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Posted by: Mike Haugen, Mike King
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 11,000'
The Mt. Rainier Summit Climb teams, led by Mike Haugen and Mike King, turned at Ingraham Flats this morning after a rough night of snow and high winds. The guides reported an ominous cap over the mountain after checking in from Camp Muir. Shortly after 8:00 a.m., both teams began their descent to Paradise.
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Robby Young, Jess Matthews
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 17,000'
May 31, 2016 - 8:15 pm PT
Today turned out to be the perfect day to take a rest day at 17 in preparation for our summit attempt. Sometimes the forecast is correct, and sometimes not. Sometimes it's wrong in a helpful direction (like yesterday) and sometimes not (today). Winds were cranking out of the East this morning over the summit, and gusting through Denali Pass as well. Clearly not a summit day, we rested in tents and recovered from yesterday's big loads and tough camp building effort. Luckily, we were pretty protected from those East winds, so we had a relatively warm calm day. A field trip to the vista that overlooks 14 let us stretch our legs and get some frame worthy shots. Things look promising for tomorrow, so we're going hit the sack early and be ready for the morning. We'll be dreaming of summits.
Best,
RMI Guides Pete, Jess, Robby, and team
On The Map
Today was perfect from start to finish. Perfect for resting and catching up on our acclimatization and hydration. It was another cloudless and windless day, at Low Camp -that is- our radio check-in with basecamp revealed that they were in fog down below. But we had fine weather and a forecast for more of the same. We had a leisurely breakfast followed by prolonged snacking and napping. The troops were instructed to down a few liters each of water as their primary chore for the day. After a couple of longer, tougher days, this was a welcome change and we hope the rest sets us up well for the move to higher altitude 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!
Posted by: Mike King, Steve Gately
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mexico
This morning around 12:30 we woke for our Ixta summit day. We had a relatively clear sky above us with a bright moon, but out to the east was a small cloud bank with some lightening radiating through the clouds. We got ready to climb since the storm looked to be moving away from the mountain.
As we approached our first break the storm clouds began to creep our way with the lightening increasing in the distance. The guides turned the group around and made the call to pack up camp and head to lower elevations. The team responded and broke camp quickly, transitioning into downhill mode. Carrying heavy packs in rocky terrain at night isn't easy and we all arrived tired but thankful to not be up at Ixta's high camp.
Upon reaching the trail-head all signs of the storm had disappeared, clear above visibility unlimited. Some frustration and confusion pulsed through the team members and guides. When you're in the mountains it is important to take the information available to you and make a conservative decision. Sometimes the storm rolls in and sometimes the skies clear.
We spent the morning resting and sorting gear for the next few days. Like clockwork, the skies turned grey, hail fell and thunder rolled high on Ixta. Our shuttles arrived to take us to Puebla for the next 2 nights.
The Team will enjoy a day off in the historic district and then we are off for Orizaba, the 3rd highest peak in North America.
RMI Guide Mike King & Team
glad everyone returned safely, climbing acancagua with RMI in january and hope to summit, but hope to return home even more
Posted by: Dave Folsom on 11/12/2016 at 7:07 pm
Bummer…Disappointed for you…Enjoy the town…Next mtn please…Waltero
Posted by: Walter Glover on 10/20/2016 at 3:36 am
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
Yay team
Enjoy the beautiful journee
:-)
Posted by: Joan Mike Megan John on 9/8/2016 at 9:41 am
Brooke and Throb- I hope your having so much fun! Keep trucking! Love you guys
Posted by: Alison on 9/8/2016 at 8:21 am
Posted by: Brent Okita, Christina Dale, Chris Ebeling
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 14,000'
May 31, 2016 - 12:03 am PT
Our day was a resounding success! A cold, early start had us ahead of the madding crowds as everyone was determined to take advantage of some perfect weather. It had snowed 6-8" overnight, and ours were the first tracks up the pristine slopes leading to the fixed lines and the start of the West Buttress.
By far the steepest climbing we've encountered, the Buttress is also the steepest, most dramatic climbing most of our group has ever done.
The team performed well, with us getting a cache at 16,800' and another one at high camp at 17,200'.
Everyone is pumped by the day and really looking forward to our first rest day.
It's getting late and cold, so adieu from 14,200'.
