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We’ll call today a weather day. Usually, a team takes a weather day when conditions are too poor to move camp or carry gear higher on the mountain. We took a weather day today solely to take advantage of the first sun and calm winds that we’ve seen in 36 hours. The past few days have been a real test of everyone’s resolve here at
Camp Two. Before today, we have basically only left our tents to go to the bathroom, and to do that we had to suit up in boots, parkas, gloves, and goggles.
So much of expedition climbing is mental, and that kind of living wears away at everyone. It has done us a lot of good to stand around outside today, sip tea in the sun, and actually enjoy our unique position high in the Andes. Turns out there are actually some really nice views up here. In addition to healing any mental frayed ends, we dried out all of our gear, re-organized, and dialed in our cold weather systems for our summit day. We went on a walk towards high camp to get some blood flowing, and prepped ourselves for the coming days. We will move to high camp tomorrow, and try for the summit on the 12th. Starting tomorrow the days go by quickly, and after our reboot today everyone is chomping at the bit. We’ll check in tomorrow, hopefully from 19,600 feet.
RMI Guides JM Gorum, Hannah Smith, and Avery Parrinello
Wednesday, June 6, 2018 - 10:39 PM PT
The wolf huffed and puffed, but not on our house today. We woke up early after a short, but intense burst of snow last night, and things looked great. By the time we were done with breakfast though, we were watching huge plumes of snow sail off Denali's upper mountain, which gave us pause. We slowed our roll, and spent the morning watching to see if winds would abate. They did finally, but not until 4 pm or so, way too late for us. We'll try again tomorrow and hope for a different outcome. In the meantime, we are sitting through another intense bout of snow, turning everything white.
RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Jess Matthews, Taylor Bickford
On The Map
Wednesday, May 23, 2018
Well, we have checked all of our boxes to take off, but we weren't able to track down flyable weather to get us in to
Base Camp on Denali. Fog rolled in first thing this morning on the glacier landing strip, and we spent the day on standby, waiting for it to clear. Instead, moisture continued to stream into the Alaska range, and rain came off and on to Talkeetna. With a lot of daylight up here this time of year, our flying window is long, and we stuck it out until 8pm, when we finally accepted another night in town and checked into the hotel again. What do you do on a standby day in Talkeetna? Nap in the hanger, download more movies, chat, and explore the curio shops on Main Street, ready to drop everything and run back to the hanger at a moment's notice should things clear. All of that is punctuated by frequent trips to the coffee shop. We'll enjoy another night in a bed and wake up tomorrow to see what the weather gives us. This is the game that we are playing in Alaska!
RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Jess Matthews, Taylor Bickford, and team
After learning the fundamentals of glacier travel and snow and ice climbing, we put our newly honed skills to good use as we climbed to 11,000' to check out the upper mountain.
Unfortunately, the weather came in fast and we had to beat a hasty retreat back to
Camp Muir. What a fun day!
RMI Guide Brent Okita
RMI Guides
Pete Van Deventer, Sid Pattison and the Moondance Adventures Team reached the summit of
Mt. Rainier early this morning. The team was walking off the Crater Rim at 8:35 am. Pete & Sid reported light winds and light snow as they moved through the cloud cap at the top of the mountain.
Congratulations to today's team!
June 22, 2015 11:30 pm PST
We spent what is hopefully our last day at 14,000 feet resting and getting geared up to move to our
High Camp at 17,000 feet. It started out very sunny, but soon the clouds climbed up and whited us out. The clouds gave us a dusting of snow as well as some reprieve from the brutal solar radiation that can come with the sunny skies high on a mountain. The weather is looking good for us to move up and make a push to the top over the next couple of days. Wish us luck and do your good weather jigs for us.
RMI Guide Mike Haugen
On The Map
December 24th, 11:30 am PT
The team is enjoying Christmas Eve this year at 15,500ft on the tallest mountain outside of the Himalaya, not to shabby, eh? Temperatures are still warm and the winds mild. Today we rest and prepare for the real work of moving up to
Aconcagu's Camp 2 tomorrow. Keep our climbers in mind tomorrow, Christmas Day, as we'll be hauling 50-pound packs to 18,000ft. I know the team wishes they could be home with.... Well why don't I just let them tell you themselves....
