By late afternoon, our Kilimanjaro climbing team had formed up in Usa River, Tanzania. Not without some missed flights and reroutes of course… and the airlines are still hanging on to one duffel bag of gear, but the team is together and ready to launch this adventure. We began with a pleasant dinner outside in the garden of the Rivertrees Inn. There were certainly some yawns and bleary eyes from jet lag, but we also shared some good laughs and a few somber and serious moments as the nine of us introduced ourselves and tried to explain why Kilimanjaro has come to mean so much in our lives. We’ll get into the nuts and bolts of packing and prepping for the mountain tomorrow…
Allison!! Seeing your smiling beautiful face is the best sight!!! You are amazing, we love you so much and Chris is truly with you every step of the way. Cannot wait to continue to keep up with your adventures - love ya mama!!
Posted by: Melena on 8/10/2023 at 4:25 pm
Allison, what an adventure! We are looking forward to following your progress through the blog. Stay safe…our thoughts and prayers are with you every step of the way.
Love, Mom and Bill
This is Mike checking in for the November Mexico Volcanoes trip. Everyone arrived in Mexico City over the last 2 days with all their equipment. We had a brief team meeting and dinner last night. This morning we will head out early to get to La Malinche, a dormant volcano for the last 3,100 years for our first acclimatization hike. The bus ride takes us out of the vast and heavily populated area of Mexico City with its population of 22 million people and into the rolling agricultural communities near the border of Tlaxcala and Puebla states.
The goal for today is to hike to the top of La Malinche at 14,600’. We will check in later today once we are back down at the cabins.
RMI Guide Mike King
Tuesday, July 2, 2019 - 9:58 PM PT
It started snowing around 4 this morning, which was contrary to predictions. The entire day ended up cloudy, snowy and windy... about the nearest thing to a genuine storm that we have had. Forecasts still call for high pressure and nice weather out there somewhere, but it hasn’t found us yet. We gathered for meals in the shelter of the dining tent, but spent most of the day in our own tents, listening to wind and passing time. We’ll chalk it up to an extra acclimatization day, which is hardly ever a bad thing. There were a couple of calm periods and a few minutes of sun here and there, but the clouds never pulled off the upper mountain. Walking around camp in the flat light was a challenge as we’d frequently stumble into old holes dug in the snow for kitchens or caches or tents. Still, it never got particularly cold and the wind never hit more than about 25 mph, so we won’t complain too much.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hey, this is Dave Hahn with the RMI Everest Climb calling in from Deboche. We set out this morning about 8:30 from Namche. A beautiful morning, blue sky, sunshine and everybody feeling good. It took us about 5 hours or so to go across the hillside down to the river and back across the hill at Pangboche, the big hill, and down the other side to Deboche. At our lodge tonight but figured we'd just checking with you. Great views of Mt. Everest and Ama Dablam today. Looking up there is a bunch of new snow on Everest and Lhotse. It clouded up a little bit this afternoon, but not a big deal. We are enjoying having the trails to our selves, I think we are a few days ahead of many of the climbers. [connection lost]
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
RMI Guide Dave Hahn calls from Deboche with an update on the progress of the Everest team.
Hi Hans and all together,
it´s phantastic to follow you on your trek higher and higher…stay in a good mood with sunny weather and keep you warm…
Lot of love to you, Hans - Ute
Posted by: Ute Novak on 3/30/2015 at 2:04 pm
Uncle Larry,
be careful and congratulations on getting to climb the highest mountain in the world. maybe after this you want to hop to train with me. Lol be safe up there. I agree with mom your beard hopefull keep u worm.
Update January 5th at 3:30 pm PT
This is the day that all the hard work, both at home and on the mountain, are for and it is always the hardest day of the trip. Thankfully, we made it to the summit and back to camp safely and in great style. With an early dinner in our bellies we will all sleep well tonight.
Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers for our safety.
RMI Guide Walter Hailes[Call from the summit audio transcription]
Hello, this is Walter from the summit of Aconcagua with our team. It's a beautiful day up here, blue skies, a little breezy- probably about 20 (mph) on the top. We did go through some pretty heavy wind down below, maybe constant 40 to 50 in some of the little saddles, but we made it! We're happy and it's sunshiny. Everybody's tired, so we're looking forward to the downhill. We'll call or send a dispatch out when we get there so you know that we arrived safely. Over and out from Aconcagua.
