site. So our schedules converged and it seemed to make good sense that we go together, despite his need for speed and my need to not be humiliated. We both had light loads of gear for CI and our standard guide's pack-load of emergency and rescue gear in case we either got ourselves in trouble or came upon someone else inclined that way.
We could see about a dozen headlights some distance ahead of us, but we reeled those in before too long and passed a team of Sherpas that were carrying heavier loads than ours. We didn't talk as we climbed by headlight and moonlight ... I doubt I'd have been capable of talking and there wasn't any need for talk. It was a time for thinking and doing. I thought a bit about how I'd met Ed Viesturs in the summer of 1985 on Mount Rainier. He would have been starting his third year of guiding then, and I was a wide-eyed and fairly naive aspiring climber. I took a five-day climbing seminar with Rainier Mountaineering, Inc. and Ed was the junior guide on the trip. He must have done something bad, because when it came time for choosing rope teams for the summit bid at week's end, Ed got me. I was strong enough, having just spent a first winter working in the ski industry - and before that I'd swum competitively at college ("competitively" being used loosely here), but I didn't know anything about big mountains or how to tap into the strength I had for them. That climb was memorable. We were well up the Ingraham Glacier and taking a break when another guide with a different team busted a big crevasse bridge and took a huge fall. That guide was Eric Simonson, who is camped just a hundred meters away from me right now and who turned out to be a great friend and mentor. I didn't know Eric then though, and so when Ed tried to get his rope team moving in a hurry in order to go up and help with the crevasse extrication, I believe I protested -pointing to the unfinished peanut butter and jelly sandwich in my hand. (I'm sure I didn't protest vocally since, although Ed wasn't famous back then, he was still formidable.) Long story short, Eric lived, I didn't get to eat my sandwich and we didn't make the summit. I was hooked. I became a guide with RMI the very next summer.
Ed and I, although we worked together for some years at Rainier, didn't do a whole lot of climbing together. Partly because before too long, his expedition career took off in a big way; mine took off a little later and in different ways. We come at things differently. Ed relies on hard-won fitness, VO2 Max, pre-trip training, and a legendary ability to calculate and get shrewd in the big hills. I bring mountains down to my decidedly less athletic level through repetition, constant practice, pigheaded determination and never-ending fear of failure. Sometimes the results of the two methods can be similar.
Like today in the Icefall. I thought we made a pretty good team, and I took a lot of pride in that when we rolled into the Camp 1 area three hours after we'd begun. I never imagined, 24 years ago, that Ed and I would be bouncing over ladders and scrambling up icewalls together on Mount Everest all these years later. It was a blast. And it was cold up there at 19,867 ft. before sunrise at Camp 1. We cached our gear and began to beat feet down. It can be tricky to keep up the concentration required so as to not misstep, catch a crampon or poke through a crevasse bridge on a fast descent of the Icefall, but it can be equally dangerous to go slow in a place where big things tend to fall down around you if you linger. We did have to do some lingering though. Ed and I encountered about a hundred of our best friends ... Sherpas from various teams who were either carrying loads or guiding climbers. We'd look nervously at the big ice towers tilting above us, but we'd stop to exchange pleasantries anyway, remembering which trips we'd done together and promising to catch up over tea in some safer place.
Ed and I were kicking off crampons at around 9 a.m. in bright sunshine down at basecamp. We both expressed relief at having satisfied some of our curiosity about the glacier's surprises and our own fitness to tackle it again. We'd come down in time to see the rest of our team suiting up for ice climbing practice and rope technique review taught by Seth Waterfall, Peter Whittaker and Jake Norton on the glacier close to camp. I passed the rest of the day with adrenaline in my veins and a smile on my face. The plan is for a few others to check out the Icefall tomorrow.
The Five Day Climb June 22 - 26 led by RMI Guides Walter Hailes and Henry Coppolillo took advantage of the clear and calm weather and made their summit attempt today. The entire team reached the crater rim of Mt. Rainier at 7 am on a beautiful day. The teams will return to Camp Muir and enjoy a leisurely afternoon. Tomorrow they will descending the remaining 4,500' to Paradise and conclude their program.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
Our team has gathered in Arusha, Tanzania and we are sorting our gear, weighing our mountain duffels and getting ready to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro! We also took a little time for golfing and goofing around. We need to get away from this lap of luxury we find ourselves in and start climbing, we are eating way to much.
Tomorrow we will wake early, enjoy our last restaurant meal for a while and then take a drive to the Machame Gate. Here we will register our team with the Kilimanjaro National Park, don our packs and begin our climb toward the Roof of Africa,
Mount Kilimanjaro.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Hi there this is Seth checking in from the Houston airport. The team awoke in Tlachichuca this morning after lots of slumbering last night. Everyone was pretty tired after a whirlwind couple of days.
