May 25, 2015 - 7:16 pm PT
Hello Everyone!
This morning, hopeful to move to high camp, we awoke early and had breakfast and coffee in the chilly pre-solar hours, watching through dissipating clouds, as the wind whipped along the top of the West Buttress leaving streaks of sublimated snow in its wake.
And so resumed another day of reading, sport eating, and exploring the tangled and winding pathways between the walls of surrounding camps.
We are all crossing our fingers today is our final rest and acclimatization day here at fabulous 14 camp. We are looking forward to getting some exercise of the physical kind...we have been taxing the mental reserves nightly by developing a now customary team activity of Riddles over Dinner, made possible by the greatest boredom banishing App ever, Brain Twister by Will Shortz. Tonight we'll be starting with puzzle number 47 if you'd like to follow along...but trust us, they're exponentially harder at 14,200'!
We are packed, prepped, and looking forward to making our move tomorrow morning, if the weather cooperates.
Hopefully instead of practicing patience and unscrambling anagrams, we'll be establishing camp at 17,200' and enjoying the ever impressive views from higher on the mountain.
Thanks for following along!
RMI Guide Solveig Waterfall and the team
Keeping my fingers crossed you all get a break in the weather and can continue to climb. Stay strong.
Posted by: Magda Higggins on 5/27/2015 at 7:46 pm
Solveig, Your latest blog was very interesting, where you shared how you all preserve your sanity while waiting on the weather at 14,000 ft. Good luck on catching good weather on your way to 17k. with love, Joe & Dianne
Posted by: joe Griffith & Dianne Donovan on 5/26/2015 at 11:46 am
Hello! We are all up at high camp as of 12:00pm our time. We had a fairly mellow hike up here today. We took another relaxed morning with breakfast at 8:00. Some excitement during breakfast came in the form of a helicopter landing in camp. It circled a few times and touched down twice. Then it stayed on the ground for a few minutes and took off again. That's the first time I've seen a helicopter on Kilimanjaro.
Our hike was super smooth and everyone is doing well with the altitude. We are about to have lunch and discuss the climbing plan. After that we'll relax, get an early dinner and then wake up and climb.
If all goes well, my next check in will be from the summit.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Sending good thoughts and prayers from the mountains in Whisller to the BIG mountain in Africa. So excited for you! You are the perfect example of setting goals and coming up with a plan for flawless execution. I think John is going to write a book about it. Love you!
Posted by: Regina on 2/1/2015 at 8:43 am
Patty Kudla & Ernest Hemingway linked for eternity! Go Patty go. Can’t wait to hear that you saw the face of Africa from the top. Best to all the adventurers everywhere.
Morning at 12,600 ft was cold and frosty... and beautiful from Shira Camp. Partway through our breakfast, the sun found its way over Kilimanjaro and warmed us right up. Conditions were perfect for walking when we set out at 8:20 AM. Our route took us directly in toward Kibo -Kilimanjaro’s towering central peak. The terrain was easier than the rocky narrow track we were on yesterday. This was gently rising, wide open juniper and sagebrush. Within a few hours we were breaking altitude records as we passed 14 and then 15,000 ft. At 15,200 ft we’d reached our goal, the Lava Tower. Clouds had come over, making us notice the cool air, but the weather wasn’t unpleasant, by any means. We sat for a good half hour, enjoying a fine lunch spread presented on a Maasai picnic blanket by our camp staff. Then we shifted gears and walked downhill for a couple thousand feet into the garden-like Barranco Valley full of Sceneccios and Lobelias. We pulled into camp at 3:20, making for seven hours and our biggest day yet. Then it was time to snack and rest and gaze up at tomorrow’s challenge... the Great Barranco Wall.
After dinner, our staff surprised Mike Winiarski with a perfectly prepared and presented birthday cake. The guys sang in English and Swahili as we all laughed and clapped along. Mike admitted that it was a birthday he wouldn’t soon forget.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn & Team
So proud of both Bob’s and the view of the stars above and the city below must be amazing. Tried to make u both out in the pics, but its hard to do, except for the glimpses of one set of hands moving in a very animated manner and that has to be my husband. Miss u both!
