Friday, June 22, 2018 - 7:45 pm PT
It's been a Tale of Two Camps, either the Camp all sits together or they rally up the same piece of terrain at the same time. We were second on the fixed lines and after an initial moment of flailing we got to 16,200' for a break. The remainder of the day had us climbing the West Buttress into 17 camp with amazing views of the Peters Glacier and North Summit of Denali. Light wind made some of the exposed ridge sections feel more exposed. Today was a good lesson in keeping toes and fingers warm because we didn't set any records for the 14-17 leg. Everyone is nestled in their tents drying out boots and gloves. Dinner, hydration, sleep and hopefully we'll be heading for the summit on Saturday.
RMI Guide Mike King
The Four Day Summit Climb September 27 - 30, 2017 was unable to reach the summit of Mt. Rainier today due to weather and route conditions. RMI Guides Casey Grom & Chase Nelson led the teams to 11,400' before deciding to turn around. The teams will return to Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
What a fantastic experience.. can’t wait to see the photos and hear the stories! Cheers to Muzzy and the “devil’s cut”. Thanks for keeping the group safe!
Posted by: Stacey on 9/30/2017 at 4:43 pm
It’s the journey, not the destination that counts!!! Better safe than sorry!
The perfect climb continued in similar fashion. We woke under clear skies at 10,000 ft. Each climber commented on how nice it had been to sleep on level ground and at low altitude. We ate one last fine mountain meal and then met, across a clearing in the forest, with our entire 54 man support staff. Philip spoke for his men, expressing gratitude and satisfaction with a week's worth of hard work on our behalf. I spoke for our gang -attempting to express our amazement and gratitude at their efforts. A few songs were sung and gifts exchanged. We set out down the forest trail and before too long were in thick cloud and eventually rain. There was some discussion later though, as to whether it was actually rain or just a particularly wet cloud we were in. It didn't really matter though, as it didn't get us very wet and it didn't last so long. We picked our way down 4,000 vertical feet of slippery trail without mishap and hit the Mweka Gate of Kilimanjaro National Park. After some handshakes, photographs and documentation, we loaded the bus and cruised downhill. Our staff hosted one last amazing lunch on our return, just above the city of Moshi, and then we hit the highway. Gasps were heard when we finally could look back and see Kilimanjaro towering over the clouds. (We hadn't seen it at all before the climb). It didn't seem possible for a mountain to be so big.
As good as the climb had been, nobody was sad to be back at our comfortable lodge with hot showers and fine food and drink. We relaxed away the afternoon and celebrated away the evening... within limits of course. The Safari awaits.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
At 6:40 am the Mt. Rainier summit climb team started their descent from the crater rim. Lead Guide Robby Young reported a smoky haze below the summit but clear skies at the top. The team is currently working their way back to Camp Muir.
Way to go dad !!! (Ryan Swift) You encourage us to do great things. So glad that you and the team made it to the top. Looks like a great view. Congratulations to all.
From William,Nathaniel, Adrina and Heather
SUMMIT! After a week of training and learning alpine mountaineering skills the Expedition Skills Seminar - Kautz reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. The team ascended Mt. Rainier by navigating the Katuz Ice Chute. RMI Guide Mike Haugen reported great climbing conditions with calm and clear skies.
Congratulations to today's team!
Congratulations Kurt; what an accomplishment and check on your bucket list! Can’t wait to celebrate with you when you are HOOOOME!!
Posted by: Megan on 7/26/2017 at 7:39 pm
Awesome and Congratulations to you all! God is always so good. I’m glad to hear it all went well. I’m excited to hear stories and see pictures. Thank-you RMI.
The Mt. Rainier Summit Climb, led by RMI Guide Mike Haugen, was 100% successful to the summit this morning! After topping out at 8:00 a.m., the team was able to enjoy over an hour taking in the views before starting their descent at 9:30 a.m.
Congratulations team!
Hello again from Artesonraju Base Camp. We delayed one day our departure to Paria North due to bad weather this morning. We are hoping to launch tomorrow morning, as the skies are clearing up as we speak. That's it for today folks!
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos and team
Hey, everybody. This is Casey Grom checking in from the Kilimanjaro climb. I wanted to let you know that everything's going great. Today we left behind the Arumeru Lodge and made a few hour drive to the base of a Kilimanjaro. We drove up the Machame Valley, which is actually lined with quite a few banana plantations. A number of porters are making their way to the gate entrance to find some work. Once we got to the gate, we got organized, and then got the green light from the park service, we slowly started making our way up hill. The team did great today. We climbed for about six hours up through this incredible lower slopes of Kilimanjaro. It was a nice break from the sun to be tucked into the trees. And again the team did great. We pulled into camp about 6 o'clock or so today and everyone just finished dinner. Everyone's relaxing right now and getting ready for a little bit of sleep. Everybody's in good spirits. We will check in again tomorrow and hopefully be able to get a picture or two out in the next day or so based on our cellphone service up here. Thanks for following.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
RMI Guide Casey Grom calls in from Machame Camp, Africa.
The May 10th Denali Expedition led by RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Robby Young and Jess Matthews flew onto the lower Kahiltna Glacier this morning right on schedule.
Pete and the team will check in throughout their expedition with updates on the team's progress.
Stay tuned!
Hello again everyone
Today we had a very nice hike to help with our acclimatization on a nearby peak called Pichincha. It is one of the many local peaks that is situated above Quito and is used by many climbers to help adjust to the higher altitude here in Ecuador. We made use of the gondolas to help us gain access to around 13,000 ft then hiked the additional 2,500 ft to the summit. It took our team roughly 3 hours to gain the top after a little scrambling up the final bit to reach our high point thus far. It was a personal high point for a few of us, and the entire team did a fantastic job. After spending a bit of time on the summit and getting are photos we descended all the back to our hotel for a brief nap before dinner.
Everyone is in good spirits and looking forward to tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
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What a fantastic experience.. can’t wait to see the photos and hear the stories! Cheers to Muzzy and the “devil’s cut”. Thanks for keeping the group safe!
Posted by: Stacey on 9/30/2017 at 4:43 pm
It’s the journey, not the destination that counts!!! Better safe than sorry!
Posted by: Sophia on 9/30/2017 at 11:46 am
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