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The team here in Ecuador got their first taste of altitude today, on the hills that surround Quito. This morning we rode the teleferico to 13,000 feet and began our trek up Pichincha on the rutted trails that wind up to its rocky 15,000 ft summit. It was a day to pressure our bodies into absorbing the thin atmosphere and although the typical afternoon clouds obscured our view from the top, we were able to stretch our legs and lungs in the mountains.
This evening our team met with our Ecuadorian guide, Jaime, and he took us to a new Ecuadorian restaurant where we enjoyed a fantastic dinner of local cuisine. Tonight is our last night in Quito as we depart for the Illinizas early in the morning.
RMI Guide Leon Davis
On The Map
July 11, 2014 - 8:15 pm PT
Hi Everybody this is Leon and Bryan in the Boston Basin, we climbed Sharkfin Tower today. It was a beautiful day. Everyone did great, everyone is feeling it but we got a lot of good training in.
Tomorrow our plan is to wake up early and get an alpine start and head up to the west ridge of Forbidden and climb that thing.
All is well, we will talk to you tomorrow.
RMI Guide Leon Davis
RMI Guide Leon Davis checks in from Boston Basin.
SUMMIT DAY!!! And how sweet it was! Let’s start from the beginning of the day. 12:00a.m. Lucia has been snoring for a few hours. I’m wide-awake listening to the wind blow the tent around and stressing about summiting. I guess that’s the difference between someone on their first climb here and someone on their 11th.
4:00 a.m. The wind still blows, I still stress... Lucia snores.
5:00 a.m. Still windy. I resign myself to the fate of not climbing Denali. I’m OK with it, it was fun, I learned a ton, and everyone had a good time. Sometimes the mountain just won’t let you climb. It’s OK. Lucia is still sound asleep.
6:45 a.m. I hear rustling coming from Lucia’s side of the tent. I’m wondering what he’s up to, as the night before when I had suggested that we start the stoves at seven he said, “it’s too cold then, we’ll start them at 8.” Then I notice the wind, actually the lack of wind is what I notice. Lucia pokes his head out the vestibule and pulls it back in quickly. “Dude, it’s really nice outside. Let’s go!” So we get up and put our boots on.
Lucia starts the stoves. We fill our water bottles and have instant grits and hot drinks for breakfast. After packing our last minute things we’re off. It’s just after nine o’clock.
It takes us two about 2 hours to climb to Denali Pass. There are a few other groups out today. The nice weather has brought everyone out. We take a break with two of them just below Zebra Rocks.
We then ascend the ridge to the ‘football field’. The weather is still holding, but it’s noticeably colder here above 19,000 feet. There are a few clouds wisping over the summit and we anticipate high winds on the summit ridge. We climb Pig Hill to the summit ridge and are rewarded with a spectacular view down to the Kahiltna. We then proceed along the steep ridge to the summit. It’s 5:30 in the evening and we’re standing on the roof of North America on a calm, clear day.
After a few rounds of congratulating and picture taking (Andy brought three different banners to get photos with) we enjoy the last few moments of ‘top time’ and descend to the football field. Then, we descended to Denali Pass in very warm conditions. As the sun dropped low in the sky we climbed down back to camp.
At camp we were greeted by the second RMI trip of the season led by Mike Walter and Tyler Jones. It was doubly great to see those guys as they had 3 pots of water waiting for us.
All in all it was an eleven-hour summit day. We were very happy to crawl into our tents and get some well-deserved shut-eye.
On The Map
Posted by: Seth Waterfall
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Travel day. Today everyone arrived in Anchorage from their respective homes. John Lucia (the lead guide for the trip) and I have already been in Alaska for 10 days skiing in the Chugach and Talkeetna Mountains. Walter Hailes, the third guide on the trip, met all of our climbers at the Anchorage airport, while John and I picked up the RMI gear for the entire Denali climbing season from airfreight.
