May 14, 2017
Happy Mother's Day!
We celebrated Mother's Day by taking a rest/acclimatization day at 14k. The weather was beautiful and we were able to get some much needed rest and dry out all of our gear. We took a leisurely stroll out to the Edge of the World to take on the magnificent views of the Kahiltna Glacier nearly 7000' below us.
We also took time for continued training with fixed rope travel and running belays, which we will likely employ tomorrow. Speaking of tomorrow, we plan to carry a load of supplies up high on the West Buttress so we will be ready to move to high camp soon. We'll keep you posted.
Again, happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there. Especially: Jeanne, Liz, Mimi, Kelly, Cynthia, Diane, Jarah, Victoria, Lea, Judy, Gale, Roberta, Pam, Joanne, Martina, Meme, Ann, Nancy, Debbie, & Renee.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
It was breezy all night and thru out the climb as we traversed along the west side of the mountain today. Dramatic clouds below on the Shira Plateau stayed around until the wind died down. We were hiking thru the highland desert zone among large volcanic boulders up to well over 14,500' when we began the big descent into tonight's camp Barranco at 13,030'. The south side of the mountain begins to unveil the dramatic upper mountain and a scattering of the beautiful giant groundsel tree not found many places on this planet is making an appearance. The team worked hard to get here and are glad to be sitting at the dinner table getting ready to begin another great mountain meal together.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
You are almost to the top. Keep up the hard work, Grace and I are rooting for you from RPI. I want to hear those pressure breaths from the other side of the globe!
Posted by: Evan and Grace on 9/23/2016 at 5:16 pm
Sounds like an amazing adventure! Can’t wait to hear about it in person. Also, congrats on the personal altitude record Mom!
Sending lots of love from Somerville :)
Posted by: Alexander and Hoagie on 9/22/2016 at 6:30 pm
May 13, 2016 - 6:02 PM PST
Progress in the mountains comes in small, incremental pieces. Today that meant moving 17 days of food and fuel, as well as the bulk of our lunch food, up to 10,400' at Kahiltna Pass. It was an impressive pile that went into our cache hole, and will make our loads much friendlier tomorrow for our anticipated move to 11k camp. It was a warm day, scorching even, when we lost the light down glacier breeze, but everyone did great, and cruised the return trip with empty packs and sleds. We had a sumptuous meal of quesadillas, and now everyone has crawled into sleeping bags to escape the chill that happens as soon as the sun drops below the mountains, reminding us that this is still May in Alaska. We'll let you know what adventures we find tomorrow.
Thanks for following
RMI Guides Pete VanDeventer, Robby Young, Jess Matthews, and Team
Keep up the good work guys, and keep sending the pictures. It inspires those of us who want to do it.
Thanks
Posted by: Kevin Stone on 5/16/2016 at 11:56 am
Hi Lisa looks like ur making good progress on this adventurous climb, just to drop a line the Downs was tough yesterday with 25-30 mph came home in 36 though hit it real solid 2 birdies one on 18 for 78 not trying to rub it in but letting u know the Downs is calling u, everyone is asking for u so I’m filling them in on ur tough journey. Bill was asking for u as was Tom Sepp and the crew anyway be safe and climb on.
Hey, everyone, this is JJ Justman with Pepper Dee. We are sitting here at Las Lenas Camp. The team had a great day here, hiking into camp. It is a little bit windy here right now as we are getting the gear all situated. We are going to have a nice dinner this evening to celebrate New Year's Eve out here in the mountains. We are going to hang out with the cowboys, drink some Cokes and Tang and some matte and put that big slab of beef on the grill and get this trip underway. The team is doing great. We have a really great team, as usual an All-star team of ten guys looking forward to continuing the trek in tomorrow. Thanks for following along. Stay tuned - it's going to be a good one.
Bye bye,
RMI Guide JJ Justman
RMI Guide JJ Justman calls from Pampa de Lenas en route to Aconcagua Base Camp.
Jambo everyone!
Things are going well and the team is doing great here on Kilimanjaro.
