Most Popular Entries
The honking horns had subsided and the streets were nearly bare this morning at 5 am, when fellow guide And Bond and I got up to make the chilly trip up to El Alto Airport at 13,400' on the
Bolivia Altiplano. Three out of our six climbers arrived on the same flight, and after clearing immigration had piled their duffel bags next to an airport coffee shop, awaiting our arrival.
After a quick round of hand shakes and high fives, we grabbed a cup of coffee each and headed outside to hail taxis into the city. The soft beds at Hotel Ritz provided a few hours of rest before we had a late morning meeting to discuss the plan for the day.
The point of today, along with the next few days, is to play tourist and allow our bodies time to acclimate. After leaving the hotel, we visited several neighborhoods by using the new citywide teleferiquo system, a series of gondola lines that crisscross the city. The views of Huayna Potosi and Illimani from the gondola cars were incredible.
On the walk back to the hotel we were serenaded by loud music from a passing parade. This weekend is the Fiesta del Gran Poder (festival of the great power) which is one of the largest festivals in Bolivia. We watched thousands upon thousands of dancers, marching bands and people in traditional costumes stream by.
Tomorrow morning we launch north toward Lake Titicaca and Isla de Sol.
RMI Guides Eric Frank, Andy Bond & Team
Jambo!
Our team has gathered in Tanzania and everyone is looking good and is ready for our adventure. We took it easy today but we did spend time organizing and packing our gear for our
climb of Kilimanjaro. We may have also enjoyed a nice afternoon nap to help recover from our international flights.
It has been a pleasant first day for our crew, the sunshine has peeked through the clouds a bit and we did have a little rain, but that's to be expected. We are being well taken care of here at the very nice Arumeru River Lodge. It is tranquility at the foot of Kilimanjaro but we are looking forward to getting onto the mountain tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
June 7, 2015, 9:45 pm PT
After surviving our first chilly night at 14K Camp, everyone walked into the posh this morning to the sweet smell of blueberry pancakes. Cooking at 14,000ft is quite difficult on any day but
Tyler made pancakes that would have made Grandpa Jerry proud.
Post breakfast we took advantage of the nice weather and prepared our camp for a nuclear winter. Hopefully the weather will stay nice but if not we are prepared for the worst. After our wall building session we did some more training for the upper mountain.
The guides set up a fixed-line obstacle course that everyone marched around in like a group of trained gorillas.
Tomorrow we hope to carry to the top of the fixed lines, but as always, we will see what Mother Nature brings.
RMI Guide Tyler Jones
Thursday, May 23, 2024 - 12:38 pm PT
It's a sunny day at 14,000' Camp with thick clouds below and strong winds above. We'll be resting again today, continuing to get stronger for our summit push. Weather models seem to be in agreement that improving conditions this weekend will usher in the first big wave of summit attempts of the season. We're in position to take advantage when we get our shot. We'll keep you posted.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
×
New Post Alerts:
Denali Expedition, May 5, 2024
Wonder of wonders, all ten climbers made it through to Tanzania and Kilimanjaro International Airport without missing flights or losing baggage. We’ve got the team assembled at the Arumeru River Lodge on the outskirts of Arusha...folks have eaten dinner and are now attempting to sleep away some of their jet lag. In the morning we’ll meet to get into the nuts and bolts of preparing for a
Kilimanjaro climb.
Best Regards,
Dave Hahn
Saturday, June 15, 2019 - 2:21 PM PT
We got up with a few more clouds in the glacial valleys below us and figured we would hope for the best. After breakfast we packed up camp and headed towards the fixed lines. As we climbed the lower slopes out of 14 Camp the clouds moved in with a light wind and snow. After an hour we caught our last view of the
upper mountain and saw snow blowing 500+ feet into the atmosphere. Since there hadn’t been any snow accumulation up there for a while we decided the winds on the Buttress were to high for the exposed terrain we needed to travel through before reaching 17 Camp. The Team is back in camp at 14,200’ and settled in for our continued hangout. We will be watching the forecast closely and looking at the “nowcast” and hope for a 36-48 hour window to sneak up there and have a summit bid. Thanks for following along.
RMI Guide Mike King
On The Map
After watching the 80 mph winds whip the dry snow off the
summit ridge of Aconcagua last night the Team got a casual start to this last rest day. This Team has really bonded with breakfast conversations lasting well into the early afternoon. Lots of reading, organizing last minutes items and a few showers filled the day. We have had a beautiful clear and calm day with only a few gusts of wind. Tomorrow we pack up camp and start moving up the tallest mountain outside the Himalaya. Everyone is acclimating well and feels rested. Not much else to report.
RMI Guide Mike King
Start to finish... another grey day of clouds and snow at Union Glacier... with no horizon, no contrast, not much visibility and zero chance of escape. Except... today was the Antarctic Ice Marathon and everybody was excited. Our own Abdul surprised his climbing team at breakfast by inquiring as to whether he might enter the race... scheduled to begin in an hour. It turned out that he could and did. 26.2 miles was going to be run in whiteout conditions over four laps on a ten kilometer groomed loop. But with new snow falling, the grooming wasn’t all that good. It was a lot like running in sand at the beach. Abdul took off with the crowd at 10:30 AM... his first marathon-and the only one of 59 entrants to have climbed to
Vinson’s summit three days earlier. Skeptics expected one lap from him. Abdul finished the marathon, completely comfortable and in control. The winner took 3.5 hours and the final contestant 13 hours with Abdul very respectably in-between.
The evening was a memorable and international celebration, with cheers going up from the Chinese, the Australians, the Dutch, the Austrians, the Russians, the Indians and the Sri Lankans... not to mention the Americans and Brits.
The end of the day was exactly like the beginning... snow, cloud, murk, calm and quiet. But pretty fun too.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
The
Mt. Rainier Kautz Seminar, led by
Kel Rossiter, reached the summit with his entire team in tow! They will stay one more night on the mountain before continuing their descent back to Paradise tomorrow.
Summit!
At 8:45 am
RMI Guide Dave Hahn radioed to say, "We are walking into the
Crater Rim." The mountain has a cloud cap with some high winds and also some sunny skies. The teams will spend some time on top before starting their descent.
Congratulations to today's summit climbers!
Previous Page
Next Page
Good luck Julie and Stephen and fellow climbers
I know you will all do great
A lot of angels watching over the team
Posted by: Tina zabinski on 5/27/2018 at 8:41 am
View All Comments