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The Four Day Summit climb led by RMI Guide Mike Walter reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. The team climbed early and had beautiful weather the entire climb. They have started their descent and are en route to Camp Muir.
Congratulations to today's team!
Posted by: Adam Knoff, Hannah McGowan
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
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!
Holy cow, another summit reached! Congratulations! Andy Uhl, you are an inspiration!
Posted by: Carol Nurse on 5/25/2018 at 8:23 am
Way to go guides and mountaineers! Can’t wait to hear about the trip from Andy Uhl! Dad, we are all looking forward to seeing you soon!!
Posted by: Anna Uhl on 5/24/2018 at 12:49 pm
Posted by: JM Gorum, Hannah Smith, Avery Parrinello
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 9,000'
Today the team said goodbye to Mendoza for a while. After a leisurely breakfast of pastries, and more pastries, we finished off the process of obtaining our Aconcagua climbing permits. We only experienced a few hang ups in the permit office, which is about par for the course.
We amassed our gear into one big pile in the hotel lobby, partly to prepare to load it into our trailer, and partly just to see how much stuff we have. In my professional opinion we brought enough stuff, judging by volume alone. After transferring our pile into a vehicle, we hit the road to Penitentes. A few naps, and more than a few empanadas later, we arrived in Penitentes.
This afternoon, we packed everything for our travel to Aconcagua Base Camp. Everything has to be packed such that it doesn't get destroyed on the mules. The team made quick work of that task, leaving us plenty of down time before dinner. I'm pretty sure most people took another nap. Tomorrow morning we will hit the dusty trail, and things for us will get much simpler. For a few days we will just walk, eat, and sleep. Everyone is looking forward to it. We'll let you know how it goes.
RMI Guides JM Gorum, Hannah Smith, and Avery Parrinello
Have a great time! Enjoy yourself. Be safe.
Posted by: Dean & Dodie Radloff on 12/17/2017 at 8:19 pm
” It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves. Sir Edmund Hillary
Have fun be safe…enjoy the day!
Mike & Debbie Mitan
Posted by: M Mitan on 12/17/2017 at 10:23 am
Hola from C2...
And we did it!!! We climbed and summited today what's arguably one of the most beautiful mountains on Earth. Brian, Tom and James climbed in style the super direct line that after nine pitches of consistent 75 degrees on hard névé and ice takes you to the airy top shy of 20,000ft. We woke up at midnight to a beautiful night, and after breaking trail for half hour to the bergschrund, we found ourselves doing what we came to do; swinging our tools into the frozen element of this wall that is the SW Face of Alpamayo. Right at dawn we were straddling the summit and while tired, the sense of accomplishment was as big as the effort we put forth. We earned every feet of the climb by swinging and kicking and pulling and pushing... Now we are in bed, after having enjoyed another meal prepared two days ago by our cook, which we carried up to reheat in our camp stoves; fried rice with beef and fries... At 18,000ft, that feels like cheating when we see other teams eat freeze-dried food. Did we say we care about style points?
That's all for now, we will update you tomorrow of our plans for the last couple days.
RMI Guide Elías de Andres Martos and team
Posted by: Billy Nugent
Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades
Hey, Billy here checking in again from our Expedition Seminar out on the Sulphide. All is going well. Our team is enjoying a significant improvement in the weather. We spent the morning doing some anchor systems, and we learned how to move around, how to manage rope on rocky terrain- both blocky rock and more fifth-class rock. That was pretty exciting and then we sort of changed gears for the afternoon. We headed out to a crevasse where the team honed their skills on crevasse rescue, so we had a great day. We're hoping to take a crack at the summit tomorrow, but we're not super sure if we're going to do it tomorrow or wait another day. There's a lot of new snow up on up on the summit pyramid and the next couple of days are supposed to be quite warm, so we might let some of that snow melt off. We'll give you a call tomorrow and let you know what we ended up doing. Check in and let you know where we're at. Alright. All for now. Talk later.
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
RMI Guide Billy Nugent checks in from the Shuksan Seminar.
Our Four Day Summit Climb Team led by RMI Guide Casey Grom reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning via the Disappointment Cleaver Route. Casey reported a beautiful morning with calm winds and moderate temperatures.
Congratulations to Today's Team!
