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Posted by: Nick Scott, James Bealer
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Monday, January 17, 2022
What a crazy 36 hours! We arrived at Aconcagua Camp 1 excited for the true expedition to begin, but little did we know, the mountain had other plans. We crawled in our tents after dinner with moderate winds slapping the tent walls, but what began as moderate mountain winds soon grew into freight train roars. Gust after gust battered the tents as we scrambled to secure more guy lines and add more rocks to the anchors. What started as 40 mph gusts soon grew to 80 mph and greater! It felt as if the mountain was unhappy with our presence on its flanks. The wind was relentless all night, making the guide's job tireless as we constantly left the safety of our tent to check on the security of the others. No one slept a wink as we all constantly felt the need brace the walls of our tent as the roar of the train built high in the mountain and finally crashed angrily into our camp. As the sun rose, the wind flowed unabated but with less severity as it had throughout the night. With the light increasing we were able to survey the damage. One out of the three tents didn’t survive, but all climbers woke unscathed, albeit a little sleep deprived. Despite their experience, it was the guides whose tent was left broken and battered and who had to seek shelter in the emergency dome tent set up by our logistics company for just such an occasion. With the sun rising, the group sipped coffee with 1,000-yard stares until the caffeine kicked in and we were able to process what just happened. With a broken tent and the forecast changing for the worst, the mountain forced our hand. The guides made the tactical decision to retreat back to basecamp to regroup and pick up our spare tent we had left behind. However, this does not mean the adventure is over. We plan to rest where the air is thicker, wait out the bad weather, and continue on up the mountain in two days. Everyone is tired, but in good spirits after such a trying night on Aconcagua. Wind is what this mountain is famous for and it delivered in spades. Two nights of good sleep in basecamp will have us rested and ready to give it another go. Let’s just hope the mountain decides to let us pass.
Posted by: Alan Davis, Emma Lyddan
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Peru Seminar
Elevation: 14,400'
RMI Guide Alan Davis checked in via inReach. The team arrived at the western end of the Ishinca Glacier at 14,400' yesterday. They will spend a couple of days building on the skills in preparation for our first summit bid, Ishinca at 18,143'.
All is well, no hiccups!
Dave Hahn from Everest Base Camp
On The Map
Hello Dave and Melissa: I just got on your blog a week or so ago and have enjoyed your posts! Wishing the best in climbing for you and certainly hope the conditions start to improve so you can get to your goal: a summitt attempt! Things are good in Seattle and I hope to get on Mt. Rainier a couple times this summer. Then the best part: the Mountain Festival! Hope you’ll both be in attendance again since it’s so good to visit and hear your climbing experiences. My radio station is supposed to be getting in touch with RMI to set things up for another weekend of coverage. Sending good climbing vibes your way, so good luck! Mike Brown
Posted by: Mike Brown on 5/9/2012 at 11:00 pm
Good climbing, David .
hoped to meet your father and Lisa in Boston at the end of this month but Memorial w/e is not propitious for Ron to drive. I read about your intrepid hike with Ron in Yosemite. Remarkable, and so well written.
Regards and Berg Heil from Your distant relative
Hugo
Posted by: Hugo Langshur on 5/9/2012 at 5:56 am
Posted by: Billy Nugent, Leon Davis
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Posted by: Seth Burns, Tatum Whatford, Ellison Boord
Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades
Elevation: 10,781'
It was a successful summit for all team members on the Mt. Baker Easton Glacier Climb July 22 - 24. RMI Guide Seth Burns reported a beautiful day filled with lots of smiles!
Nice work team!
Posted by: Seth Burns, Josh Geiser, Michael Murray
Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades
Elevation: 10,781'
RMI Guides Seth Burns, Josh Geiser and Michael Murray reached the summit of Mt. Baker today with 100% of their team. Seth reported a nice sunrise climb this morning via the Easton Glacier. The team will return to camp for their final night on the mountain. Tomorrow they will walk out to the trailhead and conclude their program.
Congratulations to the team!
