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The team made a carry to our high camp at 15,400'. We will attempt to climb Edurne Peak in a few days. Tomorrow or perhaps the next day, three climbing Sherpa and two other team members will head back up to our high camp and begin putting up fixed line on the route. The entire route will be fixed from high camp. If they decide there is not enough rope or it is not possible, we will not climb. The team as a whole does not have enough experience to climb without the fixed line. The rest of the team will rest and do some training at basecamp tomorrow. Fingers crossed the weather remains good and the route can safely go.
Namaste,
RMI Guide Hannah Smith
Monday, June 18, 2018 - 1:27 PM PT
Listening to the wind run down the
West Buttress sounds like a never ending wave crashing against a rocky shore. The snow is drifting 3-4 feet in places thanks to the 30 mph wind gusts. This is an actual weather day, the previous four have just been a warm up. The forecast is for more of the same. We continue to hang out in our tents and later today there is going to be a food swap so the team can get some different snack food choices.
RMI Guide Mike King
On The Map
The
Five Day Summit Climb Team led by RMI Guides Brent Okita and Bryan Mazaika reached 11,000' on their summit attempt of Mt. Rainier this morning before poor weather and visibility forced the team to turn at Ingraham Flats. Brent reported cold and windy temperatures with some blowing snow. The team is back at Camp Muir and will start their descent at 9 am. They will be back at Rainier Basecamp in the early afternoon.
Congratulations to today's Team!
Today we started our full circuit trek of
Torres del Paine trek with beautiful blue skies and no wind. We saddled our packs and headed off across the open sage bush landscape. We wandered across glacial fed streams and through beach tree forests. With guannaco and Caracara bird sightings we took lots of pictures. We had hot tea along the trail for lunch and pulled into our camp with a few hours to take a shower and hang out before dinner. After dinner we listened to live music by the local cowboys and even participate in the traditional Chilean dances. After the first day with these packs I noticed people were trying to share their snacks first and offer Cliff bars around to lighten the load. Everyone is in great spirits and enjoying the warm sunshine here in Patagonia. Hopefully, tomorrow brings another photogenic day on the trail as we head around the more remote parts of the towers.
RMI Guide Christina Dale
Здравствуйте (hello) from Russia!
We had an early start to the day as we left Moscow this morning and have traveled via plane and bus to the beautiful
Caucus mountains. Our flight took us to southern Russia not too far from the Black Sea to a place called Mineralnye Vody, which simply translates to Mineral Water.
This part of the country is predominately rural and is responsible for much of the agriculture that the larger cities depends on. We were meet by our trustworthy guide Yuri, whom I've climbed with many times. Then hopped in our van for the 3 hour drive up the Baksan Valley to the base Mt. Elbrus.
Things went pretty smooth minus a few little traffic jams with cars, motorcycles and cows all humorously trying to use the road.
The small town we are in is called Cheget, and it doubles as a ski town in winter and converts to climbing town in the summer. We didn't do a ton of exploring this afternoon due to the adjustment of the time that we are all still feeling and having started so early. However, tomorrow we will do our first acclimatizing hike and do a little exploring too.
All is well here as we are looking forward to a little exercise tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
RMI Guides Brent Okita, Jenny Konway and Matt Rosenberg led the
Four Day Summit Climb of Mt. Rainier June 17 - 20, 2017. The team arrived at Camp Muir yesterday afternoon. They began their alpine start around midnight and climbed to 13,500' before deteriorating weather and poor visibility forced them to turn around. The team will return to Camp Muir and then continue to Paradise. We look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp later today.
Special thanks to RMI Guide Jenny Konway for providing photos of today's climbers!
At daybreak today, we could finally get a look at our spectacular surroundings. The clouds were gone from overhead, and it seemed that the ones under us were miles below. Machame Camp, nestled within the giant heather, seemed a fine place but we were anxious to go higher. We got on the move a little before nine and quickly found ourselves on a steady and steep hill climb. There were plenty of big steps through broken volcanic rock but eventually we crested a ridge and followed that toward the majestic upper slopes of
Kili itself. At about 12,500 ft we deviated from the ridge and moved north, traversing toward a new horizon on our left. We crested that at 12,800 ft and caught our first views of the Shira Plateau stretching out to the West. We then dropped a few hundred easy feet to our new home... already built and waiting for us at 12,600 ft. The afternoon was spent resting, eating and drinking. Each time out of the tents we were a little startled by the gigantic views... of Mt. Meru standing at 16,000 ft to our west and of Kili standing at 19,000 ft immediately to our east. We'll head straight toward
Kili tomorrow morning.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Today was the most fun I've ever had acclimatizing. The team was feeling good and moving well as we made our way up to the crystal clear waters of
Laguna Churup.
The lake sits at 14,600' and is a perfect day hike to get some altitude in before we move to our base camp in the Ishinca Valley. When we arrived we couldn't resist the glacial-fed emerald pool. Within a few minutes most of the team was fully submerged and paddling as hard as they could to get back on shore. The water temperature was... Refreshing.
Pictured here from left to right are Chase, John, Sarah and Steve.
This inspired group of adventurers is back in Huaraz, packed up and ready to head into base camp tomorrow. Can't wait to get climbing!
Until then,
RMI Guide Zeb Blais and team
July 4, 2016 - 5:11 am PT
Here’s a quick update from the past two days:
Yesterday wet and windy conditions kept us in the climbers’ hut until after lunch, when the weather improved…slightly. We quickly packed our bags and headed up Iliniza Norte, scrambling up a steep rock ridge with fresh rime ice on it. Due to our late start and deteriorating weather, we turned around at Paso de la Muerte (Death Pass, ~5000m), a few hundred feet shy of the summit. Strong winds and very poor visibility accompanied us for the entire descent, but we safely arrived back at the hut with plenty of daylight. It was a fun day of climbing and great acclimatization.
Today we woke early to starry skies and light winds. After a light alpine breakfast we set out for Iliniza Sur. The good weather lasted all day and, after being challenged by steep snow and ice, rock climbing, and high altitude climbing, we arrived at the summit! Seven hours after leaving the hut this morning we strolled back in for a quick lunch and some coffee, before packing our bags and heading back down to the parking lot.
I am writing this dispatch on my phone (without service) as we drive north to our hacienda for the night. I’ll upload pictures tomorrow, when I can track down some more reliable Wi-Fi…be sure to check back, we got some great pics today! Priorities tonight are showers, dinner, and comfy beds!
RMI Guide Mike Walter
June 6, 2016 - 11:12 pm PT
D- Day 2016
The team launched at dawn, storming the Kahiltna, avoiding the pillbox seracs overhead and the minefields of crevasses below. After a few hours on the offensive the team took the hill at 10,000 feet and moved into a classic flanking maneuver to set up for our assault on
11K. Once the initial defenses were breached, we dug our foxholes and hunkered down to await the next wave. A reprieve came in the afternoon and the team was able to enjoy a hot meal of Mac and cheese before bedding down for the evening. We suffered no casualties and took no prisoners.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
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Praying the weather eases up.. I can only try to imagine what its like… You guys are amazing! Hang in there! Sending special love to JT.
Posted by: Wendy Emmer on 6/20/2018 at 6:43 am
Doing our clear skies weather dance for y’all!
We are rooting for you and keeping tabs everyday!! A big thank you to Mike for the updates.
Lissy Yeager
Posted by: Elisabeth Yeager on 6/20/2018 at 4:51 am
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