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Good evening from the
Pika Glacier! We flew in yesterday on schedule, and continued with a busy afternoon of camp building for what's going to be home for the next week. We woke to warm temperatures that made the forecasted precipitation fall in the shape of rain, which kept us tent grounded for the morning. A beautiful afternoon provided a good review of skills, and the motivation is high for our first venture into the nearby formations tomorrow.
Stay tuned for more!
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
Well, we woke early once again with optimism that we would be moving up to our high camp today. As we bundled up and crawled out of the tent, we were greeted by big, nasty lenticular clouds (UFO-looking, disk-like clouds that are indicative of high winds aloft) over the big three peaks in the Alaska Range: Hunter, Foraker, and our objective,
Denali.
We continued with our plan and fired up the stoves and made breakfast. Then we returned to our tents to stay warm as we kept an eye on the winds above. In the end, they didn't dissipate and we weren't able to move camp today.
Although we are anxious to move up and have a shot at the summit, the flip side of taking another day at 14k is that we continue to acclimate and get stronger for our eventual summit push. Hopefully we will have that opportunity soon. We'll keep you up to date with our progress.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
This is Mike, we had a long descent from the
Ixta summit and high camp. Everyone is well and getting cleaned up in Puebla. Tomorrow is a day off to rest, eat tacos and hangout at the beautiful square in historic Puebla. Your loved ones have Internet and cell coverage, hit them up for details on the trip thus far. Friday we are off to Piedra Grande to prep for our
Orizaba attempt!
RMI Guide Mike King
We were awake early, we put on climbing clothes and climbing boots, we clomped on out of the hotel lobby at 6 in the morning and got on the bus to the airport. We passed through immigration and through security. We sat down in the waiting area and received word that wind speeds at
Union Glacier were a bit too high for safe landings. Forty-five knots does sound a little sporty for putting the wheels of a giant four engine jet down on a blue ice surface. The flight was scrubbed for the day. Without much conversation, the fifty passengers in big boots walked back through security and onto the bus. A half hour later we were checking into our rooms once again.
The weather in Punta Arenas today was spectacular. Each of the team took advantage by going for extended walks and explorations in all directions. It is rare to have cloudless days in this part of Patagonia. It seemed a treat to be able to clearly see the glaciers and peaks of Tierra del Fuego well across and down Magellan's Straights. Sarmiento, the storied and sought after ice mountain far to our south was out for all to see.
As is our tradition, we gathered for yet another great dinner in yet another fine restaurant with a friendly staff. As we were finishing up, the call came, alerting us to the plan to try it all again tomorrow morning. False starts and the need for fresh plans are not uncommon when it comes to launching for Antarctica. We'll be ready if it happens and understanding if it doesn't.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
The
Four Day Summit Climb led by
RMI Guides Brent Okita and Nick Hunt reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Brent reported 45 mph winds on the top. The team has started their descent and are en route back to Camp Muir.
Congratulations to today's team!
Hello all!
We had a wonderful day today. After waking to sunny skies overhead, we crawled out of our tents at a leisurely hour and enjoyed a nice breakfast in base camp. A few cows made it into the fenced in area of base camp overnight, and were apparently enjoying their breakfast as much as we enjoyed ours. After packing up and shoring up camp against our new bovine friends, we started working our way uphill towards Camp One.
The walk was quite pleasant, as we had a nice breeze, good company, and pleasant vistas all around. Mt. Elbrus was visible to us all day, and as we got closer, we were able to get a good view of the route, and climbers descending it. It looks to be in great shape, and everyone is excited. After about three hours we found a good spot to
cache our gear, and divided it up into duffel bags. We descended with nearly empty packs, taking a detour to Mushroom Rocks. An interesting group of rock formations that look like, well, mushrooms. Very weird.
Upon arrival back at camp, snacking and napping commenced and continued until dinner time. We ate a fine meal of spaghetti and watched distant thunderstorms roll by. Tomorrow we will move to Camp One. Everyone is feeling good, and excited to get going uphill. You'll hear from us again tomorrow.
RMI Guides JM Gorum and Pete Van Deventer
On The Map
We did it! We stood on the summit of
Mt. Elbrus, Europe's highest peak.
I have to admit we were pretty lucky with the weather, as it was near perfect. The team did a fantastic job of taking care of themselves and climbed strong. We summited around 7:30 in clear skies with a wonderful view of the entire Caucus mountain range.
But it didn't end there, after descending a short ways off of the summit we were at the saddle between the 2 summits that Elbrus has and a few of us decided to climb both summits while the rest of the team descended safely back to camp. It only added an additional hour and a half, so not too bad, especially since we had such amazing weather.
After everyone returned to camp, we had a quick lunch and then packed up to head down valley to our hotel at the base of the mountain.
RMI Guides Casey Grom & Billy Nugent
On The Map
Hi from Huaraz,
Official Day 1 of the expedition started this morning with an excellent acclimatization hike to "
Puca Ventana" some 1,800ft above town. Good weather and better views, made a great morning for the team. If any of us doubted the hike made the heart pump enough blood to start triggering the acclimatization process, we found a stopped car in need of a jump to start, so we proved to be good Samaritans, and give the guy a push.
Some delicacies afterwards and a gear check to make sure we got what we need starting tomorrow, and we called it a day. A relaxed evening packing and enjoying the local food and fantastic facility of our hotel, is taking us to bed excited to start the journey into the Ishinca Valley first thing in the morning.
Our next post will be via our satellite phone, untill we come out to go to Copa.
Best regards, and stay tuned!
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
June 5, 2016 - 5:20 p.m. PDT
Our luck has been pretty good so far -- when we arrived at camp yesterday, it had just began to snow and once we finished today's toil, the same happened.
The job for today was to carry a load up hill to make our move to
11 Camp a little more civilized. It also gives us a chance to acclimatize a little and do some walking with a little less weight. The team did great and though we were in a whiteout for much of the day, we were treated to one or two to looks around. I can't wait for our team to see where we are, without being obscured by weather. It will be a treat and all in good time.
RMI Guide
Jake Beren and team
On The Map
See! I told you so! Good news from
Aconcagua. Our team member's missing bags are here! We left Mendoza early this afternoon and are now in "The Aspen" of the Mendoza region, named Penitentes.
We had to stop at Estancia de Elias, a great restaurant for their famous empanadas. The team organized our gear while Christina and I packed all the expedition food and gear. We are lucky that we get to have the cowboys help by packing the majority of gear on mules.
However, it's getting late, we are having dinner and one of the team members is eyeing my bacon and cheese stuffed chicken so I need to go before Stephanie takes a bite!
Chau from Argentina,
RMI Guides JJ Justman and Christina von Mertens
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Have fun Elias and Chase!
Posted by: Meredith on 6/8/2017 at 11:05 pm
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