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Posted by: Brent Okita, Mike King
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,080'
RMI Guides Brent Okita and Mike King are back on Mt. Rainier along with climbers on the Expedition Skills Seminar - Winter. The team gathered at Rainier BaseCamp on Sunday for a day of technical training, gear checks and packing. With clear roads on Monday morning they headed for Paradise and made the push all the way to Camp Muir. Today the team trained near Camp Muir with cramponing, rope travel and ice axe arrest practice while Brent and RMI Guide Dominic Cifelli kicked in the route above Camp Muir and investigated the current conditions. The team will continue training this week with the hope of making a summit attempt before their return on Friday.
We made it to the summit of Vinson today! In the nick of time as it turned out. While our time of ascent was a blazing fast seven hours, the mountain was anything but easy today. We started with blue skies, bright sun and a nagging 10 mph breeze when the stoves were fired shortly after seven this morning. That breeze made things like fastening harnesses and crampons quite cold. We roped up and got moving at 9:45 hoping to lose the wind as we got into the protection of the valley glacier that would take us to the summit. That worked a little, things were reduced to occasional gusts. Those gusts increased in frequency and force as we got up near 15,000 ft. By the time we were scrambling onto the summit ridge, it was blowing a more or less steady 30 mph. We worked pretty hard to keep each other’s faces frost free and to keep sunglasses and ultimately goggles from fogging up. Hitting the top at 4:45 was a thrill, but not at all one we could linger over. We squeezed off just a couple of photos (which we’ll post after getting back to the Wi-Fi world) but it really wasn’t the day for bare hands on the summit. We set out to get off the ridge and down to high camp. This was accomplished in about three hours, during which we watched winds increase and a storm move into the Ellsworth Mountains. At 8:00 when we pulled into camp, the sun was in the clouds and winds were rock steady at about 20 mph, moving plenty of snow around. The victory dinner was in tents as it is far from pleasant at High Camp tonight. We snuck this one in... now to get down the mountain.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Congrats Zimmerman!!Matt and I have enjoyed keeping up with your adventure!! Safe travels back down!!Can’t wait to catch up with you and hear your stories!!
Posted by: Deborah and Matt on 12/11/2017 at 5:50 pm
Congratulations! Well done. Stay safe on the descent.
Posted by: Dale on 12/11/2017 at 9:32 am
Posted by: Casey Grom, Christina Dale
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Everest BC Trek
Elevation: 17,575'
Monday, March 27th, 10:00 pm PST
Hey, everybody this is Casey Grom checking in from Everest Base Camp. Just wanted to let you know that the Base Camp Trek team finally made it into camp yesterday afternoon. We had a nice climb or hike of Kala Patar, which is the high point of our trip, a little over 18,000 feet and then dropped back down and made a three-hour hike into Base Camp behind a long line of about 150 yaks bringing in all the gear and food and things necessary for the expeditions over here this season. Last night the phone was really cold so it didn't hold a charge. I had to get it fired up this morning so we could reach out to you guys and let you know we're doing great. A beautiful sunny day, a little bit windy here today as you can probably hear. The team's doing great, and we just wrapped up a big breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and plenty of coffee. Thankfully our base camp crew just got the nice hot shower operational, and so we're going to take our take our time and let everybody get washed up, cleaned up. If we can we're going to do a short little walk here around camp, and then if all goes well our plan is to have dinner here tonight, spend one more night, and then head back down hill tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
RMI Guide Casey Grom calls in from Everest Base Camp.
Congrats, Linda! Sounds like an amazing trip. We just watched a video on YouTube of a full basecamp trek to get an idea of the experience. Have a safe trip back. -Ben and Jamie.
Posted by: Ben Beckley on 3/29/2017 at 3:14 am
Congratulations to the group on getting to Base Camp. Sounds like a great adventure. Can’t wait to hear all the details and see the photos. Safe travels back down.