Wishing all of my Hawaii peeps a blessed holiday season! I'm in good spirits and feeling well physically (and more important, mentally) to summit soon. Let's celebrate when I return! Love, Del.
All's well! Wishing a Merry Christmas to Taegan, family and fellow climbing buddies hanging at lower elevations for the holiday! Love you all--Matt
Having a great time. All is well! Enjoying the views, steaks and a great team. Merry Christmas to all! Love Nigel
Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas! Wish I could join you but Christmas at 18,000 is not too bad. Claud - I hope you're behaving yourself! Love,
Marek
I AM ON AN ADVENTURE!!!
Mammut
Pogoda przepiekna, super samopoczucie, towarzystwo wysmienite!!! Wesolych Swiay i Szczesliwego Nowego Roku - Pawel
Missing you very much this Christmas Bea! Wish I was there with you and the girls and Grant. Keep those good thoughts coming my way. Love ya, Jemes.
My dear Alex, you motivate and encourage me every step of the way, as always in front of me leading the way. Thank you for being the most amazing part of my life. Merry Christmas my love. I'm yours always. Ruben
Today was a special day. We had our Puja ceremony. For some of us it was our first, others it was one of many. A stone structure was made with a tree branch standing tall on top. Prayer flags fluttered in the breeze from the branch in five directions with our tents attached to the other end. A Llama sat in front of the structure reciting prayers as bells rang. Smoke swirled in the air. Everyone placed a piece of climbing gear next to the structure to be blessed. Food and drink offerings were also blessed. We all splashed blessed tea water on our heads, faces and body. Then we ate some fried bread and drank some tea. It was an experience we will not forget. The rest of the day has been full of relaxing tent time and snacking. As the evening approaches, the clouds roll in like clock work and snow flurries dance from the sky. It's time for tea and dinner. Enjoy your day!
Namaste,
RMI Guide Hannah Smith
The storm settled out late last night and we woke to clear cold skies this morning. The forecast was calling for improving weather and decreasing winds down to 15mph throughout the day. I was a bit skeptical of this forecast as I was seeing signs of approaching weather to the West over Chile. We opted to have a slow morning to allow the weather time to deteriorate if it was going to. After getting an updated forecast speaking yet again of calm weather we opted to start packing and head up to high camp. Of course a few minutes into taking down our tents a large lenticular cloud, often indicative of high winds, formed over the mountains rocky summit. By the time we were finished packing, clouds were rolling over camp and a gentle snow had begun to fall. Not more then 10 minutes out of camp the weather turned into a genuine blizzard! We turned around, made the 5-minute walk back and started to reestablish camp. Tomorrow is our last opportunity to go for the summit before high winds plague the area again. With the forecast still showing clear skies and light winds we'll opt to try for the summit from
Camp II tomorrow morning assuming the forecast is correct. This makes an already big day that much bigger but the team is up to the challenge. Pray to the Weather Gods for us!
RMI Guide Steve Gately
We descended into the cloud forest today in route to our camp,
Chaquicocha (9,900 ft). The temperature has increased and the vegetation is abundant after hiking over 2 passes. With the passes consisting of 1,800+ Incan steps on the descent the Team is enjoying having their boots off and a refreshing bowl of water to cool off and clean up.
Our weather has been great, a little cold for some the first two days, no rain and we got some clouds and cool air today to make for great pictures and respite from the sun.
We had the trail to ourselves except when porters would run by which allowed the Team to explore two Incan sites without fellow trekkers present. The meals continue to impress and we are excited to get into Machu Picchu for sunrise in two days time. Until then, we have more stairs to climb, card games to play and spectacular mountain vistas to absorb.
RMI Guide Mike King
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Clayton, pull your strength through your team. Help the ones that need it and accept the help from the others.
High camp and then summit push. You have your window and one chance at at.
Good luck to you all and a safe summit and descent.
Posted by: Brent Wolfe on 1/10/2019 at 10:41 pm
George you rock, it looks and sounds pretty intense! Now that you are out of phone range etc you can’t call me for pointers and the “What’s next?” But the hard core training I ran you through on the “Great Griffith Climb” I know you got this!
Stay safe and have fun Bro!
Posted by: Becket on 1/10/2019 at 9:49 pm
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