Hey everybody,
This is Billy. I’m back at Base Camp with the whole crew. We are all a little bit bummed out but happy to be back down at least with the thicker air here and looking forward to a home cooked meal tonight from the Grajales staff. It was a tough day up there yesterday and we spent most of the day today with heavy, heavy walk down. But everybody’s in good spirits for the most part and we’ll check in again later on as we walk out from Aconcagua.
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
RMI Guide Billy Nugent checks in from Aconcagua Base Camp on their descent.
Wow, I can’t even imagine the adventure you have had. Glad everyone is back. Oh, the stories you will share.
Posted by: Debbie on 1/21/2014 at 3:05 am
Dawn & Len,we are happy to hear all are back at base camp safe. What an incredible adventure you and your team have had! A huge thank you to your guides for making what had to have been an extremely difficult decision to turn around when you were so close. We are looking forward to hearing more when you get home. Mom & Dad.
First and foremost...Todd wants to wish his beautiful wife Kelly Happy Birthday! The team spent their first night at Aconcagua Basecamp and everyone woke up this morning feeling great! On a rest day the key is to eat great food and drink lots of liquid to ensure proper acclimatization.
We had scrambled eggs with homemade potatoes. This afternoon we will be making homemade pizzas for the team. We even had Grajalas' cook, Griselda, coming over asking for our recipes!
Later today we will set up the shower tent so we can get clean and smelling back to normal. Another camp activity for today is sorting group gear for our carry to Camp 1 at 16,500 feet.
Happy Birthday Kelly!!!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
Congrats to you, Lew, and your teammates. Heard you made the summit. Nice accomplishment. Be safe on way down.
Posted by: uncle jake on 1/28/2014 at 12:23 pm
Team - 2 bottles of Melbec and a note for you at the front desk of the Nutibarra. I flew over Aconcagua yesterday afternoon and everything was clouded over for miles. I hear your next two days of weather w/b good….so you should make it by tomorrow. Wish I was with you.
It's hard to believe our trip is already half over! We have seen some incredible places and have had the opportunity to climb three peaks so far: one big mountain and a couple of smaller peaks. Along the way, the team has really come together and has definitely gotten in to the "groove" of expedition climbing. It's great to see everyone working together to set up camps, take care of chores, and take care of each other.
Today was a technical skills training day. We slept in until 7 am, then loaded in to a couple of 4x4 vehicles and began an exciting off-road drive to the base of Antisana. An hour or so of hiking brought us to the toe of the glacier, where we donned our crampons and ice axes for the hike to our training area for the day. Today's topics were crevasse rescue, rappelling, and fixed line travel.
After a few quick demonstrations, everyone had time to practice the various skills at a number of different stations. As guides, our job was easy today! Everyone was helping each other master the techniques and all we had to do was stay out of the way and watch the magic happen! It was great to see folks working as a team and to see everyone so eager to learn and help out.
Back at base camp, it's almost 7 pm now and everyone is tucked away in their tents. Half of our team is going to wake up in just a few hours for a summit bid; the other half has opted instead for another day of rest and technical skills practice, giving themselves the best odds on Cotopaxi in a few days.
That's all for now! Wish our summit team well tonight as they head up for the first ever RMI attempt at Antisana!
RMI Guide Nick Hunt
2,200' higher in the Andes is a noticeable change in temperature! While our mornings at Base Camp were chilly before the sun reached us, it was downright cold this morning at Camp 1 as we prepared to leave. The cold nip was softened a bit by the views: there wasn't a cloud in the sky and we watched the entire range around us soak in the morning light as we packed our bags. Once again we hit the trail as the sun reached us, following a long traverse out of Camp 1 towards a shallow basin at the head of the slope. After a few minutes we settled back into the rhythm of climbing and the time ticked by as we ascended. After several hours of climbing, traversing rock slopes, crossing small snowfields, and weaving around large boulders, we crested the gentle saddle on the Northwest Ridge of Aconcagua and arrived at Camp 2.
Known as Nido de Condores, or Nest of the Condors, Camp 2 sits along a ridge line of distinct rock towers and the views are impressive: to the north stands Mercedario, another 6000m Andean peak, to the east lies Chile, and to our south: our climbing route up Aconcagua. We sat up there in the good weather for a few minutes after unpacking our gear just to enjoy the panorama and get used to the ever higher altitudes. Once satisfied, and with our packs nearly empty, we descended back to our tents at Camp 1. Yesterday's snow squalls are a thing off the past and we've enjoyed sunshine all afternoon.
Tomorrow we will pack our gear and move up to Camp 2.
RMI Guide Linden Mallory
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen we are starting our final approach into Mendoza. We should be on the ground in about 25 mins. Current weather is light winds out of the east, mostly clear skies and a temperature of 29 Celsius. We thank you for coming along on Aconcagua 2025 and have a good day. Ladies and gentlemen that ding means that we have started our descent into Mendoza. At this time we ask you to bring your seats and tray tables to their upright and locked positions. We will be through the cabin one last time to pick up any unwanted items. We also have a great offer for you today. If you call RMI today with a valid credit card we can set up a trip to most parts of the world. So hopefully you will call and take this great offer. Once again we should be landing in just about 25 mins. Congratulations to Ben, Hannah, Yev and Jim for summiting on Valentine's Day.
Today we headed to Tarangire National Park known for its abundant elephants, and it didn’t disappoint. Not sure how many we saw, but it was quite a few, and we got pretty close to boot. There were lots of giraffes, impalas, monkeys, ostriches, and many, many birds. We did manage to see a leopard, unfortunately it wasn’t that close and seemed to just be napping in the afternoon heat.
