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Wow! The team enjoyed another day of awesome weather for our carry up to Camp 1. Everybody performed exceptionally well on our first push above 16,000' dropping off food, fuel, and supplies.
Upon our return to Basecamp we treated ourselves with prosciutto, fontina, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar baguettes! Then we ate steak for dinner! All in all a great day.
Tomorrow's plans call for a rest day which should line up nicely with some predicted squirrely weather.
We will touch base manana...
RMI Guide Billy Nugent & Team
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Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
We are back at the Plantation Lodge after a nice day of Game viewing. A few new animals and great scenery. Off to a new lodge and park tomorrow. Believe it or not, a bit of dust on us travelers.
Wishing everyone well back home.
100% Summit!
Billy called from the summit this morning. Everyone did well and they are starting their descent back to high camp.
Congratulations Team!
Posted by: Dave Hahn, Hannah Smith, Chad Gaffigan, Luke Wilhelm
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 14,200'
Monday, July 1, 2019 - 10:34 PM PT
Last night’s snowstorm was short-lived, we got perhaps one inch of new at 14 Camp. Afterward, the bulk of the night was calm and in the morning -with some of the smoke washed out of the sky- we were treated to long distance views of the Chugach Mountains to the SE and to volcanoes 150 miles or more to the South. Reports were that it was still windy high on Denali, but in our sheltered bowl at 14,000 ft it was a calm and easy day. We did a long and lazy breakfast of coffee and pancakes which took us pretty much up to lunch. Then it was time for napping, books, TV or movies on the phones, daydreaming, drinking and eating. An enormous cloud cap formed on the upper mountain and so it wasn’t nearly as hot today as it had been, but the mild temperatures have still made life at 14K considerably easier than usual. We are all for easy. With Mike Haugen’s team waiting up at 17,000 and looking to summit tomorrow, we’ll most likely wait another day at 14,000 so as not to crowd them. The forecast is calling for dry and stable weather, giving us the luxury of dragging feet for better acclimatization before we make the big jump up for our summit bid.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Posted by: Brent Okita, Mike King
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,000'
Everyone is doing great on day four of our seminar. A hard day up to Muir was followed by a full day of training on Tuesday in increasingly challenging weather conditions.
Today dawned sunny but quite windy. As forecasted, the winds stayed strong throughout the day. Not being one to let a little wind get in the way of some great training, we did have to moderate our plans to cope with the 40-45 mph sheets of blowing snow that swept thru Muir all day.
Sticking close to camp allowed us to bail back to the bunkhouse for the occasional break. There were no complaints about not getting out on the glacier for the day. An earlier exploration by Mike and me proved the winds were just as strong out there as at camp.
Anchors, crevasse rescue, fixed rope work and rappelling filled the day completely. And for the evening: mountain medicine and mountain weather is on the docket.
We're looking forward to another good day of training tomorrow, though we might have to deal with another little storm to keep us honest.
Alas, I'm afraid a summit bid has been shelved due to the increasing avalanche hazard up high. We're safe here at camp, and that's how we'd like to keep it.
All for now.
The crew at Muir
Posted by: Hannah Smith
Categories: Guide News
After getting pushed back down to Base Camp by poor weather we said good bye to a few team members who are headed home today. Our team is getting smaller and smaller as we near the end of our time here. It's been almost two weeks at Base Camp, and although we unfortunately did not get to climb our objective, it's been a worth while experience. I believe everyone will be walking away from this expedition having learned something. Our journey in this valley is over but our journey in general isn't. Tomorrow we will head to the valley to our east and try our hand at a peak over there. We are hopeful that we can find a smaller peak to teach more mountaineering skills to the Nepali girls and to be able to stand on top of peak.
Here's to some lady luck,
RMI Guide Hannah Smith
If only we could control the weather…
Good Lady Luck on alternate peak!
-MA
Posted by: Mary Ann on 11/5/2018 at 9:49 pm
Hey you gave it your best shot! I’m sure the Team all benefited from the incredible experience! You are all my heroes.
