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All is well here in the Baksan Valley, at the base of
Elbrus where we've settled into our comfortable hotel. We made the most of the local ski lifts, (to save our knees of course) and hiked up the neighboring peak to start our acclimatization. It started off a little cloudy today, but eventually cleared for some decent views of Elbrus. After our ascent we headed back down to town for a nice lunch and headed over to the local climbing shop to pick up a few last minute things. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, getting our bags packed and just wrapped up another enjoyable Russian dinner with some wonderful Georgian soup.
All is well here and we'll check in again tomorrow!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
Greetings from
High Camp on Aconcagua! Today was a big move day for the team, as we established ourselves at 19,600 feet in preparation for our summit bid. We battled some gusty, overcast weather getting up here, but as of 5 pm the skies around the upper mountain are clear, if a bit blustery. We are all hoping for an unconditional good break in the weather tomorrow, which as of now is the "big day" for the team. Keep us in your thoughts tomorrow; we're all hoping for a safe and successful summit day.
Love to everyone!
RMI Guides Mark Tucker & Pepper Dee
On The Map
Our
Elbrus Northside trip concluded in one of my favorite towns to visit in Europe, St. Petersburg. Finally sleeping in to a leisurely hour, we met our tour guide and bus at 10 am and departed on a circuitous path through the history filled city to see the sites. St. Petersburg is home to some of the more stunning cathedrals in Russia, and those were a primary focus of the tour, passing by the Church of our Savior on the Spilled Blood, St. Nicholas’ Cathedral (a cathedral dedicated to the Saint of travel and maritime navigation, which is of huge significance in a city founded to be the maritime capitol of Russia, and the home of it’s navy), and St. Issac’s Cathedral. The massive scale of St. Issac’s is something to behold, and on one side, its huge columns still bare the scars left from mortar and artillery shells fired at the city during its 600-day siege in World War II. We also passed the warship that fired the symbolic first shot that began the Bolshevik takeover of Russia’s government, and found ourselves finally at the Hermitage.
The Hermitage is comprised of the former winter palace of the Romanov dynasty, as well as several buildings that were added on later by different emperors and empresses, and is home to an art collection in excess of 2.7 million pieces. Our guide spent an hour taking us through the buildings, pointing out some highlights, a Michelangelo, two paintings by DaVinci, and several by Rembrandt. After the hour, our tour guide released us to wander through the stunning rooms ourselves at our own pace. That evening we regrouped for a canal boat tour, beginning on the river Nevski, which runs through the heart of St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, the days of recent rain (many of which we had experienced!), had swollen the rivers and canals, so that the boat was unable to make its way through the usual circuit of canals that run through the heart of the city, as the passages under the bridges were too low, but we still were able to see the summer gardens and several more palaces from the unique perspective of the canal.
That led us to our final dinner as a group. The Jerome presented the perfect destination, and when the chef came out to show us the special — a beautifully marbled cut of local prime rib weighing almost a kg, everyone was sold. Delicious local beef, and several bottles of Spanish Rioja provided the perfect ending celebration to a really special trip that everyone enjoyed. We were sad to part ways the following morning, some of us very early, for flights back to the US. This was a special group of climbers to work with, and
JM and I would like to thank everyone for their hard work and incredible perseverance and positive attitudes. We look forward to running into everyone in the mountains again soon, and thanks to all who followed along on our adventure!
Signing off,
RMI Guides
Pete Van Deventer and
JM Gorum
May 21, 2016 - 11:43 pm PT
Though there was a cap on the upper mountain when we woke, that wasn't the direction of our concern. The snow and winds had abated, and down towards
Windy Corner, the sun was shining through thin clouds, setting everything to sparkling. After another great brunch, we grabbed our packs and feeling light as feathers, cruised downhill to our cache. We made quick work of retrieving it, and an hour later were back in camp with a small mountain of food. We spent a bit of time before dinner rigging our ascenders and reviewing fixed line techniques for what we hope to be our carry up onto the West Buttress tomorrow. If the weather cooperates we'll make our first trip up the lines, and all the boxes will be checked for our summit bid.
All for now,
RMI Guides Pete, Robby, Jess, and team
On The Map
May 17, 2016 - 10:28 p.m. PDT
Grey clouds greeted the team in
Anchorage as we began our movement towards the mountain but the wet skies could not dampen everyone's excitement to start the trip. Finally, after all the preparation and training, we are on our way!
