Wohooo Sydney you did it!! You amaze me everyday! See you at the bottom.
Love,
Mom
Posted by: Cathy on 6/26/2015 at 7:56 am
Wow! So impressed, so relieved, so proud of you, Chris, my amazing daughter in law! You keep on meeting challenges with determination, grace and grit. Congrats to you and Jasmine both. Love you very much, DIL. Mama Carol
May 24, 2015 - 9:30 pm PT
The wind and snow continued through the night and into today. We spent the night listening to the roar of a freight train of wind above us on the West Buttress. The max gust through camp, according to the NPS weather station was 52 mph. That wind and snow put a few holes in our posh tent, and knocked over a few walls, so we spent the morning stitching up holes and rebuilding walls. Otherwise we fared pretty well through the blizzard. This afternoon things started to subside, and by evening the sun was showing, sparkling off of the small snowflakes that are hanging in the air. Our hope is that that trend will carry through tomorrow, and we'll have the visibility to head back down and retrieve our cache from Windy Corner. Fingers crossed. The change in weather has also caused a change in the general mood of camp, and we're listening to laughing, joking, jovial voices all over camp. We'll let you know how things go tomorrow.
RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Josh Maggard, Robby Young, and team
Hi Renee and team! I have my fingers and toes crossed for the weather to continue to improve - keep up the mac ‘n cheese consumption and look forward to the climb ahead! Cheers, Anna.
Posted by: Anna on 5/26/2015 at 6:02 pm
Jon, guides and team,
Sorry to read that you were pounded by the wind and snow but glad that all of you are safe and survived the blizzard. Hopefully tomorrow will bring you better weather.
Stay safe and healthy.
Hugs,
Mom
This is Solveig and Billy checking in for our team here at Camp 4. This morning we awoke to improving conditions but still not good enough to make our carry up the fixed lines. We have been enjoying sunny skies and light winds down here in camp. Social hour began after breakfast and we've spent the better part of the day getting to know our neighbors here in camp. We also spent some time getting rigged up and practicing for the fixed lines and running belays.
We hope the night will bring decreasing winds and we will be able to head uphill tomorrow.
RMI Guides Solveig Garhart and Billy Nugent
Saturday, July 6, 2019 - 10:38 PM PT
We got it. Only slightly ashamed that it was such a nice day. We didn’t have to worry about frozen faces or fingers or toes. We didn’t have to battle winds. We didn’t have to watch clouds building or encroaching. A lot of the normal stresses just weren’t there today as we cruised to the top of North America and came down to high camp safely.
The stoves were burning just after 5 AM this morning and conditions were exactly the same as when we’d gone to bed... clear and calm. We hit the trail at 6:55 and did battle for two hours with the steep and intimidating Autobahn -the route from 17,200' High Camp to 18,3000' Denali Pass. We found the sunshine up at the pass and then worked a series of steep snow rolls to reach Zebra Rocks, the dramatic black and white rocks along the ridge line. Then it was up and over the ridge formed by the Archdeacon’s Tower and into the Football Field at 19,500'. Things got steep again as we worked 600 vertical feet to attain the summit ridge. The views were overwhelming with no real cloud in our gigantic slice of sky. Just a bit of smoke still, but that didn’t prevent our seeing mountain chain after mountain chain and about a thousand glaciers. We cruised out the summit ridge to gain the absolute high point at 2:10 PM for a very respectable 7.25 hour ascent. There wasn’t any wind to speak of at the summit and the temperature was probably 15 or 20 above... balmy. We limited our very pleasant stay of 40 minutes and began working downward at 2:50. Only one other team went for the top today and we high-fived them on our descent to the Football Field as we passed them still going strong for the top.
We put together a few hours of careful steps and reached camp at 6:25 PM. We were tired but plenty satisfied as we ate dinner and secured things for the night. Several of our gang shattered their altitude records today.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
May 30, 2017
Finally we get a break. After nine days of squirrelly, cold, snowy weather the sun broke out just prior to noon. There was an inkling of better weather coming earlier, but nothing definitive. And when it broke, camp went nuts with folks either moving or carrying loads. We opted to stay put, not liking the idea of fighting all that traffic going up Motorcycle Hill and coming into camp at 14,200' late, needing to build camp as the shadows overtake camp and the temperature drops 30 degrees.
