Most Popular Entries
We woke early to perfect weather this morning and decided we couldn't pass up the opportunity to move camp up to 14,200' in
Genet Basin. The weather remained great for us all day, with some clouds building mid morning and a few scattered snow flurries, but no wind to speak of. Laden with heavy packs, we made slow and steady progress and after about six hours we arrived at camp. It's been a few hours now and camp is up, the climbers are resting in their tents, and stoves are cranking melting snow for water bottles and heating water for dinner.
Tomorrow we will head back down to Windy Corner to retrieve our cache. That will be a short day and we're happy for that. We're also looking forward to our first complete rest day the following day (Monday). It's time to lick our wounds, rest, and acclimate.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
Monday, July 2, 2018 - 10:02 am PT
RMI Super Crew 6 is safe and sound back in Talkeetna!
I expected to be tired waking up early to head to Basecamp from our 11k Camp. I realized when you wake up at 11 pm it is either too early or too late to wake up tired! The tired came later.
We had a beautiful night/morning finishing the 10 miles of glacier that delivered us to the airstrip.
Denali gave us one more round of mini snow and wind before it finally gave us a moonrise and sunrise combo.
We arrived at the airstrip just in time for the planes to start flying. We got all of our gear de-rigged and ready to throw on the plane when we were informed that the plans for us had just been changed and the pilots would be picking us up at the upper airstrip a 1/4 mile up glacier. Since the planes were already in the air, we loaded sleds and packs up Beverly Hillbilly style and made the trip in record time just as the planes arrived to bring us back to civilization.
I really appreciate all of the hard work and great attitudes that the Super Crew brought to our adventure. Also, thank you for all of your blog comments and support. It made a huge difference knowing all of you had our backs!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen and Super Crew 6
On The Map
Llaima is a big mountain, deceivingly big - from beneath it looks like a reasonable couple hours of climbing...not so. I learned this my first time on Llaima four years ago.
Yesterday we had an
adventurous day on Llaima. Sun, clouds, heat, cold, calm, wind, visibility, low vis...sticky snow, icy snow, sastrugi, soft snow, corn... some horrible skiing, and a lot of amazing skiing. We walked, we skinned, we climbed. There is an old pocket glacier that's usually well covered in snow, but this year there were exposed crevasses, which added to the route finding challenge. At 15:30, standing on a rough, icy slope in strong wind, we decided to call it - about an hour from the summit. This was not safe snow for skiing so we down-climbed about 1,000' before putting on our skis. The rest of the descent was super fun, and went quickly. We didn't get to stand on top, but the group consensus was that this was an even more awesome day than summiting Lonquimay.
Today we had a nice drive to the town of Pucon, with perfectly clear skies. We were able to see all four of our volcanoes - Lonquimay, Llaima, Villarica, and Lanin. We stopped in the town of Villarica for a nice lunch and to take some photos of the mountain (Villarica) towering above the lake.
Another great couple of days in Araucania.
RMI Guide Tyler Reid & the Chile Ski Team
The Four Day Summit Climb teams led by
RMI Guides Adam Knoff and Solveig Waterfall reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. While on the summit, the teams enjoyed light winds and high clouds. The teams will return to Rainier BaseCamp in
Ashford this afternoon.
Congratulations Climbers!
May 26, 2015 - 7:24 pm PT
I gave the team a general idea of when we might start breakfast this morning at dinner last night. I bet we get hot water started at around 8, then start pancakes and coffee shortly after that I said. I didn't even open my eyes until almost nine. While in the middle of working your way up this mountain day after day none of us realized how much we could use a rest. Today it became clear. We sat in the cook tent making fresh Pete's coffee and watching Andy flip flap jacks until almost noon. Then we took naps and soaked up the sun we haven't really seen clearly this entire trip. Now we are cooking quesadillas and packing up for our potential move to
14 Camp tomorrow. Everyone is happy to be caching dirty underwear, smelly socks and unneeded stuff for the upper mountain. It has been a beautiful rest day here at 11 Camp but after getting a great view of the upper mountain yesterday, the team feels super psyched to push this climb higher and see what unfolds.
Check in tomorrow for the outcome of our hopeful move.
Team Knoff saying goodnight.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff
On The Map
Greetings all!
Following our massive breakfast buffet feast in Tlaxcala this morning, our team began the drive towards
Ixta. After a quick food and water refuel in the town of Amecameca, followed by a National Park check in at Paseo de Cortez, we found ourselves at the 12,000' Altzimoni Hut, our home for the evening in preparation of our upcoming two-day climb of Ixta.
In order to continue our process of acclimatization, the team set out for an afternoon hike on the lower slopes of
Ixta. After a quick climb to 14,000', we were rewarded with some amazing views of the sunset on Popocatépetl, an active volcano neighboring closely to the south.
The team is winding down for the evening and preparing for a high-altitude taco feast. We're looking forward to the coming climb and physical test on
Ixta over the next two days. Thanks for following!!
