Today was our first day of safari and we headed west to visit the beautiful Lake Manyara. The lake is a brief stopping ground for many migratory animals, beautiful and exotic birds and even tree climbing lions.
We manage to see a few wildebeest, zebras, Cape buffalo, baboons, impalas a few distance hippos, and elephants so close you could almost touch them. We also even managed to see two of those tree climbing lions. It was a pretty nice introduction to the incredible wildlife that Africa has and the team is looking forward to seeing more tomorrow.
Everyone enjoyed the day cruising around in our safari vehicles with cold beverages in hand while seeing the animals.
We wrapped up the evening relaxing at the beautiful Plantation Lodge.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and the Safari crew
You deserve all the cold beverages you desire :-))) Awesome pictures, great to see you all relaxing and enjoying such a wonderful safari :-)...“Summit, safari, shangri la”....Emily and Alysia…YES.
xoxo
Posted by: Shelby Schneider on 9/11/2018 at 4:30 pm
The Four Day Summit Climb Team led by RMI Guides Steve Gately and Bryan Mazaika were standing on Columbia Crest, the very top of Mt. Rainier at 7:30 am this morning. The team climbed above the clouds and have clear beautiful skies. They have started their descent and are en route to Camp Muir.
Congratulations to today's Teams!
It is crazy to think our team has been together for over ten days now. We have accomplished much, seen a lot, bonded well and now seem more like family than strangers gathering in a hotel lobby meeting for the first time. This is the only time I can remember, on any trip, that all nine climbers arrived as individuals. There are no couples, no family groups, just adventurous souls coming to Ecuador to climb mountains and learn some skills. Until now I think things have gone quite well. Good climbing and good culture has defined the past ten days.
Now the plot thickens. Today we arrived at Chimborazo. This mountain is the highest point from the center of the earth and an overall giant of sheer prominence. Today though was great. After enjoying the latest wake up call of the journey, a nice late breakfast, a casual four hour bus ride and a home cooked meal in Chimborazo's Refugio, this was as close to an honest rest day as we've had since leaving Quito. Which, after climbing two big mountains in the last four days is a good thing! This mountain is known for its challenging climbing, cold conditions and steep slopes. It will take every bit of energy to reach its 20,564 summit.
Currently the team is feeling mostly recovered from Cotopaxi and is excited to move to high camp tomorrow located at 16,400 feet high on Chimborazo's western flanks. We will let you know how the move goes tomorrow.
Sending hugs to all those following along.
Wish us luck.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff & Team
It’s now 3pm in California on Jan 10. I expect you are all currently resting in preparation for the early start for summit day tomorrow. That being said I don’t anticipate this message will reach you before you return from the summit but I’m super hyped for the team and the challenge you are taking on. My thoughts are with you for an amazing day of climbing.
Ha ha, I not a poet, but…......I’ve written a short poem for the team describing how I envision Chimborazo summit day. Enjoy! ———————-
The Summit ————————
Heart pounding, Lungs starving, Step. Repeat.
Beauty unimagined -
Celebrate
Looking forward to the summit update and your safe return.
With love and hugs
Jacquie
We spent most of the evening listening to thunder clouds and the battering of hail pound our shelter. That was until I woke the team up at 10:45pm. We woke to surprisingly calm skies with even a few stars shining. The team quickly got out of bed to prepare their things for our ascent. While eating breakfast the clouds snuck back in behind our backs and filled the mountain's surroundings with a heavy mist that saturated everything that touched it. We decided to brave the mist and put on our rain shells to climb for an hour and "see how things went". The team climbed right along, ignoring the inclement weather. At the end of that hour things weren't looking much better, in fact you might have said they were worse. Taking good advantage of being able to retreat back to a warm hut if need be, we opted to continue and "see how things went" again. A few inches of wet snow had fallen over night and actually made the walking quite nice. Soon thereafter the mist lifted and we actually began to get warm and dry out! The team's spirits lifted and we kept ascending. At about 18,000ft we finally met our maker- a large glacial bowl filled with recently deposited snow from high winds. The avalanche hazard was real and quite sensitive. We opted to turn around and descend back towards the hut. During our descent we were met with an Ecuadorian sunrise above a sea of clouds and neighboring volcanoes, Antisana and Cotopaxi, in the distance. At the time there certainly wasn't much to be upset about. A quick descent gave way to another exciting 4x4 drive down to Otavalo where we would head south towards Chilcabamba on the northern flank of Cotopaxi. Tomorrow we rest and prepare for our next objective!