Posted by: Neal White Bernie Mahan on 3/28/2017 at 8:19 pm
Posted by: Billy Nugent, Hannah Smith
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 13,800'
We've made it back to Plaza Argentina safe and sound after a successful summit bid and a subsequent long descent from Plaza Cólera. Per the norm our team worked together and made great time descending despite large loads and tired legs. Anita, Juan, and Leandro from the Grajales basecamp staff greeted us with homemade pizzas for an afternoon snack and another fabulous celebratory steak and potato dinner. Juan and Leandro both got their first summits of Aconcagua the same day we did and rallied down the hill ahead of us to provide hospitality. Between those great meals we readied our loads for the mules and got settled back in to basecamp. Tomorrow's walk is gonna be a long one but at the end of the tunnel should be another asado dinner at Pampa de Leñas. Typically the valley is too tight for satellite phone reception here so don't be alarmed if you don't hear from us tomorrow evening. We will check in again when we hit the trailhead and transfer back to Mendoza. Not much else to report...
Tired, but with a full belly,
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
Posted by: Billy Haas, Solveig Waterfall
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mexico
Elevation: 10,000'
Hello from the La Malitzi Resort! We are snug in our beds nestled on the flanks of La Malinche, a 14,636' extinct volcanic remnant. We spent the day in this Parque de Nacional stretching our legs and lungs for the first time since we all gathered in the city. We were treated to perfect weather and excellent hiking temperatures. However, as is often the case driving in Mexico, we were delayed by an enormous traffic jam. A bottleneck not in the city this time, but instead shortly before arriving at the mountain. Mexico City was recently hit by a large storm that deposited snow at relatively low elevations. Since this is quite a rare occurrence, the local news outlets have been broadcasting a continuous cycle of footage of families up playing in the snow; some touching it for the first time!
With all the media attention, there were hundreds of cars trying to access the La Malinche trailhead and things quickly slowed to a halt.
After waiting as long as we could, we left our overnight bags with the driver to sit in traffic, and began the journey through the literally thousands of local hikers towards our goal of reaching the upper slopes of the mountain. Given our time frame, we had no chance of reaching the top, but we hiked for 3 hours amidst a herd of parents, grandparents, children and dogs running past us and often stopping to inquire where we were from and if we were going to look for the snow, as well.
When we reached our high point, we bundled up and rested for a half an hour or so, allowing our bodies to recover while enjoying the expansive views from 13,300'.
Upon our arrival back at 10,000' our driver had finally reached the resort, checked us in, and most importantly made sure the propane water heaters were warming up for a well deserved shower. It was nearly dark as we got settled and we were all anxiously awaiting the fantastic dinner that Rogelio (our transportation coordinator) promised.
It did not disappoint! We feasted on steaks, chorizo, tortillas, beans, guacamole, and grilled vegetables resting on small charcoal grills on our table.
Everyone is now off to bed for a solid 8 hours of rest, and then tomorrow we begin our journey toward our first objective, climbing Ixta!
Well check in tomorrow from the Altizomoni Hut!
RMI Guides Solveig Waterfall, Billy Haas and the team
On The Map
Posted by: Tyler Jones, Lindsay Mann, Chase Nelson
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 14,200'
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Saturday, June 6th 10:18 p.m. PT
On the Road again!
Yes, today we got to move up into the Genet Basin! We are currently snuggled up in our sleeping bags at McKinley's 14K Camp. Everyone did an excellent job today and climbed quite strong.
We had a leisurely departure from 11K waiting for the perfect time of day. There was a lot of traffic on the route due to lots of teams sitting out this storm at 11K. However, with our strong group Tyler was able to giraffe neck around to see what was ahead and plan some strategic breaks in order to avoid the congestion.
We arrived at camp around 4:15pm and everyone was quite efficient setting up camp. After a hard days work, everyone enjoyed many spatulas of Annie's Mac and cheese with crispy bacon.
