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Posted by: Billy Nugent, Mike Walter
Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades
Elevation: 9,127'
Posted by: Bryan Mazaika, Jack Delaney, Emma Lyddan, Erika Birkeland
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons team stood on the summit of Mt. Rainier at 10:15 am today. The high winds from yesterday and overnight calmed in the early hours, it was cold, so the team waited for the temperatures to warm before starting their summit attempt. The waiting paid off and the team had a clear beautiful summit day via the Emmons Glacier. They will spend the last night on the mountain training, before returning to Ashford Basecamp tomorrow afternoon.
Congratulations Team!
Posted by: Nick Scott, James Bealer
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Today we rested once again. Our plan had been to move to high camp today, but once again our plans were changed due to the longest stretch of windy weather seen on this mountain in the month of January. Fortunately, the winds are forecasted to drop significantly over the next few days which is lucky for us since we only have the next two days to pull off a summit. Everyone is doing well and adjusting to the altitude perfectly. By the time we pull the trigger on a summit attempt I expect we will be so well acclimatized that we will all sprint to the top of this mountain. All of you at home send us some good vibes and cross your fingers that the winds give the window we need to stand on the top of South America!
Steve and All,
Hope those winds have blown themselves out by now. All the best for submitting!
Posted by: Karen & Rob on 1/23/2022 at 9:38 am
Sending good vibes and all fingers and toes crossed that the winds and weather give you the break you all need and deserve to reach the summit!! Here’s to standing on the top of South America!! XO
Posted by: Coeli Scott on 1/23/2022 at 6:14 am
Posted by: Pepper Dee
Categories: Guide News Guide Grant
My second mock lead on the course tackled an aesthetic, rambling three pitch climb on the Wind Tower. I had done the climb before, but had never been responsible for three other mock-climbers. I found myself doing nearly everything differently with my mock-climbers in tow--positioning my climbers out of the way of loose rock, breaking pitches up into shorter, up-and-down sections, and rigging lowers down exposed, short steps that I had always simply down-climbed. All told, a climb that had taken a mere hour and a half climbing independently took me three quite involved hours to guide.
To me, that is the part of guiding that I will always love the most--the challenge of using every trick in your toolbox to make a section of terrain as safe as you can for your climbers. My Rock Guide Course endowed me with plenty of tricks, from terrain belays to rigging rappels to rope management systems. The real excitement of the course, though, was getting experience applying these tricks in one of the most complex rock climbing areas in the country.
Today was the day! We woke up early to clear skies and absent winds. A first in over a week! We walked out of camp 2 at 2:30 hoping to get ahead of the numerous climbers that had stacked up waiting for the same weather window. Unfortunately, we weren’t early enough to beat all the other climbers out the door and ran into a fair amount of traffic. However, the extra traffic couldn’t spoil the perfect weather or the stoke emanating from the climbers, all of whom had been chomping at the bit for a chance to climb all week. The route felt extra steep this year, but the climbing was aided by good quality snow for much of the upper route leading to the summit. After nine hours of climbing and dodging other climbers, five out of seven of us stood on the summit of Aconcagua, the highest mountain outside of the Himalaya. It was a perfect summer day with almost no wind and clear skies for epic views all around. After enjoying our hard won success for just a few minutes, believe it or not it can be hard to breathe at 22,841 feet, we turned downhill and continued walking downhill all the way into basecamp around 7:15pm. An absolute epic of a day for those that managed to climb to the top. Despite the sore muscles and blistered toes, the crew was smiles all around the dinner table sharing stories from the day. Tomorrow we walk out to the trailhead and make our way back to Mendoza for a much needed shower and a good night sleep in a proper bed.
Congrats to all those who summited! And good luck on your next adventure!
Congratulations to all!! What great stories you will have to tell about this grand adventure!
Posted by: Coeli Scott on 1/25/2022 at 4:42 am
How absolutely AWESOME - way to go team! It has been fun to follow your adventures and glad many of you finally made the summit! Way to go Jake!!!
Posted by: carron on 1/24/2022 at 8:36 pm
Posted by: Dave Hahn, Dominic Cifelli, Tatum Whatford, Seth Burns
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 17,200'
Saturday, July 2, 2022 - 8:56 pm PT
It was a rest day, although slightly less restful for taking place at 17,200'. Everything is a little harder up here. We were lucky to have a nice sunny day (again) which made it easier to relax. It was breezy from time to time, which was forecast. We’re hoping the winds quiet down, in keeping with those forecasts, for our summit day tomorrow. We ate and drank water and stared out at the amazing views. We made last minute adjustments to our packs and the gear we’ll rely on tomorrow. We talked strategy. We looked up at the “autobahn” -the route from 17,000' to Denali Pass and tried to judge its difficulty. After weeks of hard work to get in position, we are ready.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Posted by: JT Schmitt, Matias Francis, Jackson Breen
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 17,000'
Tuesday, May 31, 2022 - 10:08 pm PT
We woke up to a beautiful morning at 14,000' Camp and decided to move to 17,000'! The team did well and the forecast looks good for tomorrow. Stay tuned to see what we get up to tomorrow!
RMI Guides JT, Jackson, Matias and the RMI team
Exciting news! Thanks as always for the updates - sending lots of high-altitude best wishes!
Posted by: Nestor Davidson on 6/1/2022 at 8:38 am
Fantastico! Hola from Spain and best of luck on the summit push!
Posted by: Caleb on 6/1/2022 at 8:14 am
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Erika Birkeland, Leif Bergstrom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 14,000'
Tuesday, May 24, 2022 - 11:32 pm PT
Things were pretty perfect this morning to take a burn on the fixed lines. When we move to 17,000' Camp, it will be with just the essentials. We'll leave luxury items, switch from burritos to freeze dried meals, and go with the plan to get the job done and get back down to thicker air. Thus, there really isn't much that we can cache between here and 17,000'. Instead of caching, our goal was to climb to to higher altitude to keep the acclimatization process progressing, and to get a chance to see the fixed lines without heavy packs. Our packs were light, the sky was clear, and conditions generally calm. We had a wonderful climb up to 16,200', spent a few minutes enjoying the views, then headed back down.
The fixed lines often spark some anxiety: how hard are they, how steep, we can't stop and take a break?!? After a practice run on them those nerves were quelled. Everybody was happy to get a chance with light packs and feel ready to go again, when we move to 17,000' Camp for the summit push. Seems that there is a bit of wind up high the next couple of days so we'll likely wait that out, and then hit the go button when things calm down again. So rest day tomorrow.
RMI Guides Pete, Erika, Leif, and team
Posted by: Eric Frank, Grayson Swingle
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 12,200'
The Four Day Climb May 6 - 9 led by RMI Guides Eric Frank and Grayson Swingle ascended to Camp Muir yesterday. The team left from Camp Muir this morning and ascended to Ingraham Flats. More new snow and avalanche danger made this their high point but they did enjoy some blue skies and sunshine. The team left Camp Muir on their descent to Paradise. We will look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
Go MBK!!!
Posted by: ELLIS RICHMAN on 5/10/2022 at 5:54 am
Congratulations Shep and Jared!
Posted by: Phil Gore on 6/26/2019 at 6:52 pm
Way to go Jared and Shep!
Posted by: Robin on 6/26/2019 at 6:18 pm
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