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Posted by: Robby Young, Elias de Andres Martos
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Peru Seminar
Greetings all,
After spending the last 10 days above 14,000', our eyes and lungs relished in the sights, smells, and the oxygen-rich, moist ocean air we encountered on the drive back from Huaraz to Lima. A stop in Playa Barranca for ceviche, tacu-tato, and other local seafood dishes truly brought our expedition full circle as we enjoyed an ocean view from our lunch table. Upon arrival in Lima, the inevitable disbanding of the team began as some caught midnight flights back to friends and family, while a few have one more day in Lima to relax, catch the World Cup Final, and relive the wonderful experiences we've had over the past couple weeks in the Cordillera Blanca. Best wishes from sea level and thanks for following along!
RMI Guides Robby Young, Elias de Andres Martos, and the Peru Seminar Team
Posted by: Elias de Andres Martos, Robby Young
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Peru Seminar
Elevation: 17,380'
Good afternoon, this is the climbing team in Peru. Elias calling here. We have made it to high camp on Tocllaraju and we are perched at 5,100m right on the edge of the glacier. A sense of accomplishment that everybody has right now. It's indescribable as we are in one of the most beautiful places that we have seen so far on this trip. We are surrounded by a huge cirque of 5,000 and 6,000-meter peaks. Tonight we are going to get ready to climb Tocllaraju, the last and most challenging objective of our seminar. Everybody is doing really well and we are having right now really good weather. Everything is on schedule and we will keep you posted tomorrow hopefully from the summit, sometime in the early morning. Right now it's 4 o'clock in the afternoon local time in Peru. We are brewing some water and cooking some dinner. That's pretty much it for now. We will hope to, like I said, call tomorrow from the summit and wrap up this amazing expedition. That's all for now. Good evening.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
Elias de Andres Martos calling from Tocllaraju's High Camp.
The Four Day Summit Climb August 30 - 2 September led by RMI Guides Chad Peele and Andy Bond were unable to reach the summit of Mt. Rainier. The teams were forced to turn around at approximately 12,100' today due to very high winds and returned to Camp Muir safely. As of 7:00 a.m. PT strong winds were still gusting at Camp Muir. The teams are expected to depart from Camp Muir at 10 a.m. PT en route to Paradise.
Blue skies and calm winds greeted our Four Day Summit Climb Teams led by Jason Thompson and Pete Van Deventer. The teams enjoyed the views from the Summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning and are now en-route back to Camp Muir.
Congratulations to Today's Teams!
The sky never quite darkened outside the drawn shades of the hotel rooms up here in Talkeetna last night and before long the sun was rising in the sky again. We met up at the Roadhouse Cafe this morning where Matt, the final member of our team and a local Alaskan resident, joined us. Over heaping portions of scrambled eggs, bacon, thick slices of toast, and steaming cups of coffee, we toasted the merging of the team and the beginning of the adventures. After spending some time talking through the details of the climb ahead we went over to the National Park Service offices here and checked in with the climbing rangers, collecting our climbing permits and discussing the most recent route conditions with the climbing rangers.
With permits in hand we walked back through the streets of Talkeetna, just starting to bustle with the midday influx of tourist arriving from the Anchorage area, and across the railroad tracks to the air strip where we spent the rest of the day organizing our gear for the climb. We unpacked, sorted, checked, rechecked, and repacked our personal clothing and climbing equipment, inspected our climbing ropes, fired up and tested our stoves, counted our 22 days worth of food, set up and examined our 4 tents, separated the shovels, wands, climbing pickets, and snow saws we will need, and then rechecked everything again - making doubly sure that we are feeling prepared with our equipment. Finally, by later afternoon, a pile of duffels, backpacks, snowshoes, tents, poles, and climbing equipment began to accumulate in the open entrance of the hangar of K2 Aviation. At long last the pile stopped growing and the final last minute items were added. Just before dinner we weighed out all of the bags, carefully checking the weights of each item in order to allow the pilots of the small prop planes we fly in tomorrow so that they can adequately distribute the weight of our loads.
With a full day of packing and preparing for the climb, we retired to the local and legendary eatery and watering hole of the West Rib, indulging in Caribou burgers and Halibut tacos before calling it a day. We are hoping that the clearing skies we see in the afternoon persist into tomorrow allowing us to make the 30 minute flight from Talkeetna into the Alaska Range to Denali Base Camp. There is always the chance that weather either here in Talkeetna or up on the mountain will not cooperate and not allow us to make the flight but spirits are optimistic and we are keeping our fingers crossed the weather shakes out in our favor.
RMI Guide Linden Mallory
Wonderful to read your blog Linden. Wishing you, Frank and the whole team a safe climb and an experience beyond all your expectations!
Posted by: Connie S. on 6/24/2011 at 12:12 pm
Happy Birthday…you know who you are…. :-)
Posted by: Laurie C. on 6/24/2011 at 6:45 am
A three a.m. snowstorm blew through just as our Sherpa team was trying to decide whether to go ahead with a carry to Camp One. Tendi and the boys wisely decided to give it a miss. Ultimately, it was only two inches, but it changed the basecamp scenery immensely. Leif Whittaker and I took an easy rest day while Chad, Casey and Seth took Scott, Rob and Wendy on acclimatization hikes. Several of the team went all the way up to Pumori Camp One for a little altitude and a lot of views into the Western Cwm.
The big event of our day was Jeff Martin's planned departure for home. He has worked good and hard for a week now (on top of several months, pre-trip) to get our logistics off on the right foot, but now he is needed back on Mount Rainier. We said goodbye to him with a lively, latenight game of Texas Hold 'Em and a good and hearty breakfast.
