Seth Waterfall led his seminar team up the Kautz Route and is descending via the Disappointment Cleaver Route. At 7:05 a.m. the team was at 13,600' headed to Camp Muir. Seth reported totally clear skies and calm winds.
Congratulations to the Kautz Seminar!
After listening to rain hit our tent for most of the night, there was finally silence in the morning. We started our summit attempt of Mt. Baker via the Coleman Demining route with high cloud cover but fairly dry. When we were almost to the pumice ridge the clouds grew darker and precipitation in the form of rain began. The visibility dropped and I made the decision to descend. We are down safe and sound and enjoyed the climb despite the damp conditions.
Until next season!
RMI Guide Zeb Blais
RMI Guides Brent Okita and Zeb Blais lead their Four Day Summit Climb teams to approximately 11,400 on the Disappointment Cleaver route before turning around due to avalanche danger higher on the route.
The teams returned to Camp Muir and will begin their descent to Paradise this morning. We look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp later today.
May 24, 2015 - 11:48 pm PT
Hello again from 11,000ft!
We woke up this morning to a fresh dumping of snow at camp, covering our tents and cook tent. First order of business this morning was getting everything dug out and reinforcing our snow walls.
The weather was still looking a little squirrelly afterwards, so we opted for a bit of a relaxed breakfast while we continued to watch what was going on outside. After a couple hours, our patience was rewarded and things cleared up enough for us to get organized and take off downhill to retrieve our cache at 9800'. We made down, grabbed our cached goods, and jammed back uphill in good time. This is a strong team! Everyone just keeps going and is having fun!
Once back at 11,000' with all our gear, the weather made a turn for the better. The skies cleared out, the winds died down, and the sun warmed us as we relaxed for the rest of the evening. If all goes well, we'll push up to 13,500' tomorrow to cache our gear around Windy Corner in preparation for our move to 14k.
Goodnight for now!
RMI Guide Nick Hunt and the rest of the team
Much respect for you all and your endeavor on Denali. This is your year Will. Godspeed….
Posted by: John on 5/26/2015 at 8:10 am
Shannon—sorry we missed your calls Sunday night. Thought of you through the weekend and missed your smiling face and sarcastic jabs at Shakamak. Wishing you and the entire team better weather and a safe climb. We’re cheering you on!
Greetings from Tambopaxi Lodge,
Today we took a full day to rest our weary legs and heal our slightly sun burnt faces. After a breakfast with a view of Cotopaxi a few of team members went horseback riding while the rest of us drank coffee and swapped stories from our Antisana climb. The riders got all dressed up in Ecuadorean ponchos, cowboy hats, and alpaca chaps. We then wasted no time getting to our next activity...... A four course lunch. We did manage to get in some training in during the afternoon but were easily distracted by views of the mountain and galloping wild horses.
We look forward to a good night of sleep because tomorrow there will be no such luxury. Tomorrow we will be up and at 'em around 10 pm to ascend our final peak, Cotopaxi.
Everyone hear wishes their special someone at home a very happy Valentine's Day!
RMI Guide Ben Liken and Amigos
This morning we woke to the traditional Aconcagua weather pattern, cold temps and consistent winds. We watched snow billow off the upper Polish glacier into the sky forming clouds that resembled smoke rising from a 23,000 ft bonfire.
Everyone is chomping at the bit to move camp and begin our summit attempt, but we will spend one more night at Camp 2 and hope the forecast of 5-20 mph winds holds out.
Quesadillas for lunch and more tent time. If you are reading these blogs with any desire to go expedition climbing get a Kindle and crush tent time like a pro.
RMI Guides Mike King and Steve Gately
Quick note from RMI Guide Casey Grom on the Cayambe summit:
100% on top!
Once the team is back to camp, Casey will send photos and a dispatch.
Congratulations to the Team!
Despite our being very much ready to break camp and head higher, the upper mountain wasn't ready for us. When the sun finally hit at 11 AM, it was coming through streamers of wind blown snow driven from the ridge crest that -coincidentally- was to be our goal for the day. We ate breakfast and eyeballed the clouds and winds, neither of which got better as we watched. The forecast had called for light winds and light cloud cover. We had to admit, that in every other location visible to us, that prediction seemed accurate... Except the one place we wanted to go. We watched as gust after gust drove snow straight down the length of the fixed ropes. In other parts of the world, we might have attempted to fight such a wind, but in this ultra cold environment, it wouldn't have been a fair fight. By mid-afternoon there was no letup and so a rest day was declared. Five teams camped around us did exactly the same thing. Two small teams already at high camp hunkered down and reported steady 25 knot winds with higher gusts. For being a bad-weather day, it was sunny and calm where we sat, slept, read, played cards, ate and drank. Tomorrow.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hello everyone!
Today was our travel day from the mountain to St. Petersburg. It was a pretty long day with the four-hour bus ride to the airport and then a three-hour flight. It was a pretty uneventful day, but the team is doing very well. Everyone is happy to be here in this beautiful city and looking forward to our city tour tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Enjoy that beautiful city! From underground in the subways to the glories of the Hermitage amid memories of the long siege—it is a glorious city. So glad you are having a chance to visit it. MA
Posted by: MaryAnn on 7/22/2014 at 8:32 am
Down off the mountain and now you get to visit a city that many of my friends and relatives want to visit or have visited and think it is great. Have fun and enjoy Mom and Granny
Posted by: Cornelia Granny on 7/22/2014 at 6:47 am
Today was packing day. We met for breakfast at the ‘Roadhouse’ in downtown Talkeetna at 8:00 am. If there’s one thing to remember about eating at the Roadhouse it’s to order the half size portions. The full size breakfasts are unbelievably huge.
After breakfast we met up at Hudson Air. This is where the RMI storage unit is located. Hudson Air has been in the glacier flying business for 54 years and Jay Hudson, the owner, is very accommodating to our groups. He pretty much lets us have our run of the place.
We spend the morning going through all of our personal gear. One of the things that makes Denali tough is carrying all of the gear and food you’ll need for the whole three weeks, so it pays to go through each and every item to make sure that you don’t have too much, but also that you don’t forget anything.
After a break for lunch we meet at the NPS Ranger station in Talkeetna for our orientation meeting. This is a ritual that every Denali climber must go through. The Rangers meet with us and show a slideshow of the West Buttress route. This is also where we receive our Clean Mountain Cans and bio-degradable bags for disposing of human waste.
After finishing up at the hangar in the afternoon we all adjourned to Talkeetna for our last night in town for 18 to 22 days!
Any navigation issues on the upper Kautz?
Posted by: Jared on 8/13/2016 at 11:29 am
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