Greetings from Huaraz!
The ESS-Peru team has arrived safely in Huaraz. After a short night of sleep yesterday evening, we left the chaos of a busy Lima city behind, traveled up the Pacific coast, over a 14,000' pass, and down into the Ancash Valley; home of the Cordillera Blanca Range (The White Mountains). We kicked off our stay at Hotel Andino with an incredible dinner, as usual, and are looking forward to the incredible views of the mountains from our hotel balconies in the morning. Tomorrow, our expedition prep begins. An acclimatization hike tomorrow morning to 11,500' into the hills above Huaraz City (pop. 127,000) will serve a crucial purpose as we coax our bodies into their high-altitude form.
That's all for now. Thanks for following along!
RMI Guides Robby Young, Eric Frank, and the ESS-Peru Team
Jambo! This is Seth checking in from Karanga Valley. Only one more day to high camp!
We have broken out of our daily pattern of clear mornings and rainy afternoons. Today it was cloudy and with rain showers all day. Even though we are not having ideal weather the team is in very high spirits.
Everyone did great on the Barranco Wall this morning. We let most of the people in our last camp get out early and then started up the 800-foot wall. The bottom part of the wall has some really fun scrambling and we all had a blast climbing through that section. We were lucky in that the rain held off until we topped out on the wall.
We hovered around 13,000' all day and the terrain is really cool at this elevation. It's right at the edge of where plants live and so sometimes it looks like a barren waste land. But then you turn a corner and there can be a giant heather forest. It's great trekking here.
Light showers started up after we topped out on the wall and continued to build into a real rainstorm as we pulled into camp. Our tents are nice and dry though and the cook made us a great pasta lunch. We are doing good.
I'll check in again tomorrow from our high camp.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
Bobby- we are so proud of you! Just a few days until you can sip tequila!
Love Annie, Grace, Davis and Susan
Posted by: Susan Gallagher on 1/16/2016 at 7:28 am
Annie and team,
I have only seen Kilimanjaro from a distance; cannot imagine the extraordinary experience of being on that awesome mountain and climbing towards the top! Thinking of you today and tomorrow, hoping for fair weather, safety, and boost of energy as you near the summit. Thanks for staying in touch through these blogs and photos!
Posted by: Helen (Gillette) on 1/16/2016 at 7:01 am
RMI Guides Adam Knoff and Hannah McGowan led the Expedition Skills Seminar – Muir to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Hannah reported breezy (~20 mph) and chilly conditions on the summit. The only clouds to be found were the ones hugging the low lying valleys thousands of feet below them.
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir will return to Camp Muir for one more night on the mountain. The team will descend to Paradise and then to Ashford tomorrow afternoon.
Congratulations to the Seminar Team!
Greetings from Alpamayo BC!
We initiated our descent this morning from high camp and retraced our steps back out of the kingdom of the ice and into the warm confines of base camp. We are excited to savor lower altitude air and the amazing food of our cook. Our plan is to head out tomorrow and get into town in the evening. We are all super proud of our climb, yet looking forward to telling our accounts in person to our loved ones, so stay tuned for our arrival tomorrow into town!
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos and team
May 29, 2017
We woke up this morning to snow showers, moderate winds, and low visibility. Rather than do battle in a storm trying to move to 11,000 ft, we stayed in camp at 7,800 ft and enjoyed our first rest day. After yesterday's successful carry, the team has earned some recovery.
We started the day with salmon, bagels, cream cheese, and some lively tunes. It seems like one of the team members has sealed his fate as the resident dj for the remainder of our trip. We followed breakfast with some lounging, napping, reading, and digging. Our kitchen tent is now the best looking one in camp, and maybe the whole mountain. For dinner, we will be dining on a delectable Mac and Cheese, with plenty of bacon thrown in for good measure. It has been snowing for most of the day, but accumulations have been moderate and the wind has bit of a bite. Everyone is feeling strong, and we are ready to move camp tomorrow..... Weather pending!
RMI Guide Tyler Jones
Jonesy! Keep it real tight up there my friend. Missing you and the D-Gnar this year, hope it’s as fun as it ever was. Stay warm, feed the soul and keep in touch. Look forward to the dispatches!