Now that most teams have arrived, we were entertained with a steady stream of old friends passing through and telling their stories of travels and treks over tea. We'll continue our training for the icefall tomorrow.
Posted by: Dave Hahn, Hannah Smith, Chad Gaffigan, Luke Wilhelm
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 14,000'
Wednesday, July 3, 2019 - 10:22 PM PT
Yet another snowy, cloudy morning at 14,000' Camp. There was less wind today though, so it was easier to be outside. It wasn’t a day for moving up or down the mountain -everybody stayed put. We found diversions, like remodeling the walls of our bathroom and kitchen and generally just digging holes in the snow. There was a brief clearing around noon, but then things clouded up again and the wind appeared to ramp up on the South Peak. We did a mid-afternoon quesadilla session and then logged a little tent time. In the evening we attended a barbecue. The final National Park Service ranger patrol of the season is tasked with packing up the NPS camp at 14K and they decided they had too much meat. Not wanting it to go to waste, they invited all the remaining teams on the mountain to come over to socialize and get a cheeseburger, which we did. There were about fifty of us standing out in the snow, comparing home towns and countries and climbing goals. Up at 17,000 there may be another 25 climbers waiting for a weather break, but they are sadly out of cheeseburger range.
Believe it or not, we STILL like the forecast. We’ll get moving again tomorrow or the next day.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Love you and miss you Tym!! Hang in there.
Posted by: Kristen on 7/4/2019 at 10:07 am
Posted by: Hannah Smith, Lucas Haaland, Luke Wilhelm
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska Alaska Seminar
Thursday, May 30, 2019 9:51 PM PT
Luck was on our side! We woke to clear skies and sunshine. And you know what sunshine means, we went and played in some crevasses. Psyched that the weather hadn't arrived yet, we hit the snowy trail and walked to a beautiful section of the glacier. Tall rocky peaks stood all around us. Their sides full of hanging glaciers. We were safe out of harm's way but could see their ominous appearance. We spent the day ice climbing out of the crevasse and practicing our rope ascending skills. Everyone did a fantastic job in both activities. By the end of the day the forecasted weather started to creep in on us. A light breeze pushed at our backs almost assisting us back to camp. The clouds have begun to lower and small flurries float around camp. It is one of our team members birthdays tomorrow, and he is wishing for good weather. Let's hope his birthday wish is granted and this forecasted snow storm stays away another day.
Goodnight all,
RMI Guide Hannah Smith and Team
Happy birthday Craig! ❤️ I hope you have great weather for your bday! Love you!
Posted by: Angy Gallimore on 5/31/2019 at 8:38 am
Posted by: Jake Beren, Steve Gately, Megan Budge
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 11,200'
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June 4, 2017
Anticipating a long hard day we woke the team and fired stoves at 5AM. After a hearty breakfast of toasted bagels, cream cheese, smoked salmon and capers the team quickly assembled for the climb. Skies were clear when we left camp and the temps quite cool, great for climbing! The plan for the day was to carry a cache of gear to 14k Camp to both lessen the burden of weight when we eventually move and to acclimate to a new altitude. We climb through several iconic features on the way including Motorcycle Hill, Squirrel Hill, The Polo Fields and finally Windy Corner. The team did great and were psyched to leave the sleds and snowshoes behind for crampons and an ice axe! Clouds started billowing in just as we reached 14k camp so we dug our cache spent a few moments to refuel, re-hydrate and breathe the new air at 14,000'.
The team is all now back at camp and doing great. Tomorrows agenda is unknown, a lot depends on the weather forecast. We may take a rest day or we may move camp up to 14k. You'll just have to tune in tomorrow to find out!
Thanks for following along everybody.
RMI Guide Steve Gately & Team
Excellent progress Lindsay! Rooting for you. Go, go, go!!!
Posted by: Patty on 6/5/2017 at 10:49 pm
Che-che! Have the best time, everything will be waiting for you when you get back. Only better. :)
e
Posted by: e on 6/5/2017 at 12:46 pm
Posted by: Dave Hahn
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
Talk about shifting gears... we went from climbing to cruising, just like that. Today we got on the road shortly after 8 AM and briefly toured the outskirts of Arusha before heading out across the Rift Valley of Tanzania. Our goal for the day was a tour of the the Lake Manyara National Park. To get there we traveled in two modified land rovers, gazing out the windows at Masai tribesmen and their animal herds along the highway. We reached the park at about noon and had a relaxing lunch under the big trees, keeping an eye peeled on the surrounding forest for whichever beasts might also be contemplating lunch. As it turned out, there were just a few monkeys and birds checking us out. After lunch, we toured the park's dirt roads, checking out giraffes, baboons, zebras, wildebeest and warthogs. We spied a couple of elephants and plenty of exotic birds, but we didn't see big cats or hippos. There is always tomorrow... which for us is an expedition to the Ngorongoro Crater. Tonight though, is not to be rushed. An evening at the luxurious and tranquil Plantation Lodge. We'll get in our open topped safari vehicles again at the crack of dawn, hunting for big game.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
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Corell - it sounds beautiful ( and you are too - that should embarrass you if Elias reads these out loud!)
Thurston the Younger loved his first day at lacrosse camp.
Christian is still glowing over Germany’s win - and we are off to UVA today for orientation.
Good luck on the summit. And come home quickly - I am going through withdrawal and need a fix!
Posted by: Thurston on 7/10/2014 at 5:06 am
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