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Today saw, most notably, the arrival of Leif and Jake here at basecamp. It was about as eventful as a rest day could be. We gorged on a bacon, egg, and cheese scramble with grilled onions and peppers, drank mate (pronounced mah-tay) and told stories all afternoon, and then had steak fajitas for dinner. Ooh yeah, we're roughing it all right! Oh yeah, we also packed and sorted provisions for tomorrow's carry to Camp 1. It has been pretty windy, and that trend is supposed to continue, so tomorrow may be a litte tougher than normal. Wish us luck.
Our last day in
St. Petersburg! The team had a great final day here in Russia. We visited the very famous Hermitage Museum, where we saw paintings and sculptures by many well known artists including Rembrandt, Michelangelo, and even Da Vinci. It's one of Russia's great treasures and houses several thousand pieces of art collected over the last few hundred years. The Hermitage consists of 5 buildings, each with 3 floors, and has hundreds of rooms. The team did their best to take in the highlights in a little over 2 hours. We took a quick lunch before stopping by the Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood, that's decorated almost entirely with Mosaics/ We then wrapped up the day with a wonderful evening boat cruise to see this amazing city by water. It's been a wonderful adventure here in Russia, but it's time to say our goodbyes and return to our family and loved ones. Thanks for following.
Casey and comrades
Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - 11:21 PM PT
Hello all!
Greetings from the climbing capital of Alaska...Talkeetna! Our RMI team arrived safely yesterday evening and has been putting in the work and the time to prep for the
extraordinary climbing adventure that lies ahead. The team spent a long day today checking our climbing gear, organizing food, and assembling and packing our kitchen for the weeks ahead. It was a beautiful sunny day here in Talkeetna which certainly helped with our productivity and motivation as we look forward to a possible flight into the Range tomorrow morning. We spent the evening enjoying the last of our creature comforts and indulging ourselves on our favorite foods from Twister Creek in downtown Talkeetna. We’re optimistic for the weather tomorrow and we’ll keep everyone in the loop on our progress throughout our expedition.
RMI Guides Robby,
Nick,
Joe and your favorite Denali Team
Namaste from Kathmandu,
Everyone arrived on time, bags made it no problem... and jet lag, as expected, kicked in early. We met at our hotel, Yak & Yeti, and headed out for lunch and coffee, as the first activity as a team. It was funny to see how we all were craving bed shortly after, as the massive time difference started to trigger a need for sleep at an awkward local time.
With not much else to report, we're scheduled to have a good day tomorrow of touring some of the city's historical landmarks, and of course, getting excited to start our mountainous journey.
That's all for now, the adventure begins!
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
The
Four Day Summit Climb Team for August 20 - 23 were unable to reach the summit of Mt. Rainier today due to route conditions.
RMI Guides Dave Hahn and Leon Davis led their teams to the top of Disappointment Cleaver at 12,300' which was their high point today. The teams will descend to Camp Muir and continue to Paradise later this morning.
Our
Kilimanjaro climbing team has come together at the Dik Dik Hotel on the outskirts of Arusha, Tanzania. The team actually assembled 24 hours ago, but it took until today for the guide to catch up and join the party. Couldn't get my rickety old 747 to start for the hop across the Atlantic. The team, in the drowsy grip of jet lag and the tranquility of the Dik Dik gardens, barely noticed my absence. Today was a day of rest and recovery... and of preparation for a great adventure. Eleven of us introduced ourselves and began the fun "work" of building a climbing team. We went through the various details of packing and getting organized for a journey through multiple climatic zones and a hoped for shot at the 19,340 ft high point of Africa. With just a few wonderful meals together, we're well on our way to being spoiled by the kitchen and dining staff at the Hotel. Our intention is to break away from all of this luxury in the morning...To get on the road by 7 AM, with the hope of being walking a few hours later. It will be great to replace the images of crowded airports and long security lines with visions of paths in lush forests and glimpses of distant snow-capped peaks.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide
Dave Hahn & Team
Today's
Mt. Rainier Summit Climbs, led by Seth Waterfall and Sid Pattison, reached the summit early this morning. The weather report was beautiful skies and winds about 35-40 mph from the Northeast. Both teams began their descent back to Camp Muir at 7:15 am PT.
Congratulations summit teams!
Our
Aconcagua team is safe and sound back in high camp. It was a 13-hour day and I am so proud of the entire team! I'd like to go on and on but we have some tired little cookies in desperate need of a good meal and some hot drinks. We will send a great last dispatch from base camp tomorrow!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
On The Map
The snow school day of our seminar was a great success! Our team came in with a lot of previous mountaineering experience, with most climbers having summitted Mt. Rainier via the Disappointment Cleaver route in the past. As a result, we were able to quickly refresh basic techniques and then get more in depth about movement on steep snow and ice, building snow anchors and crevasse rescue. A high pressure system is moving in just in time for our climb, and the afternoon was beautiful at Paradise!
On Sunday, we enjoyed a beautiful day of weather during our climb to high camp on the Kautz Glacier route. The sun was warm, but a persistent breeze kept us relatively comfortable, even under heavy packs. We arrived at the Upper Castle in great style and set up camp. Our spot has running water and warm rocks. We’re all smiles.
Yesterday, the team enjoyed another day of training, working on crevasse rescue techniques and ice climbing near camp. This morning the team reached the summit of Mt. Rainier at 8 am with the entire team. They will return to camp for their final night on the mountain and descend to the trailhead tomorrow. Their program will conclude with a celebration at Rainier BaseCamp tomorrow afternoon.
Nice work team!
PC: Tom Skoog and Seth Burns
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 Steve glad you made it safe and sound. Wishing you safety and good weather! Cannot wait to hear about it when you get back
Posted by: Tom Keating on 5/31/2019 at 7:42 am
Stephen
Doing great so far
So happy all is going well
Love you
Please be careful , and don’t forget St Joseph
Love
Mom and Dad
To everyone
Your in our prayers
Posted by: John Zabinski on 5/31/2019 at 5:57 am
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