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
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
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
The Mt. Rainier Summit Climb, led by Eric Frank and Andy Bond, reached the summit at 6:15 a.m. With good weather and light winds, they are on their way back to Camp Muir.
Congratulations to today's summit climb teams!
The RMI Artesonraju team made a summit attempt yesterday, reaching 5,600 meters. Technical difficulties kept them from continuing, but the team is giving it another try tonight. Stay tuned!
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
The Four Day Summit Climb May 12 - 15 reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. RMI Guides Brent Okita and Solveig Waterfall led their teams on a cold but clear day. The teams will descend to Muir and then return to Paradise. We look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb teams!
Hello, this is Eric Frank and the Mexican Volcanoes team. We are at the Refugio at the base of Orizaba. We left Puebla this morning and make a quick stop at Tlachichuca, the small town next to Orizaba, where we had enchiladas for lunch. Got packed up, and then got in the back of some big 4x4 trucks and road up here to the Refugio. The weather is clearing up and hopefully things will turn out for us in the morning. Everyone's in good spirits. We just had a big dinner of spaghetti and getting ready to bed down so that we can get up in just a few hours to launch for our climb in the middle of the night. Wish us luck on our last big objective, and we'll be back in the states with family before too long.
RMi Guide Eric Frank
RMI Guide Eric Frank calls in from Orizaba's high camp.
The whole team received an A+ for their homework. They aced the final exam and summer vacation starts tomorrow. What a treat for us as guides when a team takes training serious prior to a climb. A very diverse group when it comes to experience and age. The fact that they all came to the class in the best shape possible puts the chances for a safe summit much more reasonable. What you learn up high is a very unique skill set. The physical and mental demands you are faced with and have to deal with can change your perspective on many facets of our everyday lives down in the low lands. To subject you self to a lack of usual creature comforts by your own submission takes a different sort of duck. I Am very proud of my Tucklings.
A nice send off from our local staff at the Meweka Camp, what a great local crew we had the pleasure to share the mountain with. Three hour descent thru the cloud forest ,get that ,it was cloudy and cool, go figure! A few final pictures at the Kilimanjaro exit sign gate, and then all aboard for the two hour transfer to the Dik Dik lodge for the night. Cleaned up and fired up for the banquet ahead. We will probably cut a swath through our lodge that may take awhile to heal. That's just what the thick air can do to you.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker and Team
Enjoy the safari! Again, take lots of pictures!!!!
Odette
Posted by: Odette Hankins on 7/18/2016 at 12:10 pm
CONGRATS TO TAYLOR AND THE WHOLE TEAM. So glad that you made it up safely. Looks like an amazing experience was had by all. (Taylor, now all you need to do is not getting eaten by any wildlife. I am gonna win that bet with Andrew….I know it.) Enjoy the rest of your trip!
May 28, 2016 - 11:20 p.m. PDT
Luck has been with us as today turned out to be a nice day for a walk. And walk we did, moving camp up to 14,200'. We retraced our route from yesterday, passing by our cache just long enough to pick up a couple extra shovels to help build camp. The team crushed it going to 13,500', but as is normal, felt the altitude on the last 700'. Unfortunately, we weren't lucky enough to find a vacated camp to move into, so had to build camp from scratch. What's nice though is that our neighbor is the RMI team before us. Graciously, they filled water bottles for our thirsty crew upon arrival.
We're all in bed now looking forward to some well deserved rest after our big push.
Good night from 14,200'.
RMI Guides Brent Okita, Christina Dale, and Chris Ebeling, and the team
Hey Mike!
We are pulling for you. Be strong and climb safe!
Posted by: Scott and Nicole Clark on 5/30/2016 at 1:26 am
Hi to everyone! Greetings from Norco, CA where we are in t-shirts We check your blog everyday and enjoy everything you report. Glad to see everyone is doing so well. Looking forward to your next report. Cheers
May 16, 2016 - 3:07 p.m. PDT
Hello Everyone,
Despite a bleak forecast we woke to sunny blue skies today. This morning the team ventured further up the SE fork for some glacier travel and exploring around Radio Tower. While Base Camp below was busy with planes dropping off more climbers we enjoyed a birds eye view of the lower Kahiltna, and a direct view of the north buttress of hunter. The air was hot and surrounding slopes reacted with constant wet slides and rockfall. Returning to camp was a sweltering affair, all of us sun baked by the relentless sun. Tomorrow we will stick around the area for some more skills training. We are still hoping for more of those sunny skies.
RMI Guide Leon Davis & 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
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
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