Today was our first full view of the Towers! We walked around the final corner of our trail today and pow! The towers jumped out at us and took our breath away. Then we proceeded to have drinks and dinner with the most incredible view out our dinning room window. We all feel so fortunate for this beautiful place and how well the land has been preserved. The weather has been outstanding with hot sun and light winds instead of the typical rainy days and strong winds. This morning the group took a speed boat to the base of the Grey Glacier where we scrambled up the nunitac put on crampons and walked around to see the sculpture garden made by running water over the ice. Our long days on the trail are making muscles sore and feet tender but spirits are high and our faces all hurt from smiling all day. We feel lucky to be here and sharing this experience with such a fun group of people.
RMI Guide Christina Dale
Dear Mom, I’m having a blast, yesterday Kate took a compass bearing and we set out for a woods walk. Chase and I hiked along a big brook of snow melt, we layed in it. We snuck up on a couple of turkeys and almost had them by the tail. That put me into a frenzy, I LOVE chasing game birds. I get salmon on my breakfast and sleep it off by the wood stove. Chase and I have taken over Kate’s side of the bed! Hope you’re lovin’’ it! Love, your loyal Charlie-girl
Posted by: Charlie Sanders on 2/25/2018 at 6:32 am
Another long, but amazing day out on the safari circuit for the Taos team. We had a relaxed 9 AM departure from the Plantation Lodge. Adamson and Makubi took us to a Masai village for a brief tour. We danced a little, jumped high, and got inside some small, earthen dwellings to understand how this prominent Tanzanian tribe lives without modern conveniences. Then it was on to Tarangire National Park. Before long we were deep within this immense network of winding dirt roads, baobab trees, twisting river valleys and animals animals animals. We no longer stopped for individual zebras and wildebeest, since we were seeing thousands of them. After the hundredth giraffe and the five hundredth elephant, we started reserving our picture snaps for the babies in the bunch. We covered mile after mile, exploring and watching out for wildcats, water bucks, elan, impalas and gazelles. Lake Manyara and Ngorongoro Crater were each wonderful, but both were discreet areas with natural borders hemming them in. That isn't the case with Tarangire. We could see wildlife spread out to the horizons in all directions... the Africa we'd dreamed of. By day's end, we pulled into Balloon Camp, an excellent "tent" hotel out in the bush with armed guards to escort us from one tent to another. Those guards stood vigilant as we enjoyed an outdoor campfire and sumptuous barbecue buffet under the stars (and clouds). No lions, leopards, or cheetahs intruded on our wonderful dinner but we are still hoping they'll come for breakfast. It will be our last morning of Safari and we are still excited to see just what might be out there.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Summit!
The Mount Rainier Summit Climb teams, led by Dave Hahn and Tyler Reid, were leaving the crater rim at 7:30 this morning. Dave reported great conditions: clear and sunny, with light winds.
Mike King and the Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons are returning to Base Camp today after a successful summit via the Emmons Glacier.
it was a real priviledge to get to know, sweat, hike, and rope together. Thank you Emmons team and expecially guides for making it worth it! allen (contact me any time)
Posted by: allen musil on 7/26/2015 at 11:10 am
Congratulations!!! Must have been an awesome sight at the top of the mountain!
Hello once again everyone -
This was a marvelous day as we visited the famous Ngorongoro Crater, considered by some to be the 8th wonder of the world. We started early with hopes of catching more of the elusive wildlife.
Today we saw more zebras, Cape buffalo, wildebeest, giraffes than anyone expected, in fact at such close range that we could almost touch them. We also saw plenty of hyenas, ostrich, Impala and saw a few lions, hippos, elephants, and even managed to spot a couple of Rhinos off in the distance. Needless to say it was a wonderful day of well deserved safari.
We then wrapped up the day with a visit to a working Maasai village. The Maasai are the local nomadic people that have inhabited this area for more than a thousand years and still try to exist with their same way of life.
Finally we returned to the amazing Plantation lodge to relax and enjoy another wonderful meal.
All is well!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
I don't mean to brag, and I don't mean to boast. I do like Russian peanut butter and jam on my breakfast toast! But what else I do like is 100%! Every single climber on the summit of Europe's highest mountain, Mount Elbrus. Hey everyone, this is JJ Justman. We are doing the final little stretch here to get to the tippy top of Mount Elbrus. Team, what do you say? [Team hollers!] These guys are doing great, strong as can be. We just had a beautiful day coming up to the summit. We just have a few more steps to go but it's a done deal. We are going to hang out on top and take some photos. We will touch base with you when we get back down. Am I excited? Heck yeah I'm excited! These guys are really strong and they did a great job today. We'll touch base when we get down. This is JJ and the entire summit team on the summit of Mount Elbrus! Bye bye.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
RMI Guide JJ Justman calls from the Mount Elbrus summit
RMI Guide Casey Grom called from the Mount Rainier summit at 7:15 a.m. His team was on top in warm temperatures at no winds. They began their descent just after the radio call.
Congratulations to the summit climb team!
Wednesday, May 20th 2:38 pm PDT
Writing to you all from vibrating tents at 9800 ft. tonight. The team had a fine walk up from 7800 ft. this morning in decent weather, but the looming sense of something surrounding us was ever present. We started to make our camp as the winds picked up, snow falling and visibility waning. It was hard work for 3 or 4 hours before we had good walls and I've never seen the team work so well together - all are hard workers. We are hunkered down now and eagerly await what tomorrow brings.
Hope you all are warm!
RMI Guide Leon Davis and team
Thinking of all of you! Stay safe and hope the weather cooperates.
Enjoy!
Gayle
Posted by: Gayle Hutton on 5/22/2015 at 5:42 pm
It got chilly in PA, and then I remembered what you are experiencing and it suddenly didn’t seem so bad here. Hope you are staying warm and doing what you love. D & I are thinking of you. Jenny
Today we are headed out from our post in Malintzi and moving on towards Ixta. Luckily we will get a chance to do some sight seeing on route. Traveling to another country is about so much more than just trying to stand on top of a mountain. It is often the spaces in between the summits that you remember years after the summits fade. Here's to the waterfalls and markets, the small town zocalos (town squares) and random Christmas tree farms in the foothills on the way to the climbs. And we hope everyone back home is enjoying the in-between time too.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
Safari has started! This morning we met for breakfast and then headed out through the edge of Maasai country to Lake Manyara National Park. We have just finished with lunch and are about to head through the forested region next to the lake. This is the home of the tree climbing lions so hopefully we'll be lucky enough to see some.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Today we rest! Today we did some camp improvements, reinforcing the snow walls and buffing out the kitchen tent. Other than that, we were working on our relaxation techniques. These cannot be underestimated on a climb of this length.
Dear Mom, I’m having a blast, yesterday Kate took a compass bearing and we set out for a woods walk. Chase and I hiked along a big brook of snow melt, we layed in it. We snuck up on a couple of turkeys and almost had them by the tail. That put me into a frenzy, I LOVE chasing game birds. I get salmon on my breakfast and sleep it off by the wood stove. Chase and I have taken over Kate’s side of the bed! Hope you’re lovin’’ it! Love, your loyal Charlie-girl
Posted by: Charlie Sanders on 2/25/2018 at 6:32 am
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