We are happy to have made the move and will check in again tomorrow!
RMI Guides Tyler Jones, Lindsay Mann and Chase Nelson
On The Map
Hi Ken, hope your feeling great. The top looks close, be sure to smell the flowers along the way. Ha! Happy hiking!
Posted by: Anna Fisher on 6/7/2015 at 9:51 pm
D.G. looks like you are moving on up. Its a beautiful Sunday in the Bluegrass. Said a prayer for safe climbing for you and all the teams this morning at church. Love you…Mom
Posted by: Caroline on 6/7/2015 at 9:01 am
Posted by: Casey Grom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Elbrus Southside
Hello again Everyone,
It was anyone long day of travel here in Russia for us again. We departed Moscow moderately early and flew southward to the town of Mineralnye Vody (which means mineral water) where we were meet by our local guide Alexander. We loaded all of our duffels into the waiting van and continued heading south towards Mt. Elbrus. This part of Russia is very rural and the countryside is mostly used for agriculture purposes, especially sunflowers! It has been heavily influenced by the Turkish and is therefore predominately Islamic. It's beautiful here, but it also seems a bit behind the times when compared to Moscow or St. Petersburg. The team enjoyed the views, had a little fun, but everyone is ready for some exercise!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and Crew
Today the Alpamayo team made a big jump and moved a portion of our group gear up to the next camp, Moraine Camp (16,200'). We moved well and were at the cache site by late morning. Despite feeling good, everyone was breathing hard and we were happy to drop back to our basecamp at 14,200'.
The food on this trip has been phenomenal. Everyday our cook, Raul, impresses us with his culinary prowess. From veggie omelettes to grilled trout to fresh cut fruit salad every night, we have been eating like kings. I suspect the amazing food has a strong correlation to how good we all feel.
All for now. Thanks for following along.
RMI Guide Eric Frank and the Alpamayo team
Hi, Mike,
Best wishes to you and your team!
Love,
Helen and Jeff
Posted by: Helen on 7/5/2014 at 7:35 am
Posted by: Ben Liken, Dave Hahn, Sean Collon
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 11,000'
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Hello everyone!
Today has been a day of a little work and a lot of rest. We woke up to a delightful breakfast of bagels with cream cheese and bacon and after some casual conversation it was time to go retrieve our 10,000' cache. All was well except for a minor raven attack......thankfully the only casualty was a bag of ramen noodles. It was a 3 hour round trip and before long folks were back to relaxing and drinking glacier fresh water. Our plan for the rest of the day is to keep hydrating and get ready to carry a load to 13,500 ft tomorrow. Stay tuned as we continue our slow but steady climb up this giant pile of rock and ice.
RMI Guide Ben Liken
On The Map
This is Solveig checking in from Camp 4 @ 14,200'.
Today our team is enjoying a rest day, which nicely corresponds with a weather day. The wind has been blowing strongly and we have received nearly a foot of new snow in camp since last night. This afternoon we saw a few sun breaks but still the wind continues! We are keeping busy with ipods, books, and sport eating (not because you need to, but because it's fun!).
Yesterday the team constructed a cook shelter surrounded by high wind walls of snow blocks. We have been enjoying eating meals and taking a break from the confines of our tents in our plush livingroom/kitchen! The forecast looks like continued winds and snow through the weekend, so most likely more resting is in our future. Maybe tomorrow we will constuct a tunnel to Mike (Walter) and the other RMI team's camp!
Hello to all our friends and family back home, and we'll check in again tomorrow!
RMI Guide Solveig Garhart
On The Map
Hi to Sergey and th team from Shapoval family! Sounds like you guys are having fun - way to go. I wish I could join in :)
Posted by: Marina on 5/21/2011 at 6:19 am
Wow such beautiful pictures. Thank you for the update!
Posted by: Lisa Macchione on 4/16/2019 at 5:43 pm
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