RMI Guide Steve Gately
June 2, 2017
This is Pete Van Deventer calling from Denali. It's been a long day, we have been on the move for a while. We left 17,000' Camp at about 10:50 this morning and have been on the move ever since. We went down through from the thin air up there to 14,000' Camp and saw Brent Okita and Tyler Jones there and then through 11,000' Camp and saw Jake Beren there. Now we are down in the thick, warm air of 9,600 feet the Base of Ski Hill. So we're going to stop here for the evening and eat some dinner and throw the tents up for a little bit and sleep for a few hours. Then we'll get back on the trail and get back to Base Camp for what we hope to be early morning flight 8 or 9 o'clock Saturday morning. With any luck will be back in Talkeetna before we know it. Everybody's been hanging in there really well, it's a lot of walking but the further we go down the better we all feel as they air gets thicker and temps warmer. The cold on the way in feels pretty balmy at this point after sitting what we have sat through and being as high as we have been. We're looking up at the sunshine on the summit of Denali and still lighting up the Orient Express and the Messnar Couloir some of the classic faces of the upper mountain above 14,000' and really couldn't imagine a more perfect setting than where we are right now. So, we will enjoy one more night on the Kahiltna Glacier and look forward to being in town soon.
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer checks in from 9,600 ft on their descent.
Day two in Ecuador.
Not many places in the world offer such easy access to high altitude. Down in the lower 48, to reach 14,410 feet, the summit of Mt. Rainier, an average climber needs multiple days, a closet full of equipment and a certain set of skills not learned through a YouTube video. Down here is a bit different. For example, this morning we were drinking coffee in the hotel lobby, eating pastries and admiring our ten-pound day packs. At 8 am we loaded into a van, took a 15-minute drive to the base of a still active volcano, got a lift on a cable car to 13,000 feet and began walking.
The name of the volcano we stretched our legs on is Pichincha Rucu. It's summit stands at 15,700 feet and can be reached in mere hours from the city.
Pouring rain greeted us at the top of the gondola but this is what that closet full of gear is good for. Putting on our rain jackets and pants we braved the storm like any fearless climber would and headed up the trail. It wasn't long before we crested that 14,410 foot ceiling giving every member, guides aside, a new altitude high point.
An hour into the hike, the rain ceased and we broke 15,000 feet by eleven am. Unfortunately the final 300 feet to the summit is more of a rock scramble than trail hike and true to the days weather, a hail storm ensued so we made the decision to turn around and skip the slippery rock. The team reached a final altitude of 15,300 feet and to everyone's credit did exceptionally well.
After the stroll, we came back to the hotel for some rest then headed out to a fantastic dinner. All of us gringos are feeling strong and psyched to be getting closer to our first "big" mountain.
This is Adam Knoff and team saying adios.
Good luck on this new adventure Jim (Nixon)! Looking forward to hearing all about it when you return. Maybe you and Tom Garner need a Maine vacation this summer! All the best! Rich Aspinall
Posted by: Richard Aspinall on 1/8/2017 at 4:13 am
Looking forward to the Cayambe update. Best wishes
Hey, This is RMI Guide Eric Frank calling from the south side of Mt. Shuksan on a week long skills seminar. Just wanted to let everyone know that we are in our camp for the night had a great first day. We made it up just to the edge of tree line and it started to rain, so we made camp here. Everyone's doing well. Tomorrow Weather permitting we're hoping to go up to the glacier and do a little training for the day. Wish us luck and thanks for following along!
Eric Frank & Team Checking in from Shuksan Seminar.
