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The
Four Day Summit Climb teams, led by
Dave Hahn and
Mike Uchal, were on top of Mt. Rainier by 7:30 AM this morning. The team had clear skies and moderate winds, a perfect day to be on the highest point in Washington.
Congratulations to today's summit climbers!
Good evening from
Huaraz! We're ready to launch our adventure into the mountains tomorrow. We're all packed up and ready after a nice day of acclimatizing and resting around here. We hiked to Churup lake, at 14,200ft in the morning, to then come down for a good late lunch as a team. We caught up on our sleep with a well earned nap in between packing, that help with recovering from international traveling and driving across Perú the last couple days.
Our next check in will be from the mountains! Stay tuned.
RMI Guide Elías de Andres Martos
Greetings from Huaraz!
Do you like movies? Recognize the Paramount Pictures' logo? Well... that mountain exists, and we're off to climb it!!!
After a day of international traveling, and a night in Peru's capital, Lima, we drove north through the Pacific coastal desert, then through a section of Peruvian farmland where chili peppers are getting dried in the sun and finally, over the 14,000-foot pass of Conococha to arrive in Huaraz, the gateway of the "Callejon de Huaylas" Valley. This is where the
Cordillera Blanca Range extends for nearly 100 miles. We checked in to our hotel, and a clear evening provided a great view of the mountains to the Northeast form the terraces of our rooms in the Hotel Andino, an incredible facility, where after four years, we're part of the family now.
We're off to bed, excited for our acclimatization hike tomorrow. Stay tuned as we start our expedition.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos and team
June 7, 2017
"Ok, I know we've been climbing for three hours straight, but let's get a quick bite to eat and drink and get out of here and back to camp."
"Brent, there's like over thirty people behind us on the route." JT exclaims, trying to be heard over the winds that have just picked up.
This was the scene at Denali Pass a few hours ago, high point of our midday sojourn to kick in the route, reset the anchors to the current route and mostly get some exercise so we do not waste away up here.
After passing a windless evening last night I was optimistic of our chances to summit this morning. But, as our typically poor luck would have it, around 7:00am the first ripples of wind tickled the tent walls. By 9:00 we had 40 mph gusts pushing the tent walls into our faces. Yes, we were all ready to go if the weather improved since it wasn't horrible outside besides those pesky gusts.
Finally, 11:45 rolled around and we decided to go for a little walk.
By 12:30 we were climbing to
Denali Pass. This is typically later than we'd like to start for the summit, but we didn't have the summit in mind anyways. What took me by surprise was how our little walk inspired the entire camp at 17,200' to gear up and climb.
Our team really climbed well today, especially impressing me on how well everyone descended.
The weather forecast is not really inspiring, but we'll hang in here for a couple more days anyways to see if we can catch a break. The team is still smiling, and we had a great experience today. All it takes is one nice day to finish this thing off.
Good night,
RMI Guides Brent, Christina and JT
On The Map
Due to avalanche hazard, the summit climb teams, led by
Brent Okita and
Mike Uchal, were unable to summit
Mt. Rainier this morning. Both teams topped out at 12,800,’ and are headed back down to Camp Muir.
We look forward to seeing the teams back in Ashford this afternoon.
It is that time of year. Here in Ashford, my hometown, it seems like the rain never ends. While that means snow—a lot of snow on Mount Rainier—and I really should be heading on up and take advantage of some amazing
backcountry skiing, there are three things I am absolutely passionate about: one is high altitude mountaineering; two is road cycling; and three goes hand in hand with the first two: suffering! If I cannot ride my
bike outside, I ride indoors on my trainer. Today, I want to share with you my epic, indoor, high intensity interval-training workout that pushes my
anaerobic and aerobic capacity to the max.
To start, many people see my
BMC road bike and ask me, “What does BMC stand for?” The Bicycle Manufacturing Company or BMC as it is known is a Swiss company that builds what I believe are the best bikes in the world. However, I refer to my BMC as my Big Mountain Climbing Machine! So here is my “go-to” indoor cycling workout.
Before you get started:
• Make sure you have one, or more realistically, two water bottles.
• Have a towel at hand. You are gonna sweat!
• A television will help. I’ll explain later.