By the time John and I got back to Talkeetna, we only had a few hours to unload all of the gear before Walter and the rest of the folks showed up. After a quick rundown of the next days’ schedule, we put our luggage into the RMI storage container and headed off to the hotels for the night.
On The Map
Posted by: Casey Grom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
Hello everyone!
After a bit of 4 wheeling and stellar driving we made our way through Tarangire National Park, which is known for its abundant elephants. In fact, it has more per square mile than any place on earth. However, with all the rain Tanzania has been receiving lately, there weren't nearly as many gathered around the river that flows through Tarangire, but we still saw a few.
There were plenty of other animals to see though. We saw a few Giraffes, lots of Impalas, 7 lions, and a ton of birds, including a pair of the rare Verreaux's Eagle Owl. We ended our day at a beautiful and remote off grid camp. It's a tented camp that lies inside the park with medium size screened in rooms that allow the night sounds of Africa in.
Tomorrow we’ll have an early departure to increase our chances of seeing Cheetahs and Leopards, as they have still eluded us.
Casey and the Safari crew!
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Kilimanjaro January 6, 2024
Posted by: Dave Hahn, Hannah Smith, Chad Gaffigan, Luke Wilhelm
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 348'
Wednesday, June 19, 2019 - 11:42 PM PT
Things started out quiet and cloudy in Talkeetna today, continuing what had been a string of manky weather. We met at the venerable Roadhouse for breakfast and the opening strategy session for our Denali Expedition. Fortified with strong coffee, the team moved on to the nearby Talkeetna Ranger Station of the National Park Service for our mandatory pre-climb orientation and briefing. We were honored to have Roger Robinson himself give our slideshow and discussion on safety and environmental policies. Roger is in the fortieth and final year of a phenomenal and heroic career with the NPS on Denali. By the time we headed out to the airstrip to pack and organize gear at the K2 Aviation hangar, the clouds were on the run and blue sky and strong sunshine were breaking out everywhere. We conducted a thorough gear check and packing session through the afternoon, culminating in a weigh-in to get everything tagged and set for loading on the beautiful DeHaviland Ski Otters parked on Talkeetna’s tarmac. Our 11 person team -7 climbers and 4 guides- got together at The West Rib pub for dinner on the patio as cottonwood buds floated like thick snowflakes in the sunshine. Most of the team wandered on down to the banks of the Susitna River to check out Denali, shining 50 miles to the west and crowding the sky. Then it was back to the hotel to tidy loose ends and get a final night in a bed. Tomorrow looks mighty good for getting started.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Good luck team,
Your climbing with the best that their is!
Posted by: Brent Wolfe on 6/20/2019 at 8:17 pm
Posted by: Robby Young, Nick Scott, Joe Hoch
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 14,000'
Saturday, June 9, 2019 - 10:08 PM PT
Hello world,
Checking in from 14,000' Camp here on Denali. All is well. Today, was all about one thing...supreme chill! A true rest day was enjoyed by all here at Camp under sunny skies and no wind. It was truly a glorious day to be in the Alaska Range. We were up and attem at 9:30am for a bagel, cream cheese, and salmon feast. Breakfast rolled into Gin Rummy, then into sun tanning, then into ‘Hot Drinks Poker’ and right into Buffalo Chicken dinner. It was just what the doctor ordered for this team today. Tomorrow, if the weather allows, it’s back to business. We hope to carry some food, fuel, and gear to the upper mountain tomorrow; probably to Washburn’s Thumb above 16,000’. The weather looks to remain nice for the next few days so we’re cautiously optimistic that we might be able to spend some more time on the upper mountain in the near future (knock on wood). For now, the sun is behind the ridge and we’re tucked in the sleeping sacks. We’ll check in with you all tomorrow.
