The clouds disappeared last night and stars were out in full force. We left the Karanga Camp a bit after 9 and landed here at high camp right at noon. Lunch went well at 15,000ft and we have been busy preparing for the summit push tonight. Preparations, which seem to be a long time ago back in the states, are paying off here with the team in fine shape along with a great attitude. Some down time in the tents for now before an early dinner then a good nap right into early wake up call around midnight. Weather is nice- fingers crossed. I will try and give a call from the summit tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Our third AMS-Alpine Expedition has come to an end. What an incredible time we had! The rugged terrain of Little Switzerland didn't disappoint at all... While the weather has been the main challenge, conditions on the routes were stellar. Our team of four climbers were super talented and motivated, and training days in the vicinity of camp waiting for weather to clear, turned to be the most productive lessons on the terrain; from rock rescue scenarios, to anchor transitions, all paid back with very efficient climbs up iconic formations like "The Lost Marsupial" or "The Troll", which astonished glacier landing tourists from down below as their K2 Aviation plane landed on the Kahiltna Glacier.
Worth mentioned was our menu. If most of us are familiar with the concept of car camping... imagine how plane camping can be! With a powerless fridge like the glacier, steaks or fresh vegetables are unquestionable components of our diet in here. Yes, the alpine climbing in our seminar is at its best; light packs, 1 day missions from camp, and technical terrain. But when we're at camp, fun times, quality rest and better food is guaranteed.
Now we're headed to the airport, already thinking of next year's edition. Thanks for following and I hope you will consider joining us next season!
RMI Guide Elías de Andrés Martos
The equator of our journey has been reached; greetings from Lake Grey. We had an interesting (by all means) hike between "Los Perros camp" and Grey Hut. With the longest of our stages ahead, an early start despite the lingering rain showers, was required. Soon after dawn we were packing up and heading uphill towards Gardner Pass, the highest point of our entire trek, with deteriorating weather. The rain became snow, and the wind gusts plastered it against our gloves, packs and faces reminding us of where we were. But the group didn't give in, and despite a long 3 hours of unpleasant coldness, slippery trails and loaded packs, we reached the saddle that would initiate our descent to the western slope of the Olguin Range.
Winds died down, precipitation vanished and clouds lifted; the Patagonian Gods had now befriended us as a recognition for the perseverance of everyone in the group. As a reward, they laid out a view of the Glacier Grey, one of the terminus of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, the third largest continental mass of ice on the planet. Wow.
The day continued uneventful, warm and pleasant, just with long hours of hiking to complete a 13 mile day of rugged terrain that, after five days, brought us to the place where day tourist visit coming by boat from the other side of the lake, completely oblivious of what it takes to make it here unmotorized.
RMI Guide Elías de Andres Martos
Your last blog entries included “scrapes and scars”, “scrambling through chutes and ladders”, “ice axe mode”, “quick crash course”, “metal spikes crunching”, “clumsy foot from plummeting”, “icy chute”......WTH !?!?!?!
You promised Dad this was piece of cake.Be careful for him. (I know you are having a blast and he’s just a wuss….ignore him, just like usual). He’s checking his weather channel iPhone app all the time to see whats going on, cant wait to hear all about it. Get lots of close-ups of you and your crew. YTG Monster Boy
Posted by: Monster on 1/30/2017 at 3:24 am
Torrey,
Fay and I are following you daily on your journey! We are so proud of you and truly the entire group. It is often the most difficult things we do that end up being the most satisfying.
We've arrived at High Camp! Summit push tonight.
It was a short and uneventful move from Karanga Camp up to Barafu Camp, which is our launching point for the summit. The team did great and we arrived in just over three hours with sprinkles of snow falling most of the way.
We've had our summit talk where we discussed our plan and the teams strategy for tomorrow. Final packing is taking place as I write this and we'll have dinner shortly, then it's off to bed for a little sleep before the climb. Weather permitting, we'll be up at 11 pm, have breakfast, and hopefully hit the trail around midnight. As per usual, I'm expecting the ascent to take around eight hours with breaks to the "Roof of Africa".
