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Wednesday, June 13, 2018 - 9:27 PM PT
Today we had another great breakfast. Then the crew geared up for a climb up towards the fixed ropes. We have had more than our share of good rest in the past few days. We needed to move some blood and keep our fitness we have gained on this trip. From the forecast we are seeing it looks like we could have a few more days of poor weather. We hope to take another climb for fitness tomorrow and be ready for a break in the weather. Fingers crossed!
RMI Guide Tyler Jones
On The Map
Today's
Four Day Summit Climb team led by RMI Guides Solveig Waterfall and Robby Young reached the top of Disappointment Cleaver. With the warm temperatures and smoke from wildfires burning in Western Washington, the team chose to make this this high point of the day. The team has departed Camp Muir and are on their descent to Paradise.
The
Four Day Summit Climb July 28 - 31 led by
RMI Guide Kel Rossiter reached the summit of Mt. Rainier at 5:30 am today. The team enjoyed the views from the summit with clear skies and light winds. The team will return to Camp Muir and continue down to Paradise. Their program will conclude at Rainier BaseCamp today with a celebration of their achievement.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
We did it! 100% on top!!! The entire team stood on the
highest point in Europe.
We were pretty lucky with the weather, as it was near perfect, so the decision to climb early and avoid the forecasted weather paid off. We started at 3:30am with a snowcat ride up to 15,000' then hit the trail in a decent breeze that thankfully mellowed out a few hours later. It was a beautiful and welcomed sunrise as the sun helped warm us up.
The team did a fantastic job of taking care of themselves and climbed strong. We summited in clear skies with a wonderful view of the entire Caucasus Mountain Range, which is something I haven't had often here on
Elbrus.
After descending a short ways back to the saddle between the two summits that Elbrus has, a few of us decided to climb the second summit while the rest of the team descended safely back to camp. I've been pretty lucky the last few climbs and have pulled off the double summit a few times. It was a bonus for sure.
After everyone returned to camp, we had a quick lunch and are currently relaxing with smiles on our faces.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and a happy crew
On The Map
The
Four Day Summit Climb July 22 - 25, 2017 reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning.
RMI Guides Mike Walter, Lydia Johnson and JT Schmitt reported clear skies and calm winds. The team will return to Camp Muir and continue down to Paradise. They will conclude their program with a celebration at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
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
On The Map
May 17, 2015 - 11:05pm PST
Hello All,
We awoke this morning to decreasing winds and clear skies, which gave us the window we've been waiting for to carry equipment around
Windy Corner and put in a cache at 13,600'. Our team climbed strong and did a great job managing the few wind gusts we sustained... staying balanced and efficient while moving to higher elevations. We returned to camp in the late afternoon and feasted on quesadilla's with peppers, onions, chicken, and plenty of cheese before turning in for some well deserved rest.
Our forecast is looking good and we hope to move to 14,000' tomorrow. It'll be a big day, so we'll rise early and break camp in order to give us plenty of time to get settled in our new home up in Genet Basin.
Thanks for following along!
RMI Guide
Solveig Waterfall & Team
Just another great day on safari. Today we rounded out our 'Big 5' sightings with an up close look at a leopard. This elusive cat is always a tough one to get but we were lucky today for sure. We are spending our last night in Tanzania out in the bush in
Kikoti Camp and tomorrow we finish the trip with a.morning game drive and evening flights. We pack the action in until the last minute.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Not that we needed it, but yesterday's thunderstorms with hail, lighting, and strong winds only confirmed we'd made the right call to delay by one day. By morning today the clouds had blown off and the sun was back out but you could still see the wind up high blowing strong. Rather than rest all day again, we went for a nice hike after breakfast to stretch the legs and exercise the lungs a bit. Being a Saturday there were dozens of snowcats full of people and endless snowmobiles flying past as we hiked.
After our hike we enjoyed another nice meal cooked by Albina and then sat together to discuss our upcoming climb. We have gone over all the details and are already packed up ready for morning. Our plan will be to wake up around midnight, have breakfast at 12:30 and hopefully be riding our snowcat by 1:30. The snow cat will drop us off basically where we ended our highest acclimatization hike two days ago. From there it should takes us about 6-8 hours to reach the summit of
Mt. Elbrus if all goes according to plan. The forecast looks better than yesterday's and the team is very ready for the climb.
We'll do our best to call from the summit, and will undoubtedly check in when we return.
Wish us luck!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
Our team loved sleeping in the "tent cabins" of Balloon Camp. Deep within
Tarangire National Park and with no fences separating us from the wildlife we’d been observing, we were careful to observe rule one... don’t go out in the dark without an armed escort. It was still a little dark when we got the day going this morning. We enjoyed breakfast and then we split up... which might have been traumatic except those going in the "early car" were either heading home or to the beach and those of us in the "late car" were going out for a morning Safari... there were no losers. Those of us on Safari were immediately on high alert in the cool morning air, looking hard for leopards and lions. We searched along the margin of a vast and beautiful marsh and went good long stretches without seeing other people or cars. This certainly added to the thrill of discovery when we came upon two mature and majestic lions and one gorgeous lioness lounging about and waiting for the plentiful wildebeest/zebra/impala/elephant/giraffe/ostrich/water buck/buffalo/tourist to get careless and come within range. That didn’t happen while we watched, but then we didn’t watch for very long on this final day... there was still too much good stuff to see. About mid morning, we came upon a big pride (the count got tricky in the tall grass after 8 -including cubs and a full-grown male) going hunting. They stampeded zebra and wildebeest -which was exciting to see, and made their kill out of our viewing range, which was actually ok since by that point we were heading for the park gate and Arusha and scheduled flights home. There was still time in late afternoon back at the Arumeru River Lodge for a pre-flight shower, a re-pack and a good early dinner together. But then we had to say our goodbyes and break up what was left of a great team. Oddly, the most repeated declaration today was “this was more fun than I thought it was going to be”. We’re declaring victory for the
RMI Expeditions early August
Kilimanjaro Climb and Safari.
I’m sticking around for the late August one as well. Thanks very much for following along to this point.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hey you guys !
Time for games of red light / green light, follow the leader, and good old Tag “your it”!!!
Maybe do timed “races”...?
Just be careful up there.
Cheering you on from below!
David’s Mom
Posted by: Ruth on 6/14/2018 at 11:38 am
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