Saturday, June 29, 2019 - 10:10 PM PT
To deal with the heat, we got up a little earlier than we might ordinarily have for an easy day at 14 Camp. At 7:00 AM it is still shadowy and cool in camp but not so cool that we rushed our breakfast of bagels and salmon with cream cheese. The main task for the day was our back carry dropping down from 14,200 ft to retrieve the cached food and fuel at 13,500 ft. We were out of camp at 9:20 and down to the cache just 15 or 20 minutes later. The ravens showed no interest whatsoever in our buried treasure although we’d seen where they raided a nearby poorly done cache a few days back. After a bit of hard digging, we distributed the load and began trudging back up at 10:00. The route happens to be quite direct this season -- just a factor of a few crevasses either being bridged well or not in a given year -- and so it only took 45 minutes to get home. On the spooky side of things we witnessed the normally stable and well-frozen West Buttress shedding rock down its steep flanks due to the heat. Back at camp, the easy part of our day began. We took shelter and drank water. The forest fire smoke grew thick enough that we couldn’t see down onto the Kahiltna Glacier and all but the top 3000 ft of Mt Foraker was obscured. We were pleased to connect with RMI Guide Mike Walter’s victorious team when they came down and became our neighbors.
In the afternoon we reviewed the techniques we’ll employ to safely ascend the fixed lines between 15,000 and 16,000 ft. Tomorrow the forecast calls for a weather change, but if that is slow in arriving, we’d like to carry up onto the West Buttress.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Thanks for the pictures and updates! The warmth is a fooler at those altitudes?! Hope you are having a great day in thinner air - does the smoke keep rising with you?
After spending the night at the Dik Dik Hotel celebrating our summit success, our team loaded into “pop-top” Land Rovers to begin our safari. Today we explored Lake Manyara National Park and saw many animals, which some are included in the video below.
The team is doing great and enjoying the different landscapes that we are experiencing here on safari.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
Dave's team arrived at K2 Aviation at 11:00 a.m. ready to fly onto Denali. They loaded the planes and headed out only to turn back as the weather window at the airstrip closed down. However, at 6 p.m. Talkeetna time the weather at basecamp cleared and they were expecting to fly onto the glacier.
Hello everyone-just a quick note from Ecuador.
Today we traveled north from the city of Lasso to the city of Cayambe, and we've spent the afternoon resting in Ecuador's oldest hacienda, Guachala. The drive through the central Andes of Ecuador was beautiful; verdant rolling hills, with a mosaic of multi-colored farmland was the backdrop to the small pueblos we traveled through today. The clouds cleared enough that we were able to sneak a peak back at Cotopaxi during the drive, as well as see the southern flanks of Cayambe. The weather this afternoon has been beautiful-mostly sunny with a breeze. Tomorrow morning we will head out early for some shopping at the world famous market in the town of Otavalo, and then carry on to the climbing hut on Cayambe. I will be in touch tomorrow with an update.
Today the team left behind our beautiful and comfortable river lodge and have headed to the mountain towards the start of the climb. We left around 8am and drove along the rural countryside and small villages for 2 hours before reaching the park entrance.
Most of the area surrounding Kilimanjaro has been cultivated and primarily used for coffee production and for a variety of other agriculture needs, but there are still some areas that have been untouched and resemble more of a savannah that Tanzania is known for. The base of Kilimanjaro is more forested and looks more jungle like and is called a cloud forest.
Once we arrived at the park gate, we had all of our gear weighed and divided into loads for our porters and other staff to carry before hitting the trail. Once everything was in order, we started our climb slowly making our way up the winding trail that ascends continuously through the thick forest. Thankfully the overhead canopy provided a little cover from the intense sun, and we were happy it didn’t rain either. It took our team around 5hr to reach our camp for the night that sits around 10’000ft.
Once we were settled into camp and got everybody situated the team was served a nice warm meal for dinner before retiring for the night. Everyone is still feeling the jet lag, and I’m sure the team will sleep well tonight.