RMI Guides
Zebulon,
Robby, and Team
On The Map
It’s one of the toughest decisions a guide team makes, when to call it quits below the summit of a big peak. We had great weather until we didn’t. The Team acclimated well and above 18,000’ life gets harder. With winds increasing and our number of days dwindling, we decided to get out of the wind and start the descent to Base Camp. While our climbers are disappointed, they all got two spectacular weeks in the Andes at high altitude, made some new friends and climbing partners. The Team will spend tomorrow at
Plaza Argentina and begin the two day walk to the road on the 29th. A huge thanks to a wonderful group of climbers and those that supported them along the way.
RMI Guide Mike King
On The Map
After returning from our carry yesterday the snowfield above our camp had soaked up more UV radiation than the Tropicana sun tan lotion team. This created a flooding event that required earthwork and various channels to divert the water away from our tents. We worked faster than FEMA during Hurricane Katrina because we not only had skin in the game but nice fluffy down sleeping bags to keep dry. By the time our Team completed a micro Suez Canal, the snow started falling and would blanket the mountain by midnight, go figure. Led Zeppelin said that when the levy breaks, you have no place to go, we decided to challenge that statement and move to
Camp 2 this morning.
While people walked on frozen and slick rocks this morning, the sun rose like it does everyday and made for a great day to 18,000’. Our Camp 2 is technically the now closed Guanacos Route, Camp 3. It is placed between two old snowfields that would have been glaciers maybe a few hundred years ago. With views of the Polish Glacier to our south and the heavily glaciated peaks to the North we couldn’t get a better place to enjoy the afternoon. The Team has been putting in hard work and it’s paid off with a day off for Christmas, Festivus or whatever they celebrate. If we hadn’t taken a day off there might have been some airing of grievances and a few feats of strength. Fortunately, the guides have some treats planned and nice breakfast for the group. The winds that were forecasted have been pushed back a few days and we are all grateful that the dead still air has allowed for such a great trip above Plaza Argentina. Everyone sends their love back home for the holidays.
RMI Guide Mike King
On The Map
This morning we awoke to stars above and stars below (no clouds whatsoever), a welcome change from the pattern we've experienced in our time on the mountain thus far. A light but steady breeze at the level of our camp was telling of the wind we'd encounter up high, but we went with optimism. At 4 am we were cramponing above
Pastukhov Rocks, and the sunrise came quickly, illuminating dramatic Caucasus peaks we've yet to see on this trip.
By the traverse at 5000m we were in the wind for real. It came in waves. Sheets. Rapidly approaching freight trains threatening to knock you off your feet if you didn't acknowledge them with the brace position. Then it was fine for 30 seconds. Then another train. Snow blowing everywhere. Spindrift filling in the trail, and any open zipper, backpack, or jacket cuff.
Carrying skis on your back was another matter. Somewhat ridiculous feeling, climbing in the wind carrying sails. I think we made other climbers feel as if maybe they didn't have it so bad. At least in relative terms they were aerodynamic.
But it was warm. Slow going, but sunny and not as threatening of a situation as it may sound. Just some strong, annoying wind.
The wind took it easy on us for a short window of time that we stood on the summit. Much appreciated wind! The ski down was not effortless for the first few thousand feet - I'd describe it as typical high altitude ski mountaineering. You don't do it for the snow. More a game of dodging bare ice patches that aren't supposed to exist until August, and finding smooth ribs of sustrugi to rail slide. Maximizing efficient elevation loss. The aerodynamic climbers were all of a sudden jealous.
Then it got good. We hit the corn line around 14,500' and the skiing became fun. And all of a sudden we were back at camp.
Proud effort team - everyone brought it today. Not a casual
Elbrus ski ascent, but well earned.
RMI Guide Tyler Reid
On The Map
We are thrilled to report that today's challenging climb of
Cotopaxi, elevation 19,348 feet, was a complete success! Things started off a bit shifty when more than twenty climbers and guides all prepared to begin climbing the glacier at the same time. The opening three hours of this climb are extremely steep and without any relief. Our team's strong and steady pace uphill proved their readiness both with skill and acclimatization. Despite some lessening of the slope angle, I would say this mountain takes the cake for difficulty. After an hour or so the crowds spread out and all we had to do was climb. The weather changed two or three times from steady snow fall to cold and windy to picture perfect. We could not have asked for a better day! This was truly ending on a good note.
We then packed up at Tambopaxi, ate a great lunch at an amazing road side pizza place and are now rushing for the showers at the Ancient and haunted Hosteria of La Cienega. We need to get some sleep because there is a big day of football ahead when we head back to Quito.
GO PACKERS!
RMI Guide Adam Knoff
On The Map
14k camp life!!!!! Woooot, give’r boyz, oh yeahhhhh!
Posted by: Brid on 5/19/2019 at 9:31 pm
Sounds like your progress is good as compared to last year! Enjoy the remainder of the climb, Tom M! Greetings to you from all the Mulvey-Temples ..... from the Oregon coast!
Continue to remain safe and enjoy!
Susan M
Posted by: Susan Mulvey on 5/19/2019 at 1:35 pm
View All Comments