RMI Guides Brent, Christina, Chris and the team
On The Map
I look forward to this email every day!!! I am with you in spirit! Climb Strong Dawn!!! :)
Posted by: Dave on 6/1/2016 at 4:12 am
Nice work, Mike P!! It’s great to track your progress. Short hop to 17 and you’re almost there. Wishing you some clear weather. Hang tough, buddy! Frank M
Posted by: Frank Marini on 5/31/2016 at 1:14 pm
Hola from Ecuador!
After some very long flights and a little bit of sleep the team is doing well. We started our day with a team meeting where we did our usual round of introductions and discussed the game plan for our upcoming adventure.
After the meeting we headed out on the town to explore this beautiful historical city with our tour guide Foulsto. We first headed north to visit the Equator from which Ecuador gets its name, then headed to the older part of town where we visited several old cathedrals, and the colonial town square. Next we headed up to a small hill called La Panacia that over looks this beautiful city before returning to the hotel for a little break.
We wrapped up the day with a quick gear check to make sure everyone has all the gear needed for our climbs. Then it was off to dinner at a nice restaurant where we enjoyed getting to know each other better.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Danny and Team:
Be Calm and Climb On!
Posted by: Rob on 12/10/2015 at 8:36 pm
Go Danny and Team! Wishing you all safety and success.
Posted by: Virginia on 12/10/2015 at 8:22 am
This camp has an amazing view, especially when we have so much moonlight with a near full moon. If you can get yourself out of the tent during the night, the light illuminates the Polish Glacier and all the surrounding peaks. This Team has enjoyed the plentiful stars and seemingly 3D Milky Way during the first part of the trip and now the moon light will brighten the path early on our summit day.
The rest day has been fairly standard, big breakfast and lots of reading and hanging out in the tents. There have been some high clouds that have made the day cooler than previous and we have been fortunate with such favorable weather. Tomorrow we will pack up camp and move up to 19,600’. The day will go by fast as we get tents set up, make lots of water and prepare for a summit attempt on Saturday morning. The next five days include a lot of effort and ground to cover, fingers crossed the winds are light and the sun burns bright.
RMI Guide Mike King
On The Map
Good luck in the next few days - stay strong!! Tell Sam Hall hi, this is his sister Annie :-)
Posted by: Annie on 1/24/2019 at 11:43 am
Finally, an all around nice weather day. We made good use of it, carrying food and gear all the way up to our 12,000 ft high camp and then returning to Low Camp. It felt great to walk out of camp at 1:50 PM with crampons on and an ice axe in hand. About thirty minutes into the day, we started up the “fixed ropes”. We gained about 2,500 vertical feet climbing straight up a steep snow slope while clipped in to lines anchored to the hill. While the slope isn’t vertical or even close to vertical, it is certainly steep enough to fall down. After about three hours on the wall, we topped out to walk on an easier angled glacier to high camp. We made it up in just over 5 1/2 hours. Views of the surrounding peaks were magnificent, but there was still a sea of cloud and fog shrouding most terrain under 9,000 ft. Crucially, it was calm and sunny at high camp as we rested for a few minutes and cached our supplies. The descent of the steep slopes took a little time, even with lighter packs. We were back into Low Camp by about 10:30. Dinner took us to 12:30, but of course it is a sunny night so the hour isn’t a problem.
Matt Brennan sends his best regards to Gayle Stafford’s reading class and to Karli L. He doesn’t have access to Instagram from down here, but he’ll be back in range when we hit South America.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Matt Brennan-Sounds like an exciting adventure. Good luck reaching the summit. We’ll celebrate with some Red Schooner when you return! Scott
Posted by: Scott Schlesner on 12/5/2018 at 8:45 am
Thinking of my nephew Michael Adams and his team of adventure seekers. You are all being prayed for each day - for a wonderful and safe journey. Each day is new…make it great!
Posted by: Aunt Susan (Susan Lawrence) on 6/2/2016 at 7:03 am
Lisa -
Summiting Denali is upon you.
Your opted in for another breathtaking chapter to the story of YOU.
“One does not climb to attain enlightenment, rather one climbs because he is enlightened” - zen master futomaki
❤️ Pamela
Posted by: Pamela on 6/1/2016 at 2:31 pm
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