Our climb finished with an easy and pleasant trip from 10,000 ft to the 6,000 ft trailhead this morning. We all counted ourselves lucky to have blue skies over our breakfast table... One more lucky day, it seemed. After breakfast, the entire staff gathered and sang the Kilimanjaro Jambo song -with feeling and gusto. The team members then shook hands with each and every man, expressing gratitude for a bunch of jobs well-done. We knew that our "luck" and success on the climb... and our enjoyment of it, came in large part from the efforts of these dedicated professionals. We set out down the heavily forested trail at about 8:30 AM and had made it to the Mweka Gate -the finish, in under three hours.
After signing out of the National Park, we crowded into our great expedition truck/bus and started down through the banana and coffee plantations. We cruised through the outskirts of Moshi and then hit the road west toward Arusha. Mid-drive, the staff had arranged a picnic for us at a roadside eatery. We relaxed and sipped a few cool beverages with our lunch and then clambered back into the big green adventure vehicle. Our homecoming at the Dik Dik Hotel was the occasion for a few more great songs and dances and then we headed off to our rooms for a relaxed afternoon of showers, gear sorting, napping and catching up with communications.
The evening was time for a fine victory dinner. We ate, we celebrated, we talked about the upcoming safari. We'll set out first thing tomorrow for a few more Tanzanian national parks. Our only trouble is that we are getting very spoiled... our expectations are sky high.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
May 29, 2016 - 11:50 p.m. PDT
Awakening to wind buffeting the tents and spindrift everywhere kept us hunkered down in our bags later than usual this morning. When we finally ventured out at least the sun was out in all it's glory, which sure made up for the gusts and blowing snow.
A quick breakfast of Pop Tarts and we all rallied from the tents to cut blocks for the wall around our Posh tent that we just didn't have time to build yesterday. Kind of reminiscent of our morning a few days ago at 11,200'. The team rocked the work we had to do to allow us to get our cool tent fully functioning, A second breakfast of grits and hot drinks fortified us to do our short back carry to pick up our cache at 13,500'. And now we're set.
We have a carry up to 16,200' or higher planned for tomorrow, but if the weather doesn't let us we'll certainly enjoy a rest day.
The weather forecasts look good for later this week. We'll keep our fingers crossed.
Ciao from 14,200'.
RMI Guides Brent Okita,Christina Dale, Chris Ebeling and an incredible team of climbers
Be safe Michael! Amazing climb! We are thinking about you!
Love, Lesleigh, Lyndon, William, Lucy and Grace
Posted by: Lesleigh box on 5/31/2016 at 5:26 am
I swear to God, Paul, that I begin hyperventilating with every update! So incredibly excited for you! What an amazing journey! Be safe! We leave on the 11th for our Mt. Whitney climb.
This is RMI Guide Mike King checking in checking in from 16,400 feet on Aconcagua. Today is our rest day and we are definitely resting in our tents. The winds picked up around dinner last night and have not stopped shaking our tents. The team reported good sleep/rest after our carry to Chopper Camp yesterday and everyone is acclimating well. We are hunkered down for the day; reading and napping. There is rumor of a snack food social in one of the tents around lunch time, I might have to crash that party.
We will keep checking the weather today. Our goal is to move up to Chopper Camp tomorrow during lower winds and then play the waiting game for a summit bid.
The RMI office sent the blog comments to us and everyone enjoyed hearing them read during breakfast yesterday. Thank you for following along and supporting us! Keep it up!
RMI Guide Mike King and Team
Hey Jeff and Meredith! Hope you are having a great climb and managing to stay warm. The views are amazing. Can’t wait to hear all about it…Ruby and Wayne :)
Posted by: ruby on 12/31/2015 at 10:29 am
Wishing John Hughes and the entire climbing team a very happy, healthy and high-altitude 2016!
You deserve all the cold beverages you desire :-))) Awesome pictures, great to see you all relaxing and enjoying such a wonderful safari :-)...“Summit, safari, shangri la”....Emily and Alysia…YES.
xoxo
Posted by: Shelby Schneider on 9/11/2018 at 4:30 pm
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