A messy weather picture has got most teams pulling back from immediate summit bids. That isn't so strange at this point of the season. It is not quite awful weather and not quite good weather...tough to commit a bigger team to a resource-burning summit bid without a bit more stability. And we hope that stability will be on the horizon soon, but in the meantime...
My team of Seth, Erica, Kent and Ang Kaji can still head up for our final acclimatization rotation and we will tomorrow morning. The days are still shiny and blue each morning with messiness creeping in near midday. Wind, clouds and some snow showers roll in and down here in Basecamp, we retreat to the tents. But none of that should keep us from hopping up to ABC and making an effort to sleep at CIII in these next few days. Whereas just a day ago, it seemed unreasonably tough to gear up for this mission, now that the decision has been made we are each eager for it. The only thing worse than actually taking risky, uncomfortable action at high altitude for four or five days is sitting down in BC contemplating it. We are now set to get on with it. There will be a few significant tests to this round. The first will be our effort to go directly from BC to ABC without a night at CI. It means getting up just a bit earlier and walking just a bit farther than we have, so far, but my guess is that we are capable of it. Then, it will be important to improve on our past performance in what will be our second climb up the Lhotse Face and to withstand the weirdness of a first night close to 24,000 ft. We'll test out our oxygen systems in the place they were designed for and try to work out any kinks before the summit bid.
Despite the avalanche accident and a day that was anything but restful - smack in the middle of our time down low...we are now well rested, healthy and ready to get our work done. I believe that Peter Whittaker's team actually has things a bit tougher now, having to keep their edge for an imminent summit bid while patiently waiting a few more days in Basecamp. This kind of thing happens a lot in mountaineering, they will do fine with it.
Greetings all,
The gangs all here and our adventure in Peru is officially underway! The first hurdle of the trip has passed; which is to make it to Peru with all of our climbers and all of their bags. We even made it out of the big chaotic city of Lima in excellent time yesterday morning and set our sites on the beautiful town of Huaraz. It took us about 8 hours to get here, but the ocean views, and then the mountain views keep us entertained for the long bus ride. As soon as we crest Conococha Pass at 12,600’, we’re treated to some incredible views of the glaciated peaks of the southern Cordillera Blanca as well as the Cordillera Huayhuash. What a site to get us pumped for some climbing!
We’re now in Huaraz at my absolute favorite hotel in the world, Hotel Andino. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner here last night and got a great nights sleep. Today, it’s all about gear, an acclimatization hike above town, and some good eating. We’ll tell you all about it later. Thanks for checking in.
RMI Guide Robby Young and Team Alpaca Steaks
Hello world!
We're back in the comfy confines of Hotel Andino in Huaraz City! We're indulging in the excellent cuisine here at the hotel, enjoying some clean clothes, and doing the "climbing gear shuffle" as we unpack and repack for our next adventure. Upcoming, Pisco Oeste, a nearly 19,000' peak located in the beautiful valley of Llanganuco. We've trained, we've acclimatized, we've climbed hard, and we've learned a lot this past week; and we're ready for the expedition ahead of us! The adventure begins tomorrow with a beautiful drive and a four-hour hike to Pisco Base Camp at 15,500', before a move to high camp the following day. It's been a wonderful stretch of climbing here in Peru so far, and we hope our good luck with weather will continue (fingers crossed!). For now, enjoy some photos from our last week in the Ishinca Valley. More to come!
RMI Guides Robby Young, Alan Davis, William, and Peru Team "Cuy"
Friday, June 8, 2018 9:18 PM
Hello friends and family from the summit of Denali! This is Walter Hailes and the climbing team with Alden, Chip, Brett and Tyler had a successful summit day today and we are enjoying a beautiful, sunny, almost windless summit. Couldn't get any better. We got to climb with Pete Van Deventer and team and had a good time switching leads with them. We got to enjoy lots of fun summit photos and beautiful blue skies with Pete and Team. We are back at camp now, we're going to have a late dinner. We are probably going to wake up pretty late in the morning and head back to 14,000' Camp. We will keep you informed with our dispatches until we talk to you again. A lot of love and safe travels.
We'll talk to you soon. Bye.
RMI Guide Walter Hailes & Team!
Walter Hailes on the Summit of Denali June 8, 2018
Congratulation fellas! A great accomplishment for a worthy cause! All the best. D.
Posted by: Dirk Gilliard on 6/18/2018 at 2:27 pm
Way to go Chippy and Alden! So proud of you guys! Be safe heading down and can’t wait to hear all about it over a nice cold beer on our patio! xxoo Stacey (& Sean)
The Four Day Summit Climb teams led by RMI Guides JJ Justman and Solveig Waterfall were unable to reach the summit of Mt. Rainier due to unstable snow conditions. The Teams turned at 11,654’ on Disappointment Cleaver and are now safely back at Camp Muir. They will start their descent and be back to Rainier Basecamp in the early afternoon.
Just spoke with a team member and learned of the incredible experience he had inspite of not making it to the summit. This grateful mom is thankful for the guides sound decision making! Congrats to all!
