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Wednesday, May 20th 3:19 pm PDT
We took advantage of a beautiful morning today and bumped a cache of food and fuel up to 16,200 ft on the West Buttress, above the fixed ropes of the head wall outside of 14k camp. We made efficient work of the head wall and, as we neared the top, clouds and wind moved in around us. The weather was manageable, just not very pleasant. So once our cache hole was dug and our food and fuel was buried, we retreated back down the fixed ropes to the comfort of camp.
The afternoon was spent relaxing as winds swirled around camp. We will take a
rest day tomorrow to recover and acclimate further. The weather forecast for the next couple of days indicates strong winds up high, so we'll likely have a couple of days to rest here at 14,200' while we wait for a reasonable weather window to move up to high camp and have a crack at the summit. Hopefully the weekend will bring more favorable climbing weather. We'll keep you posted either way.
Cheers,
RMI Guide
Mike Walter and Team
On The Map
June 15, 2014 - 7:37 pm
Greetings from 9,700' on Mt. McKinley. We woke up around three this morning, ate breakfast, and then packed up camp. We loaded up our backpacks and sleds and headed up to our next camp. We pushed hard for the early part of the morning so we could get to camp before the glacier got hot. It seems strange that we would be worried about the heat while climbing in the snowy mountains of Alaska. When the sun is out and the solar radiation is bouncing off of all of those white surfaces, it acts like an Easy Bake oven.
We put in a storm proof camp in a crevasse free zone and were tucked away by ten this morning. I suppose that begs the question about what we did the rest of the day.....hard work I assure you!
HAPPY FATHERS DAY to our wonderful dads!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen and Team
On The Map
Hello from Cafe La Vaca, in the town of Cayambe. We have all arrived safely from the mountain and are getting ready to power down massive hamburgers to replenish our bodies after 11 straight hours of climbing this morning.
Oh, did I mention the team made a successful summit of
Cayambe? I am so distracted by hamburgers I almost forgot the important details.
We woke at 11:30 this morning to cloudy skies but warm temps. We started up the mountain at 12:30 and were standing on top in perfect weather by 7:15am. It was one of the most glorious summit days I’ve ever had on this mountain. Somebody cashed in some big karma bucks to get this forecast.
Once at the hut the wind picked up and the clouds rolled in. Perfect timing again!
Now we will feast, bathe and sleep. Our big mountains are just beginning so rest is imperative to staying healthy and strong.
Sending big hugs to all of our family and friends back home.
Will write again tomorrow.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff
We kicked off our Antarctic mountaineering expedition with a walk around the windy streets of Punta Arenas in the far South of Chile. Most of the gang came in on the afternoon flights from Santiago, so stretching legs was crucial following all those uncomfortable hours in the air, the airports and the airliners. We had a nice dinner at La Luna, one of the friendly restaurants just a few blocks from our hotel on the shore of Magellan’s Strait. Turkey wasn’t on the menu, nor was there any cranberry or gravy... and it was five unrelated strangers sitting down to get to know one another. So not your typical Thanksgiving feast, but for that, it was quite nice. It was still plenty light out at 8:30 pm when we walked from the restaurant, a pleasant reminder that we’d switched hemispheres and seasons. Tomorrow we’ll get down to the business of packing and preparing to climb Vinson. Tonight was just for relaxing with new climbing partners.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Good afternoon from Talkeetna everyone! The May 13
Denali Team is safely in Talkeetna and ready to get this grand adventure underway.
The team spent the morning exploring Talkeetna before sitting down for an orientation with NPS to discuss the many facets of life on Denali. After a brief but informative discussion we shifted over to an empty aircraft hangar provided by K2 Aviation to begin tearing apart our equipment and making sure we have the necessary items for safe travel and a long trip. By early afternoon the team had their duffel bags and backpacks packed and ready to be weighed and marked by K2.
During that time my two assistant guides were busy running through our 22 days of food and organizing the rest of our group gear for the trip. It's an overwhelming process at times and the shear amount of gear needed for a successful
Denali expedition slowly began to show itself.
It's a good feeling however to now say that everything is prepared and ready for our flight onto the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier.
We'll take the afternoon to relax, unwind and enjoy the amenities of town life before hopefully leaving it all behind tomorrow. We're all looking forward to a great meal tonight at Denali Brewing Company and a good night's sleep. Tomorrow we'll rise early and be ready for a potential flight in. In Alaska, flights in and out of the great range depend greatly on the weather. We'll cross our fingers for a decent window tomorrow to kick things off. Hopefully by this time tomorrow I'll be sending these dispatches from the Kahiltna Glacier!
The team is psyched, the guides are psyched and life is good! Thanks for following along and as always, stay tuned for more!