• Obviously your own Big Mountain Climbing Machine, a.k.a. a bicycle and an indoor trainer
This interval session takes about 40 minutes total and is extremely simple, yet so powerful. To help motivate me, I cycle in front of the television on which I play a recorded stage of The Tour de France. That way I can pretend I am beating Philippe Gilbert (one of the pro peloton’s strongest cyclists). Yes, I beat him every time!
The Workout:
Pain Scale: Use a subjective pain scale. 1 is Super Easy; 10 is “oh my gosh, I can’t take this!”
6:00 warm up (Pain Scale: 6): Pedal at an easy and fast cadence
15 Intervals as follows:
1 minute all out interval (Pain Scale: 9 to 10): Place your bike’s gearing so that you are pushing hard and fast!
1 minute rest (Pain Scale: 3): Spin easily and recover.
Do 15 intervals: One minute all out hard and fast followed by one minute of recovery and repeat it 15 times totaling 30 minutes.
4:00 Cool Down (Pain Scale: 3): With all 15 intervals complete, spin easily to move lactic acid out of your tired legs. If you are like me, your last or 15th interval will include that sprint where you beat Philippe Gilbert at the finish line of the Champs Elysees in Paris!
Remember: beat him every time!
Fast, hard intervals like these serve to increase your
anaerobic threshold. There are times in the mountains, say the fixed line section on Denali above 14,000 feet, where it gets steep and the climbing becomes very demanding at times. Interval workouts like these give me an extra gear to push with before I redline and become anaerobic, which at altitude is unsustainable.
Mentally, I need to dig deep and push it to the top where I know the terrain mellows out again and I can relax, and the challenge of pushing through 15 sets of intervals helps me develop that frame of mind as well. Climbing isn’t always easy and at times you have to suffer a little bit before it gets easier. This interval training session not only allows you to push physically harder, but also develops the
mental ability to push harder.
Incorporate this workout into your training plan, and you will begin pushing through those physical and mental barriers where you stop saying, “I think I can” to “I KNOW I CAN!” Now go out…or in this case in, and jump on your Big Mountain Climbing Machine and break through those barriers!
_____
JJ Justman is a senior guide at RMI Expeditions. He guides expeditions to some of the highest mountains around the World. JJ just arrived in Mendoza to lead an
Aconcagua climb (the first of the season), and will head north in May to
Denali's West Buttress. Based in Ashford, WA, JJ is a passionate road cyclist and can be seen on his "Big Mountain Climbing Machine" pushing the pace to Paradise and back down.
Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts here on the RMI Blog!
¡Hola again from BC!
In case you missed our call this morning, here is the recap; another 100% summit success!!! Everyone did an excellent job on our climb up
Urus East, a step above the previous
Ishinca, on a day where we encountered steep terrain, short pitches, involved scrambles and rewarding rappels. Our views of distant
Copa, where we head next, from the top, were jaw dropping; all of us can't wait to head there day after tomorrow. We're enjoying dinner as we speak, and in twelve hours we'll be hitting the trail downhill towards Huaraz for a day. Stay tuned!
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
RMI Guide JJ Justman and the
Four Day Summit Climb team reached Columbia Crest, the highest point on Mt. Rainier around 7 am this morning. The team is enjoying beautiful weather with 10mph winds. They will spend some time on the summit before beginning their descent to Camp Muir. The team will return to Ashford this afternoon.
Congratulations climbers!
Good Morning,
Last night after the move to Camp Schurman the team elected to split into a group focused on advanced climbing/crevasse rescue skills and a summit team.
The summit team woke around 10pm for their summit push. After dealing with warm nighttime temps, isothermal snow, and punching through multiple snow bridges the team decided to turn around at about 10,500.
All team members are now back in camp beginning a day of ice climbing, glacial navigation and crevasse rescue training.
RMI Guide Drew O'Brien
PC: Drew O'Brien
We're at 11,000 ft and loving it. The team did strong work this morning getting out of camp by 5 AM and onto the now familiar route. Packs were heavy but our sleds were lighter than yesterday. We made great time and everyone seemed in high spirits to be leaving the Kahiltna and getting to where we could see out. The great weather continued. We were in bright sunshine for building our new camp at the foot of "Motorcycle Hill". Tomorrow we'll drop down to retrieve our cache at 10,000, which shouldn't take too long. Then we'll prep for going higher.
Best Regard,
RMI Guides Dave, Sam H, Sam M, Nick
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To infinity and beyond. Way to go Mick and Matt!
Posted by: Brett on 7/28/2017 at 2:33 pm
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