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The Five Day Summit Climb team turned at Ingraham Flats this morning due to high winds with strong gusts up to 50 MPH. RMI Guide Sid Pattison and team have spend two days on Mt. Rainier, during that time they have experienced some light snow fall and windy conditions. The team will be starting their descent from Camp Muir at around 9 am this morning and arrive here at RMI Basecamp early this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's team!
Posted by: Casey Grom, Billy Nugent
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Elbrus Southside
Elevation: 11,000'
Hello again everyone!
It was a beautiful day here in Russia. We had a nice relaxing start to the day with a traditional Russian breakfast of porridge, eggs and bread. Afterwards we made our way to the local ski lifts to help give us a jump start on our hike. I didn't hear a single complaint about riding up 1,500' on a chair lift before we started our two-hour hike to the top of Peak Cheget. Yes, it is also the name of the town in which we are staying. The hike went well with mostly clear skies and we even caught a few glimpses of Elbrus between the clouds.
After our hike we made it back to town relatively quickly thanks to the ski lifts, where we had a hot lunch waiting for us. After lunch, we dropped off our gear and made a quick stop to pick up a few extra items and even managed to try on a few local hats.
We wrapped up the evening with another nice, home cooked meal here provided by our ever so gracious local outfitter.
Things are good here.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
52 Peaks! I’m with you in spirit! Stay safe & enjoy!
Posted by: Todd on 7/26/2016 at 10:53 pm
The team left the bustling Zona Rosa District in Mexico City and headed for the hills. We arrived in La Malinche at noon and we quickly settled into our private cabanas and dinned our trekking shoes.
The weather was less than ideal with steady rain; however, our team made the best of marginal conditions not to mention rain gear! The park police actually were not going to let us up because of the weather.
You see, the park sees a lot of tourists...locals from the city dressed in sandals and sweatpants. Which, is nice on a beautiful day. For us, the weather wasn't actually that bad so with my best Spanish I sweet-talked our way to trek up to 13,000 feet.
The team did great! We had a fun time and did our bodies good adjusting to higher altitudes. We are now settled back in our cabanas and we are getting ready for another great dinner here in Mexico.
Heh! After a wet day at altitude this team deserves a little pampering!
RMI Guides JJ Justman and Mike King
On The Map
Posted by: JJ Justman, Solveig Waterfall
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide JJ Justman and the Five Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide Solveig Waterfall reached Columbia Crest, the highest point on Mt. Rainier and in Washington State, around 6:50 am. While on the summit the teams enjoyed calm, really nice conditions. The teams began their descent around 7:30 am. We look forward to seeing them back in Ashford later this afternoon.
Congratulations Climbers!
Despite having a rogue mule disappear with one of our bags last night, the group enjoyed delicious grilled chicken and Steve's famous pasta salad. The bag eventually rejoined our group late last night, thanks to the amazing gauchos that we work with.
We are relaxing at Plaza Argentina, 13,800 feet after a beautiful day with more views of the highest peaks outside of the Himalaya. The group woke early and rode Mules across the Vacas River, always a highlight on an Aconcagua expedition. We are looking forward to our first rest day of the climb tomorrow.
Stay tuned to see how the group, "out chills" the rest day.
RMI Guide Mike King
On The Map
That mule must work for the airlines!
Posted by: tina baker on 1/31/2015 at 7:00 pm
Thursday, May 16, 2019
A few short waves of snow showers passed through camp overnight and we woke up to a fresh dusting of new snow. A quick breakfast of oatmeal, dried fruit and nuts got us ready for the task ahead today. The terrain ahead would be a bit more challenging then our first day and the team was eager to explore new parts of the range. A decent amount of recent climber traffic has resulted in a well kicked in trail and we were grateful for the easy travel.
From camp our first obstacle is "Ski Hill". In any other setting this slope wouldn't make you bat an eye lash, but with Denali loads it poses quite a challenge. The team did fantastic with the increase in gradient. A short wave low pressure system was forecast to pass over the region today and we were greeted to a few intense snow flurries that reminded me of the Kahiltna Glacier that I'm more used to seeing. From the top of Ski Hill however, the terrain eases off quite a bit and we meandered our way to about 10,000' where we left a cache of gear to be retrieved later. A quick descent brought us back into camp in seemingly no time at all and the crew is currently taking a load off before an early dinner in anticipation of another long day tomorrow.