RMI Guide Steve Gately
Thursday, June 14, 2018 - 8:01 PM PT
We had a super early start this morning. We were very proud of Super Crew 6 this morning for getting up and packing up with style so we could get on the trail quickly. I gave them a C+ to their face but it was really an A+ effort. I didn't want them getting too cocky right off the bat!
We had a great walk up the
Kahiltna Glacier through light snow and medium visibility. As we approached camp, the sky started to clear and bit and we have been able to see Denali on and off since then.
We are dug in safely and 7,800' and will make an on the fly decision whether to move up to our next camp based on what the weather looks like when we get up at 2 a.m. Keep your fingers crossed for us!
RMI Guide Mike Haugen and the Super Crew
On The Map
Hello from the middle of the world!
Our
Expedition Skills Seminar in Ecuador is now officially underway! Despite most of the team arriving to the hotel after midnight last night, everybody was excited and eager to kick off our program this morning. All of the people made it, all of the luggage made it... I'd say we're off to a great start!
After only a few hours of sleep last night, we all gathered in the hotel lobby at 8am this morning after breakfast for our first of many team meetings of the trip. Introductions were made and travel tips were shared, and before we knew it, we were all sitting on a bus beginning an incredible tour of the city.
Our first stop was at Independence Square, home to the Presidential Palace of Ecuador. Unlike the overwhelming security of our White House, we were able to coax the guards in to letting us walk behind the fences and steal a look in to the main courtyard of the palace, the political center of the country. After waving goodbye to the President (not really), we continued on our way to one of the most beautiful churches in the country: La Compañia.
Taking over 150 years to complete, La Compañia is a Jesuit church finished in 1765. It offers a good a good demonstration of various architectural styles, including Baroque, Moorish, and Neoclassical construction styles. Its other claim to fame is the fact that its interior is almost completely covered in gold foil!
Our tour then took us from the modern part of the city to the early, colonial districts of the city. By driving to the top of El Panecillo and visiting Quito's Virgin (a 45 meter tall statue overlooking the city), we were able to get great views of the entire expanse of the city. Cloudy skies prevented us from getting our first glimpses of our climbing objectives, but we were happy to be staying dry.
Our final stop of the tour took us to the equator, where we explored an interactive museum demonstrating some of the unique properties of life at 0 degree latitude. Only a few of us were able to balance an egg on the head of a nail, but I still have high hopes for this team...
Now, back at the hotel, our mission is simple: kick back, relax, and catch up on some much needed sleep. We'll be stretching our legs tomorrow on our first acclimatization hike of the trip, but until then, it's time to get some shut eye.
Until tomorrow,
RMI Guides Nick Hunt and Steve Gately, and the rest of the team
RMI Guides Ben Liken and Adam Knoff along with their team of climbers reached the
summit of Cayambe (18,997') today. The team will descend to Hacienda Guachala where they will spend the night. Tomorrow they will set out toward Chimborazo and their next objective.
Congratulations to the team!
On The Map
With a gnarly low pressure system poised to strike our intended high camp on Lanin, in my experience the windiest mountain in the world, we decided a more prudent plan would be to focus our efforts on skiing some new terrain on
Villarrica. This meant foregoing our two day attempt on Lanin (with the forecast, our odds of summiting were minuscule) so with a team consensus we decided to spend an evening camped on Villarrica instead.
Today we traversed around the mountain to the east and found a very long run down snaky lava tubes full of corn snow. We skied three runs today totaling 5800 vertical feet, and now we're about to have dinner at our Villarrica camp. Another fun day in Chile - hoping the weather is merciful tomorrow.
RMI Guide Tyler Reid & the Chile Ski Team
Yesterday we awoke to a crisp morning, with a blanket of fresh snow up high. Enough snow to stop our van in its tracks on the approach road to
Lonquimay, but we didn't mind the extra skinning. The weather was a bit stormy the top 2,000' of the mountain, so we decided to save the summit for the next day. We still got to ski a couple long, very fun laps above massive lava fields, and later our crew went for a pre-dinner soak at the local thermas.
Today we had perfect Southern Hemisphere spring weather and were able to ski from the summit. We skinned up to about 8,500', where we transitioned to boot crampons and threw our skis on our backs. Another 900' of methodical climbing and we were on top.
The big news however is that Sergio, our host here in Malalcahuello, is cooking his famous Chilean asado for us tonight - something I look forward to every year.
All is great with us.
RMI Guide Tyler Reid & the Chile Ski Team
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CPT Quantock and Team: Love seeing the pics and progress ya’all are making! Keep up the good work sir, the whole Bison team is rooting for you! Others in the battalion ask about your progress all the time, looking forward to hearing about this adventure.
“Move Out The Way!”
-Bison 5
Posted by: Mike D'Ippolito on 5/21/2015 at 1:42 pm
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