Mich
Posted by: michelle the mom on 11/5/2018 at 8:23 pm
Posted by: Jenny Konway, Jordan Cargill
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 11,200'
The Five Day Summit Climb June 7 - 11, 2018 made their summit attempt of Mt. Rainier this morning but were turned back at 11,200ft due to poor weather and route conditions. RMI Guides Jenny Konway and Jordan Cargill reported several inches of new snow at Ingraham Flats. The teams returned safely to Camp Muir and will descend to Paradise later this morning.
Hello again everyone.
All is still well here in the Khumbu as the team members made our way back into Namche. It was a super busy day on the trail with climbers, Trekkers, yaks, and porters all bound uphill to Everest Base Camp. We slowly made our way through the maze of traffic and enjoyed one last good view of Everest.
Along the way we ran into several old friends from my past trips and stopped to wish everyone good luck.
Tomorrow we'll be moving out early on our final leg of the journey back to Lukla. Please keep you fingers crossed we have good weather and can make our flight back to Kathmandu the following morning.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
Posted by: Mike Haugen, Mike Uchal, Pepper Dee
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 20,320'
Wednesday June 24th 11:45 pm PT
We woke up around seven this morning to one of the warmest mornings I have ever experienced at 17,000 feet camp. We got ready slowly and departed for the top just after nine. The weather was perfect for us pretty much the entire climb. There was a little bit of cold, a little bit of hot, but mostly perfect all day. The El Siete crew walked to the summit in style a little after five this afternoon and spent a good deal of time taking pictures from the top. We had a smooth descent and pulled into camp just after 9:00 p.m. Alaska time for a twelve-hour round trip. We are getting the boys fed and put to bed so we can get up early to start our way out to basecamp and eventually back to you!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen
Audio transcription - Wednesday June 24th 6:30 pm PT
Hi, it's Mike Haugen. I am standing with the RMI el Siete on the summit of Denali. Beautiful weather. We topped out about 5:15 in the evening and are miles above the clouds. We are saying our congratulations to the team and head on back to high camp and send the blog from there. Hope all of our families are doing well. Thank you for your support.
RMI Guide Mike Haugen calls in from the Denali summit!
On The Map
Congratulations to the hole team! Can’t wait to hear all about the climb and to see pictures! Now come home safe, Fredrik!
Posted by: May-Linn on 6/25/2015 at 3:24 pm
Congratulations to all of you, and well done to my norwegian friends Erlend and Fredrik! I was very happy to receive the news today! :-)
Posted by: Viggo Finset on 6/25/2015 at 2:26 pm
Posted by: Jake Beren, Christina Dale, Andrew Kiefer
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
June 6, 2015 11:08am PST
No trip to Denali is truly complete without a taste of the Talkeetna Hang. With the unsettled weather this week continuing, it hasn't been possible to fly in to the Range. While that can be tough for some to hang out in town, it doesn't take many days stuck in a storm on the mountain before we will be wistfully remembering our down days in town.
The team is doing their best to stay in the game. Despite being ready with planes loaded and boots on, we spent the day in town, not flying. With nothing else to do for the trip, we set out to really get into the Talkeetna Hang. An afternoon pizza party prompted a trip to the river to skip some rocks and look towards the mountains. We couldn't see anything but dark clouds toward the Range so we pushed on. Making a stop at the historic Fairview Inn the team got into some fierce ping pong action. Doubles, singles, it didn't matter. Nice to get the heart beating again. After the games a farmer's market set up shop nearby, a concert in the park struck up and we eventually returned to the hanger for a game of Cards against Humanity. A solid day of hanging.
With any luck we will fly today, but if not I think we can find a museum or two to explore.
RMI Guides Jake Beren, Christina Von Mertens, Andrew Kiefer & Team
Best wishes to you all. Enjoy the down time and visualize your success. Be smooth, Mer.
Posted by: Rich on 6/9/2015 at 12:19 pm
Hope you all are enjoying the scenery. Also am hoping the weather is starting to cooperate with your journey.
Pearl
Posted by: Pearl on 6/8/2015 at 1:46 pm
So captivating.
Posted by: Vvkidd on 7/2/2019 at 4:30 pm
Go team! Great work on the carry to high camp!
Posted by: Ken Porrello on 7/2/2019 at 8:57 am
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