Wednesday, June 13, 2018 - 9:59 AM PT
Our Denali Expedition Team is assembled in Talkeetna and ready to climb! After the last hectic few days of travel and packing, we are loaded in the plane and ready to be on our way to the mountain. We are looking forward to the adventure and challenge we are facing. Wish us luck!!!
RMI Guides Mike Haugen, Hannah McGowan and Gloria Roe
Josh,
Just heard from Keith. Fire has been contained and evac has been lifted.
We are all headed out for our helicopter tour! Hope everyone is doing well. Love and hugs!
Posted by: Sarah Levy on 6/15/2018 at 12:48 pm
Hey Glo! So sorry about the blocking situation. I love and admire you and I wish your team safe adventures. What a great weather day to start out.
Posted by: Michelle Weekly on 6/13/2018 at 11:34 pm
The Mt. Rainier Summit Climb teams, led by Elias de Andres Martos and Steve Gately, reached the summit this morning! On the ascent the winds had picked up but now on the descent, it is calm, sunny and warm.
Congratulations to today's summit climbers!
Great adventure with both guides. Both were very professional and focused on everyone’s safety first. My first climb and would come climb with RMI again in a heart beat. Steve was our rope team’s guide - very knowledgeable and answered all of our many questions. Cousin Joe made it to the top with the help of Steve and others. Thanks again for the memorable adventure!
The "moving up" picture wasn't all that clear this morning at 5 AM. Nor was it at 6 or 7 or 8 or 9. There was plenty of cloud about and some signs of wind on the ridges where we wanted to be. By the time the weather had improved, it was our judgement that we'd be getting into high camp at a later hour than we'd prefer. We traded the physical difficulty of moving up for the mental difficulty of sitting tight for one more day at 14 K.
One more day of rest, one more day of acclimatization, one more day of anticipation.
We managed it just fine. Ultimately the clouds closed in on 14,000' Camp and took away our views. We had sporadic radio contact with Mike Haugen's RMI team as they felt their way up through higher clouds toward Denali's summit.
Tomorrow is our day to move!
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Today's Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guides Elias de Andres Martos and Solveig Waterfall reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Elias reported colder and windier temperatures than expected on their ascent. The team enjoyed some time on the summit before beginning their descent to Camp Muir.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
We did it!
Yesterday we had a wonderful albeit long day climbing to the "Roof of Africa".
The team woke at the enjoyable hour of 11pm to thankfully clear skies after a very cloudy evening that had us wondering the lay ahead.
We had a brief midnight breakfast of porridge, tea and coffee before hitting the trail right around 12am.
We climbed in hour increments with 10-15 breaks in between, which we've been doing every day thus far. The weather was very calm allowing us to take our time and not feel too cold which we were very thankful for. The climb took about 7 1/2 hours to reach the top, and thankfully the sun had risen shortly before reaching the top to help warm us and boost morale after climbing through the night. Once there, we hugged each other, enjoyed the view and took plenty of pictures while we waited in line to get our photos of the sign that adorns the summit, as it was a pretty busy day up there.
It was a true test of endurance for most of the crew, and I'm really proud of everyone. We descended back to high camp, had a quick lunch, repacked and continued further down the mountain to our final camp on the mountain, where we had dinner and then headed to bed for some well deserved sleep.
Today we woke at 7am feeling good, had breakfast, then enjoyed a goodbye song and dance from our gracious crew of porters, cooks, and local guides numbering 42. We finished the little celebration by handing out their well deserved tips and then hit the trail one last time.
It took a little over three hours to reach the park gate where the team had lunch then hopped aboard our awaiting bus for the ride back to the lodge.
Finally we are all safe and sound, and a little cleaner after an amazing seven-day journey up and down Kilimanjaro.
The team is currently relaxing and looking forward to Safari which starts tomorrow!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and a happy Kilimanjaro crew too
We woke up earlier than we would have liked this morning and met for breakfast at 6:30 after putting the finishing touches on our packing. At 7:00 the van arrived and we loaded up and hit the road. By 10:30 we arrived at Cashapampa, the town at the trail head of the Santa Cruz Valley, unloaded the van, shuffled gear around and helped corral the donkeys to be loaded. Just after 11:00 we started up the trail, weaving through the narrow canyon for a bit before climbing up to more open, pleasant, terrain further up valley. Our donkeys passed us just before 5:00 PM and in half an hour more we found our camp at Llama Corral. Our cook, was already hard at work making an outstanding dinner for us. That's all for now, tomorrow we will make our way up to BC.