Posted by: Cindy Gervey on 8/9/2019 at 1:22 pm
Thanks for the updates and photos. Good luck tomorrow and a special big shout-out to Bob Brothers! Keep having fun!
Posted by: Iwona Piatkowska on 8/8/2019 at 5:19 pm
Sunday, July 7, 2019 - 8:47 PM PT
The fine weather continued, except there was an irritating wind blowing at 17,000 this morning when we got stirring at 7:30 AM. The wind wasn’t particularly strong or cold, but it wouldn’t go away either, so it made breakfast and packing slightly less fun. We were out of 17,000' Camp by 10:30 and walking carefully down the crest of the West Buttress. The wind wasn’t strong enough to make anybody miss a step, but it made communication tricky. Even so, we made good time down the ridge and then down the fixed ropes. Traffic is nonexistent now as the very last three or four teams of the season were all above us and going for the top in the breeze. We reached 14,000 by 1 PM and decided to build camp. Tempting as it would have been to continue on down the mountain, we have to deal now with the downside to all the fabulous weather. The warm temperatures have caused the West Buttress to shed a lot more rock than usual. We’ll try to let it cool a little before venturing around Windy Corner. An Alpine Start is called for, so we’ll keep resting in preparation for a midnight departure. We’ll try to go all the way to the airstrip from here in order to get the lower glacier in cool conditions as well.
It MIGHT be our final night on the mountain. Stay tuned.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Not much going on at 14,000' Camp today. We ate a late breakfast, and have been watching it snow all day. It’s pretty easy to take a rest day when the weather doesn’t permit much else. Folks have been alternating between reading, napping, and guessing what’s going on in the real world. At this point, with our cache up high, we’ve done all that we can do to prepare to summit this mountain. Now we just rest, recuperate, and wait for good weather. If the forecast holds, we might not have to wait very long, but we will see.
We’ll check in again tomorrow.
RMI Guide JM Gorum
Hey, this is Dave Hahn calling from the summit of Mount Vinson, highest point in Antarctica. Us four remaining climbers are up here. Our fifth climber is safe at high camp. All is well. We have really lucked out. We're up here in windless conditions on top. Very comfortable even though it's probably on the order of -35 degrees. So we're doing very well. We've made good time coming up here. It's 3:30 local time. We started at 8:30 local time. So we're doing quite well and we'll give you a dispatch from high camp when we get back there safely. All the best from Antarctica!
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
RMI Guide Dave Hahn calls in from the Mount Vinson summit!
Saturday, June 16, 2018 - 6:02 PM PT
Strolling up Denali taking a hike
Day 18 brings a cyclone I don’t like
Boys in the posh shoveling that snow
Waiting for the weather window so we can up and go.
You got DK white chocolate
Dropping a sick beat waiting
Patiently for his peanut butter treat
Who needs any meat
At 17,000 feet.
All I want are my peanut butter
Cups.
Peanut butter cups.
Your dark ridges so heavenly on my lips,
Forever on my hips,
Your sweet and salty, hardly ever
Malty,
When these mountain days look all
Faulty,
All you need are those glorious
Peanut butt-er cuuups,
To keep on the up and ups.
To be continued...
RMI Guide Tyler Jones & Team
Matt Hill, Bubbles is wondering if you have seen any shopping carts on Denali. Dwight Schrute says Hi also.
Posted by: Paul Downs on 6/18/2018 at 6:32 am
Thinking of you and the team, constantly, Nicholas!
I know the weather is playing games, but the skills with the song/poem writing are really winning!
Love you so much! We’re so proud of you - always. Always.
XO,
Elisa and the Girlies
Hello to those following our Ecuador climbing adventure.