The winds have calmed down here at Plaza Argentina. The Team is enjoying a rest day before we move up the mountain tomorrow. This second rest day is necessary for the Team to acclimate properly with the quick ascent to 14,000’. Aside from sorting some gear, working on tents and a few naps, we are all eager to head up to Camp 1. The winds are forecasted to build over the next few days so we will get our camp established at 16,400’ and see what the weather and mountain give us.
RMI Guide Mike King
On The Map
Hello from camp at 12,570' high on the Shira Plateau. It's wonderful being here in this large, open camp. The sun is shining and providing a nice contrast to our cloudy, wet and somewhat cramped camp of yesterday.
Walking at 8:00 we climbed steeply and steadily for most of the way to camp, taking advantage of key spots to break and enjoy the incredible views of this most interesting world around us. Everyone has adopted the mountain mindset of 'pole pole,' or ' slowly, slowly. ' This allows us to patiently step off to the side whenever another group of the hundreds of porters here need to get past us. We know which side of our bread is buttered. If the porters don't get to camp, we have no camp. More importantly it keeps us from walking too fast and needlessly stressing our bodies, letting us acclimatize to the altitude better.
Everyone is doing well. How can they not be when Tosha, our chef, is spoiling us rotten. Today's lunch: fried chicken, French fries, vegetables and watermelon for dessert. Tomorrow brings us our biggest day yet getting to Barranco via the Lava Tower. Bring it on!
Until tomorrow,
RMI Guide Brent Okita
On The Map
Greetings from Icchi Coccha.
We're on our way out, camped at our same first camp on the way in... Since we were heading out earlier, it took a bit more logistics to organize our "donkey train". But these awesome guys made it happen for us and came with short notice. It's amazing how things work in these places, with no written contract, just a verbal agreement, and a satphone call to a distant neighbor of our cellphone-less mule driver, human sense is the common norm. "Someone needs me, I must assist" they must think. And a two-day journey uphill becomes a sprint so they can bring us back to our commodities.
We left midday instead of early morning and decided to keep soaking in the greatness of the Andes, since pushing it all the way out with our late departure, would have us arriving late. So, here we are, enjoying another great meal from our cook Emilio, breathing thicker air, and witnessing the mountains getting bigger above us, as we descend.
We look forward to a shower and clean clothes tomorrow, to catch up on emails, to a meal in a restaurant and to a room with clean sheets... but surely, and despite the "no summit" this year, the magnitude and majesty of these peaks will always be greater than any mundane human desire.
RMI Guide Elías de Andres Martos and team
Missing you very much Galina!
Posted by: Sanche&Jimbo; on 7/3/2018 at 5:52 am
Hi Kim, Wow….What a beautiful well written update by Elias! Hope the team enjoys this special time in the Andes! Look forward to hopefully hearing from you after you get settled in Huaraz! Love, Dad
Posted by: shel on 7/2/2018 at 6:37 pm
Posted by: Mike King, Jenny Konway, Nick Scott
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 13,800'
We packed up after a stormy night at 19,600'. The evening was filled thunder, lightening and lots of snow. The early start had our hands and toes cold, but we were rewarded with a stellar sunrise and a quick descent through the snow and scree. There was gear to pick up at the lower camps and finally we got to Plaza Argentina to enjoy a warm afternoon of packing for the mules and some well deserved rest at lower elevation. Tomorrow we'll walk to Lenas, our first camp of the trek for the legendary asado and one last night under the stars. This trip has been filled with lots of laughs, better then normal weather and a great team. This will be our last dispatch of the trip, your loved ones will be in reach once we arrive in Mendoza on the evening of the 8th. Thanks for following along on our expedition to the top of South America.
RMI Guide Mike King
Wow, that was some climb! Glad you all made it up there & are now safe & sound. Thanks for letting us follow along on this great adventure.
Posted by: Hikari on 2/7/2018 at 7:44 pm
Concrats to All of You!!!! So Proud of All of You!!!! Enjoy the thick and warm air and the Asada tonight!!! Love you All!!! Awesome Dawn and Tom , (My climbing Sister and Brother, Bless you both)
Dave
Posted by: Dave Kestel on 2/7/2018 at 2:48 am
congrats to all of the team!!
Posted by: luke larkin on 8/9/2018 at 9:07 am
Outstanding efforts. I am looking at the mountain right now.
Posted by: Stuart Nyren on 8/8/2018 at 7:31 am
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