Hey! This is Seth checking in from the summit of Ixta. We came up from high camp in just under five hours. We had a great climb and we are taking a bunch of photos. We are going to turn around and head back to where we stashed our packs in the crater. We will then head back to high camp and finally onto Puebla tonight. Everybody is psyched and feeling good! We will check in when we are at the hotel.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Congrats on reaching the summit of Ixta! You just saved our son a bunch of money by not having to attempt it a third time! Stay safe and enjoy your time there!
Posted by: Brad & Lori Briggs on 1/22/2014 at 6:43 pm
Hey this is Dave on Mt. McKinley giving an update for today, the 28th of June. We got up at 4 a.m. and made our move from 9,500' on the Kahiltna up to 11,000'. The weather cooperated, there were clouds down low but we were above it all. We reached camp by 10 a.m. since we got a nice early start while it was still cool. We built our camp at 11,000' and plan to establish a cache around Windy Corner tomorrow. Everything is going well and we will talk to you soon.
The team woke to clear skies for our walk to Namche. We filled our bellies with coffee and breakfast and hit the trail. After about two minutes of walking with pulled off the trail for a bakery pitstop. Herman's Bakery in Phakding makes a variety of delicious baked goods that make great trail snacks. Packs full of pastries we hit the trail for real this time. The trek to Namche gains 3,000' but with all the ups and downs it feels like much more. Walking these stairs is much more beautiful and engaging than the Stairmaster at home. We crossed high and long suspension bridges that have a slight bounce to them as you make your way across. A final big push up and we are greeted by a town in a bowl on the side of the mountains. Namche is vast and bustling with eager trekkers. It is a great place to have a rest day. The team made great work getting here and is looking forward to exploring all that is Namche. Tomorrow we will sleep in with a casual breakfast than go on a small hike followed by well-deserved resting.
Hi to all, Thank you for the informative daily blogs. I’m really enjoying your adventure. Feels like I’m there with you. Wishing you all much happiness, peace and joy as you continue your journey. In my thoughts and prayers. Lots of hugs, Diane
Here in Patagonia, you drink the water right out of the streams. It is sourced in the glaciers that hang off the towering granite above us. We hike all day with an empty water bottle and just fill up at breaks. They say it makes you strong enough to complete the circuit and it's definitely worked for this group. Tomorrow we will connect the dots and walk back to where we started, covering over 100 miles. It's hard to describe what we've seen because the landscape is awe inspiring around every corner.
Today's team member shout-out is to a super fun loving couple from Wisconsin that love to laugh. They inspire us all with a passion for adventure and travel.
RMI Guide Christina Dale
Jambo
We are now back at the Dik Dik hotel for a last dinner and shower. We had a wonderful final game drive, with the great luck of a leopard sighting. It was a fantastic way to finish the Safari. It's off to the airport, where we will fly to Amsterdam and then to our respective homes.
We have had an amazing adventure, and made some new friends for life. We hope to see you on a trip with RMI in the future.
Until then,
Get out when you can! Thanks for checking in.
A half dozen of us managed to rally before the sun this morning -aided by flasks of milk tea and milk coffee- in order to get out for hikes and first-light photos. As usual, yesterday had finished cloudy and mysterious- making the morning's clear sky and unlimited visibility seem special. Already at 5:45 AM, Cho Oyu was in full sun, while the ten neighbors which had earlier seemed equal to it remained in shadow. The world's sixth highest peak was perhaps twenty miles to the North and reminding us just how lofty 8200 meters really is. Walking onto the ridge separating Pheriche from its sister city Dingboche we could see Makalu, the fifth highest mountain, some distance to the East. And of course, Lhotse, the fourth highest in the world was pretty close at hand and appeared brutally difficult from the side we were looking at. Being too close to the 25,000 ft. Nuptse wall, we couldn't see Mount Everest behind it, but we will get around that in a few days. Ama Dablam and Tawoche caught the sun in their time, along with Kangtega and Thamserku. And finally, the sun was on our little hiking team and we stripped off a few layers to enjoy the warmth.