RMI Guide Geoff Schellens
May 30, 2016 - 7:39 pm PT
With just a day of active rest scheduled, the team was able to sleep in. Most all of us slept like rocks, with a pitter patter of fresh snow making the perfect background noise. Once we finally rolled out of bed, a lazy breakfast of bacon, cheese and hash-brown wraps with a half bagel on the side and a hot drink or two got us ready for our back carry. The whole group was excited to be reunited with our buried goods; as many of us were craving some snack hidden in the snow.
11 Camp remains a weather quandary with reports of clear skies at both fourteen and Base Camps. Yet the fresh six inches of snow is welcome as it has brought our camp back to its pristine status. For now we'll continue to chill and listen to the snow fall!
RMI Guide Tyler Jones
wow so much snow! Ongun I’m sending you my warmest hug!! I hope you can rest well and take care of yourself to reboot for more trekking. Miss you so much and hope you are having an amazing adventure!
xoxo
Karina
Posted by: karina on 5/31/2016 at 10:06 am
Hi Schlax,
I’m bragging to everyone I meet about your expedition. Be #fearless, #strong, and #raw because people are following along. No pressure.
As you know, you’re missing many important newsfeeds. Here’s a quick summary:
Your last post has over 40 likes (not bad) and some witty comments. Beach volleyball season started, and at least 20 people’s Memorial Day weekend involved boats (that sounds low?). Curry v Cavs has inspired poetry. Training and attendance continues for marathons, triathlons, weddings. Surprisingly low on selfies & baby pics.
Finally, you’ve missed 753 Inspirational Quotes. Some good ones:
“No matter where you are in your journey, you’re exactly where you need to be.” - Oprah
“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” - T. Roosevelt
It was a little easier getting up and getting going today since we didn't have to crawl out of tents on a mountainside. The gang was on the road, leaving the Dik Dik Hotel by 8:15 AM. It took several hours to wind through Arusha's traffic and to get over to Lake Manyara National Park. But the drive was very much worth the trouble. We rolled back the roofs on the two Toyota Landcruisers and went looking for wildlife. Within minutes, we saw elephants and baboons and monkeys. We ticked species after species, had a great picnic lunch and then saw the main attraction: lions lounging in an acacia tree. It was hard to leave the pair of big cats, but eventually we moved on to see hippos and pelicans, zebras and wildebeests. As the sun got low, we left the park and headed for the Plantation Lodge, our accommodation for the night. All were surprised and pleased to find themselves in the lap of luxury in a beautiful garden setting. We've come quite a way from sleeping on a tilt on cold dirt.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hey, everyone. This is JJ Justman with Team Orlando here on Kilimanjaro. We're at high camp at the Barafu Camp at 15,200 feet. Everyone is doing really, really well. We had a nice day to get up here to high camp. We are hydrating, resting, taking it easy, organizing gear. Weather is looking very nice. Some happy clouds here in the late afternoon, and we are really looking forward to a beautiful summit day tomorrow. So stay tuned, and we will hopefully, keeping the fingers crossed, which I'm thinking things are going to be great. We are all going to be standing on top of Kilimanjaro. We'll give you a call from the summit. Take care everyone. Thanks for following along.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
Hello everyone and welcome to RMI's third Kilimanjaro's trip of the season -
The team arrived late last night after our very long and tiring flights from the U.S. We were greeted by the wonderful staff from the Dik Dik lodge with warm smiles and a little champagne to toast our arrival.
After a short and quiet ride to our lodge we had a quick dinner then headed off to bed to catch up on some much needed sleep.
The team met this morning at breakfast with fresh fruits, homemade bread and jam, and plenty of good Tanzanian coffee.
We then got together for a formal round of introductions and a overview of the upcoming adventure. We discussed our plan for the climb and made sure everyone has all the necessary gear to keep us safe and warm on Kilimanjaro.
We then took a short break and went for a stroll on the beautiful grounds hoping to catch sight of some of the monkeys that often visit. Then we did a little packing and caught up on a little more sleep to help get adjusted to the big time difference.
We finished the evening with an amazing 5 course meal with great conversations, and everyone is squared away and looking forward to hitting the trail tomorrow as well as getting a little exercise.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
Josh,
Just heard from Keith. Fire has been contained and evac has been lifted.
We are all headed out for our helicopter tour! Hope everyone is doing well. Love and hugs!
Posted by: Sarah Levy on 6/15/2018 at 12:48 pm
Hey Glo! So sorry about the blocking situation. I love and admire you and I wish your team safe adventures. What a great weather day to start out.
Posted by: Michelle Weekly on 6/13/2018 at 11:34 pm
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