RMI Guides Robby, Nick, Joe and Team Poker Face
On The Map
Have a good rest, a good food and a very good climb to the summit ! Hope the weather will be sunny and fine… Waiting for you
Posted by: Sylviane Philippon on 6/9/2019 at 11:48 am
Posted by: Steve Gately, Ben Ammon, James Bealer
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 11,200'
Monday, May 20, 2019 10:59 pm PT
I was up this morning early to keep a close eye on the weather in anticipation of a potential move to 14k Camp. Puffy cumulus clouds clung to the surrounding terrain features and were lapping in and out of camp like the tides at about 6AM. Our forecast was calling for an 80% chance of snow showers and increasing south winds into the evening. I opted to give the weather an extra hour to show it's true intentions. I could hear the noises of other teams rustling around, presumably preparing for their own move to 14k Camp. I've seen plenty of deceiving mornings here in the Alaska Range luring you to trust that the forecast was wrong, as if so often can be. I ultimately didn't like the look of it. The team has worked hard for five days now and a full rest day seemed appropriate before committing ourselves to the higher altitudes of the mountain. So we slept in until about 9am and made a wonderful breakfast of eggs and hashbrown burritos that lasted nearly until midday. By then the clouds had overtaken camp and it began to snow lightly. By 1pm the snow intensified and the forecasted south winds showed up early and turned camp into a whirlwind of snow that made it hard to see across camp. Wrapped snugly in our warm bags we all felt good about our decision to take an extra day. It's not always you get such confirmation of a decision well made but today we did and it felt good all the while snuggled up in our warm bags reading and snacking the afternoon away. Tomorrow's forecast looks much more promising and we'll repeat the process of waking up early, sticking our heads out the tent and making another decision. Hopefully this time we'll like what we see and we'll get to move on up! Thanks for following along everyone!
RMI Guide Steve Gately
On The Map
Hi Steve. Bruins swept, sitting and waiting on a 3-2 blues over sharks series. Chara still 7’0” on skates and moves like a sack of pea gravel. Go Red Wings.
Posted by: Wild Bill on 5/21/2019 at 11:08 am
Posted by: Mike King, Jenny Konway
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mexico
March 4, 2018
Everyone arrived yesterday with all luggage in tow and today we set out for a hike on La Malinche. The three hour drive through the countryside is very scenic and due to how dry the weather has been the haze began to thin as we started driving by Ixta (our first climbing objective in a few days). After arriving at a former Olympic training site we hiked up through a dense pine forest, which gave off pleasant scents reminding people of home. We walked to about 13,900' before turning around due to heavy traffic above and rock fall hazard. The goal today was to stretch the legs and lungs a bit and dust off the cobwebs of travel days ad all those tacos we ate in Mexico City. Everyone is enjoying the trip so far. Tonight we will sleep at 10,000' in little cabanas to continue acclimatizing. Thanks for following along.
RMI Guides Mike King & Jenny Konway
On The Map
Posted by: Mark Tucker, Hannah Smith, Avery Parrinello
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 22,841'
Original Post:
Well hello. This is RMI Aconcagua Tucker Team. And we're standing on top. Light breeze; chilly, chilly day. Team did wonderful. When you look around it kind of looks like everybody that started is on top. So if you're wondering who made it, they all…[broken]…a long ways to go still but everyone's doing well…[lost call].
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Update, January 28th 4:35 p.m. Pacific
RMI Guide Mark Tucker called to report that the team has safely descended to Camp 3 where they will spend tonight. They will continue their descent tomorrow.
On The Map
Congratulations on your summit, you all are awesome. Stay strong, stay safe and enjoy this amazing journey. Love you Shannon Long. Patty and Mark
Posted by: Patty Fisher on 1/30/2018 at 7:30 pm
Congratulations, Will and the rest of the team! Looking forward to celebrating with you!
Posted by: Stacy on 1/29/2018 at 4:47 pm
Go Team Leonard!!!! We are thinking about all of you and Good Luck taking on the Summit! Love to all, Donna & Girls
Posted by: Donna Leonard on 12/3/2014 at 4:24 pm
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