Greetings from Basecamp,
Another beautiful day here. Some of the team hiked a few hours while others lounged around camp. Dave, myself and Tendi went to yet another meeting of the groups that will be involved with the rope placement above Camp Two.
In the past I have seen this essential element of the climb become a large hurdle in regards to not only the financial but physical impact on the teams, this year the job is set to be done with great cooperation from our diverse community. Happy is me!
Tomorrow will be final preparations for the first wave of climbers who will leave the next day for nights at Camp One. The real deal is just around the corner and this team is ready.
Thanks for visiting.
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir team led by RMI Guides Andy Bond and Seth Burns has concluded their week of training and returned to Paradise. Although the weather threw a few curves at them, the team was able to get in lots of training including cramponing, glacier travel, ice climbing, rappelling, and crevasse rescue. We can probably consider it winter camping as well. They endured some cold temperatures but also enjoyed some beautiful sunrises and sunshine.
Today was a day of rest, as well as a day of mystery. Who is commenting on the blog anonymously? Is Alaska simultaneously the most Northern, Western, and Eastern state? Can burros actually type? Cows are eating chickens? We may have answers to some of these questions, but others remain a mystery.
Anywho, we enjoyed a delicious breakfast before taking a nice walk to stretch the legs and spent the rest of the day relaxing, charging devices, and mentally preparing to leave our sweet base camp sanctuary for the upper mountain. In the next ten days we will test ourselves mentally and physically as we come together to climb higher on this mountain with a goal of summiting the tallest mountain in South America. It will not be easy, but I have faith in this team that we can buckle down and take care of business up there. We sincerely appreciate the love and support we have been receiving from home, it truly makes a difference.
I will leave you all with a Haiku from our time at basecamp:
Some great rest before some serious climbing. Love the haiku. I had to read the rules on Euchre and still not sure I understand what that game is all about. Here’s to the entire team working together and sharing in a joy of summiting. Get it Ben!
Posted by: Ed DaPra on 1/21/2024 at 3:34 pm
Good luck Mikayla and the rest of the team! You got this. May the weather be better than Denali ;)
It was a windy, snowy day at 11,000' Camp. The kind that had us happy to linger in sleeping bags until late. Eventually we rose and put some energy into solidifying camp before we plowed through a bunch of hot breakfast burritos. Weather days are for spending in tents so we spent a fair amount of time horizontal, welcome after yesterday's effort. As the afternoon wore on we were ready for movement so we got to building some walls to deflect the wind and make life a bit more pleasant. Much like building with adult legos, made out of snow. So now we have quite a habitable spot, a good thing since this weather system may stick around for a few more days.
The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guides Robby Young and Alex Halliday reached Ingraham Flats today but high winds forced the team to turn. They are currently at Camp Muir with winds blowing steadily at 40 mph. They will plan an early departure, and will be back at Rainier Basecamp in the early afternoon.
Congratulations team!
We’re down at Mweka Camp, in the trees at close to 10,000 ft. A long way from this morning’s summit. And an even greater leap from where we started the day at Barafu Camp.
We actually started the day yesterday -at 11:30 PM. As usual, we didn’t all get great sleep ahead of the summit bid. Those of us lying awake in our pitch black tent interiors got to listen to persistent rain showers rattling on our shelters. When the alarms went off and we got outside, we found ourselves in a wet cloud... but very near the top of it since we could see stars overhead. We ate our midnight “breakfast” and got walking behind Naiman at 12:35 AM. The clouds washed in and out at our level a few more times in that first hour of climbing, but ultimately we got above it all and had a fabulous night for stars. The moon came up as a perfectly oriented smile on the horizon. We had no ability to capture the image, so it was just something to enjoy thoroughly in the moment as we trudged in line up the rough rock path. As expected, life got colder as we climbed higher. We took short rest breaks and put on every stitch of clothing we had. The sun finally came up once we were hitting 18,000 ft and life got easier (and more beautiful) as we reached the crater rim at Stella Pt by 7:05 AM. The walk along the crater to Uhuru was amazing. Rain in the area had cleared the ever-present haze and so we could see a good chunk of Tanzania that normally stays hidden from above. We hit Uhuru at 8 AM and our timing was excellent. We had the top to ourselves -another rarity- which we took full advantage of. Twenty five minutes later we were headed downhill. The descent was smooth and we made fine progress (with ample help from our amazing staff). We got back to High Camp at 11 AM. Tosha cooked us up a great “brunch” which fortified us for packing and bailing out of high camp by 12:40. The descent to Mweka was mostly in murky cloud, and it must be admitted that we all just wanted it to be done, the trail is rocky and requires a ton of concentration (tough to come by 15 hours into a summit day). We rolled in just after 4 PM and the fine camp waiting for us made every inch of the descent worth it. This will be our last night on the mountain... it seems likely that nobody will have trouble sleeping.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Congratulations to all! Enjoy the party before you leave camp in the morning. Watch out for the frog going up the mountain. Hopefully, he remembered to pack everything.