A big and successful day for the RMI Mexico team. A fifteen-hour summit day on Pico de Orizaba. We woke up to perfect weather. Right out of the gate it is steep. No new snow at 14,000' so it was dirt and rock to start. After about an hour we entered a crazy area called the labyrinth. Such exciting terrain winding through gully after gully with mixed moderate climbing. We put on the crampons as the snow got firmer adding to the fun and excitement of the climb. Still dark with the beautiful moon we arrived at the base of the glacier. Ropes, ice axe and all the other toys that a prudent mountaineer hauls up hill were part of the next phase. Long and pretty darn steep at that point. Snow conditions were perfect and not much wind. As the sun rose, imagine the shadow cast on the surface of the Earth by this monolithic monster of a volcano. What a sight. Keeps me coming back for more. The team did an outstanding job up and down. The team is sleepy but still lots to do here at the historic old soap factory, which is our digs for the night.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
RMI Guide Mark Tucker calls from the Orizaba summit!
The Five Day Summit Climb, led by RMI Guide Sid Pattison, made a successful ascent to the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. As they stood on the crater of this mighty volcano, the climbers found themselves in a cloud cap with strong winds. Around 8:30 AM, they were initiating their descent.
Congratulations to all of the team members!
Congratulations Peter and your climbing team on achieving your goal of summiting Mt. Rainier. !!
Mom and Dad.
Posted by: Mary Beth Torosian on 8/29/2016 at 6:23 pm
Congratulations Ben and Mary Jo!!! I watched the weather and was worried you wouldn’t make it because of the winds. So glad you did! Can’t wait to hear your stories! -Mom
Pictures say a thousand words. The team was firing on all cylinders with their cameras. Easy picking today for great shots of all the major food groups. Cats that were close enough to pet. The resident genet cat up in the roof of the amazing Kikoti Lodge where we are for the night. It made an appearance at dinner and Aaron with the quick draw got the shot of the night. Perfect weather and great team work. That would have Mario Andretti's pit crew impressed while a tire was changed with a beautiful sunset and some cold libation for yet another chapter in the book. Easy to find some peace in these parts of the bush. Safari on!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
The Four Day Summit Climb teams led by RMI Guides Dave Hahn and Ben Liken made their summit attempt this morning but turned back after reaching 12,500' due to increased winds and cold temperatures. The teams have returned to Camp Muir were they will have a short break before continuing to Paradise.
We look forward to seeing the teams at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon. Good work teams!
Congratulations to the team! Climbing to 12,500 ft in those conditions is quite an accomplishment. Thanks to the guides for keeping everyone safe. We look forward to giving hugs and kisses to Team Medley.
May 22, 2016 - 1:12 am PT
Late tonight the sound of planes filled the air with the sweet roar of Turpin prop engines. Our flight service, K2, had taken advantage of a very short and rare window of marginally clear weather to ft three of their Otters onto the glacier to pick up some climbers anxiously awaiting a trip back to civilization, but more importantly to us, they were bringing the rest of our team to finally join us.
Day three and we're finally together!
This all happened just fifteen minutes after we had returned from a nine hour climb to carry food and fuel to 7800', Camp 1. Everyone did a fantastic job on the climb, and our efforts will make our move tomorrow a bit less tortuous, as normally we carry all our gear up from Base Camp in one move.
Let's hope the weather cooperates and we can finally start climbing this mountain.
Until tomorrow,
RMI Guide Brent Okita and crew
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Bobby- we are so proud of you! Just a few days until you can sip tequila!
Love Annie, Grace, Davis and Susan
Posted by: Susan Gallagher on 1/16/2016 at 7:28 am
Annie and team,
I have only seen Kilimanjaro from a distance; cannot imagine the extraordinary experience of being on that awesome mountain and climbing towards the top! Thinking of you today and tomorrow, hoping for fair weather, safety, and boost of energy as you near the summit. Thanks for staying in touch through these blogs and photos!
Posted by: Helen (Gillette) on 1/16/2016 at 7:01 am
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