June 17, 2017 1:26 am PST
Hi, everyone. This is Tyler Jones and the Denali team. We moved out of High Camp and we're back at 11 Camp. We are hoping to go to the air strip sometime tomorrow. Hope all is well. Everything's good here. Talk to you all soon. Bye.
RMI Guide Tyler Jones
I’m so sorry that the mountain and the weather didn’t cooperate with you guys, but I am sure it was still an amazing adventure. The girls are talking about climbing Whitney this year.. .are you up for it? Well, maybe after you rest for a couple of days :)
You are still amazing in every way! Still my hero, my knight in shining armor! I love you so very much and I can’t wait to see you!!!!
xoxo MO
Posted by: Amanda Gunn on 6/17/2017 at 9:47 am
Tym, Tyler, and Team,
You may be too close to home to even get this. So sorry the weather did not cooperate. There were reports of snow, snow, and more snow. I know how hard everyone worked and wanted this to happen. I am confident you made strong, life-long bonds with your team who share your love of climbing. And for you Tym, three’s a charm…so maybe next year! Best wishes for a safe trip home.
Love, Mom and Zeppelin
Posted by: Kristi Kennelly on 6/17/2017 at 8:54 am
Hey, this is Dave Hahn phoning in from the RMI Everest Climb. We are in Deboche still. Last night I couldn't get through it was snowing fairly hard and I couldn't get a phone signal. This morning, it's looking a little bit better. A little sunshine coming through; there is still some high clouds. But right now we're at a green light to go up to Pheriche. Our intention is to go up through Pangboche, see Lama Geshe, and head up to Pheriche this evening. Yesterday was a nice quiet day for us. We just went up to Tengboche Monastery in the morning and then kinda hunkered down in our tea house here in Deboche to wait out the snowstorm. But nice afternoon taking it easy. Bye now.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Greetings all!
Last night was clear and cold with the freezing level hanging just below our new home here at 14,000ft. Today is all about relaxing though and the team enjoyed a leisurely morning and some of JJ's famous scrambled egg breakfast.
Our agenda tomorrow has us carrying a load of gear to cache at Camp I (16,400ft) What this means is that we will ferry a load of gear higher on the mountain and then return back to basecamp to sleep. This will allow the team to better acclimatize while moving much needed food and gear higher on the mountain and consequently making our move day loads lighter. So this afternoon will be spent organizing and packing gear for an early start tomorrow. The team is looking forward to the challenge of heavy packs and higher elevation. Morale is high, the weather is good and we couldn't be happier!
RMI Guide Steve Gately & Team
This morning’s climb led by Win Whittaker and Billy Nugent had to turn around at 12,300’ because of low visibility and high winds. They were back at Camp Muir where it was snowing and in the clouds. They are planning on heading back to Paradise around 8:00 a.m.
Our descent is well underway. We woke up a bit leisurely this morning and let things get a bit warmer, then packed our belongings and started down the West Buttress. Before long we were in the relative warmth of 14,000', wearing much less than all the 14,000' Camp dwellers themselves. Something about coming down from somewhere that's been - 25 to change perspective. We packed more belongings at 14 Camp, and started down towards 11,000'. We had a plan to see how low we could get. We made it to 11,000' Camp in great time, so the team decided to take a minute to brew up some more water, then keep going to the base of Ski Hill, our first camp of the expedition. We are there now, where things feel truly balmy. We're going to take a quick snooze, then wake up early and walk the last bit to Kahiltna Base Camp, where we hope planes will be flying first thing!
It was a little tough leaving the Plantation Lodge this morning -it is a very comfortable place and we’d enjoyed our two nights there, but it was time to be moving on. Tarangire National Park beckoned, and we were excited to see what we could see. There were a couple of important stops to make on the drive over, one of which was a visit to a Maasai village. The Maasai are just one of many tribes in Tanzania, but they stand out because they choose to continue living in a traditional style, forgoing modern conveniences. We witnessed singing and dancing and a demo of how to rub sticks to make fire. We went into the sleeping dwellings and asked our tour guides a million questions about polygamy, arranged marriages, education and building materials. The team did a little gift shopping when the women of the village presented their handmade craftwork. We then headed for the park, excited to see the wildlife. Tarangire is a series of parallel rivers and shallow valleys separated by rolling hills and broad savanna. Before too long we were spotting birds and impala, warthogs and waterbucks. It took a bit before we saw giraffes and elephants, but then things quickly got interesting. A bull elephant pointed himself directly at a couple of lounging lions and not only disturbed their date, he chased the male lion and stood trumpeting on the ground they surrendered. A high point for many of us was seeing elephant families that included a number of one month old babies. One family of 20 took to a pond to cool off and splashed, wrestled, drank and rolled for no other logical reason than that it was just plain old pachyderm fun. We found big and solitary bull elephants and watched their behavior... all serious and food focused, in contrast to the matriarch ruled families. Some of the day’s best cruising was done in late afternoon as the sun got low on lush green fields, gigantic baobab and skinny palm trees. We finished up in friendly Balloon Camp -a rustic hideaway hotel in the bush. We’ve got one last morning to see leopards and cheetahs.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
The Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer reached the top of Cathedral Gap last night before having to turn back due to high winds of about 60 mph. The team is safely back at Camp Muir. They will wait for a bit of a break in the weather before starting their descent. We expect the team back at Rainier Basecamp in the early afternoon.