At first glance, on this first day, I'm excited about the team. All seem fit, experienced, and fun to be around. Dinner, dessert, and drinks were a nice conclusion to our long day of travel to get here. Now for some sleep so we're fresh for a busy day of gear preparation tomorrow...
Until next time, good night.
RMI Guides Brent Okita, Christina Dale, and Chris Ebeling
On The Map
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Kautz led by RMI Guide
Seth Waterfall reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning via the
Kautz route. Seth reported warm, sunny weather on the summit. The team will descend back to camp for their final night on the mountain before returning to Ashford tomorrow.
Monday, June 1st 10:23 pm PDT
This morning we woke up at 7:30 to another beautiful day. Despite the chilly breeze, we packed up camp and had a quick breakfast and hit the dusty trail. Soon the wind dissipated and we found ourselves in base layers again. The team moved very well up Ski Hill and past our cache site on up to
11K camp. Luckily 11K camp was somewhat vacant so we moved right into an old camp saving us a lot of work, although we will need to fix up the snow walls a bit tomorrow. After a delicious dinner of mac and cheese, we crawled into our tents as the low clouds crept higher with the incoming front. Weather permitting tomorrow we will retrieve our cache at 9,600' and do some work around camp here at 11. Thanks for following along with us.
RMI Guide Geoff Schellens
100% Team Summit of La Malinche!
We arrived to La Malinche cabins at 10,000 feet under sun and puffy clouds. Everyone enjoyed a pleasant walk to stretch the legs, then went to rest and prepare for our big climb in the morning.
Around 5:30pm our tranquil mountain setting was rudely interrupted by dozens and dozens of lightening bolts and thunder that was way too close. Then the heavy rain started and as we went to bed, waterfalls and lakes were forming around the cabin grounds.
Surprisingly, 5 am brought a starry sky and perfect climbing temperatures! And as we made our way past tree-line at 12,800 feet, a rare sight greeted us-La Malinche covered in snow almost like the old timey photos in the basecamp restaurant.
The team was expecting a ‘training hike’, not a ‘mixed snow and ice alpine climb’, but the new snow was good walking, and after a couple belayed sections on the summit block we all gathered for a quick summit photo. Quick! Because as we smiled for the camera, thunder clapped right above our heads and it was time to go!
We walked down through dime sized hail and more thunder, which will only make the meat tower at dinner taste that much better!
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Mexico's Volcanoes February 1, 2025
Hello from 11,000' Camp on Denali!
After a quick breakfast of oatmeal, we tore down camp and retraced our steps from yesterday. As we worked our way in and out of the clouds and limited visibility we finally pushed past our cache site, and continued to 11,000 ft. Once we rolled into camp, the work for the day wasn't done. We made quick work setting up tents and building camp. After many hours of hard work we finally wrapped up the evening with some ramen as it lightly snowed at camp. Tomorrow we will make the quick jaunt downhill to our cache and get the rest of our gear. Check in tomorrow!
RMI Guide Nikki Champion
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Denali Expedition May 14, 2024
Wednesday, September 18, 2019 - 9:54 AM PT
Greetings Everyone
The team woke feeling very well rested after about 10hrs in our tent last night. We had a beautiful day on Kilimanjaro today, with sunshine nearly all day and only a few clouds after we reached camp.
We started the day waking at 6:30 to start packing up before moving into our dinning tent for a nice breakfast with porridge, fried eggs, toast, avocado and even some fresh fruit, and most importantly plenty of hot coffee.
We hit the trail shortly after 8am and slowly made our way up the rocky trail that leads out of camp. The trail climbs up a ridge and eventually out of the trees and normally allows for some truly spectacular views of the valley below, but today it was a bit limited. The team hiked for about 4.5 hours before reaching our next camp that sits on Shira plateau, which is an ancient lava flow just above tree-line. Once at camp we were treated to a wonderful warm meal and then hopped into our tents to relax.
The evening was full of great stories and another amazing meal prepared by our gracious staff.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and the Kili crew
On The Map
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Good luck Fred and fellow climbers. Have a great day!
Jerry and Carol Hedstrom
Posted by: Jerry & Carol Hedstrom on 1/22/2017 at 6:06 pm
Thinking of you a lot today, and hoping for a smooth and safe ascent (and descent of course). We couldn’t be prouder! :)
Posted by: Jenny M. on 1/22/2017 at 3:01 pm
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