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Posted by: Casey Grom, Tatum Whatford, Brooks Ordway Smith
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Five-Day Climb led by RMI Guides Casey Grom, Tatum Whatford, and Brooks Ordway-Smith reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today at 12:50 p.m. Taking advantage of calm winds and clear skies, the team successfully ascended to Columbia Crest at 14,410 feet. They spent about an hour on the summit soaking in the views before beginning their descent.
The team is now safely back at Camp Muir, where they will spend one more night before continuing their descent to Paradise in the morning. Congratulations to all climbers on a fantastic summit day!
Posted by: Dominic Cifelli, Ben Luedtke
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 16,200'
Yesterday’s blog was about awe; this one is about how awe-full the fricken wind can be sometimes. As we nestled into our sleeping bags for the night we traded the guitars, laughter, and bustle of Basecamp with freight train after freight train of wind roaring down valley at us in Camp 1. It’s such a unique thing to hear, wind a couple kilometers away from you raging at you until finally WHOOSH you get the brunt of it all at once. I’d look over at Ben every once in a while as I held up my side of the tent with my hand. Nothing but log cutting as flaps of fabric tapped him on the head like an impatient toddler. “ Good for him” I thought.
We awoke with wind still howling and a full day of climbing ahead of us. Cold, cutting wind ever present as we saddled up and head out for our carry to camp 2. The wind only intensified as we worked our way up the switch backs to The col between Ameghino, a towering 19,300 ft peak, and Aconcagua, the stone sentinel. But eventually reaching beyond the col and catching our first glimpse of this side of the mountain. La Mano, Mercedario, Link, Fitzgerald, they just keep going, each a staggering peak in their own right and eye candy for the remainder of our climb to camp 2. We reached our destination, said a quick happy Birthday to Tori, and headed back down to the “comfort” of our camp 1 site. We can’t wait to be up at camp 2 and were hoping for a little less wind tonight.
To all family members or blog followers, we’re pretty trivia obsessed right now so give us your best.
RMI Guide Dominic Cifelli
New Post Alerts:
Aconcagua Expedition January 8, 2025
Hi all! I am Brian’s sister and have been watching and reading all that is going on. Looks like you are having a lot of fun. Brian, I am sure all the fitness challenges you are experiencing, and overcoming there on the mountain, are due to all the fitness challenges I set you up for, in the backyard at mom’s house
Posted by: Lettie Kirk on 1/20/2025 at 4:26 am
Posted by: Hannah Smith, Avery Parrinello
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 22,800'
What a day, what a day! We woke early in the AM to a star filled sky and only an occasional light breeze. Hot water was served up for oatmeal and coffee before we packed up our summit packs. Several other teams started uphill before us. You could see their headlights shining on the slope. By time we hit first break, we no longer needed lights. We watched the sunrise, showing off its beauty. Although the sun was up, we wouldn't enjoy its warmth for several more hours. The lack of snow on the route created some challenging walking conditions. Scree, sand, loose rocks were our walking surface. We put one foot in front of the other until there was no where left for us to go. The summit was perfect, barely a breeze, sunny, warm. After taking photos and flying a kite (we are wondering if we broke any records flying a kite at 22,800') we made our way back down. Going up is just half the journey. The other half is getting down safely. Safely back at camp, we filled our bellies with Ramen and tried to catch up on hydration. Tomorrow is a big day as we descend 6,000' back to Basecamp. With a big day ahead, its time to get horizontal and let the body rest.
Thank you for all the support,
RMI Guide Hannah Smith and team
Congrats Sue and team, can’t wait to hear about this amazing adventure.
Have a safe return to civilization .
With love
Sandra E
Posted by: Sandra E on 1/22/2020 at 5:33 pm
Congratulations team! Excellent job Hannah and Avery!
Posted by: Shannon Smith on 1/22/2020 at 11:03 am
Posted by: Hannah Smith, Avery Parrinello
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 9,000'
Good night all….it’s been fun to follow your journey!! Congratulations and welcome back to civilization!
Posted by: Dr. J on 2/7/2019 at 8:07 pm
Posted by: Hannah Smith, Avery Parrinello
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Yvonne, I hope your experience was everything you hoped it would be! I can’t wait to hear all about it! See you on Friday!!!
Posted by: Mary Ann on 7/18/2018 at 11:50 am
On The Map
Another great update - whew! Everyone is safe and weather is good!
We wish you all a safe summit and descent on Monday with a good climb to the 17,000’ camp tomorrow. Fingers remained crossed for continued clear weather to achieve all this in the next 48 hours!
Cheers from Larkspur, CA!
Susan
Posted by: Susan on 6/2/2018 at 3:45 pm
All rooting for a beautiful summit!
Lots of love from the hood in brooklyn.
Lulu Noto Garrick Elisa
Tommy and Alex big pasta monk dinner waiting in celebration and of course
Our cos wine to wash it down.
Posted by: Lulu and Noto on 6/2/2018 at 1:50 pm
On The Map
Posted by: Mark Tucker
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
Posted by: Robby Young, Lydia Johnson, Alan Davis
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 12,200'
So sad for you all that you couldn’t make it to the summit due to weather… Anthony, You have trained so hard for this and I am so proud of you!!
Xoxo
Love Kerri
Posted by: Kerri Viverito on 8/13/2017 at 12:28 pm
What an amazing journey to the summit of Mt. Rainier, a majestic treasure of the lower 48.
Posted by: Lyn on 5/28/2025 at 3:46 pm
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