Posted by: Beth on 9/7/2015 at 2:43 pm
Way to go guys. Sorry the conditions weren’t better for you. Can’t wait to hear all the details of your great adventure.
Ray
Posted by: RAYMOND LABARBERA on 9/7/2015 at 12:58 pm
June 8, 2015, 4:37 pm PT
Firing the Fixed lines!
Today it was a good day. We woke in the bitter cold at 14 camp and slowly rose from our warm down feathers. With coffee and a bowl of granola we clipped in to our ropes. Finding rather pleasant walking conditions, we smoothly flowed up the slopes below the Headwall then gained the fixed lines up to 16,200ft. Our last 20 minutes up the lines provided brisk winds and motivated our super strong team to depart the lines and pass the ridge where the winds became a light breeze. This was a welcome way to spend our break and unload our final cache of food and fuel for our summit push!
The team prepared for the descent back down in the brisk wind. With the confidence of great mountaineers we smoothly cruised down to our camp. Then a session with our grand lunch sacks along with a well deserved afternoon nap.
The evening will be a group dinner with the West Rib crew. Likely to consist of big fried quesadillas laughter and friendships forged!
Till tomorrow, Positive Vibes!
RMI Guides Tyler Jones, Lindsay Mann & Chase Nelson
Ken,
We’re all pulling for you and the team. Enjoy your last few days on the mountain.Looking forward to all the stories.
Jim
Posted by: Jim Rowe on 6/9/2015 at 4:55 pm
Ken, you and the team are getting closer every day. I am excited for you. Hang in there, enjoy the journey as you pursue that dream. Thoughts, prayers, and positive vibes all headed your way.
Dennis
Sunday, May 31st 9:38pm PDT
Hi there. This is Adam Knoff calling from High Camp on Mount McKinley. I would like to report that we had a very successful and warm rest day today. We practiced putting on all of our warm clothes, walking around like stay-puffed marshmallow people, getting ready for tomorrow. The weather outlook is still in our favor so we expect to have a good, but somewhat exciting, day on the upper mountain on Mount McKinley. We will call you some time along the line. Adios.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff
We are at Aconcagua Basecamp safe and sound. I just wrote an elaborate blog and as our team was telling stories I got involved and wouldn't you know it, my entire blog was erased!
The team is safe, sound and having fun. The weather now is horrible up high. I don't mean to brag but we made the summit on the best day. Now the mountain is angry. But we are happy here in Basecamp.
We are hiking out tomorrow and will be in Mendoza for New Year's Eve. This is officially our last blog post. Thank you so much for following along.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
This evening I am at Camp 1 (at 5,500m, or 18,000 ft). One of only two climbers on the mountain. The weather at Base camp has been consistently light to heavy rain. I think that has kept most teams off the mountain and holed up at Base camp. But occasional windows through the bad weather had me convinced that clear skies were not too far above. Tonight I am at Camp 1, and I am enjoying great weather and my first clear views of Manaslu!
Last time I checked in I was in Jagat. I've been pushing hard with little rest. My gut tells me the summit window will come early and I want to be ready for it. The current weather forecast shows light snow for the next couple of days, then a heavy fall 2-3 days from now -- then another clear weather window. But weather forecasts more than a day or so out in the Himalaya are very suspect, so I depend more on the reality on the ground each day.
The route from base camp to Camp 1 travels up a heavily crevassed glacier. A solo fall would mean serious trouble; there are simply too many of the seemingly bottomless black holes to take this traverse lightly. So the route to Camp 1 required careful thought and planning as a solo climber. Happily I can report no major mishaps or surprises -- thanks to that good plan, and extremely careful execution. Tomorrow I will explore the route to Camp 2 and prepare a good camp here at Camp 1. Recent snow has some areas of the mountain unstable, as several natural releases made plainly evident today. So I'll stick my neck out only so far on my exploration of the route to Camp 2 (at 6,300m, or 20,700 ft) over the next couple of days.
Best regards from snowy Nepal,
RMI Guide Alex Barber
All is well in Tanzania. We’ve had great weather and the team is humming along really well.
We hit the trail just after 8 am and hiked for an hour before taking our usual 15 minute break, then back on the trail for another hour and so on. In total today we hiked for just over 7 hours before reaching Barranco camp. Our gracious Kilimanjaro porters and staff have been working very hard and we arrived once again to a camp set up and ready for us.
Along the way we passed around the famous Lava Tower reaching just over 15,000ft setting new altitude records for many. We also passed by many of the giant groundsels and towering Senecio trees that made us feel as if we were in some crazy Dr. Zuess story.
Congratulation fellas! A great accomplishment for a worthy cause! All the best. D.
Posted by: Dirk Gilliard on 6/18/2018 at 2:27 pm
Way to go Chippy and Alden! So proud of you guys! Be safe heading down and can’t wait to hear all about it over a nice cold beer on our patio! xxoo Stacey (& Sean)
Posted by: Stacey Wieland on 6/10/2018 at 9:13 am
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