Hey Dave Stults et Al, from what I can see seems weather prevented summit. Sorry for that but certainly seems more than wise and sometimes Nature just overwhelms. Take care- Love, Dad
Hola from 15,300 feet at the Cayambe hut. I will be keeping this dispatch short today because it is getting late and the wind outside chills one to the bone. Now that we are out of internet range, we must connect our modem doo-hicky to the SAT phone thingamabobber and send our report that way. It can be time consuming and cold to say the least.
Today we woke up- The End. JK. After breakfast we went to Ecuador's largest indigenous market in the beautiful town of Otavalo. Here we bought gifts for all blog followers and a few others we might like. At noon we finished shopping, ate lunch, piled into the bus and set sail. All was going well until five miles from the hut our driver said, "No mas!" The road did resemble the easy parts of a motocross track but we couldn't walk that far so I said, "Yes mas," and made him drive further. This happened two more times until we could go no further. We loaded the remaining bags into Henry's jeep and walked the remaining hour to the Refugio. Once there we drank tea, tied knots, untied knots, ate Nick and Adam's famous mountain lasagna, took deep breaths and went to bed. The team is doing great adjusting to these new heights. We are excited to go to the glacier for some training tomorrow. Stay tuned.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff
June 23, 2014 - 5:21 pm PT
After a long, tough day yesterday putting in our cache at 17,000', High Camp on Mt. McKinley, we decided last night that today would be another rest day. The team is spending the day relaxing in the tents, and catching up on nutrition and hydration after returning to camp at 14,000' last night depleted. Yesterday's exercise combined with today's rest should make us acclimatize well and make us exceptionally strong on our summit push. It's also good mentally to know what a long day is like and to know that we are strong enough to push through.
With our cache up at high camp in and the gang well rested after today we're in a good spot to make our move up and take a crack at the summit. Fingers crossed for a good spell of weather in the near future...
RMI Guide Billy Nugent, from 14,000'.
Hi Michael and Bruce. All is well here. Following your progress on the blog site. I hope you have great weather on your summit day. Bruce, your garden has been eaten by some groundhog. The weeds are thriving though. You’re not missing anything here so enjoy the climb.
Posted by: Joyce on 6/24/2014 at 8:19 pm
Bruce and Michael, best of luck tomorrow, when you get to the top be on the lookout for penguins I understand they are rare that far north, but I have it from good authority that a group is known to nest at the top, out of harms way.
Posted by: Katherine and Reid on 6/24/2014 at 6:36 pm
June 19, 2014 - 11:24 am PT
The team spent yesterday packing, chatting and organizing food. Today we arrived at the hangar and we're told to stand by...a few hours later we are still standing by but are loading are bags onto planes and got the go ahead to change into climbing clothes. Hopefully, we will be loading the planes shortly and our next correspondence will be sent from the Kahiltna Glacier!
RMI Guide Adam Knoff
Glad to hear you are all having such a great trip so far, lets hope it stays that way! I hope you are ever ready for the summit attempt later down the road!
(world cup spoiler below!)
By the way, you missed a nail biting end to the USA-Portugal game—Portugal came back in the last 10 seconds with a header to tie it at 2-2!
Babe,
I’m so sorry that the mountain and the weather didn’t cooperate with you guys, but I am sure it was still an amazing adventure. The girls are talking about climbing Whitney this year.. .are you up for it? Well, maybe after you rest for a couple of days :)
You are still amazing in every way! Still my hero, my knight in shining armor! I love you so very much and I can’t wait to see you!!!!
xoxo MO
Posted by: Amanda Gunn on 6/17/2017 at 9:47 am
Tym, Tyler, and Team,
You may be too close to home to even get this. So sorry the weather did not cooperate. There were reports of snow, snow, and more snow. I know how hard everyone worked and wanted this to happen. I am confident you made strong, life-long bonds with your team who share your love of climbing. And for you Tym, three’s a charm…so maybe next year! Best wishes for a safe trip home.
Love, Mom and Zeppelin
Posted by: Kristi Kennelly on 6/17/2017 at 8:54 am
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