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Namaste,
Mark Tucker sending you this update from Basecamp.
Our Sherpa team had great weather for their trip to Camp Two with a big hunk of supplies for the teams nest at that 21,500 ft camp. They started out at 4:00 am this morning and returned to basecamp for lunch, these guys are tough.
The climbing team had a great day with a number of them getting their first taste of the Icefall's terrain and ladders. They went up the lower part, out of objective danger and perfected the techniques required for what will be there job for the upcoming weeks. Another group went to the top of Kala Pattar, a nearby trekking peak, at over 18,000 ft summiting without supplemental oxygen.
I spent a bunch of calories with about 60 people from many of the teams working on making a helicopter pad out of a glacier. Chopping ice, throwing rocks and moving boulders at 17,500 ft is a great test to see just how acclimatized you are.
Tomorrow Jeff Martin will head down valley starting his journey home to Ashford, WA. Jeff, more than anyone, has made this expedition become what it is, a top notch program, and a team to be proud of. This being my eleventh Everest Expedition I can say with great insight that the effort he has put in the planning and execution of this enterprise is superb. I forced him out onto the lower glacier for a few holes of wiffel golf this evening, it being our Masters Tournament, he opened a can of you know what on me, next time maybe I will whip him. The team wishes him safe travels and a big THANK YOU!
Cheers
Our Four Day Climb Teams led by Mike Walter and JT Schmitt were turned just before Disappointment Cleaver on their summit attempt. Mike Walter reported single digit temperatures, and deteriorating weather. The team is back at Camp Muir and will be back at Rainier Basecamp early this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's team!
Today we spent the day visiting Tarangire National Park, home to more elephants per square mile than any place on earth. We saw hundreds of elephants and finished off the Big 5 with two leopard sightings. Plus we even managed to spot a cheetah relaxing in the shade of a small tree. We are spending the night in a tented camp called
Kikoti tonight.
Three days
safari has been a great way to recoup from the climb and bring our wonderful African adventure to a close. Everyone has had a great time and are looking forward to getting back home and sharing some of the stories and photos.
The team flies home tomorrow.
Thanks for following,
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
The Four Day Climb July 22 - 25 led by RMI Guides Brent Okita and Dominic Cifelli reached the top of Disappointment Cleaver at 12,300' this morning before windy conditions and route conditions forced them to turn back. The teams are now back at Camp Muir. They will continue their descent to Paradise later this morning.
Today we visited the famous
Ngorongoro Crater Conservation Area. The crater is roughly 100 square miles and is home for more than 25,000 animals that reside here year round. We stared seeing the 25,000 with the not too elusive herd animals. We saw seemingly hundreds and then thousands before we knew it! Soon enough the world of big cats became the focus. A couple of nice sightings of large meat eaters got the team's attention. Many hyenas, jackals, ostrich, plus countless other huge birds brought us to our spot by a hippo lake for lunch.
Just after lunch we observed a small pride of lion trying to take down two different Cape buffalo. The second one ended up against our Land Cruiser. And in the battle our vehicle was charged and dented by the bullet proof horned skull of the Cape buffalo. A mark of bush life not many wear. While our vehicle bears the scars of this battle, we were unscathed.
We are back at the fantastic Plantation Lodge for the night. Tomorrow we will venture to Tarangire National Park for more game viewing.
RMI Guide
Mark Tucker and team
This morning we had our standard breakfast of oatmeal and eggs at our standard time of 8 am. We then suited up for our walk up to
15,000 feet on Mt. Elbrus. The weather was pretty marginal, but it was a great opportunity to test out our various layering systems.
We spent about five hours out in the wind and snow today, made it up to 15,000 feet, and only got blown over once or twice. The views were minimal, but we had fun. That’s all for now.
RMI Guide JM Gorum
On The Map
Monday, June 17, 2019 - 4:22 AM PT
Greetings from Moscow. Most of us awoke at 4am this morning for no reason. The sun rises early here, which doesn’t help with the jetlag. Today we embarked on a
city tour of Moscow that included St Basils Cathedral, the Kremlin, and Red Square’s otherworldly shopping mall. We’re working on rounding up some delayed ski bags and delayed teammates, which hopefully will all be in one place by this evening. So far so good here in Russia...
RMI Guide Tyler Reid
Thursday, June 13, 2019 - 5:18 PM PT
Today we got a casual but cold start to begin our carry to 16,200’ at the top of the fixed lines. The route heads out of camp and ascends moderate glaciated slope that terminates at the bergshrund. From there we clip our ascenders on a fixed rope to climb the 35-40 degree slope and gain the
West Buttress of Denali. There was a lot of traffic on the Buttress from teams descending and ascending. We opted to cache our food and fuel at the top of the lines rather then play a game of red light/green light above 16,000'. The Team did well, we will make a few refinements for our second lap on the lines for our move day to 17,200’ Camp. We are all back safely at 14,000' Camp and looking forward to a rest day tomorrow. From there we will have to see what the weather does. Everyone is acclimating well and appetites have remained strong. Currently there are lots of laughs and conversations happening in our kitchen tent. We high fived Robby Young’s RMI Team on the fixed lines after their successful summit yesterday. Thanks for following along, the amazing views and beauty of the Alaska Range continue to astound.
RMI Guide Mike King
On The Map
At 7:32 a.m. the
RMI Mt. Rainier Four-Day Summit Climb teams began their descent from the crater rim.
RMI Guides Eric Frank and Geoff Schellens reported light winds, a marine layer and cold temperatures.
We look forward to congratulating them at Rainier Basecamp this afternoon!
June 16, 2014 - 8:03 pm PT
We arrived at our
11,000' camp in the late afternoon today. Our plan was to leave early this morning to head up here, but the weather was pretty terrible. White out conditions and strong winds kept us in the tent all morning. Just after noon, the weather started to get a bit better and we got word that the conditions were better higher up. We heard a couple of planes that take people on scenic tours overhead, so our suspicions of clear skies above were confirmed. We packed up our camp in record time and headed uphill. The conditions grew steadily better the higher we went and the traveling was actually pleasant.
We arrived in camp way earlier than we predicted as our team has been very steady and strong as we travel up the mountain. We built a storm fortified camp and are just finishing up a well earned meal.
Our plan for tomorrow is to do a back carry. This means that we will go back down to dig up our 10,000' cache and bring those supplies up to our new camp. We will hopefully have the weather to complete this task early so that we can rest up for our days at higher altitudes.
RMI Guide Mike Haugen and RMI Team "The Ocho"
On The Map
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Absolutely amazing Safari photos. Have a safe trip home everybody! May God be with you!
Posted by: Tami Reitinger on 7/25/2019 at 8:31 pm
Safe travels to all on your expedition. I look forward to joining the roof of Africa club with you hopefully next season.
Posted by: Jory on 7/25/2019 at 3:52 pm
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