Today the team had a leisurely start as we wanted the sun to warm us up before our only semi-technical part of the climb. The trail out of camp starts off relatively mellow and then quickly ramps up as we ascend the great Barranco Wall. It's truthfully not as intimidating as it looks, but when does a thousand-foot cliff ever look easy. Thankfully the route winds its way up the cliff through ramps and small rock steps and eventually on to easier terrain. Everyone did a great job of taking it easy and I actually think they all enjoyed the challenge we had. We took a break on top of the wall to enjoy the views then slowly made our way to the next camp here above the Karanga Valley.
It was a relatively short day for us as this will be our last camp before we move up to our high camp tomorrow.
We are spending the remainder of the day relaxing and enjoying the royal treatment by our gracious staff here on Kili.
As usual we've had a trivia challenge that one lucky winner will receive a satellite phone call from the summit. It won't happen until we reach the summit, but that's not too far away. I'll let everyone know when that might happen on tomorrow's dispatch. So stay tuned!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Hi, this is Seth. We are all back at the Dik Dik Hotel where the team is getting set for the flight home.
We woke up this morning way out in the bush at Kikoti camp. After a great breakfast we split the group in two. Half the team went quickly back through Tarangire National Park and spent some time at Peace-Matunta Orphanage and school. The other half tried to find some leopards but they proved to be elusive. The elephants and giraffes were out in full force, though, so all was not lost.
We are all back together now and after an early dinner I'll be taking everyone to the airport where they will depart for the USA. As for me however; I'll be starting another trip shortly and that means another journey up Kilimanjaro and more wildlife viewing in Tanzania's beautiful national parks.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Wednesday, June 19, 2019 - 7:22 AM PT
Our expedition has begun and the hard part is done. We managed to come together in the Anchorage airport from throughout North America. As a bonus, all of our gear made it through as well. We loaded up in the traditional Denali Overland van and trailer and got out of rush hour Anchorage traffic for the three hour push to the North. We couldn’t see much of the mountains as clouds were down pretty low, so we focused on enjoying the many shades of green on the valley floor. A stop for groceries in Wasilla broke up the ride nicely and we arrived in Talkeetna by 8PM. There was a brief tour of town before the team settled for the night in the comfort of the Swiss Alaska Inn. The work begins in the morning-packing and permitting.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hello Everyone -
Today the team left behind the comforts of our beautiful lodge and have made our way to the mountain towards the start of the climb. Starting shortly before 8am we drove along the rural country side for two hours to reach the Kilimanjaro National Park entrance. Most of the area surrounding Kilimanjaro has been cultivated and primarily used for coffee production and for a variety of other agriculture needs, but there are still some areas that have been untouched and resemble more of a savannah that Tanzania is known for. The base of Kilimanjaro is heavily forested and resembles more of a jungle or cloud forest. Traditionally it has supported a large part of the banana production for this area.
Once we arrived at the gate we had all of our gear weighed and divided into loads for our porters to carry before hitting the trail. Once everything was in order we started our climb slowly making our way up the winding trail. The team hiked for a little over 6 hours to reach our camp for the night. Everyone did great and enjoyed finally getting some much needed exercise.
After settling into camp the team was served a nice warm meal and then headed off to bed for a nice full night of rest.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and the Kili crew
RMI Guide Brent Okita and the Four Day Summit Climb team reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Brent Okita reported a beautiful day with 30 mph winds on the summit. The team spent about an hour on the summit enjoying the views before starting their descent.
Congratulations to today's Team!
Congrats! I summited Mount Saint Helens on the 18th as well and the wind at crater rim was insane! Had to have been over 25mph. Thank goodness for goggles.
The Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guides Brent Okita and Hannah McGowan reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. The team was going to spend some time on the summit enjoying the views before starting their descent.
Congratulations to today's teams!
Wooohooo!!!!!!
You are almost to the top. Keep up the hard work, Grace and I are rooting for you from RPI. I want to hear those pressure breaths from the other side of the globe!
Posted by: Evan and Grace on 9/23/2016 at 5:16 pm
Sounds like an amazing adventure! Can’t wait to hear about it in person. Also, congrats on the personal altitude record Mom!
Sending lots of love from Somerville :)
Posted by: Alexander and Hoagie on 9/22/2016 at 6:30 pm
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