We are spending our last night here in Africa at Nykani Tented Camp, which has beautiful tented rooms with screen windows to allow the sounds of the African bush in. Everyone is doing great and hoping to see a few more big cats on our way out of the park tomorrow morning. Then it will be back to our main lodge near Arusha for a brief stop before catching our flights home.
Tashi Delek!
We arrived to Thame today, leaving behind the main path to the Everest route, and with it, the herds of other trekkers who seek the one objective mostly everyone is after when hiking around here; Everest Base Camp.
Venturing straight towards Tibet is definitely interesting, as the landscape changes a bit, modified by the nature of the main trading route, that unfortunately is now closed by the Chinese. At any rate, we were happy to continue upwards after a day acclimatizing in Namche. We're doing well, enjoying the journey and pushing uphill!
RMI Guide Elías deAndres Martos and Team
We are back down in the forest at 10,000 ft. Mweka Camp. But not that long ago we were up at the highest point in all of Africa Our wake up target last night was 11:30 and after a light midnight breakfast we got walking at 12:40 AM. Against all odds, it was a perfect night for climbing. After so much cloud yesterday and swirling gusts blowing the tents around for the last couple of nights, it was a surprise to have such a calm and clear sky as we got climbing by headlight. The stars and planets and the moon were awesome, but we really didn’t have time for stargazing... there was a lot of uphill work to be done. The team was absolutely up to the challenge. Nobody seemed to mind the cold all that much (and it got good and cold before sunrise at 19,000 ft) and everybody kept right in step with our local guide Philbet’s good and steady rate of ascent. There was plenty of snow on the upper part of Kibo from storms a few weeks back and the track was consequently a bit trickier than it might have been. But that didn’t stop us from hitting the crater rim at Stella Point by 5:45 AM. The sun came up through a lower cloud deck as we were midway around the crater on the way to the summit. The colors of the first rays and the Kibo shadows cast in the western sky had us mesmerized. As we marched to Uhuru, the high point. We reached the top at 6:50 AM and spent just over a half hour on the summit. Things warmed up nicely for our descent. We did our fare share of scree skiing as we rapidly dropped altitude. Our guides and staff were a huge help to the team on the trip down. We came back to Barafu at 10:40 and enjoyed a sumptuous brunch in the dining tent. While we were in, clouds came over camp and a rainstorm began. None of us minded the prospect of a wet walk down to Mweka after we’d gotten so spectacularly lucky on the summit weather. We packed up and got walking at 12:40 PM in full rain gear. Sure enough the trails below 12,500 ft were slimy and treacherous, but we kept making careful steps down the rocky track until we came into Mweka Camp at 4 PM. Things are damp down here, but the air is thick and we’re all looking forward to our last dinner in the dining tent and a good rest through the night.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Listen to Dave's call from High Camp after returning from the summit.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn checks in from High Camp after summit.
What a spectacular adventure and accomplishment! And you think we do fun trips ... LOL!
Enjoy the rest of the your experiences. We may have to plan a trip to CO to hear about it.
Posted by: Bob & Sandy Amory on 8/1/2018 at 1:02 pm
June 29, 2015 5:20 pm PST
Hey there, it's Billy checking in from Camp 5 on Denali at over 17,000 ft. Our crew made the move today. We got up super early this morning and made great time moving up the West Buttress. We're settled in now at High Camp. We spent some time, improving one of the campsites and building some walls. And now everybody's snug up in their sleeping bag hanging out in their tents. We're sort of chilling and filling with food and water. We are hoping for a good patch of weather in the next few days so we can maybe take a crack at the summit. Yeah, that's all for now. Everyone is psyched and doing extremely well. We will check in again tomorrow and let you know what happens.
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
RMI Guide Billy Nugent calls in from Camp 5 on Denali.
Hope you summited today. You’ve been in my thoughts all day
Posted by: Stacey on 6/30/2015 at 12:39 pm
Incredible progress - keep it up!!! Hopefully the “Jim jokes” (ask him to tell you the joke about the bell ringer) aren’t ruining everyone’s time up there. Looking forward to updates from the summit…
Posted by: Jessica LaTorre on 6/30/2015 at 12:10 pm
We bit off another chunk of the mountain with our move to 9,500' camp today. The weather threatened to close in on us around mid-morning with clouds surrounding us and a bit of snow. Around noon, the clouds cleared and the sun warmed us up as we finished out our day with a hard afternoon of napping.
Slow is steady and steady is fast.
RMI Guide Mike Haugen
I’ve officially posted this blog on my facebook. Prepare for an avalanch (is that word taboo??) of comments/support/love. miss you! we have SO much to catch up on-COME.HOME.FASTER.!
love you!
ps. dying to know how that salmon jerky tastes…
Posted by: Meera on 6/22/2011 at 7:17 am
Hi ashok and sreekanth uncle!
You guys rock !!!!!
Watching your progress all the way from Australia..good luck and will speak to you soon..
Wow, I can’t even imagine the adventure you have had. Glad everyone is back. Oh, the stories you will share.
Posted by: Debbie on 1/21/2014 at 3:05 am
Dawn & Len,we are happy to hear all are back at base camp safe. What an incredible adventure you and your team have had! A huge thank you to your guides for making what had to have been an extremely difficult decision to turn around when you were so close. We are looking forward to hearing more when you get home. Mom & Dad.
Posted by: Sue on 1/20/2014 at 7:51 pm
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