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Should we stay or should we go now? Today we started our rest day by waking up to a winter wonderland. The red rocks of camp now had a dusting of snow covering them, making it feel a lot like Christmas. The morning was leisurely with multiple cups of coffee and Avery's specialty, high altitude pancakes. Afterward came an afternoon of many naps and the struggle to not go crazy from boredom. Self entertainment is an important part of expedition life, especially when its snowing outside and you find yourself tent bound. As the day continued, we got the updated forecast and after much consideration, we are going to take another rest day at
Camp 2. Given the forecasted winds, it is looking like Tuesday instead of Monday is our better bet for summiting. This just means we will get more practice at tent life.
Good night,
RMI Guide Hannah Smith and team
On The Map
The
Four Day Summit Climb August 19 - 22 led by
RMI Guides Brent Okita and Andy Bond reached the summit of Mt. Rainier right around 7 AM today. Brent reported a nice day overall with 5-10 mph winds but very smokey skies. The teams will spend a bit of time on the summit before starting their descent. Once back at Camp Muir they will repack and then continue down to Paradise.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
The
Mt. Rainier Four Day Summit Climb team, led by
Brent Okita, reached the summit in some windy conditions. The team spent some time on the summit and began their descent at 8:00 a.m. We look forward to congratulating them at Rainier Basecamp this afternoon.
Today was a perfect day in big mountains! After yet another tasty breakfast in our dinning hut we set off for a solid 4-hour training climb. It was cold enough last night that we all put on crampons to help with traction. This was great training for the team, they did their homework and are physically prepared. We turned around just below 15,000’. This was a new altitude record for some of the team. Then we were back to camp for lunch a bit of a rest. Right now, we are waiting for dinner, and watching the colorful sunset on the dramatic huge mountains in all directions. This evening we meet to go over climbing equipment and tactics.
Team is in fine shape and glad to be here!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker & Team
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
Saturday, July 9, 2016 - 8:46 p.m. PDT
As planned, today was something of a forced rest day at
11,000 ft. By virtue of our having slept through the night here -which we certainly needed- the next option would have been to travel the lower glacier in the heat of the day... Or to rest up and aim for going out tonight when it gets cold and the glacial surface is frozen and safer for travel. We are all about option two.
So the team woke late and folks talked about having gotten a real night's sleep for the first time in weeks. We ate long slow breakfasts and then went back to sleep. It is possible that this will be our last full day in the park, so many took longer looks than usual at the ice and rock cliffs surrounding and towering over us. At first the sky looked threatening, as if it might get to snowing again, but by dinner things had changed back to calm, sunny, blue skies... making us all optimistic about smooth travel out the glacier and the chance for prompt flying from the mountain tomorrow morning.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Sunday, May 8, 2016 - 9:39 p.m. PDT
Today the team learned that not everyday can be blue skies filled with unicorns. We woke early this morning, fighting the temptation to stay in our warm cocoons, to a complete whiteout. Everything that came in contact with the atmosphere grew a layer of frost overnight and we could barely see more than 10 feet in front of us. But we brewed up, ate a quick breakfast, and began the waiting game. We would need full
VFR (visual flight rule) conditions to venture onto
Kahiltna Dome but alas the weather never improved. After some tent time the team went out to investigate some ice fall debris fallen from the east face for some classroom sessions. The biggest block, close to the size of a two-car garage, provided some fun ice climbing routes. We hope to wake up tomorrow to better weather in hopes of giving the Dome one last shot before heading back down stream.
Goodnight from the great white north!
RMI Guides Leon Davis and Mike King and team
The hardest thing to do in the mountains is to know when to leave the summit for another day. Our group had to make a very difficult decision today and based on a very poor weather forecast we have decided to head back to
Base Camp. Our first priority in the mountains is always safety and we all agree the best choice in these super cold temps and high winds is to take care of ourselves and head down the mountain. Juan said that the birthday celebration with beers and pizza at Base Camp made up for skipping the summit. Tibor said he felt like fighting the dragons on the upper mountain was enough for him. Steph said we are all in good spirits now but the decision was a hard one. Ongun's sun burnt nose has spoken for him. Doug called, full porter. It has been an amazing journey and we've recognized that learning more about ourselves is far superior than reaching the summit. The ultimate destination is to be home safely.
RMI Guides
JJ Justman and
Christina von Mertens
On The Map
It poured rain all night. It was still pouring this morning when we woke up. It took us awhile to work up the courage to get out of our tents and pack up but we did it. We packed our gear and booked it down the trail to find somewhere a little less wet. Now we are back in town, still soaking wet, but oh so happy to know we can finally start getting dry. Despite the soggy finish to our trip, we had a great time training on
Mt. Shuksan.
RMI Guide Mike Walter and team
Back at Base Camp! And What a day we had! Our ascent to the summit of Copa was everything but ordinary; intricate navigation to avoid a blocking bergschund, trail breaking at 20,000ft, steep slopes in the dark... and a corniced summit ridge, among other factors, provided a great graduation climb in this, our second
Peru Seminar. We managed to descend to the safety of Base Camp in a long push, picking high camp on the way. Everyone is pretty tired, but feeling well and accomplished. We are turning to our tents now, and will check in again tomorrow from Huaraz.
Best regards,
RMI Guide Elías de Andres Martos and team.
Dex, good luck to you and your team. I hope you guys summit! See you when you get back!
Posted by: Jr on 2/3/2019 at 3:43 pm
Oh, the joy of tent time….solitude…..Solitude is creativity’s best friend and refreshment for your soul…drink it in deeply before the hustle of life evaporates the illusion of peacefulness. Enjoy your day of rest and the opportunity for journaling your experience! Can’t wait to hear all about it.
Posted by: Dr. J on 2/2/2019 at 8:07 pm
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