Saturday, June 25, 2022 - 11:14 pm PT
Today was the epitome of doing nothing, which are team excelled at. It was a 10:30AM wake up, breakfast and a whole lot of lounging around as we adjust to the thin air at 14,000’. The team is doing great and we are set to do a carry up the fixed lines tomorrow to 16,400’. As we go to bed we’re enjoying the views of Mt. Hunter and Foraker off in the distance.
Don’t worry the crew will be back tomorrow writing a more exciting dispatch. We truly did excel at doing nothing today which is a great thing when it comes to climbing a big mountain!
Posted by: Dave Hahn, Dominic Cifelli, Tatum Whatford, Seth Burns
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 20,310'
Monday, July 4, 2022 - 1:50 a.m. PDT
Briefly…Because it is 12:38 a.m. at 17,200 ft…we did it! Fabulous climb to the top of North America. The day started out a little more windy than predicted, so we pushed our start back to 10:15 a.m., by which time thinks were looking more promising. We went back and forth all day between a little cool and a little hot. Luckily, when we hit the top at 6:30 p.m., it was calm and easy. In fact we enjoyed it so much we spent 50 minutes on top! There was only one other team today and we will likely be some of the very last for the season. Beautiful views down into all the fascinating glaciers and valleys surrounding Denali. We picked our way carefully down, leaving the summit at 7:20 p.m. and arriving back at high camp at 11:00 p.m. Late night dinner and then crawling into sleeping bags for well earned rest.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn and team
nice to visit this site.
Posted by: Ruhiarsha on 3/13/2024 at 2:36 am
Congratulations to Jim Karmozyn and the entire team on reaching the summit! I knew you could do it.
Posted by: Ted Wioncek on 7/7/2022 at 10:56 am
Posted by: Andy Bond, Grayson Swingle, Ben Luedtke
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 14,200'
Saturday, June 25, 2022 12:27 pm PDT
Today, we waked up at 6:30 am with a blue sky and still a beautiful view over the mountains. We ´ve had a nice warm drink and breakfast with Bagel cheese and bacon. We took off our tents, made ready our backpack.
We have filled up our 11000 cache with duffels bags, snow shoes and some foods. We started moving from 11,000' camp at 9:30am and come to 14,000’ camp at 2 pm. We went through motorcycle hill, polo field, squirrel point, windy corner. We didn’t see horses at Polo Field, but we heard noises of horses couple of time from the group :-) Getting higher, we saw the valley with the rivers getting water from the glaciers. We have been lucky with a Moon walked above our head.
We saw the beautiful Mount Hunter and the difficulty to climb this mountain.
When we arrived, we set our camp and are ready for the rest day tomorrow.
-Yann
Thanks to Yann and Sebastian for writing the last two dispatches in their 2nd and 3rd languages and giving our group a diverse and international feel.
Everyone is doing great, and we climb incredible strong. Rest days have been filled with dance parties, great conversations and lots of food.
As we sit at 14,000 camp we’re enjoying another much deserved rest day. Are hope is to carry up the fixed lines tomorrow than wait for a weather window.
RMI Guide Andy Bond & Team
Posted by: Walter Hailes, Jack Delaney
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Sunday, January 16, 2022 4:01 PM PST
After a rough first night at base camp because of the big jump in altitude, we started the day a little slow. We went for a nice casual walk to check out the local penitentes and breathe off the slight headaches that lingered from the night before. It was beautiful walking into the 15’ tall glacier spires. After lunch we got to work sprucing up our camp. The whole team worked really hard shoveling, hoeing, and raking the rock filled dirt into plush flat platforms for our tents. We will sleep better tonight partly because the tents will be more comfy and partly because making the tents more comfy was exhausting. Another beautiful day in the mountains with a great team!
RMI Guide Walt Hailes & Team
Wow! So happy everyone is safe and sound! Will be praying for better weather and mild winds for the rest of your trip!!
Posted by: Coeli Scott on 1/19/2022 at 12:24 pm
Since this is Wednesday, I’m hoping that Steve and team are back on track and making that mountain their B*tch! Stay safe. Love, Susan
Posted by: Susan Dietz on 1/19/2022 at 4:49 am
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