After checking out of the Hotel Colonial in Puebla we drove to Tlachichuca, packed our bags and headed up to high camp. Once there we had time for an afternoon stroll and then it was off to bed. Just a few hours later we made a 1am start for the summit. Although a few of the climbers decided that it was best that they stayed at the hut while the bulk of the group went up.
Orizaba is an 'in your face' kind of climb and it's steep right out of the gate. After a couple of hours of trail and scree we reached The Labyrinth. This section can be trickery but for us it was straight forward. Steep ice and snow was the order of the day. Geoff, Alejandro and I anticipated this and had carried extra ropes to 'fix' the steep section. This took a little bit of time and we appreciated everyone's patience as we tried to make the climb as safe as possible.
Once we made our way through that section we began the long march up the Jamapa glacier. Everyone was pretty tuckered out when we finally topped out 7 hours and 15 minutes after starting. There wasn't a puff of wind while we were at the summit and the sun was shining. It was the nicest day I've ever had on that mountain.
Everyone had climbed strong and doubled down on the descent. We climbed down the glacier and then Geoff and Alejandro guided the climbers down The Labyrinth while I pulled the ropes. We returned to high camp just over 11 hours after starting out.
Now we're all disbanded and heading to our respective homes. It was a great experience and quite the uphill adventure!
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
RMI Guide Mike Haugen led his team to the
Mt. Rainier summit this morning! The team topped out just after 7:00 a.m. in perfect weather conditions. After spending some time enjoying the breathtaking views, they began their descent back to Camp Muir. We look forward to seeing the team back in Ashford this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's summit climbers!
It was a great day here in St. Pete's!
We started the day with a walking tour of this beautiful city led by our wonderful local guide Natasha. She took us to the major sites and enlightened us to the 300 years of this city's history. We took a short break where some folks did a little exploring on there own, and others headed to the famous Hermitage where we learned that if someone spent one minute at every piece of art, it would take 8 years to view it all! Needless to say, we saw only a fraction of it.
Later in the evening the team headed out on a final tour of this majestic city by boat. We spent an hour touring the city from its many canals, which was a great way to wrap up our
trip.
It's been a wonderful adventure with a great team. We are all thankful for the great weather we've had, but are looking forward to getting back home.
Missing all of our families and most of our friends.
See ya soon!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
A beautiful but smoky morning at our first camp on the
Paradise Glacier. Yesterday the team did great getting here. Today we move camp to 8,500 feet on the Cowlitz Glacier where we will spend the next few days training before our summit attempt.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff
We began the day well before the direct sun was in 14,000' Camp, which made for a chilly start. After a delicious Cinnamon Toast Crunch and coffee breakfast we made our way uphill. The weather was not perfect, but Elias and I were sure that the morning sun would burn off some of the clouds and the winds were going to subside. We made our way kicking steps through deep snow up to the fixed lines that take us to the top of the West Buttress. Our goal was to keep going up to 17,000' Camp to cache some food and gear, but the deep snow and icy conditions on the fixed lines made travel a bit slower than was expected. We were very happy to cache below a beautiful, giant piece of granite called Washburn's Thumb at 16,770'. It will be very easy to pick up our cache from there on our move to 17,000' Camp. We made it back to camp in good style right about dinner time. Elias and I continue to be impressed by the climbers on this expedition.
RMI Guide Mike Haugen
The Five Day Climb July 11 - 15 led by RMI Guides Brent Okita and Sam Hoffman reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today on a beautiful day. The team is currently on their descent. Their patience paid off as they waited yesterday for many RMI Guides to reestablish the route to the summit. The teams will return to Camp Muir to repack and rehydrate before continuning down the remaining 4.5 miles to Paradise later today.
Congratulations climbers and a HUGE thank you to all the guides working on the route over the last several days!
PC: Stella Johnson
Good evening everybody! Today we awoke well rested and ready to enjoy a full day of intense lounging. It wasn't all sunshine, we needed to sort all of our group gear and get ready for our carry day tomorrow. Then we had to report for duty and get checked out by the Basecamp Doctor. Don't worry,we've all had plenty of Dulce de leche treats and the doc says we're all in tip top shape. We spent the rest of the day taking in the beautiful views at Basecamp, had another incredible dinner served by Grajales, and are ready to see what all the hype is about up at Camp 1.
RMI Guide Ben Luedtke
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Congrats Siri and team!! Amazing!! Can’t wait to see the pictures!!
Posted by: Rahul C on 6/25/2024 at 12:15 pm
Congrats everyone!!!! Amazing accomplishment!!
Posted by: Jon Kingsley on 6/25/2024 at 8:44 am
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