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The Team had a restful night and woke feeling good after a delicious dinner of tacos and calm weather. The morning consisted of sorting and packing gear for our carry to Camp 1 tomorrow. With winds picking up the Team went for a short hike to stretch their lungs and legs. Plaza Argentina Base Camp is located on an undulating glacial moraine that is covered in scree. The camp is comprised of four large outfitters that provide logistics and meals. There are 10 large geodesic dome tents per outfitter and a few buildings for the Park Rangers. Hot showers, internet, pizza and cold drinks make the living up here pretty rough. While everyone is enjoying the amenities, after a few more nights here they will be itching to get going on the upper mountain. We are currently resting and watching the clouds pass. Plaza Argentina is starting to get busy as 3-4 groups have walked in. Casual day and there is some nervous energy about the first heavy carry day tomorrow. The guides are all pleased with how everyone is acclimating and getting along. With clouds covering the upper slopes we are anticipating some snow and cooler temperatures for the remainder of the day. Thanks for following along. RMI Guide Mike King

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Hola! The sun has set on our first day in Bolivia! The group just returned after a great tour through La Paz. We checked out the fruit filled markets, quiet plazas and even had the opportunity to ride the gondola up to the rim of the city and into it's sister town El Alto. La Paz sits in a valley at the toe of the altiplano, or high plains, and the gondola brings commuters out of the valley, and 500 meters up onto the steppe. Our timing couldn't have been better as the sun was setting on the Altiplano upon arrival. From our vantage we could look out over the city and see our climbing objectives Huayna Potosi and Illimani standing tall against the plains. we are regrouping in a moment and we will head out for our kick-off dinner and celebration. RMI Guide Eric Frank

The Four Day Summit Climb Teams for September 19 - 22 led by RMI Guides Casey Grom and Geoff Schellens reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning just before 7 am PT. Casey reported a change in the weather with increasing winds as the teams approached the crater rim. Both teams will return to Camp Muir for a short break before continuing down to Paradise later today. Congratulations to today's Summit Climb teams!

Our Four Day Summit Climb teams led by Billy Nugent and Gabriel Barral reached the top of Mt. Rainier today. They climbed into a cloud cap that greeted them with strong winds and cold temperatures. The teams started their descent back to Camp Muir at about 8:01am PST. Our Emmons Expedition Skills Seminar team led by Dan Windham check it at 12:52pm PST today from Camp Schurman. The team headed out for their summit attempt at about 7:00am PST in hopes that the rain and wind they experienced at camp would die down. The team was able to reach an elevation of 12,000' but decided to turn back due to poor visibility, strong winds and heavy snow. The team will continue training and plan on being back at Rainier Basecamp tomorrow afternoon. Congratulations to today's teams.

Hi, this is Linden checking in with the Island Peak Team from High Camp on Island Peak. We packed up camp this morning and climbed to just shy of 18,000', to our High Camp here on Island Peak. We are camped about 1,500' feet below the glacier and will have some more moderate rock scrambling to get up to the approach to the climb. We went up this afternoon to get the route fixed in. Everything looks good and we are planning to leave tomorrow morning about 3 a.m. for our summit bid. Our plan is to climb to the summit of Island Peak and then descend to High Camp and Base Camp and head back to Chukung. We will give a call tomorrow night from Chukung hopefully with good news. We had a little bit of wind today so keep your fingers crossed that it will hold off until we are back at High Camp. The team is doing well and everyone is excited for the climb. We are about to head off to bed and we'll check in again tomorrow.

RMI Guide Seth Burns and Team were on the summit of Mt. Baker this morning. They enjoyed some great turns on the Squak glacier during their training yesterday. Their training came in handy to help them get to the summit of Mt. Baker today.

Nice work team!

What goes up, must go down! Our uphill travel is over and it is now time for us to make our way downhill. What took us 12 days to get up to, would only take us a handful of hours to get back down. We broke down our camp at 19,600' and began our walk down to the much thicker air at 13,800'. It was a fantastic sight to see the Grajales staff welcome us back to basecamp. They greeted us with yummy snacks and a bottle of sparkling wine to celebrate our achievement. We could not ask for a more friendly group of people. After enjoying sitting in chairs and filling our bellies with fruit and various snacks, we had some chores to do. We sorted our gear and packed our duffles for the mules tomorrow. Our journey and long days are not over yet. Tomorrow we have a long hike to Pampa de Lenas. The promise of a carne asada BBQ will keep the team going and a promise of showers will keep us going the following day. The end is near where we can wash off all the dirt.

Just two more nights in sleeping bags,
RMI Guide Hannah Smith and team

 

Summit! The Four Day Team enjoyed beautiful weather and some time in the crater this morning. They began their descent from the crater rim a little before 8 AM. The guides reported very little wind and a beautiful day on the mountain. Once back at Camp Muir the teams will take a short break before continuing down to Paradise and eventually to Rainier BaseCamp. Congratulations to today's climbers!

RMI Guide Geoff Schellens just called from the summit of Sahale Peak! The team had a great climb and ended up above the clouds with great views of the surrounding North Cascades peaks peeking out. The seminar team has had a fun week of training and climbing, reaching the top of Aiguille and Sahale Peak. Tomorrow they will finish their training and descend back to the trail head before parting ways.

We did get a peek at Kilimanjaro this morning before breakfast. The glaciers and icefields were seemingly hanging at impossible angles on Kibo’s flanks. But since -at Machame Camp- we were just in the top layer of a sea of clouds, the views didn’t last too long before we were within the soup again. Nieman introduced our Barking Zebra staff after breakfast -we are supported by fifty men- and then we were treated to a couple of songs as everybody danced and clapped along. Then it was time to get walking at 8:30 AM. Immediately out of camp, the trail got a little more difficult than what we’d encountered yesterday. The trail became a series of rock steps, like a giant stairmaster up through a corridor of giant heather that became a little less giant as we got higher. Eventually we ended up walking along a ridgeline above the clouds. We had great views of Kibo (Kilimanjaro’s central peak) and could look around as the vegetation changed with increasing altitude. Large white-necked ravens flew acrobatic and aerobatic maneuvers in the thermals around us. We began turning to the north and climbed a few small rock walls to get out to the Shira Plateau -west of Kibo. From this 13,000 ft high point for the day, we then had an easy walk down to our camp at 12,600 ft. It took us five hours on the trail, which meant we had most of the afternoon to lounge about in Shira Camp, getting used to the altitude, stocking up on food and water. The clouds came back over in late afternoon, depriving us of a much anticipated sunset, but when we came out of the dining tent after dinner, things had cleared and we had world class views of the night sky. The Southern Cross, the Milky Way, Jupiter and Saturn were all easily visible and making it tough to get inside our sleeping tents for the night. Best Regards RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map