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
Hello everyone.
We had a wonderful day again here in Nepal. We started with our usual breakfast and coffee at 8:00 and hit the trail around 9:00. Since it's been rather cold here this spring, we haven't wanted to start hiking too early. The team was very fortunate to spot a rare Musk Deer and even saw a few mountain Tarr, which is a type of Himalayan mountain goat.
We made our way to Pangboche where we visited the highest ranking Lama in the Khumbu and received a blessing for safe passage. We continued along the trail passing by the iconic Ama Dablam and slowly came into Pheriche.
The team is doing great and enjoying the amazing scenery every step of the way.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
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..
Today we moved to 9,300' on Mt. McKinley. We had great weather on the trail. As we reached the top of Ski Hill it started to snow so we set up camp and hunkered in for the evening. We are all settled in and are resting for another great day tomorrow.
We will keep you posted on our progress.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Today we woke up in the dark around 3 a.m. and ate a quick breakfast of hot rice porridge and coffee. Several team members took a rest day while the guides and Leif did a carrry through the ice fall to Camp One. As Casey, Seth and I had not been thru the ice fall this season (and this being my first trip to Everest!) we felt a preview of the route would be helpful. Loaded with a light pack including items to cache which would be needed for higher up on the mountain, we started out in the dark and joined the massive line of Sherpa. The route is kicked in well and and the ladders were minimal with several ten foot crevasse crossings being the largest span. A little over halfway thru the ice fall, the sun broke over the mountain and we were greeted with clear blue bird skies.
We arrived at Camp One (just over 20,000 ft.) at 7:30 in the morning and congratulated each other on a trip well done. Our Sherpa team did a great job with camp site selection and we drank, ate and cached our gear. A little after 8 a.m. we started back down the ice fall hopping crevasses, crossing ladders and doing two short rappels. We arrived back at Basecamp (17,500 ft.) just after 10 a.m. during the heat of the day and sat outside enjoying the warmth while rehydrating and gazing up at the ice fall.
It clouded up a bunch in the night, just as the forecast said it would. By 1 AM when we hoped to get up and climb, it was snowing and socked in, just like they said it would be. We kept checking it for a few hours and it kept seeming wet and a little ugly -poor conditions for moving camp. We stayed put and then conditions improved. But we were already a little past what we’d calculated to be the optimal time of day for traversing the sometimes tricky lower glacier. Then conditions improved considerably.,. Where we’d been led to believe that we’d have a snow/rain day to wait out, instead we had a “bluebird” beauty of a day -to rest- when we hadn’t really thought we needed a rest. Oh well. We slept, we read, we ate, we drank. We went through our gear and supplies one more time, thinning out and weeding excess weight wherever possible. We listened to a thousand giant avalanches. We heard so many rocks fall off nearby Mt. Francis, that it was something of a surprise to come out for dinner and see her still standing. We bided our time. That forecast was still calling for cloud and sloppy weather at basecamp tonight… perhaps we’ll see that, but otherwise it looks perfect for moving this time when the cool hours roll around.
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
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!
June 17, 2014 - 7:14 pm PT
Once again the weather turned nasty overnight. We woke up to howling winds, snow, and low visibility. We waited until later in the morning and the weather began to get better. We decided to do our back carry since the weather was just good enough to travel. We made great time getting back down to our cache at 10,000'. We dug up our cache and were reunited with much of the food and gear that we will not be using until higher up on the mountain. As we were headed back up to camp, the skies cleared somewhat and the weather was downright pleasant the rest of the day.
Our plan for tomorrow is to cache much of the same food and gear up towards 14,000'. This will take some of the weight off from our move day and help us acclimatize to higher altitudes.
Climb high and sleep low.
RMI Guide Mike Haugen and "The Ocho"
congrats!!! and happy birthday Heather
Posted by: joe duty on 8/2/2018 at 8:32 am
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
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