Hi Everyone,
Yesterday we hiked past Lake Ann and climbed 3rd and 4th class terrain to our bivy site at 5700'. The weather was generally cooperative, with light to moderate rain showers coming in and out.
The weather today is less accommodating; after a pleasantly dry breakfast we got back in our tents as heavy rain moved in. So, we're taking advantage of some down time to rest and hopefully we'll have a crack at climbing tomorrow.
This rain event is very unusual for July in the Cascades, and we're hopeful that we'll get back to the standard fare of sunshine.
RMI Guide Mike Walter & Team
First and foremost, please tell me Argentina won. Please. This morning our team awoke to beautiful clear skies. The twin summits of Europe's highest peak were shining and in the faint distance several climbers could be seen on the upper slopes.
Lower down we prepared our packs and after a hearty breakfast we laced up our boots and pulled up our knickers for a good day of acclimatization. The entire team did fabulous as we made it above Pastukhova Rocks with an end altitude of 15,500 feet. I swear some of the team wanted to just keep climbing to the top!
Now, we are back at camp recovering from a great day in the Russian mountains.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
Hello everyone! Well, we are still at high camp on Alpamayo. The weather during the evening last night was a variable mix of snow and wind with periods of calm in-between. Sometime shortly after 2am, we decided to take advantage of one of the calm times and see how the route would treat us. After several hours of difficult, waist deep, trail breaking the team managed to access the main couloir on the southwest face. Unfortunately it was a six-inch deep torrent of falling spindrift and finding ice to stick our tools into was impossible. We retreated and made it back to camp shortly after 6am.
We have decided to wait one more day and hope to see an improvement in the weather. Keep your fingers crossed that tomorrow morning we will find good climbing conditions.
RMI Guide Eric Frank
The Five Day Climb May 23 - 27 reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today. RMI Guides Brent Okita and Sam Hoffman led the teams. The group reached the crater rim around 7:45 am PT. This is our first Mt. Rainier summit of the 2024 season.
The Mt. Rainier Four Day Climb August 9 - 12 led by RMI Guide Casey Grom reached the summit this morning around 7:15 AM. The guides reported a beautiful day with light winds. They will enjoy some time in the crater before starting their descent. Once back at Camp Muir the climbers will have a short rest to refuel and re-pack. The hike down from Camp Muir will take the team around 2 and 1/2 hours and the shuttle will then return them to Rainier BaseCamp where they will enjoy a bit of celebration.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
Hello from the Ishinca Valley in the beautiful Cordillera Blanca! Oh boy, what a treat it is to finally be in the mountains after 4 days in and around town. It is a beautiful setting here at Ishinca Base Camp, nestled between massive snow and ice covered giants at 14,400’. The peaks around us soar up to 20,000’ and it’s a sight to behold.
It took us about 4 hours to make the move here from the trail head. We donned day packs after leaving the bulk of our weight with the donkeys and arrieros, and enjoyed a light weight walk all the way in under sunny skies. Soon after setting up camp, the afternoon rains reared their ugly heads, but luckily we were already warm and dry in our tents.
Tonight, believe it or not, we were treated to a trout dinner with baby potatoes, chicken soup, and jello. We live our best lives here in Peru, and our cook Emilio is a huge part of that.
Tomorrow, we’ll take’er easy. A little walking, a little technical training, and maybe even some napping. We’ll fill you in tomorrow. Until then, thanks for following along!
RMI Guide Robby Young and Team ‘Trucha’
PS - Spanish word of the day is Sombra (Shade)
May 29, 2017
Greetings all - this is Robbie Young and Mike Walter with the RMI Denali Team. Today was another day of waiting out some weather here at 14,000' Camp. We had snow and some winds this morning and it's just now starting to improve this afternoon. We're on Day 25 and we are looking forward to hopefully a break in this weather over the next few days to give us an opportunity to summit or at least make an attempt if the weather holds out. If not, we're probably looking at coming down at the same time in the next few days here. Looking forward to our opportunity and look forward to checking in again tomorrow, hopefully in 17000' Camp.
Thanks. Ciao.
RMI Guide Robbie Young
RMI Guide Robby Young checks in from 14,000ft Camp on Denali.
Hi Mark - I have been following your expedition on the blog, and thinking of you and the others up on the mountain. Those are remarkable photographs and incredible descriptions of the severe weather conditions. You and the team are pretty damn impressive. I sure hope the weather finally cooperates, but whatever happens you have accomplished something mighty. I will look forward to seeing you upon your return. —Geordie Vining (from Crossfit)
Posted by: Geordie Vining on 5/31/2017 at 5:28 am
Hey Mark, Kev sends me to the blog about every other day to check on your summit progress…for some reason he can manage an RX Murph (we missed you!) but can’t navigate the blog ;) Hoping the weather cooperates for y’all. Catch you on the flip side, H + K
Posted by: heidi + kevin murphy on 5/30/2017 at 8:20 pm
RMI Guides Tyler Reid and Geoff Schellens led their teams to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Both teams reported great route conditions and a beautiful day. The teams began their descent from Mt. Rainier's crater rim shortly before 8 am. They will return to Camp Muir and then continue down to Paradise this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's Four & Five Day Summit Climb teams!
It snowed through the night and into the morning here at 14,200 ft. Not heavily, and there wasn't much wind finding our camp, so it wasn't like it was an awful or epic storm. But it was enough of a storm to keep us from going climbing today. We caught the odd view of the mountainside through occasional cloud breaks in the morning and saw dramatic avalanche scars in the Messner Couloir and Orient Express that matched the rumbling we'd heard. After a long breakfast, we turned the day into a rest day to shore up our acclimatization. By evening, the clouds were breaking up and it seemed that weather was improving again. We'll try again tomorrow.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn & Team
We had a productive day today on the slopes of Denali. We moved camp to 9,500 ft and made one of the mental transition to life on the mountain. By that I mean that we started talking about food cravings. Today it was differrent types of potato chip.
We are all tired from our 6 hours on the trail but we are all healthy and happy.
RMI Guide Walter Hailes
Have a great time Millers Prayers and good weather Love Mom and Granny
Posted by: Cornelia Miller on 7/11/2014 at 6:09 am
Tomorrow is the big day!! We’ve got you covered.
Posted by: Granny on 7/10/2014 at 7:01 pm
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