May 21, 2014 - 11:16 pm
Today we spent a full day rotating through stations of crevasse rescue and beacon searches. The team did well grasping the concept of producing mechanical advantage and they ran through the drills multiple times. By the end of the day, I think most ended up with an understanding of how the systems work. Clouds are moving in slowly and may linger for a few days here but that won't stop us from venturing out onto the surrounding glaciers. We have one more day here in base camp to prepare for our move north.
Goodnight to all.
RMI Guide Leon Davis
For the May 20th Team (Brent Okita)
Great Picture of the May 20th Team! This is a special greeting for Daniel Akerman: We are so proud of you Daniel and we are following you and your team every step of the way. Go, go, go….We love you!!! Mom & Rob
Greetings from Namche once again.
Today we were greeted with a fresh blanket of snow in town, but only a few inches. We had planned on doing a little hiking to try and catch a glimpse of Everest, but the new snow and cloud cover kept us close to home. So we spent the day drinking coffee, telling stories and doing a little shopping in town. It almost felt like Christmas to be honest!
Everyone is doing great and happily enjoyed the relaxing day here.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
P.S.
I'd like to wish my dad a special Happy Birthday! Wish I could throw a snowball at you pops! I love you.
Elizabeth, Nancy and Liz: Guess it feels “real” now and I’ve got goose bumps looking at you in the picture! Gotta say, this is really cool! Have fun and stay warm! XO, Janet
Posted by: Janet Mendez on 3/23/2014 at 6:21 pm
Looks like you are having fun, enjoy the adventure
Good evening from the land of the midnight sun. The RMI June 21st Mt. McKinley Expedition Team gathered in Anchorage this afternoon, overcoming the first potential obstacle of any climbing expedition - the moment when you find out if all of the gear that you've spent days and weeks meticulously sorting and packing actually arrives with you after the flights. Thankfully, all the needed bags popped out on to the conveyor belt at Ted Stevens Airport at one point or another.
After loading the van with our gear we headed out of town, low lying clouds hanging above Anchorage and just obscuring the peaks of the Chugach that border town. After a quick grocery stop in Wasilla (yes, the legendary Wasilla, AK) we kept driving up the Parks Highway as the skies gradually broke. By the time we arrived in Talkeetna the mountains of the Alaska Range were beginning to poke out of the clouds in the distance and we spent a few minutes on the edge of town admiring the views.
Tomorrow we will spend the day organizing our gear and getting ready for the mountain. It has been many months of preparation an thousands of miles traveled to arrive here and the excitement about the adventures ahead is growing.
It is 11:30 at night here in Alaska and we just watched the sun finally settle out of the sky, disappearing the peaks of the Alaska Range that sit on the horizon. Happy Summer Solstice to everyone.
RMI Guide Linden Mallory
Everything is well, we all made it onto the glacier on the southeast fork of the Kahiltna. We’re finally all back together. Everyone is super excited to reunite after 30 hours of being separated with some of us still in Talkeetna and others on the Kahiltna glacier and trying to figure out what was going to happen next. But things are going well here, we had some dinner, we’re hanging out in our camp, and are getting ready to take off. Our plan, if the weather allows, will be to leave from camp late in the evening tonight/ early morning and walk up to our first camp at 7,800’ on the main Kahiltna. Hope all is well there, everything is great here.
Everyone is super excited to be here. It looks like we have a forecast in the future to be really nice for us. Talk to you guys soon.
Cheers!
RMI Guide Tyler Jones
Today we slept in and had a casual breakfast before gearing up to retrieve our cache of gear at 13,500'. It was a quick walk downhill. Clouds came and went, and the sun poked out to warm us as we repacked our packs to head back to camp. By the time we were close to camp, the temperatures dropped, and snow began to fall. The afternoon got away from us and before we knew it was dinner time. Ramen filled our bodies, along with hot drinks, and the clouds cleared off for a view of both Hunter and Foraker. The winds are calm compared to last night.
Tomorrow we shall be lazy and enjoy a rest day hopefully with some more good views. Teams are gearing up for moves to high camp. Soon enough it will be our time. For now, we will be patient and enjoy 14,000’ Camp.
Tuesday, June 12, 2018 - 2:08 PM PT
Good evening! What a day we had... Another alpine objective tackled! We had some snow overnight, so we dragged our feet to see what the weather would do. It warmed up enough to melt the light snow from the rocks, so we decided to aim for a rock route. By 1pm we decided to head to the "Throne" one of the biggest formations in the Pika Glacier. We climbed the "Lost Marsupial" route, a long moderate route among the clouds, above some planes that brought tourist to the glacier, and into the evening (that's what we get to enjoy climbing in Alaska, 24h of daylight) a great pasta dinner followed our arrival to camp. After dinner, we went to bed right away, as we're planning an early departure for our next objective.
Stay tuned!
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
The Mount Rainier Summit Climb turned at 11,400’ due to new snow and avalanche concerns. RMI Guide Brent Okita reported that the weather was beautiful but chilly at Camp Muir. The teams are safely off the mountain and will be back to Rainier Basecamp early afternoon.