Keep your fingers crossed for us, and there's a chance, if time allows, some of you back home might receive a satellite phone call from the summit. So keep your phones handy. My best guess is we'll be on the summit around 8 in the morning, Tanzania time.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
Today was a day of rest and preparation for our team here at Aconcagua Base Camp. We spent the morning reorganizing and sorting out communal food and equipment for the upper mountain, and the afternoon finding a way to make it all fit into our packs. Along the way, team members found time to take a brief stroll around the base camp vicinity to acclimate and enjoy the perspective, and a few lucky climbers snuck in a nap or two. Everyone is excited to carry a load up to Camp One tomorrow, and officially launch our assault on the mountain!
Bye for now,
RMI Guides Mark Tucker, Pepper Dee and Team
Thanks for the update Mark and Pepper! I can’t wait to hear more. Sending lots of love to my Papa, Dominique. I hope you’re having a great time. Good luck Team!
Posted by: Lindsay Monnet on 1/13/2017 at 3:04 pm
Thank you for the great updates and photos. Enjoy the climb up!
Hi, this is Eric Frank calling from the summit of Mount Shuksan. We had a cold and windy, but enjoyable, morning climbing up here today. It is gorgeous! We can see into southern Canada, over the city of Vancouver, out at Mount Baker, and even down all the way to Mount Rainier. We feel pretty fortunate to have the views that we have today. We will talk to everyone soon.
RMI Guide Eric Frank
RMI Guide Eric Frank calls in from the Mount Shuksan summit.
Back to Talkeetna! We started the day at 14,000 with an early wake up. The weather was looking like it wanted to get worse, so we hurriedly packed up camp and began our decent to the air strip. After picking up our cached gear at the 11,000’ Camp and making great time on the lower Kahiltna, we arrived at the air strip only to be greeted by four teams of climbers waiting to fly off. The weather had been ‘iffy’ all day and none of the air services had landed yet.
Soon after we arrived we got word that Jay Hudson was going to fly in and see if the visibility was good enough to land. An hour later we could hear his planes coming to get us. It felt like special treatment being the last to arrive that day and the first to leave but that’s why we fly with Jay!
Forty five minutes later we landed back in Talkeetna. After a brief unpacking job we all disbanded to our respective hotels for the first showers in twenty days. Then we all met for a celebration dinner on the deck at the West Rib Pub. Tomorrow we’ll be going our separate ways back to our families and loved ones.
Great trip guys!
I’m happy to report we ALL made it to Argentina and with our gear (some bags took a little longer than others to arrive but they’re all here now!)
We’ve spent the last two days in Mendoza getting to know each other, checking gear, packing, repacking, learning about what the next few weeks will look like and enjoying as much of the Mendoza-life as possible. We are headed to bed with duffels ready, full stomachs of delicious Argentinian cuisine, and a lot of excitement to finally hit the trail tomorrow.
It’s going to be an incredible adventure and after so much time planning and preparing, we can’t wait for it to begin.
RMI Guides Jess Wedel, Jack Delaney and the Aconcagua climbing team
All is well in Tanzania. We’ve had great weather and the team is humming along really well.
We hit the trail just after 8 am and hiked for an hour before taking our usual 15 minute break, then back on the trail for another hour and so on. In total today we hiked for just over seven hours before reaching Barranco camp. Our gracious Kili porters have been working very hard and we arrived once again to a camp set up and ready for us.
Along the way we passed around the famous Lava Tower reaching just over 15,000' setting new altitude records for many. We also passed by many of the giant groundsels and towering Senecio trees that made us feel as if we were in some crazy Dr. Suess story.
100% of the Mt. Baker Easton Glacier team stood on top around 6 am this morning, August 19th. After facing thunderstorms and unrelenting rain, the team led by RMI Guides Sam Hoffman, Jack Ritterson, and Dylan Anderson were able to capitalize on a early-morning weather window.
.JPG)
So proud of you all. please stay well and safe.
xxoo
Posted by: Mimi on 6/17/2017 at 11:24 am
View All Comments