Greetings again from Alpamayo Base Camp. We took advantage of the great weather we have and decided to hike up to Camp 1 and do a carry today. We will rest tomorrow instead and let our bodies acclimatize... but we have already reached 5,000 meters! We are all enjoying a good time here and besides the astonishing views, the highlight continues to be our cook Emilio's food; fresh trout with quinoa from his farm has been definitely the biggest hit so far. That's it for now!
Stay tuned,
RMI Guide Elías de Andres Martos
Trying to think of a compelling story but truth be told we are just hanging out here at Aconcagua Camp 1... passing the acclimatization day eating snacks, listening to music or reading books, and telling stories. The weather is clear and sunny today and a teeny bit breezy this afternoon which is actually nice, keeping our tents from getting too hot. No doubt the team will be chomping at the bit tomorrow morning when we plan to make our move up to Camp 2. Slowly but surely we'll continue up!
Not much else to report,
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
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
May 7, 2015 12:39 am PT
Greetings,
Today the team spent a full day doing technical training, building foundational knowledge in hopes of breaking camp tomorrow and moving towards our next objective: Kahiltna Dome.
The weather has so far been excellent, so if you are out there reading this, do a little anti-snow dance for us!
Cheers from Alaska,
RMI Guides Leon Davis, Garrett Stevens and Bridget Belliveau
Despite our being very much ready to break camp and head higher, the upper mountain wasn't ready for us. When the sun finally hit at 11 AM, it was coming through streamers of wind blown snow driven from the ridge crest that -coincidentally- was to be our goal for the day. We ate breakfast and eyeballed the clouds and winds, neither of which got better as we watched. The forecast had called for light winds and light cloud cover. We had to admit, that in every other location visible to us, that prediction seemed accurate... Except the one place we wanted to go. We watched as gust after gust drove snow straight down the length of the fixed ropes. In other parts of the world, we might have attempted to fight such a wind, but in this ultra cold environment, it wouldn't have been a fair fight. By mid-afternoon there was no letup and so a rest day was declared. Five teams camped around us did exactly the same thing. Two small teams already at high camp hunkered down and reported steady 25 knot winds with higher gusts. For being a bad-weather day, it was sunny and calm where we sat, slept, read, played cards, ate and drank. Tomorrow.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
June 17, 2014 - 11:00 pm PT
A rest day on Mt. McKinley! And well earned. The weather has been kinda funky; we woke this morning to around a foot of new snow but things steadily improved over the course of the day. Eventually, the sun broke and we enjoyed some turbo-tanning for much of the afternoon. But now the flurries are back and the flow has shifted from southeast to westerly. We briefly got a view of the tundra over Kahiltna Pass with a wall of large cumulus clouds headed our way. We are now in those clouds but they haven't hit with much wind so camp is still pretty pleasant. The gang is packing up for tomorrow's forward carry where we are hoping to get a cache in around Windy Corner, setting us up for a move to 14,000' if the weather cooperates.
We will talk to you later,
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
Hey Mountaineers! Love the pictures, keep them coming! I’n getting in shape just thinking about the challenge you have had. Stay strong, positive and reach for the stars! Hugs waiting back home!!
Posted by: Mary Lou Quandt on 6/18/2014 at 8:40 pm
Hot off the press, the PTO has canceled the Redskins Trademark registration. Do you guys still have those authentic jackets? If upheld on appeal, their worth will be the shipping cost :-)
June 2, 2014 - 9:30 pm PT
Comfortably nestled in our sleeping bags we've been listening to the winds flapping the fabric of our tents since we put them up.
Our morning started well with clear skies all around us, except for the cloud cap over the summit. But the entire camp at 14,200' was stirring since this was one of the nicest days we've seen for a while.
The team did great breaking camp and we were the first guided group out of camp, a nice position to be in given the madding crowds that were right behind us. Everyone did well going up the fixed lines, though we could certainly feel the loads we were carrying. Unfortunately, the winds came up at the top of the ridge and didn't relent further up the Buttress, so we decided to dig in for the night here at 16,400' instead retreating all the way back to 14,200', or pushing in a head wind up to 17,200' camp. With a well secured camp here and dinner in our bellies we're looking forward to some rest and an easy day up to 17,200' camp tomorrow.
As I finish this post it seems like the winds might even be abating some. We'll touch bases again tomorrow from 17,200', hoping for some nice settled weather for a change.
Good night,
RMI Guides Brent, Leah and Nick
We are with you every inch of the way, willing you forward when you dont want to take another step. we know you will make it. god speed and good climbing . We love you Steven Hart
Posted by: Aida Hart on 6/3/2014 at 6:15 am
Outstanding job Daniel & Team! We are cheering you all the way to the top! We are so excited for you.