This is Dave Hahn calling in from 7,800’ on the Kahiltna Glacier. Still at 7,800’! We really had high hopes this storm would break a little earlier today and then we would get to move. We did get up early again and kept checking the weather, but it was snowing good and steady through the night, through the morning and well into the afternoon. It was socked right in, like looking at the inside of a ping pong ball. Wet snow kept falling right until 3 this afternoon and then it started to clear. And now, at almost 8:30 in the evening, I am standing out here and we do have a blue sky above us. Most of the mountains are still kind of hiding in the clouds. But it is definitely breaking up and it's beautiful to see the mountains again. We haven't seen them for a few days, and looking down the Kahiltna Glacier and we're all kind of excited.
We just did a radio calls with Linden Mallory and Mike Haugen. The treat for everybody was that Mike was doing his radio call from the summit of Mt McKinley. So that's pretty far from us right now, but we were excited for those guys because we know that they have been up there waiting and trying. And we've been down here waiting. Tomorrow, I'm pretty confident, that we're going to get up early and we are going to climb on up to 9,500’. I think the weather is going to work out for us tonight. We'll see.
Everybody is in good spirits. We had a snow carving contest today. There was a bowling alley carved over here. There is a pony, a lion, and a cobra. There was a giraffe that broke his neck a little earlier. There were some pretty good snow sculptures out here. The team is keeping their spirits up, and eating well. That is all.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
RMI Guide Dave Hahn checks in with an update from 7,800' on Mt. McKinley.
So cool that Lindsey, one of our favorite ski coaches, and my brother, dial-a-vet Rich, are on the same climb. We are sending positive thoughts for a safe summit and return for you all. Happy trails to you both Taosenos. Carin, Nicole and clan
Posted by: Carin on 7/5/2011 at 9:29 pm
I bet that the injured giraffe was Lindsay Mann’s! Sending my best wishes for good weather. Stay safe. Go team Hahn!
Climbing a mountain like Denali is different than smaller peaks. On shorter trips to lower altitudes, climbers can push to their physical and mental limits, with slightly less potential consequences. Here, though, it's imperative that climbers be at their peak strength, and that they are mentally prepared for the challenges of the cold, the altitude, and the difficulty of the route. With those considerations as well as a less than ideal weather forecast, we decided to take a rest day at 14,200' today. While the team performed well on yesterday's carry, we all could benefit from some more chilling and sport eating.
So we started our day late, with a bodacious breakfast of egg, bacon, and cheese burritos with salsa and hot sauce. Hot coffee rounded out our top-flight mountain café experience. The team is currently resting in the tents and working through excess lunch food, playing cards and reading. So we sit and wait in a state of relaxed anticipation, ready to spring into action as soon as we have ideal weather. Send us your vibes for more sunny, calm days!
Until tomorrow,
Tyler Jones, Garett Stevens, Erik Endert & the crew
Ty - Seeing if you can bring me back one of those breakfast burritos you wrote about. They sound delicious. Good luck to you and your team. Be safe and have fun. Bryce T.
Posted by: Bryce on 6/17/2011 at 10:33 am
DEAREST BEN, A VERY HAPPY FATHER’S DAY TO YOU AND
ALL PAPAS IN YOUR TEAM. HEARD FROM BEREN THAT YOU ARE
MOVING TOWARDS 17,000’ CAMP. CONGRATS, SUMMIT ALMOST
THERE. LOVE TO YOU AND ALL YOUR TEAMMATES.
We woke up to yet another beautiful and sunny day at Everest Base Camp. The team is still settling into the increased altitude and we are slowly ramping up our activity level in preparation for moving through the Khumbu Ice Fall. Today, we focused on ladder training as we will have numerous ladders bridging gaping crevasses and seracs between Basecamp and Camp One. Dave Hahn and Leif Whittaker decided to go for a short hike into the icefall to do their ladder practice while the rest of the team stayed in camp and created a simulated course. We rigged several ladders over the glacial rocks to simulate the icefall in which we practiced walking up and down the shaky ladders. For starters, we began in our trekking shoes stepping from rung to rung getting used to the shake and wobble of the aluminum ladders. Once everyone felt comfortable with this, we put on our stiff 8,000 meter boots and ran the course again. After this, we continued our progression and added roped hand lines while wearing crampons which best replicates the actual movement during icefall travel. With the addition of hand lines, we were able to steepen the ladder grade for both uphill and downhill travel and even practiced several "emergency" scenarios. One scenario involved stopping mid crossing and kneeling down on the ladder rungs to re-attach a crampon that had "accidentally" popped off. Although this was not a very likely scenario, it had the advantage of addressing a "possibility" while increasing confidence and agility.
Everyone did a great job showing skill and balance and we are all looking forward to moving higher onto the mountain.
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For the May 20th Team (Brent Okita)
Great Picture of the May 20th Team! This is a special greeting for Daniel Akerman: We are so proud of you Daniel and we are following you and your team every step of the way. Go, go, go….We love you!!! Mom & Rob
Posted by: Lena Akerman on 5/23/2014 at 7:06 am
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