Tomorrow, weather permitting, our goal will be to move to 11,000' Camp. Its great to finally settle in at 11,000', build a fortified camp, build the best kitchen this mountain has ever seen and look forward to our first rest day of the trip. That's all for now, thanks for following along!
RMI Guide Steve Gately
On The Map
That is a big glacier. Keep it up team. Looking forward to following your progress thru all phases of fun.
Posted by: Darren Beck on 5/18/2019 at 3:27 am
Hey, everybody this is Casey Grom checking in again from here on Kilimanjaro. We wanted to let everybody know we woke to a beautiful clear sky and had an incredibly nice breakfast in our camp this morning. Our route ascends a ridge line and then as we just get out of the trees the route veers to the north and we make our way towards what's called the Shira Plateau created by a very long ago eruption. It took us about 4 1/2 hours to get up here. It was sunny all day and the team did great. The trail was a little busy because there are quite a few folks climbing this route with us, but we did really well. We spent the remainder of the day hanging out and our giant dining tent being catered to here in Africa. We just wrapped up dinner. The sky is full of beautiful stars and the team is headed off for bed and looking to get a good night's rest before getting up in the morning and going for another walk. I will check in again tomorrow. No cell service today, but should have it tomorrow, so hopefully we'll get some fresh photos up for everybody back home. Thanks for following.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
RMI Guide Casey Grom calls in from Shira Camp on Kilimanjaro.
On The Map
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Good evening from Alpamayo Base Camp. We have spent the last couple days hiking on the Santa Cruz trek to get here. We have had beautiful weather and incredible views that the towering peaks around us provide. Tomorrow our donkeys head home and we start the more serious part of the trip. Stay tuned to follow our progress in the beautiful and challenging peak!
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
Posted by: Dave Hahn, Hannah McGowan, Hannah Smith, Avery Parrinello
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 348'
Yesterday we converged at baggage carousel #1 in the Anchorage airport... having come from far and wide to form our Denali climbing team. A commute with Denali Overland and our driver Bill brought us into Talkeetna, Alaska by 9 PM. Today we got down to brass tacks and started preparing seriously to go on the mountain. It wasn't all drudgery as our first official team meeting was conducted over a fine Roadhouse breakfast with plenty of good hot coffee. Introductions were completed in time for our mandatory National Park Service Orientation Slideshow at the Talkeetna Ranger Station. We were reminded that it had been a tough season for weather on Denali, with only 30% of climbers making the summit so far. Indeed, we'd begun the day walking the streets in steady rain. By midday when we headed for the K2 Aviation hangar, things were beginning to look up. We conducted a thorough check of each climbers gear and clothing as big stretches of blue sky too over. We kept looking toward the Range as we went through sorting tents and ropes and food for the group, but the big peaks stayed well-disguised in the murk and cloud. By early evening the loads were in order and weighed for hefting into airplanes. The work done, we headed back into downtown Talkeetna for dinner at the bustling Twister Creek. It is high season for tourism in Alaska. We all relaxed a little and made final preparations for "getting on" in the morning. Getting on a plane, getting on a glacier, and getting on a climb.
With a little more improvement in the weather, we'll be on our way.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
It was another calm, sunny day on Mount Vinson. We took full advantage, moving from Basecamp at 7000 ft to Low Camp at 9200 ft. We managed it in just over five hours, which is plenty good for being about 6.5 miles. Better still when you consider that we picked up extra weight at the halfway point (our cache from yesterday). The route up the Branscomb seems to be in "normal" snowcover conditions. Most of the yearly accumulation out here occurs below where we are now.  Snow accumulation is generally a good thing -it bridges the crevasses. So our route today was pretty straightforward in terms of crevasse hazards... which is fine by me.  One could be tempted to think that in a land of massive glaciers, that of course it must snow a lot. But Antarctica is the highest and driest continent on earth. Right at the moment, we're liking the dry. This camp gets the sun until quite late -around 3AM. The air is cold, maybe -15 F, but inside a tent in the sun, life is good.Â
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Sorry the whole team has to read this, but, Keith, the alarm keypad is beeping continuously. Is there a way to turn it off? Pushing “Cancel” does nothing.
Yuki
Posted by: Yukiko Loritz on 11/30/2016 at 6:19 am
Wow! What an awesome adventure the team has been on this week! So glad all of you are safe.
Posted by: Olivia Young on 8/3/2016 at 8:41 am
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