The ridges around Pheriche offer great hiking and we were happy to stretch our legs and work our lungs in the thin air. We each strive to hit that delicate balance between rest and exercise which is crucial to proper acclimatization. Some of our team got up to 16,000 ft and even 17,000 ft today, while others just took it easy around "town". Pheriche is a collection of maybe eight tea houses, a few farms, some yak pasturing lands and the Himalayan Rescue Association's clinic. Thirty minutes away, over in Dingboche, they have a few more teahouses and yes, you guessed it, one more last, last, last chance at internet. It is basically the same system that we tapped into in Thyangboche and Namche, utilizing a series of reflector dishes to bring the web into some otherwise remote places. Of course, the farther one goes up the valley, the higher the price. Word was that it cost about 1200 Rupees per hour this morning in Dingboche, which with the exchange rate around 76 Rupees to the dollar makes it... oh I don't know... we are too high for math now. Let's say that it probably makes the web in Dingboche about the same price as in the less user-friendly American airports. The key difference might be that they grow a fair number of potatoes in Dingboche.
Cokes and Snickers bars cost more up at this higher end of the valley... really the end of the normal settlements... but that is only to be expected since we are getting a daily look at how tough it is to porter such loads to Pheriche and beyond. Most of us are still happy to indulge in some expensive snacks and drinks though. It isn't so strange to observe that the longer we are out , the more we crave familiar junk food -while craving money slightly less. Back from the hikes, we mostly spent time mingling with other climbers and trekkers, strategizing, book reading and napping through chunks of the afternoon. Erica, Ed Dohring and I attended a fine talk on altitude illness given by one of the docs at the HRA clinic next door. We like to think we know a fair bit about such things, but it never hurts to hear a good overview again, and to meet the good people (in this case Tracy and Madeline) who volunteer their doctoring skills for weeks on end at the HRA clinic.
All are feeling reasonably well and with any luck, we'll all be loping along to Lobuche tomorrow.
Today we headed to Tarangire National Park known for its abundant elephants, and it didn’t disappoint. Not sure how many we saw, but it was quite a few, and we got pretty close to boot. There were lots of giraffes, impalas, monkeys, ostriches, and many, many birds. We did manage to see a leopard, unfortunately it wasn’t that close and seemed to just be napping in the afternoon heat.
We are spending our last night here in Africa at Nykani Tented Camp, which has beautiful tented rooms with screen windows to allow the sounds of the African bush in. Everyone is doing great and hoping to see a few more big cats on our way out of the park tomorrow morning. Then it will be back to our main lodge near Arusha for a brief stop before catching our flights home.
We woke today to snowflakes dancing their way to our tent making a pitter patter noise. It was a calm morning with fluffy snow. The clouds rolled in and out throughout breakfast making it a touch and go if we were going to pack up. But then as we finished our cereal and hot drinks, the snow dissipated and blue sky was showing. We broke down camp and hit the snowy trail. Heavy packs and heavy sleds weighed us down but we pushed forward. It was a tough day but we rolled into camp as more snow began to fall. Seeing the tents at 14,000' Camp as we crested the last hill was a marvelous sight. It might as well had been a cheeseburger and beer. Once the camp was established we all crawled into our new home and dried our gear. Some good ole Annie's Mac filled our tummies before we all went back to our sleeping bags for what we all hope to be a great night sleep. As the weather remains squirrely, we will decide what our agenda for tomorrow will be. Could be a back carry or could be a rest day.
Smoke dances from a fire under a lean two as a mother cooks breakfast for her children. The little boy wanders among the team curious about everything. He giggles as we make silly faces at him. Little huts and makeshift homes are scattered among the hillside and along the trail we are walking. The trail exist between the villages and where the silkworm hunters go. Today we walked four hours down valley along the river to a small establishment made up of three buildings. It is a tea house between villages. It is a crossroad for us with one direction leading back to Chaipur, where we will ultimately go and the other direction to the village of Sangita and Laxmi, two of the Nepali girls on our team. Tomorrow we will go see their villages and watch/learn as they celebrate brother and sister day. For tonight we are nestled in to what appears to be a cornfield/potato field.
RMI Guide Hannah Smith
All members of our team made it to the highest point in Mexico this morning- el Pico de Orizaba! We lucked out with perfect weather and great snow conditions. Warm temperatures and great views coaxed us into spending a good chunk of time on the summit . We'll follow up soon.
RMI Guides Zeb Blais, Robby Young and team
Congrats on reaching the summit of Ixta! You just saved our son a bunch of money by not having to attempt it a third time! Stay safe and enjoy your time there!
Posted by: Brad & Lori Briggs on 1/22/2014 at 6:43 pm
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