RMI Guide Walter Hailes calls from the Aconcagua summit
We unanimously agreed that the temperatures were a bit warmer than the night prior and we all slept much more warmly, although we did find out in the morning that the temps were hovering around -18F when we crawled out of the tents around 9am this morning. Despite the cold bite to the air, the skies had cleared overnight and we set about breaking down camp and preparing to move to Camp 1 (known as "Low Camp" on Vinson). We hit the trail midday and climbed back up the Branscomb Glacier, navigating the first crevasse field again with ease, crossing the long basin above, and reaching our cached gear by late afternoon. The landscape, under clear skies this time, were completely different and we were able to soak in the surroundings: the bulging seracs and icecliffs of the Branscomb to our left and the towering rock and ice faces of Vinson's main Massif directly in front of us.
After reaching our cached gear we transferred the loads from yesterday into the sleds we were dragging behind us and set off toward Low Camp. We made a long arcing turn from east to north facing around a second crevasse field and then set off across the upper stretches of the Branscomb, walking along the base of Vinson's towering walls stretching 3,000-4,000' above us. The glacier was an undulating plateau that felt like a false flat - the perspective lent itself to thinking we were traveling along flat ground but in reality we climbed another 800' over several miles. The constant backward tug of our sleds was a good reminder of why we were working so hard hauling our heavy loads.
By early evening, with the sun still high in the sky, we reached Low Camp and set about establishing camp. Whatever chills we felt from the occasional breeze was quickly chased away by the hard work of shoveling out a tent platform and a place to cook in the thick wind packed snow. We needed saws to hack through the dense snow and had to wield our avalanche shovels with care for fear of bending or snapping the blades. Despite the firm snow, within a few hours we were settled comfortably into camp and enjoying a warm meal. It's now half past midnight and the sun is still high above the horizon, traveling from west to east now. We are crawling into the tent eager for a good night's rest after the long climb with all of our gear but very happy to be up here and staring up at the more exciting climbing above us.
RMI Guide Linden Mallory and team
Hello from Aguas Calientes,
We arrived to Macchu Picchu this morning!! After a super early 3:30am wake up call, and 4:30 start, we hiked the last couple miles to this one of the world's seven wonders of architecture. Light rain and plenty of clouds greeted us at Intipunku (Sun Gate), perched on the hills of Macchu Picchu mountain. But upon descent to the citadel itself, the ceiling of vaporized water cleared up and we could admire, as a reward for the last week of intense hiking through the Andes, the mysticism of this "lost City of the Incas" as well as its dramatic mountain cliffs surrounding us.
We are now resting at our hotel, equally excited about tomorrow's hike to Huayna Picchu, above Macchu Picchu. Stay tuned for the last report and pictures.
Regards,
RMI Guide Elías de Andres Martos and the Team.
PS: photo attached from Puyupatamarca, Inca site on our descent to Macchu Picchu yesterday
Our team made the summit of Mt. Elbrus! It was an interesting weather day. It wasn't bad but it wasn't good. The wind and the cold challenged everyone including myself.
Our team did a fantastic job motivating each other and looking after one another. I was really proud to climb with all of them and they all deserve a huge congratulations!
We are now safely down back in the ski town of Cheget. A well deserved rest after a good Russian meal is in store!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
Yeah!!! Well done everyone! Good job Cindee~ can’t wait to hear all about it when you get home!! Xoxo, Maija
Posted by: Maija Markula on 7/28/2014 at 9:23 am
Congratulations!! Cindee, you are amazing. Well done for the entire team!! Great adventure and climb for everyone! Be safe and enjoy the rest if your trip.
Karen
Hi Everyone,
The team is at Sr. Reyes and we are all set to go. The sun is shining and we enjoyed great views of Orizaba on the drive in. We will now drive a 4x4 vehicle up to the hut, set up camp and prepare for our summit day tomorrow.
Wish us bueno suerte!
JJ, Solveig & Team
Hello RMI family! It is Team Texas from Russia. Today we flew to St. Petersburg and we are enjoying this amazing city! We are celebrating our safe and successful trip on Elbrus. And believe me, everyone deserves to rest, relax and enjoy the good life that only sea level altitude provides!
Stay tuned for tomorrow's video dispatch of St. Pete's!!!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
Allison!! Seeing your smiling beautiful face is the best sight!!! You are amazing, we love you so much and Chris is truly with you every step of the way. Cannot wait to continue to keep up with your adventures - love ya mama!!
Posted by: Melena on 8/10/2023 at 4:25 pm
Allison, what an adventure! We are looking forward to following your progress through the blog. Stay safe…our thoughts and prayers are with you every step of the way.
Love, Mom and Bill
Posted by: Diane MacLaren on 8/8/2023 at 7:10 am
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