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The
Four Day Summit Climb team led by RMI Guides Seth Waterfall and Nick Hunt were unable to reach the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The teams turned back at Ingraham Flats this morning.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall called from Camp Muir shortly after 7 am, reporting 8-10” of fresh snow at the Ingraham Flats and very cold temps. Both Summit Climb teams have begun their descent from Camp Muir to Paradise.
Hello all,
We have just pulled in to
Plaza Argentina, our base camp for the rest of the climb. The team did very well getting up here, and everyone is feeling great at almost 14,000 feet. We have enjoyed some tasty snacks, and are now kicking our feet back, listening to some Waylon Jennings, and soaking in the views. We have a much-deserved rest day tomorrow, and we'll talk to you then.
RMI Guides
JM Gorum and
JJ Justman
On The Map
RMI Guide
Brent Okita and the
Four Day Summit Climb team reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Brent reported a great climbing and a beautiful day.
Congratulations to Today's Team!
Still just a bit breezy up high. The teams at
High Camp reported steady 15 knot winds but thing looked a lot better from Low Camp today, the giant airwave lenticular cloud to the west of the mountains was gone and we had high hopes for going high if the snow streamers off the ridge died down. They did, a little later than we would have liked but we decided to break camp and make the move. We only got to the base of the fixed ropes before deciding to give it one more day. The team wasn’t firing on all cylinders and the continuing cold winds above the fixed ropes could make the last hours into High Camp quite difficult. We set up Low Camp again and set our sights on tomorrow.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On Sunday, the
Five Day Summit Climb team hiked out of Paradise to the training area to learn the necessary skills to summit Mt. Rainier. The following day the team hike to Camp Muir for their first night on the mountain. They spent time yesterday gaining more experience cramponing and working as a rope team then return to Camp Muir to prepare for their summit attempt. All of their training paid off and the team enjoyed the views from the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning, reaching the crater rim around 5:30 am. After celebrating their accomplishment and taking photos, they will descend to Camp Muir to rest and repack before continuing their descent to Paradise. They will end their program with a celebration at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's Five Day Summit Climb Team!
Our
Alaska Mountaineering Seminar May 17 - 27 team is here in Talkeetna, packed and ready to fly...but sometimes ready is not enough. A Southwest flow over the Aleutians is slowly pushing that warm moisture that brings snow and rain to the range. So we played the game of waiting and lost the luck. Nonetheless the team here is of joyous enthusiasm and energy and we shall try again tomorrow.
We will hope for clear skies in the morning.
RMI Guide Mike King
Today was one of those days where you wake up in one world and go to sleep in another. In our team's case, we woke up in the thin air of Camp 3, but after a day's hard walking downhill, are lucky enough to be bedding down among the comforts of
Aconcagua Base Camp. Around 18,000 feet, we got a chance to check in with RMI Guides Billy Nugent, Hannah Smith and the rest of their RMI team as they carried to Camp 2. As for our team though, we're focused on resting up in anticipation of our two day trek still ahead to get off of this mountain. Everyone is happy, well, and excited about showers in the not too distant future.
RMI Guides Mark Tucker & Pepper Dee
On The Map
Today brought our team within striking distance of base camp! We battled strong down valley winds for most of the day, but were rewarded with our first glimpse of
Aconcagua just shy of our current camp at Piedra Parada. Our team is growing more and more practiced in the art of alpine resting, and put their skills to use this evening munching on asado and watching our hardworking mules take dust baths. Everyone is strong, happy, and healthy, and looking forward to checking in from 14K!
Hasta manana!
RMI Guides Mark Tucker and Pepper Dee
We enjoyed a wonderful breakfast of fresh fruit, bananas, oranges, passion fruit, pineapple, cheese and meat plate, French press dark roast Tanzanian coffee to go with toast, scrambled eggs and bacon, it's a pretty great start to fuel us for the day. We left camp and started right into a steep uphill section with some loose rocks along the trail. We took our time and with a great staff and determined group of climbers we reached the
Shira Camp at well over 12,000'. When we arrived our camp was set up and were quickly greeted by some steamy food, fresh salad, filet of beef, hot pasta, you get the picture, and that was lunch, not too bad. We are well taken care of. Now we are enjoying the spectacular scenery in all directions. The weather is great and tomorrow's goal is in sight. All is well.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
On The Map
We got up this morning, had a nice breakfast, and departed from
Cheget to begin our climb. A quick ten or so minute drive brought us up to Azau, which apparently means something along the lines of "end of the road," where we schlepped all of our gear onto the tram system which eventually brought us up to our home for the next few days. Our camp up here at "The Barrels" is cozy but nice and we've been enjoying the great food from our two Russian cooks Masha and Dasha. Even in the midst of today's shuffle we were able to sneak in a nice hike for a couple hours that brought us up to nearly 14,000'. The weather is looking promising and we're looking forward to another acclimatization tomorrow that should take us even higher on the mountain.
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
On The Map
Greg
Get outta here guys…it’s getting bad up here.
That’s from Steve and I…mostly Steve lol. hope the climb is going well bro, be safe and have a great time!
Jon and Steve
Posted by: Jon on 2/5/2016 at 12:38 pm
Hi there, Mike,
We’re following your blog. It looks like it’s really cold and very windy there with gale force winds and above. Take care and be safe.
Mom and Dad
Posted by: Joan and Spence Vigneau on 2/2/2016 at 5:23 pm
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