Sunday, June 14, 2015 - 6:37 pm PT
At last, our patience has paid off. After eight nights at 14 Camp, we finally got the weather today to move our camp up the West Buttress to our high camp at 17,200 feet. The team did great work, traveling up the fixed lines, along the Buttress proper, past Washburn's Thumb, and into camp.
Upon our arrival the team was greeted by blustery winds so we immediately put all of our wall building practice to good use and hammered out a camp in short time. Now we're tucked out of the weather and cooking an early dinner to get ready for a big day tomorrow. If the weather looks good in the morning, we plan on making our summit push!
The team is looking strong and everyone is excited to see the last 18 days of hard work pay off. Time for an early evening, and hopefully the next time you hear from us will be from the top of North America!
RMI Guide Tyler Jones and Team
June 30, 2014 - 11:19pm PT
After an impromptu camp on the polo field we woke up to intermittent wind gusts rattling our tent flys. We crawled out of our shelters to crisp cold weather and blue skies. We ate a quick breakfast and began to break camp to complete our journey to 14,200' feet. Amidst the chaos of packing our bags we spotted Billy Nugent and his crew descending from a successful summit, we exchanged high fives and and hit the trail. This time equipped with snow shoes and skis to deal with the waist deep drifts. We were feeling very happy about floating on the snow surface vs crawling through it. We had pleasant weather and relatively calm winds working our way around Windy Corner. We pulled into camp and made ourselves at home, feeling the altitude a little we began to take care of ourselves and focus on the mountain ahead of us.
We are all feeling good and hoping for the best weather possible.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff & Team
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
Hey this is Seth checking in from La Malinche over here in Mexico. We just had a great day climbing up the mountain actually of La Malinche. We made it to just about 13,500' from our cabanas here at 10,000 feet. It was getting to be around 4:15 at that point so we turned around, descended back down here to 10,000' and just finished with a nice dinner and we're getting tucked in. There's actually TVs in the room here so we were able to pipe in the Seahawks-49ers game. We started a fire in the fireplace and we're gonna watch them. [Connection lost.]
Tomorrow the team will depart La Malinche and drive toward Ixtaccihuatl's Altzomoni Hut.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall calls in with a team update.
Our climb has had a flawless beginning thus far. True, we haven't actually hoisted a pack, walked uphill or even set foot on a glacier yet, but that will all come soon enough.
First things first... yesterday the climbing team came together down in Anchorage and shuttled on up to Talkeetna. Today was actually jam-packed with orienting provisioning and preparing for our climb. If all goes well, we hope that K2 Aviation will be able to fly us on to the Kahiltna Glacier tomorrow morning. It seems the weather has been a little sloppy of late, although it did break long enough today for planes to get in and out of Kahiltna Basecamp a few times, retrieving the RMI team led by Jake Beren. It was great to chat with his guides and climbers as to current conditions on the hill. Combined with the briefing we received from the National Park Service this morning and what we've gathered from other acquaintances in the streets and eateries of Talkeetna throughout the day, we are feeling quite knowledgeable as to what we may find. Next step is to go and see for ourselves. We had a fine dinner at the busy West Rib Pub before retiring -with fingers crossed for easy flying conditions- to our comfy beds in the Talkeetna Motel.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
We're resting at Camp 4 today, with beautiful weather. The forecast is for pretty high winds the next few days, so we'll likely be here through the beginning of the week. Hopefully the winds abate (or the forecast doesn't verify!), and we can move up high soon.
We enjoyed a late breakfast with lots of bacon and coffee this morning, and now we're lounging around, reading and whatnot. Our spirits are high, and we're hopeful that we can move up high soon.
Thanks for the posts on the blog, it's always good to hear from friends back home.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
Just wishing you a good night’s rest and letting you know your family is thinking of you and sending all our love!!! I love you….Megan
Posted by: Megan on 5/15/2011 at 10:04 pm
SEND IT, RAPPSTAR!!! Btw bacon and coffee at 14,000 feet? Sounds like pretty much the best Sunday ever! Get after it, take pics, and stay safe my friend!
This morning at 6:15 AM, the Four-Day Climb teams, led by RMI Guides Jess Wedel and Alan Davis, reached the crater rim of Mt. Rainier. The teams were rewarded with perfect weather and improved route conditions, allowing for a safe summit experience.
After taking in the views and celebrating on the summit, the teams made their way back to Camp Muir. There, they took time to rest, refuel, and reflect on the morning’s achievement before continuing their descent.
Now en route to Paradise, the teams are expected to arrive back at RMI Basecamp later this afternoon.
Congratulations to today’s climbers for their determination, teamwork, and a successful summit.
Congratulations to the team for succeeding on such a tough day. We crossed over the John Gardner pass today in the wind, rain, and snow. We started hiking early in the morning to get a start on the long day ahead. The first hour or two we spent dodging mud pits by balancing on wet slippery roots. The next two hours we headed up, and up, and up over scree and through river beds. Once on top of the pass, the fun began and the next six hours of the day we spent walking down steep rocks and slippery mud.
Today's team member highlight goes to a woman who self proclaimed "this is the hardest thing she's ever done." She is a strong and graceful social worker from Wisconsin. We are all lucky to travel through this rugged Patagonia landscape with her.
Now we celebrate our strenuous day though very challenging weather, at the Grey hut where we'll be for two nights. The hut is full of people huddling around the fireplace to dry out layers. After the past three nights of quiet huts or camping it is nice to have the luxuries of this lodge but it seems a little louder than we're used to. The team is all happy to have a rest day tomorrow with a chance to explore the Grey Glacier.
RMI Guide Christina Dale
The Four day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide Billy Nugent reached the summit of Mt. Rainier along with climbing teams led by RMI Guides Leon Davis and Lindsay Mann. All teams were descending from the crater rim as of 7:50 am PST this morning. The teams will return to Camp Muir for a short time and then continue down to Paradise.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb Teams!
June 26, 2014 - 9:40 pm PT
We set out Tuesday morning to move up to 17k when circumstances both unfortunate and out of our control forced us back down to 14k camp. We made the wise mountaineering decision to forgo the summit for another time and begin the arduous trek back to Denali's Basecamp. We made it back to Basecamp around ten yesterday morning and were disheartened to hear that although clear here, the planes were not flying because of weather between here and Talkeetna. We set up camp and made the best of being stuck in the Alaska range.
Although we thought our adventure was winding down, we woke up last night to over a foot and a half of snow threatening our tent. We shoveled around camp for over two hours helping other teams that had tents collapse. When the snow finally slowed down this morning, we had collected well over three feet! Although it was fun to see that much snow, it also meant we needed to put on our snowshoes to stomp down an entire runway filled with nearly waste deep, wet snow. The weather never really cleared today, but we are hoping that we will not receive as much snow tonight and the weather will be clear for flight activity to resume tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mike Haugen and Team "The Ocho"
Mike and Josh,
Thank both for leading Bruce on such a great trip!
Posted by: Mom and Dad on 6/29/2014 at 6:35 pm
I’m so sorry, you guys—but I know you made the correct decision based on what you were facing—I was watching the local weather for Denali via the NOAA feeds and I’m very glad to hear that you’re down & safe! That’s all that matters in the end!
Posted by: Susan Matthews on 6/27/2014 at 10:26 pm
Ken your almost there. Keep safe and don’t give up. The view from up there is breath taking, enjoy. Jose
Posted by: Jose Gonzalez on 6/15/2015 at 4:18 pm
18 days of hard work….at D.G.‘s rate you guys are going to be minted!!
Best of luck in the coming days!
Posted by: Will Ivy on 6/15/2015 at 3:24 pm
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