Posted by: Jeff Tracy on 8/26/2019 at 2:51 am
Congratulations on a successful clime to the top! I don’t know most of you, but I’m proud of all of you anyway! I pray that your trip down is as successful as the ascent. And many thanks to Dave for his wonderful blog describing your adventure. It was almost like being there you paint such a great picture with words. God bless you all, Kathy
Greetings from Kathmandu!
We have officially finished our trip. We flew out of the Himalaya this morning, right on time as the skies above Lukla allowed airplanes to do their thing. Everyone is resting in the hotel now, getting ready for our trips back home.
A trip where everyone one finishes together at the start point, with tired muscles but a backpack full of memories, is a successful trip. Now we'll tell the individual stories back home. Thanks for following our progress through this beautiful valley at the foothills of the roof of the earth!
Pheri bhetaula! (Until next time, in Nepali)
RMI Guide Elías de Andres Martos
Sunday, July 15, 2018 - 12:56 PM PT
This afternoon we received a dispatch from RMI Guide Zeb Blais on Forbidden Peak in Washington State's Cascade Pass. The team reported beautiful weather and a successful climb. They will spend some time on top before beginning their descent of the technical West Ridge.
Congratulations climbers!
Hey, everybody this is Casey Grom checking in again from the Kilimanjaro climb. Wanted to let you know that we had another wonderful day here in Africa. We got up at about 7:00 and had a nice big breakfast of eggs and bacon and porridge and some toast. At 7:30, we washed that down with plenty of coffee and then tried to hit the trail right at 8:00. The camp we were in, the Mweka Camp, was a little bit crowded because it's sort of a small spot, but we kind of got out ahead of a bunch of the teams. We slowly made our way up one of the ridges that leads up on top of what's called the Shira Plateau. We gained about 2,500 feet and we took just a little over five hours to get up here. The team did incredible today and once again our our wonderful mountain staff and porters broke camp after we left and then passed us on the trail and then arrived at camp and had it all set up by the time we arrived up here. We just finished dinner and the clouds have just kind of blown off. Now we've got a beautiful view of the upper mountain as the sun has gone down. Everybody's outside taking a look at all the beautiful stars that we can see right now. So that's all for now. Everybody's going to head to bed as it's starting to chill down a little bit up here, and we'll touch base again tomorrow. Thanks.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
Happy Thanksgiving from 78 degrees south of the equator on the Vinson Massif!
The sun finally slipped behind the mountains around 3am last night and the temperatures here at Vinson Base Camp instantly dropped even further, causing us all to stir from our slumbers to burrow deeper into our sleeping bags. Despite the cold we all slept soundly. After reluctantly crawling out of our bags we set about preparing for the day: melting snow, boiling water and sorting gear to carry further up the mountain. We took our time this morning, waiting for the low hanging clouds that hung over the glacier to break but they never did and by midday we set out up the Branscomb Glacier with our packs full with food and fuel for nearly a week above Base Camp.
The climb out of camp ascends the gently rolling glacier before entering a minor crevasse field that guards the entrance to a large flat bench at about 8,400' on the glacier. Snow at very cold temperatures is known to be "crunchy" or "squeaky" as the crystal is break and fracture instead of bending or bonding and we settled into a routine on the climb out of camp, listening to our skis glide across the cold snow and settle under the weight of our feet with an audible crunch. As we approached the crevasse field our hopes to break through the clouds to clear skies above dissipated and we navigated our way through the cracks under a world lacking any sort of contrast. Glimpsing only occasional wands or tracks left from a previous group. We climbed another hour like this until we lost all visibility completely. We were in a world of white with no ability to differentiate the sky from the ground or near from far. Climbers refer to this as being "in the ping pong ball" - like being inside an sphere of impermeable whiteness. Having crossed the plateau and nearing the second notable crevasse field for the day we opted to drop our loads there, near a no longer used camp spot called 1/2 Camp, instead of pushing forward navigating only by feel. We unloaded all of our gear into a large duffel bag, lashed it securely to the ice, marked its location, pulled the skins from our skis and turned our sights toward Base Camp.
We were able to retrace our skin track without too much difficulty, following the telltale marks of pole tip plants and skin tracks (and keeping an eye on the map and gps just to be sure) back down the glacier. A couple of hundred feet above Base Camp the clouds thinned and we could spot our tent alongside the airstrip. We skied back into Base Camp grinning. Despite the poor visibility today, it still felt good to be on skis in Antarctica.
We celebrated a southern Thanksgiving swapping stories of traditions back home and sharing a package of Oreos. We're wishing all of our families a Happy Thanksgiving and just so there's no confusion: Tasty Bites are no comparison for home cooked Turkey!
RMI Guide Linden Mallory & Team
Some great rest before some serious climbing. Love the haiku. I had to read the rules on Euchre and still not sure I understand what that game is all about. Here’s to the entire team working together and sharing in a joy of summiting. Get it Ben!
Posted by: Ed DaPra on 1/21/2024 at 3:34 pm
Good luck Mikayla and the rest of the team! You got this. May the weather be better than Denali ;)
Posted by: Pete Tymitz on 1/21/2024 at 11:39 am
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