I will begin by saying we did not summit Cayambe yesterday because of difficult route conditions. The morning started as most climb mornings do. An eleven pm wake up call, a bathroom visit the body doesn't ask for, hot liquid, cold bread and and the ever present feeling of "why the heck am I doing this?"
The weather outside was clear and the temps warm. As we ascended the clouds rolled in giving us light snow and a wet mist.
As we got higher the temps dropped and the snow became more difficult to walk in. The wind was blowing 10 mph and a light snow was falling. With only 400 feet to climb before gaining the summit ridge we turned around because of deep post holing and deteriorating weather.
The team was disappointed but understood the reason.
After the climb we regrouped, packed up and loaded the trucks ready to bounce our way back to civilization. The road to and from the Cayambe Refugio is the roughest I've ever been on. Usually a great way to start and end the adventure of climbing the highest point on the Equator.
Once the adventure ended we met our bus at a gas station where we loaded up on post climb necessities such as Pringles, coke and ice cream. This held us over until dinner.
Five hours after leaving the mountain we arrived at our hacienda called, Chilcabamba, tucked quietly away in the beautiful countryside under the shadow of Cotopaxi.
After a well deserved shower, beer and honest night's sleep, we awoke to appreciate this lodge's full beauty. Although we couldn't see the mountain, the surroundings offered enough to observe. Hummingbirds floated outside the windows and flowered trees waived in the wind.
The rest of today will be spent resting, drying gear and preparing for the climb to come. There is nothing better than a full day's rest after an exhausting day in the mountains.
Stay tuned for more mountain climbing.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff saying Buenas noches from Chilcabamba.
This post is misleading — factually accurate but not the full story. It was not just “difficult route conditions” that prevented the team from summitting. A three-person rope team (one guide, two clients) fell into a crevasse near the summit of Cayambe as the result of an avalanche after the team was trail breaking on a steep slope. Thanks to the skill and professionalism of RMI and local guides, the injured climber safely made it to the hut for further evaluation.
Either post the full story or suspend posting after accidents. RMI otherwise runs outstanding expeditions and the guides are fantastic, but fluffy posts hurt the blog’s credibility and disrespect those involved.
Posted by: CS on 1/25/2018 at 9:39 am
Praying the weather gods give you a second summit as beautiful as you had before!
June 27, 2015 10:32 pm PST
We intended to get stirring by about 2:30 this morning, but to no one's disappointment, that didn't happen. It was socked-in and cloudy then with wettish snow in the air. Likewise at 3 AM, not so good, and not at 3:30 either. But then things started looking up. We got up just after five and were climbing by 8:45. Conditions were once again great for climbing. With snowshoes on, we stayed right on the snow surface, as did our sleds. Without too much trouble, we got up "Ski Hill" and hit our intended camp at 9,500 ft around noon. By then we were in the clouds again and light snow was falling, but we'd gotten high enough to make things cold and so wetness was no longer a problem. The team all pitched in admirably to build a new camp and then retreated for afternoon naps. It was burrito night in the POSH tent where we were comfortably seated on snow benches out of the weather.
We'll see about moving up to 11,000' tomorrow if folks are feeling good and the weather gives a break.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
At 8:30 am the Expedition Skills Seminar – Muir led by RMI Guides Casey Grom and Walter Hailes crested the summit crater of Mt. Rainier. The team will spend about an hour on the summit enjoying light winds and mild temperatures before beginning their descent to Camp Muir. The team will spend one more night at Camp Muir before returning to Ashford on Friday. We look forward to hearing of their training and climbing adventures.
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Keeping my fingers crossed you all get a break in the weather and can continue to climb. Stay strong.
Posted by: Magda Higggins on 5/27/2015 at 7:46 pm
Solveig, Your latest blog was very interesting, where you shared how you all preserve your sanity while waiting on the weather at 14,000 ft. Good luck on catching good weather on your way to 17k. with love, Joe & Dianne
Posted by: joe Griffith & Dianne Donovan on 5/26/2015 at 11:46 am
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