Wednesday, May 29, 2019 - 9:26 PM PT
Howdy howdy. Its us again but this time from new location. We decided to pack up camp, load the sleds, and go for a walk. The clouds came and went, giving us gorgeous views of the surrounding peaks and than closing in us making it look like the inside of a pingpong ball. Regardless of where the clouds were though, the furnace was turned to high and sweat ran down our faces. The saying goes freeze or fry in the mountains and we felt the fry. Once we arrived to our new home, we put on our working gloves and got down to business. It's a lot of work putting in a new camp. You gotta make flat platforms for the tents, dig a bathroom, and dig a kitchen. But at the end of the day it feels good to work hard and do some shoveling. Tomorrow will be less work and more play hopefully. Looks like the weather will hold for one more day before the next weather system moves in. So we will take advantage of any sunshine we can get and go explore.
Time to catch some Zzz,
RMI Guide Hannah Smith and team
Saturday, July 20, 2018 - 1:50PM PTRMI Guide Zeb Blais checked in from the Fisher Chimney's route of Mt. Shuksan today. The team had just made it back to high camp after a summit day with 100% success! They reported beautiful conditions and good climbing. They will spend tonight at high camp and descend back to the trail-head tomorrow.
Congratulations Climbers!
June 5, 2014 - 11:57 pm PT
We slept in a bit this morning as light snow fell on camp. After a leisurely breakfast of bagels with bacon and cream cheese, we walked 30 minutes down to our cache at 9,900'. After returning to 11K Camp, we rested before building snow walls around our tents. Everyone is doing very well and excited to keep working up. With light snow still falling this evening, we are going to keep watching the weather and take it day by day.
Thanks for following along with us.
RMI Guides Eric Frank, Geoff Schellens and the UWR team
It would appear that you have a terrific team climbing with you this year. They need to know that they are in good hands. Your knowledge, understanding and skill on Denali is unprecedented. Your ability to transfer those traits and abilities to provide a great experience to us average climbers can not be acknowledged enough. Your ability to weigh risk and benefit to determine appropriate action or task is exceptional. I have enjoyed following your team so far. Looks like you have some significant weather coming at you over the next few days. Climb safe. JB 2012
Posted by: Jeff Boskind on 6/7/2014 at 9:20 am
Looking good gentlemen!! Thank you for keeping us all up to speed on your astounding progress.
I’m appreciative of being able to live vicariously through you courageous, crazy specimens all the way from sunny California. Proud of you guys…
Hello from Barranco Camp,
Today was another perfect day for us. We got out of camp early and made great progress to Lava Tower. We were there by lunch time and everyone felt great, despite being at almost 15,000'. While we had a cloudless sky in the morning, the clouds had started to roll in and we decided to begin our descent to Barranco Camp. The highlight of the descent was seeing all the giant groundsels as we approached camp. It is hard to describe their unique appearance, but suffice to say that you could just as easily have been on another planet.
We were in camp by 2:00 and after settling into our new accommodations, we headed to the dining tent for tea and snacks. Now we are just hanging out and enjoying the impressive views around camp and taking advantage of some idle time to write in journals, do some reading, send some texts, or just relax.
The team has been climbing strong everyday and everybody remains healthy. We'll send the next dispatch from Karanga Camp tomorrow.
Best regards,
RMI Guide Jeff Martin
Hi all,
We woke to another beautiful day in the Khumbu. Crystal clear skies and surrounded by magnificent mountains, including Ama Dablam in the morning light. What a sight!
It was our second night in Deboche, and the group is doing really well. After breakfast we started hiking along the Imja River, following its banks until the valley walls narrowed and we began the climb up to Pangboche. Pangboche is a small village, but a very important stop on our trek to Basecamp. It is here that the Lama Geshe gives his blessing for a safe expedition. Each climber receives a "kata" and blessing card and this is followed by his blessing. The tradition is for the climbers to take a picture holding the blessing card while on top of Everest and then mail it back to him. One whole wall is covered with pictures of climbers, spanning many years. To take part in this ceremony is an honor and gives valuable insight into the Sherpa culture.
After leaving Lama Geshe's house, it was a short walk to the oldest monastery in the Khumbu. Though simple and basic, it has been standing for over 400 years!
Still traversing above the Imja River, the valley opened up and a junction in the trail marked the way to Pheriche. We are now all settled in for the afternoon at our tea house. Some are reading and playing chess and the rest of the team is playing Texas Hold'em. Tucker has been cleaning up the last few nights with the card games, but he is about to run out of luck...
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Thanks for the pictures and updates! The warmth is a fooler at those altitudes?! Hope you are having a great day in thinner air - does the smoke keep rising with you?
Posted by: Rich Green on 6/30/2019 at 10:14 am
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