Today we saw the first real clouds of the trip, accompanied by a dusting of snow. The clouds cleared out in the afternoon and it turned into a beautiful, but breezy evening.
We weren't terribly concerned with what the weather did today, as we took a complete rest day in order to have more time to acclimate to the altitude and recover from the past five days of hard work in the mountains.
Everyone is doing well and, if the weather lets us, we'll move up to the 14,200' Camp in Genet Basin tomorrow. The weather forecast for tomorrow is calling for clear skies and moderate winds, so we'll just have to see how things play out.
We'll keep you posted with our progress.
Caio for now,
RMI Guide Mike Walter
Greetings from the Relincho Valley, Camp One on the trail into Aconcagua. This is the January Rainier Mountaineering Inc. expedition attempting to climb the "False Polish Glacier". We converged on this mountain by way of Santiago and Buenos Aeries, with the whole team meeting for the first time in Mendoza. Peter Whittaker, Ed Viesturs and Melissa Arnot guide the clients on our team along with me -Dave Hahn, I'm guiding... but I am the rookie on this climb having never been to Aconcagua before and am wide-eyed and excited to see a new place. So to are our four climbers: Clark Vautier, Tim Sohn, Kelley Maybo and Andrew Turner. Additionally we have a camera team and still photography team attempting to capture quality footage and images for RMI. The videographers are Gerry Moffet and Kent Harvey, along with Thom Pollard. Jake Norton is shooting digital stills and Rachel Rosengarten is overseeing the collection of both video and stills. Seth Waterfall and Chad Peele are guiding the production team. Poor Seth is still back in Mendoza as of tonight, waiting for slow luggage to fly in on a fast plane. He'll catch up with us in no time flat when the gear arrives.
Last night we stayed in Penitentes... a small settlement built around a ski area high in the Andes, perhaps 12 miles from the Argentine border with Chile. We were at 9000 ft above sea level, but passed the night in relative comfort with steak dinners and comfy beds. Fernando Grajales Expeditions of Mendoza is our capable outfitter, and this morning they organized our loads onto 20 mule backs and got us to our trailhead for a journey into the Vacas Valley. We started walking at around 10:40 AM under blue skies and bright sunshine. The mules carry up to 60 kilos each... we carried slightly less for what will be a three-day trek into basecamp. The Vacas River was churning along in a series of rapids next to the trail and we gained altitude slowly on easy terrain. The terrain is stark and bare, with towering cliffs and scree slopes limiting the views. At first we had a few trees along the path, but before long, we were down to small shrubs, grass and the odd flower patch. Most wore shorts and T-shirts for the first few hours, but as afternoon came on the sky filled with clouds and we endured brief showers from time to time. We did pass over a couple of old and dirty snowbanks that had obviously become the final remnants of great avalanche debris piles that were deposited during the last Austral Winter. Peter -a veteran of 7 previous Aconcagua expeditions- views such evidence of a heavy winter positively, pointing out that our climb to the summit will be easier if there is more snow and less dirt and rock up high. Our camp tonight at Las Lenas is situated at 9400 ft. The gang put down a big pot of Chad's famous spiral pasta with red sauce and chicken chucked in for dinner. The clouds are now clearing, the sun is down and the light is fading. We can see new snow left by the afternoon showers on the high rock slopes above us. We'll call it a day for now... the first of potentially 18 on the mountain.
It was another windy night last night. Most people didn’t sleep much, and the winds haven’t calmed any appreciable degree now that the sun is out. This was in the forecast, and we knew we would have to hunker down in order to be in position for our potential summit window. After today, things are supposed to improve, which is good because we’re running out of spare tent guy lines.
Everyone is still mentally stable, although by the end of the day we will all be tired of sitting in our shaking, rattling tents. Not much else to report today. We’re just eating, drinking, reading, and waiting. Our course of action tomorrow depends on the forecast. The plan is to take another day here before moving up to High Camp, but we will see if the weather forces our hand in one direction or another.
RMI Guides JM Hannah and Avery
Good luck to all the hikers! I hope the weather cooperates and all of you are able to reach the summit! Thinking of all of you daily! Go team Cory!!!!!
Posted by: Karen Prykull on 1/10/2019 at 3:45 am
Hope you get calm weather so you can reach the summit! Good luck team!
To my Grandson Alec
Have a wonderful 27th birthday! Enjoy the unique moments of your special day. Love, Owa
Posted by: Sharon Tieszen on 1/25/2017 at 3:46 am
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