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Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Robby Young, Josh Maggard
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 14,000'
June 2, 2014 - 11:16 pm PT
With things looking up for us, we got up early and packed camp this morning. With full packs and a lot of excitement to be moving again, we headed once more up towards the head wall and the fixed lines. We were not by any means the only group with this idea though and a train formed pretty quickly. As we worked our way up the lines in traffic the wind started to pick up, at first just occasional gusts that swirled through the basin, then becoming steadier, stronger, and carrying snow with them. By the time we reached the col at 16,200' conditions had deteriorated significantly. It was a frustrating decision, but this was the type of weather that was too much for us to continue on in, and we decided quickly to turn back down the fixed lines to 14,000' camp, out of the winds.
Once camp was reset, we had a tough team meeting over dinner. We've invested a lot of time, energy, and sacrifice into this endeavor, both on the mountain and all of the preparation and training, but we've been here for a long time, and it's time to think about heading down. Everyone agreed that tomorrow, we will pack camp again, but this time will turn our boots downhill and head for the airstrip, home, and families. The team has worked so hard, and come together so well, and it's a disappointment for all, but with any luck we'll be at the airstrip tomorrow, and fly in the evening or next morning.
Thanks for reading, and we'll see everybody soon.
Best,
RMI Guides Pete, Robby, Josh, and team
On The Map
Posted by: Elias de Andres Martos, Jake Beren, Geoff Schellens
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Guide News
Namaste!
The 2014 Dhaulagiri team has reunited in Kathmandu after the three waves in which all of us arrived. With the last minute of extra food shopping done, we had the mandatory briefing at the ministry of tourism this morning and paid a special visit to Ms. Hawley, the "bookkeeper" of Himalayan climbing. She helped us understand this endeavor even better with some statistics pertinent to our team: among our nationalities, only 14 Americans (2 women) and 28 Spaniards have summited on this mountain with just 300 total ascents. Really exciting!
Tomorrow we fly early morning to Pokhara, and then a six-hour drive will take us to Darbang. This is the trailhead to our week-long approach to base camp. We'll check in next from the trails!
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
We just missed you Dhaulagiri clamberers in Kathmandu. Best wishes for a safe and fun adventure. We’ll be following you from the Khumbu.
Dave
Posted by: Dave Hahn on 3/29/2014 at 5:06 am
Posted by: Billy Nugent, Walter Hailes, Katrina Bloemsma
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 13,800'
Not much to report from our first full day at Basecamp. The team is enjoying a rest day filled with such exciting activities as sleeping in, eating a big breakfast of bacon and eggs, lounging around our weather port drinking coffee, getting checked out by the Argentine medical staff, and packing up for tomorrow's carry up to Camp 1.
We'll check in again tomorrow after our carry,
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
Jeff-We are watching your progress, keep up the “pings!” I am praying the wind and weather are your friends. Love Deb and kids
Posted by: Debbie on 1/11/2014 at 8:35 am
Meredith - Looks spectacular. We’re following you and hoping for great weather…
Posted by: Rachel on 1/10/2014 at 10:04 pm
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Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
We have finished the final trek from Kilimanjaro's Mweka Camp down to the Mweka Gate with a three hour descent where we met our drivers from the Dik Dik Hotel. Team “Simba”, as we are calling ourselves, did a great job and we had a fantastic climb of Kilimanjaro. After signing out and having lunch at the gate, it was off to the Dik Dik for showers and celebration dinner.
We just finished a briefing about the safari that will start tomorrow. We are looking forward to exploring more of Tanzania with visits to Lake Manyara, Tarangire and Ngorongoro Crater National Parks.
We will check in again soon and let you know about all of the beautiful African animals we are seeing.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Hello again everyone,
All is well here at Base Camp! Not much new today. The team spent the morning relaxing at breakfast and listening to the BBC, our only current news source. After breakfast most of the members took their weekly showers (thankfully) and did a little laundry too.
Our plan is to rest as much as we can as we wait for the weather window to arrive. Currently looks like it won't be here until next week sometime. That works out perfectly for us as we have plenty of resting to do. A big thanks to Dave Hahn (Expedition Leader) for setting the schedule just right. Now we can just relax for the week. If we had rushed our acclimatization program we would be getting anxious like some teams seem to be. Lucky for us!
Meanwhile we will be hanging out enjoying the nightly dinner surprises that Mark Tucker (Expedition Coordinator) creates for us. Last night we had burritos and an amazing cake. Who knows what tonight might bring!
Hope all is well back home.
With rain in the lower elevations, we were ecstatic to hear that our Mt. Rainier summit climb team was above the weather system. RMI Guide JM Gorum is the leader of this crew. He radioed in that the rope teams were currently cresting the crater rim.
Congratulations to today's summit team!
Way to go Daddy! Take your time on the way down as I’m still playing Minecraft! ...just kidding. Love you and can’t wait to see you soon,
Patrick
Posted by: Patrick Evermann on 7/2/2019 at 10:12 am
Congratulations to all. Can’t wait to hear all about the adventure. ccc
Posted by: Carol Collins on 7/2/2019 at 9:05 am
Posted by: Seth Waterfall
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
Hello from the Dik Dik! We made it down and out of Kilimanjaro National Park today. It's nice to be back inside a place where they have cold drinks.
