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We enjoyed some surprisingly good weather on the way up to Camp Muir. Dry, cool, but at the cost of minimal visibility. That's ok though, because now that were up at Muir it's beautiful.
Everyone is doing great!
RMI Guide Brent Okita
Hey, just dropping a line really quickly.
We have been running around like crazy here in Los Penitentes getting all of our things ready for the big trip ahead. Needless to say it was a bit of a late night last night but we seem to be caught up with everything. The effects of the airline delays and the late arrival of our baggage have put us behind schedule but I think we are about to leave the hustle and bustle behind. We plan on finishing up the last of the packing this morning and hitting the trail for the mountain sometime around noon today. Everybody in the group is really excited about the journey ahead, if not a bit anxious. We will check in via sat phone sometime tonight from our first camp on the approach, Pampa de Lenas.
Wish us luck
SUMMIT DAY!!! And how sweet it was! Let’s start from the beginning of the day. 12:00a.m. Lucia has been snoring for a few hours. I’m wide-awake listening to the wind blow the tent around and stressing about summiting. I guess that’s the difference between someone on their first climb here and someone on their 11th.
4:00 a.m. The wind still blows, I still stress... Lucia snores.
5:00 a.m. Still windy. I resign myself to the fate of not climbing Denali. I’m OK with it, it was fun, I learned a ton, and everyone had a good time. Sometimes the mountain just won’t let you climb. It’s OK. Lucia is still sound asleep.
6:45 a.m. I hear rustling coming from Lucia’s side of the tent. I’m wondering what he’s up to, as the night before when I had suggested that we start the stoves at seven he said, “it’s too cold then, we’ll start them at 8.” Then I notice the wind, actually the lack of wind is what I notice. Lucia pokes his head out the vestibule and pulls it back in quickly. “Dude, it’s really nice outside. Let’s go!” So we get up and put our boots on.
Lucia starts the stoves. We fill our water bottles and have instant grits and hot drinks for breakfast. After packing our last minute things we’re off. It’s just after nine o’clock.
It takes us two about 2 hours to climb to Denali Pass. There are a few other groups out today. The nice weather has brought everyone out. We take a break with two of them just below Zebra Rocks.
We then ascend the ridge to the ‘football field’. The weather is still holding, but it’s noticeably colder here above 19,000 feet. There are a few clouds wisping over the summit and we anticipate high winds on the summit ridge. We climb Pig Hill to the summit ridge and are rewarded with a spectacular view down to the Kahiltna. We then proceed along the steep ridge to the summit. It’s 5:30 in the evening and we’re standing on the roof of North America on a calm, clear day.
After a few rounds of congratulating and picture taking (Andy brought three different banners to get photos with) we enjoy the last few moments of ‘top time’ and descend to the football field. Then, we descended to Denali Pass in very warm conditions. As the sun dropped low in the sky we climbed down back to camp.
At camp we were greeted by the second RMI trip of the season led by Mike Walter and Tyler Jones. It was doubly great to see those guys as they had 3 pots of water waiting for us.
All in all it was an eleven-hour summit day. We were very happy to crawl into our tents and get some well-deserved shut-eye.
On The Map
Hello friends, family and everyone else who plans to follow along! We are off to a great start on another RMI Expeditions Ecuador Volcanoes trip. On this itinerary we plan to (hopefully) visit the summits of both Cayambe and Cotopaxi, the third and second highest mountains in Ecuador, respectively.
To kick of the acclimatization, we traveled around Quito yesterday seeing various sights, mostly related to gaining independence from the Spanish and to the cultural history of indigenous peoples. Of course, that takes us in and out of a variety of old churches as we all marveled at the architecture of these places. In addition to learning some interesting things about Ecuador, it was also a chance to dust off the jet lag and get the bodies moving around a bit.
To continue in that direction, we hiked Rucu Pichincha today. The day started off a bit hazy, but as that layer moved we had glimpses of Cayambe, Antisana and Cotopaxi amongst other high mountains of the Ecuadorian highlands. The group all did well today and we are about to head out for one more dinner in town before we leave for the countryside tomorrow.
RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier & Team
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Sunday, June 2, 2019 - 11:10 PM PT
We moved up to 17 Camp today. In my opinion, this is the second hardest day of the trip, but everyone handled it with style and grace. We had a perfect day moving up the
West Buttress, with light winds and spectacular views. We’re all straight chillin in our tents now, eating dinner and snacks. The sun hits this camp until past our bedtime, which keeps us warm for the first few hours of sleep. We’re hoping to try for the summit tomorrow if weather allows, so we’re turning in early. We’ll let you know how we’re doing tomorrow.
RMI Guide JM Gorum
On The Map
Monday, May 27, 2019 - 6:08 PM PT
As expected, the weather did not cooperate for a carry today. So instead of moving uphill we spent the morning making and eating pancakes. We ate breakfast until it was lunch time, ate lunch, and then enjoyed a few hours of sun and clear skies. We shoveled some snow of course, got a little training in, discussed the state of the universe, and I believe that Kirk has been meditating on the meaning of life for much of the day. He is scheduled to give a lecture detailing his enlightenment at dinner. David ate bacon today for the first time in 10 years. He seemed to enjoy it. There is talk of a pull-up contest if the weather doesn’t improve tomorrow, we will see. Dustin is the top seeded contender, but I have no doubt there are some dark horses in our ranks. As we move towards dinner, the snow has returned. Our plan is to get an early-ish start tomorrow and carry to 13,500, but we will see what the weather gives us. Hopefully we wake to clear skies and calm winds tomorrow.
RMI Guide JM Gorum
On The Map
May 20, 2017
The clouds did not stick around so long this morning but the chill lingered for much longer. The team enjoyed blue skies as they built a few snow block walls around camp under a steady drone of the numerous otters flying in to drop off more climbers. After a short siesta we moved into some anchor building and simple hauling systems in preparation for proper crevasse rescue. For now we are doing some packing for a morning trip around the
SE Fork to see how things are for climbing.
RMI Guide Leon Davis
Ah, the rest day! A whole day spent just relaxing and taking care of ourselves. It's the dream, right!? Not always, it can be a real struggle to find ways to pass the hours and a lot of our climbers find the lack of an agenda anything but relaxing. Luckily our team seems to be coping with all the free time like expedition veterans. This morning we started with a scrambled egg breakfast with onions, peppers and tomatoes. The group split after breakfast and have been passing the time by reading, taking walls through old glacial moraines and the occasional nap. This afternoon we'll prepare for our move to
Camp 1 (16,200ft) by dividing up our remaining group gear and discussing our strategy for the upper mountain. Our forecast is calling for increasing winds over the next few days, with the highest winds coming in at 45mph at Camp 1 and well over 70mph on the summit! We take things one day at a time up here in the high mountains and will be looking at the forecast closely over the next few days. The team is excited to move up and ready for the challenges that Aconcagua has to throw at us. Pray to the weather Gods for us! Thanks for following!
RMI Guide Steve Gately
On The Map
We left the Dik Dik Lodge after breakfast and made our way to the start of our climb from the
Machame Gate (6000 ft). After obtaining our permits we set off, starting in overcast conditions that were very comfortable. Four thousand vertical feet in just under six hours brought us to Camp 1, also known as Machame Camp. Our fantastic local guides and staff had all tents ready to be invaded. After dinner and a most beautiful sunset, we were settling in for the night, knowing tomorrow will bring a full set of challenges. The sun may have gone down but the team's excitement grew well into the night.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
On The Map
Hi everyone!
We are excited that today is over! The team spent the day traveling by car then airplane then car again. We have finally arrived in St. Petersburg and it is so nice to be here. It has been a long day but tomorrow stay tuned for some photos of our city tour and my favorite, the infamous canal tour.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
We are thinking and praying for you up in the great white north. All is fine below in the not so far north great white north. Trees finally have leaves, still no grass across the street and Jilli is sitting for her exam as I write. All the best to everyone! Much love and remember, it’s the journey!
Posted by: Beth Ludwig on 6/3/2019 at 9:50 am
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