Saludos de Ecuador,
Our team hiked to the climbing hut on the Illiniza volcanoes today. The weather treated us well and afforded us great views of Cotopaxi and the Illinizas, north and south. The hike was enjoyable and everyone is feeling great. Right now we're relaxing at the climbers' hut, drinking tea and chewing the fat. Tomorrow morning we'll get an early start and climb the 'normal route' on Illiniza Norte, which has some sections of 3rd class scrambling. Then we will descend the 'scree route' and continue on to our waiting vehicles. I'll check in again tomorrow evening when we're at the hacienda, Chilcabamba.
Hasta manana...
RMI Guide Mike Walter and crew
Hi yo, this is Peter Whittaker and calling in from Antarctica, Mount Vinson. It's just a little before 11 PM, and today the whole team left this morning from Camp 1 at about 1:20 and we carried up the fixed lines, a load to Camp 2 at about 12,500 feet. The weather was kind of marginal, with a little bit of sun in and out, a lot of fog, not much wind which was good, but it was definitely Antarctica-like. A little bit of chill along the way. The team did great and we drop the load and then descended, and got back here and brewed up. Just finished with dinner and are in the tent right now. The forecast is still pretty good for the next couple days our plan is to move up tomorrow. And occupy the high camp and if things go well, we could be on top the following day. Yeah, we're right on track. Things are good. We also just got word down here in the bottom of the world that the Seattle Seahawks won. Congratulations to Pete Carroll and the Hawks. Go Hawks! And we will check in tomorrow, hopefully from high camp. That's it for now.
Yesterday, the team trained on Mt. Erie, learning essential climbing skills like rope management, knots, belaying, and Leave No Trace principles. Early this morning, they regrouped, reorganized their mountain gear, and began the hike to Hogsback Camp. The 5–6 hour trek gained 2,200 feet through lush forest and alpine meadows, arriving at camp at 5,800'. The afternoon was spent setting up camp, practicing mountain skills, and relaxing in the alpine setting.
We are in the final days of our trip as we traveled from Puebla to Tlachichuca today. We packed our climbing packs one final time for Pico de Orizaba, preparing our gear for the last climb of our trip. Once loaded up in the 4x4s for our journey, we drove the dusty and bumpy road to Piedra Grande; our high camp, looking at Orizaba getting closer to us throughout the drive. After reaching our destination we set up our camp for the night and walked around the camp, stretching our legs and familiarizing ourselves with what 14,000 feet feels like once again. After our rest day, everyone feels prepared for the climb ahead! Tonight we tuck in early as we have an early start for our climb tomorrow.
An early start, a few van rides, and a quick flight have landed us in Cheget, at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains. It ends up being a pretty full travel day getting here, but we had enough time to walk around town, sample some local beverages, and gawk at our high elevation surroundings. The pace here is much slower than in Moscow.
Tomorrow we’ll hop on a chairlift in town and do some walking around at altitude...should be pretty nice.
RMI Guide JM Gorum
Due to wind and snow overnight the Four Day Climb teams led by RMI Guides Dave Hahn and Hannah Smith were unable to make a summit attempt this morning. The teams were safely tucked in at Camp Muir. Dave reported snow drifts of 12+ inches. The teams will return to Paradise later this morning.
Once again clouds hungover Base Camp this morning and the moisture and cold temps covered camp in a thin layer of frost. We broke down camp and packed up our gear in the cold early morning shadows, stopping now and again to warm our hands while brushing frost off of the tents and packing them away.
The first rays of morning sunshine found us climbing out of Base Camp on our way to Camp 1. The rest and added acclimatization from yesterday paid off as we moved up the trail, making switchback after switchback up the rocky slope. By midday we reached Camp 1 and taking advantage of the good weather quickly set up our tents. Camp sits on a gentle slope at 16,600', just above a series of spires and cliff faces that roll off below us. The slope meant we had to put in some work rearranging rocks and flattening the platforms but before long we had everything set up and tied down in case the winds picked up.
The rest of the afternoon passed building rock walls for wind protection and retreating to the tents when occasional squalls of snow blew through. Thankfully nothing major came about and by early evening the clouds lifted a bit, giving us amazing views of the glaciers and peaks above Base Camp while we had dinner.
We're tucked into the tents and heading to bed to get some rest before tomorrow. Our plan is to make another carry to Camp 2, getting more supplies up there for when we move the following day. It's great to be out of Base Camp an up on the mountain. Tom and Thomas continue to climb very well and we are all adjusting to the altitude smoothly. Buenas noches from Campo Uno!
RMI Guide Linden Mallory
Another day closer to the one we fly on... But not noticeably. The weather in Punta Arenas -which is not the problem for flying to Antarctica- was just slightly ridiculous today. Rain and snow showers alternated with sun and wind bursts, over and over again. We still got in some great walks, going south to the wreck of The Lord Lonsdale... a great hulking steel square rigger, beached and evocative of bygone eras. We sampled coffee shops and dining spots. We waited patiently. Conditions at Union Glacier are not yet good... But they will be soon enough and we will go climbing.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
We're tucked in and doing great at Camp 1 on Mt. Elbrus. Today was a rest day for the team but we still had to pick up some gear from our cache. That got taken care of first thing in the morning and in the afternoon we did a little bit of training out on the glacier.
Tomorrow we're planning on putting another food cache in at high camp. Once that is done we just need a couple of days of good weather for a summit bid. Wish us luck!
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
This group of climbers sure knows how to adapt to safari life.
After breakfast we set good bye to our home-bound teammates and jumped in our vehicle for the plains of Africa. We made a quick stop in the town of Arusha to fill our cool with refreshing beverages and then headed out of town. We arrived at Lake Manyara, our first of three National Wildlife Parks that we will be visiting while on safari. Lake Manyara National Park is not the largest park around but it is easy to get to and has a great number of wildlife. Personally, it is one of my favorite places as it is home to the Strangler Fig tree. Right as you enter the park these amazing trees are all over the place, and are homes for groups of monkey and baboon. When mature the pure size and color of the trees are amazing with huge fluted trunks to boot. We had a picnic lunch in the middle of the bush surrounded by nature and otherwise all to our selves. A few tosses of the frisbe for a little exercise and back to work looking for animals to fall prey to our camera lens. Elephants, zebra, Wart hog, giraffe, Rock Hyrex, Dik Dik, Impala, Water buck, Cape Buffalo, Hippo, Vervet Monkey and loads of birds under clear skies in the afternoon.
When we had taken lots of pictures and explored most of the park we headed off to the Plantation Lodge. We will spend the next two nights at the beautiful hotel near the Ngorongoro Crater. Tomorrow we will head down to the floor of the Ngorongoro Crater looking for cats and rhino, and other animals that might cross our path. After a climb of Kilimanjaro this is the life!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Hope you have a great climb and beautiful weather! Can’t wait to see the pictures. Love you Tyler!
Posted by: donna shearburn on 7/9/2019 at 3:33 pm
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