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Thursday, June 10, 2021 - 6:09 pm PT
Good evening,
The sun made its way past the curtains flickering in the room. Knowing the sun was partly out was a good sign for flying today. As we made our way to the hangar, we got the call telling us to get our butts in gear. It was time to load the planes. Street shoes were traded in for boots, jeans traded for climbing pants. The air was filled with the roar of the planes and also nerves and excitment knowing that we were about to start our expeditions. Great views and a smooth ride brought us to the Kahiltna Base Camp. Just as we were so excited to fly onto the glacier, other teams stood ready and excited to fly off. We will be them in a few weeks. The rest of the day was spent setting up camp and refreshing skills. We will wake early tomorrow morning to make our way to the next camp.
Let the fun begin,
RMI Guide Hannah Smith
The
Four Day Summit Climbs Teams led by
RMI Guides Seth Waterfall and Mike Haugen reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Seth reported clear skies, no winds and a super nice day for climbing.
The teams were starting their descent from the crater rim just after 7 am today. They will return to Camp Muir for a short break before continuing down to Paradise. We look forward to seeing the teams at Rainier BaseCamp later today.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb Teams!
Hello from
Mt. Elbrus -
Today the team got up a little early to make use of the firm snow to practice using our crampons, and we had a refresher on self-arrest too. After our morning session we enjoyed breakfast and then relaxed near camp chatting with other climbers till lunchtime. Shortly after lunch we had our summit talk where we discussed all aspects of the climb to come and then spent the remainder of the afternoon packing and finalizing all of our gear we will need for the climb.
Everyone has their face mask ready in case the wind howls like it did on my last climb. And we even managed to play a game of trivia where the winner gets to make a satellite phone call from the summit. So if there's someone out there who's favorite musical group is Krewella and loves Simba. Then expect a call around 1am. Which will be roughly 8:30-9am for us.
We'll check in again tomorrow after our big climb.
Wish us luck!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
Our
Ecuador Skills Seminar certainly began with its challenges. Missing bags, canceled flights and the works tested us early but once in the mountains things began to fall into place. The clouds held their releases for what seemed to be a private dry spell solely for us on both Pichincha and Fuya Fuya. On the way up to Cayambe, it was raining from the turn off to the parking area. When it was time to pack our bags and walk to the hut, the faucet turned off. On top of weather luck, our local guides Jaime and Diego secured the only working hut on the mountain. All of the large mountain huts we are used to staying in are under major construction. Three other teams are here to climb and they are all in tents. Only the best for us!
This hut helps tremendously with meals, packing and relaxing. Which we are all doing now after a great hike up to the glacier for some basic review of mountaineering skills. Again the weather was perfect and we have had stunning views of the upper mountain and lower valleys the entire time. Excitement is building for our alpine start tonight. Most people would cringe at waking up at midnight but when a mountain like Cayambe looms above, it's hard to even get to sleep.
Wish us well.
RMI Guides
Adam Knoff and
Nick Hunt
On The Map
Saturday, June 15, 2019 - 1:51 PM PT
When we hit the sack after dinner last night the weather was beautiful and we expected much of the same today. But the weather threw us a curve ball and at 3 AM we woke to snow and wind. We felt like we were inside of a Ping Pong ball, and the cloud cover prevented the snow from freezing last night. So, all in all, not an ideal morning. We pumped the brakes a little and decided to postpone this morning's climb for tonight. Instead, we had a great breakfast of bagels, cream cheese, and smoked salmon to pass the morning. We're currently still in the Ping Pong ball and wet snow is still falling. Hopefully tonight's weather will treat us better and we can get a cache of supplies up to around
10,000'. We'll keep you posted.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
The
Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons July 7 - 12 led by
RMI Guide Jordan Cargill reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning via the Emmons Glacier route. The weather is beautiful with clear skies and calm winds. The team was able to enjoy some time on the summit before beginning their descent. Jordan and team will return to Camp Schurman for their final night on the mountain. Tomorrow they will continue their descent to the trail head and then return to Rainier BaseCamp.
Congratulations to today's Emmons Seminar team!
RMI Guides Brent Okita & Pepper Dee led their Four Day Summit Climb teams to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The enjoyed blue skies and a great climb. They will return to Camp Muir and then continue down to Paradise.
Congratulations to today's
Summit Climb teams.
July 3, 2014 - 11:19 p.m. PT
The forecasts had us optimistic that today would work out well for a
carry to 13,500 ft. At seven AM though, it didn't seem that Denali's clouds had read the forecast. It was socked in above, below and to the West of us. Even so, there was a mass exodus from 11,000' camp underway. The five other guided groups that we've been playing leap-frog with for the past week were all busting down their camps and getting early starts at moving up. By the time we'd finished breakfast, we had the place pretty much to ourselves (to our knowledge, no other climbers have come onto the mountain behind us). The weather, although a little murky and more threatening than we'd expected, seemed stable enough for our mission. We put crampons on our boots today instead of snowshoes, an ice axe in our hands instead of two ski poles, and we elected to give our sleds the day off, loading all food and gear for the carry onto our backs. At just after 9 AM we started up the steep "Motorcycle Hill" above camp. We made steady progress onto "Squirrel Hill" and then into the "Polo Field" laid out below the end of the West Buttress. By the time we reached Windy Corner at 13,300 we were thankful for the cloudcover which was keeping things just cool enough for comfortable climbing. And significantly, Windy Corner wasn't windy. We cruised up and around it to our intended cache site at 13,500 ft. Digging a raven-proof cache occupied us for long enough that the clouds began to clear while we were at it. This meant we were treated to some spectacular views during our descent. With lightened packs, we got down without difficulty. The route was in fabulous condition due to so much recent snow. We haven't crossed an open crevasse since leaving basecamp whereas in other years we might well have stepped over a hundred at this stage of the climb. The forecasted fair weather arrived and made our afternoon and evening resting back at 11,000 camp sunny and easy.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Thursday, July 3, 2014 - 3:01 PM PT
Howdy, ya'all from
Alpamayo Basecamp.
Up here at 14,270' the air is a bit harder to breathe, but we are doing well and feeling strong. The hike today was a unique mix of open glacial plains and mossy paths through the woods which remind us of the land of the hobbits.
Currently the team is reading or napping in the tents to avoid the intense mid-day sun. We are all performing well and, weather permitting, plan to carry some gear up to a higher camp tomorrow.
RMI Guide
Eric Frank
Our team had a great day today, tackling our first
acclimatization climb in good style. We climbed to the summit of Rucu Pichincha, a 15,400' volcano outside of Quito. The views were grand as we ascended in the rare air of high altitude.
Everyone did great (we were all breathing hard up there!), and we look forward to moving out of the comfort of the city life tomorrow, heading south, and getting another acclimatization hike under our belts.
We'll touch base again tomorrow. Thanks for checking in!
RMI Guide
Mike Walter
On The Map
So glad to hear the sun made an appearance and you’re underway. Best wishes for the whole team. I’m thinking of you Byron!
Posted by: Heather Collins on 6/11/2021 at 5:40 pm
Get it, Dustin!! Make Kareem proud with those clear glasses!
Posted by: Drew Dykstra on 6/11/2021 at 1:06 pm
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