The group moved off the mountain in good spirits and our lunch at the park gate was excellent as always. Our legs were tired from the long climb when we awoke but the pull of getting back to comfortable living got us up and moving by 8:00. The crew has been wonderful all week and today was no different. They made a great breakfast that sent us downhill in style.
Now we are shifting gears; getting ready for safari. I just checked in with the drivers and everything is all set for the morning. That's it for now.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Yet another nice day. A bit breezy as we approached our high point of the trip so far. Altitude records for most, than a couple thousand feet descent into Barranco Camp home for the night. The team continues to do just what they should to move smooth and efficient. We pulled into camp nice and early, so much so that we even took a short hike to a waterfall and the base of the Barranco Wall, the first part of our climb tomorrow. Mixed in the team is a couple of families; fathers, daughters and sons, even an uncle. Great to see them out in the hills and having a gas. A few clouds have moved in obscuring a view of the upper mountain but we may get lucky in the next hour to get a few photos of the peak in the beautiful alpine glow condition we can be rewarded with for such an effort put forth.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker & Team
I hope everyone is able to get to the top of that mountain!!! Go climbers!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love you Connor and Dad! <3
Posted by: Judy on 8/11/2014 at 9:28 am
Way to Go! Good to hear all is going well.
Enjoy and Stay Safe! Love, Grandpa/Dad & Babooshka/Cindy
Posted by: Carl and Cindy on 8/9/2014 at 6:38 pm
June 7, 2014 - 6:49 pm PT
...and the players are ready! Hello from our cloudy camp at 11,000. The team had a productive morning rising to a cold clear day! We started the day with a classic mountain breakfast of instant grits with a side of pop tarts. We know it's not likely many would approve but for us it hit the spot and was the fuel we needed on a breezy, cold morning lugging our cache loads all the way to our next camp at 14,200 ft.
This was our first day of more technical climbing - we've been referring to the mountain behind us as the long heavy approach. The rope teams climbed with crampons and ice axes up Motorcycle Hill around to the famous Squirrel Hill. Lore has it that one early expedition had a furry stowaway on board that jumped from a member's pack at a break on this stretch of mountain, resulting in the long-standing name "Squirrel Hill."
After this section we made great time up to and around Windy Corner, which gave us a taste of some icy breezes as we crested over into the sun. The remaining stretch of glacier went quickly, and we were dropping our kit into yet another snow hole before noon. The group climbed flawlessly as we were back to our tents at 11,200' before we knew it. Now we're resting and preparing for tomorrow's move up to our fourth camp,the highest so far. Don't touch that dial, we'll be back with an update tomorrow!
RMI Guides Garrett, Tyler, Bryan, and the team
On The Map
Great job Jake! You are well prepared for what lies ahead! Wish we knew what color your coat is, it’s hard to pick you out in the photos! Love Mom
Posted by: Diane on 6/8/2014 at 4:39 pm
Congratulations Paul !!
You finally get to see the view from the 14,000 ft. camp. Pretty amazing, isn’t it. Sounds like the weather has been preety decent for you guys. I hope it stays that way so you don’t get stuck hunkering down at 14k or 17k.
-Larry Seaton
Posted by: Larry Seaton on 6/8/2014 at 1:13 pm
Hi this is Seth at Everest Basecamp. The entire group is down at Basecamp now after a successful final rotation on the upper mountain. Everyone is happy and healthy as we begin our resting phase. We are fortunate that everyone has made it through the acclimatization rounds without suffering any illness. The cycles we go through up high are meant to stress our bodies so that we adapt to the extreme altitude, but the trick is not to stress yourself too much and become ill.
We've made it through the prep and our next step is to recover from this latest effort and then to begin the summit push. We must be patient and wait for the weather to shape up. I find that to be one of the hardest parts, mentally, of climbing here. There's always the temptation to push for the summit when your body is ready, but maybe too soon for the weather. Everest's height, 29,038 ft, is such that it sticks up into the Jet Stream. It's actually just a few thousand feet shy of the cruising altitude of a trans-continental airliner. The winds at that altitude can exceed a steady 160 mph when the Jet is over the mountain. We'll be waiting in Basecamp until we get a favorable forecast that tells us that the winds will be managable enough for a summit attempt.
When will that be? Well, that's the big question. As for now the winds are forecasted to be high for the next several days. But that's ok. We have a great setup here. There is plenty of food and plenty of things to do to keep us occupied so we don't waste precious energy stressing about weather forecasts. Our current diversion of choice is hosting inter-expedition card games. 'Texas Hold-em' is our game of choice and of course the RMI crew tends to dominate the winnings. The games are fun but most of us are already chomping at the bit to get back to the climb. We'll be sure to be rested, healthy and mentally charged up when the opportunity to go back up the mountain arrives. Until then we'll be doing our best to lighten the loads of the other climbers by taking some of their money.
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Our hearts ache for you. We are so sorry that your trip is ending this way knowing how much you wanted to summit. Lowrys you will survive!
Posted by: Frank Haasbeek on 6/4/2014 at 5:00 am
Have a safe trip home. Just remember:
The Journey is for the Soul, The Summit is for the Ego.
We love you,
Lisa, Joe and Gabe
Posted by: Lisa, Joe and Gabe on 6/3/2014 at 7:27 pm
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