A couple of folks are fighting small colds, and this warm, easy day is just what the doctor ordered. When we saw rope teams waiting for 30-40 minutes to just leave camp because of the traffic, we felt pretty good about the decision.
We certainly enjoyed the day as it became spectacularly sunny and clear. This is the Denali I love and dream of coming back to every year.
With the weather folks are streaming into camp and it's as big as I've seen it. But, with just a little luck, we'll be out of here early and moving into a 14,200' camp that has been vacated by the crowds of climbers amassed there waiting for their opportunity to move to 17,200' camp for a bid for the summit.
Everyone's dispositions have brightened with the sunshine, which is amazing considering the good cheer among the team even in the poor weather.
We'll be talking to you from 14,200' soon!
RMI Guides Brent Okita, Christina Dale and JT Schmitt
First day on the Aconcagua trail and even though it was hot, we had a nice breeze blowing most of the day. We were all very thankful to have that wind. We moved well on the trail enjoying the rigid high desert beauty. We also continued to tell stories of loved ones at home and a few misadventures.
RMI Guide Walter Hailes
Hello RMI!! I have to tell ya...it is so nice to be reunited with the team! No one at Union Glacier camp would let me put my head on their shoulders and cry. However, when my team saw me at Vinson Base Camp they all gave me big bear hugs!
Today we packed up camp and started our climb to Low Camp, close to 10,000 feet. Everyone had a fun day and we worked well getting camp set up. The usual happened with hots and dinner and more hots. Dave is currently buttoning up the kitchen as I write.
Tomorrow the team plans on carrying gear towards high camp. We get to travel some fixed line as the terrain steepens. Stay tuned! AND GO PACKERS!!!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
Peter and J.J. —To my Elbrus teammates…. I am thinking of you and I know you can do it…. Blessings to the entire team
Posted by: john baker on 12/2/2014 at 1:21 pm
Can’t believe you are already primed for the summit. Seems like you just got there. Hope the climb is all you dreamed it would be. Good luck to the team and to my love.
Bonny
Our crew is on our way to a big buffet breakfast and Ixtaccihuatl after our first day in the mountains.
Yesterday's acclimatization hike on La Malinche was a tough introduction to altitude. Dark clouds had gathered at the top as we started and we watched them closely as we pushed up into thinner air. With a short summit window, our entire group pushed hard and worked together to make the top. The weather gods smiled on us and clouds cleared briefly as we scrambled up the last bit of rock to the top.
After a few photos, it was time to get ourselves down to thick air and a warm dinner. La Cabana restaurant set out a generous spread for us and we ended our day with great food and full bellies.
We'll be checking in soon from Ixta.
Cheers from RMI Guides Zeb Blais, Robby Young and the crew!
Hello everyone,
This is Team Mexico calling in from the hut at Orizaba. We had a great day yesterday in Puebla, a day of rest and relaxation. We've all recovered and recuperated after our big day on Ixta. But we're here now setting up tents. There is a hut here, as I mentioned, but it's a little nicer to stay outside. We've got some great Mountain Hardware tents that we're setting up right now for the team. The weather was beautiful coming in, we were able to see Orizaba all day long. But, now we're actually in a cloud but it's one of those happy clouds that surrounded the mountain, real calm winds really non existent winds right now, and we're having some good high hopes for tomorrow. Our plan is to wake up around midnight, and start climbing right around 1:30 - 2 o'clock in the morning, and if all goes well will be getting to the top of Orizaba right around 9 or 10 o'clock in the morning, so thanks for following along. Stay tuned, because hopefully tomorrow will have some great news for you.
Take care everyone, adios from Mexico.
RMI Guide JJ Justman, Elias deAndres Martos & Team
JJ Justman and Team Calling in from High Camp on Orizaba
The clouds parted long enough for our team to fly onto the Kahiltna Glacier today. We have been packed and ready for this day and now we are ready to climb!
Once we are settled in at Kahiltna Base, we'll check in again.
RMI Guides Eric Frank and Geoff Schellens
Wohooo Sydney you did it!! You amaze me everyday! See you at the bottom.
Love,
Mom
Posted by: Cathy on 6/26/2015 at 7:56 am
Wow! So impressed, so relieved, so proud of you, Chris, my amazing daughter in law! You keep on meeting challenges with determination, grace and grit. Congrats to you and Jasmine both. Love you very much, DIL. Mama Carol
Posted by: Carol Waring on 6/25/2015 at 5:34 pm
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