The Four Day Summit Climb Teams led by RMI Guides Jake Beren and Paul Rachele reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Jake reported a "super beautiful" day with light winds, and a cloud layer at about 8,000'. The teams have started their descent and will be back at Rainier Basecamp this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's teams!
Grateful for your expertise in guiding us to the top. Quite a 50th Birthday for Scott! Happy Birthday again Jen! Congrats to all of team “B” (we deserve an A).
And another summit came our way! Urus East proved to be a steep challenge today; bare glacier ramps of crystal clear ice preceded by long stretches of gnarly boulders and slabs and an engaging fourth class summit pyramid, sure squeezed our skills and endurance. But the views of our pinnacle objective coming up, Nevado Copa, across the valley to the north, reminded us that today was only another milestone in our journey to the 6,000-meter mark, and we descended in style, as guides like to say "keeping it together", (and perhaps also animated by the improvised karaoke that Dan improvised on top to the tunes of Phil Collins' "On a The Air Tonight" song.)
Tomorrow we finish our leg in the Ishinca Valley; we'll be heading back out to Huaraz for the evening, and to an earned shower before "getting dirty" again for the last leg of our trip. Check tomorrow for some pics as soon as we get internet again.
Good night, RMI Guide Elías de Andres and team.
-Spanish climbing word of the day: "mochila" (backpack)
RMI Guide Mike King here along with the Team at 10,600 ft. We had a very windy day getting into our camp at Casa de Piedra. The group is resting and practicing a crucial expedition skill; the tent chill session. After 2 long days in the sun and wind we our looking forward to base camp tomorrow.
We got our first view of the mountain today, so far no "buyer's remorse".
Christmas Eve tomorrow and a rest day on the 25th, many in the group are already speculating what Base Camp will serve for dinner. The good times and good eating continue but one of these days we will have to shoulder the heavy packs and head up, where the real trip begins.
Thanks for following along!
Bob W
Thought you were going to swim the English Channel next…
Enjoy doing something others can only marvel at!
Have a Merry Chistmas!
Bill F
Posted by: Bill F on 12/24/2015 at 7:31 am
Meredith,
We are missing you and Jessie at our annual visit to the office this Christmas Eve. The popcorn doesn’t taste as good without you! We are looking forward to following you on your climb. Be safe and have fun!
RLEEC
We made a couple of stops along the route from the Plantation Lodge in the high country to Tarangire National Park down in the Rift Valley. We checked out a Maasai village where we saw traditional dances and chanting. The tribesmen showed us their method for building fire without matches and took us into their small huts to answer questions about the traditions that they follow. We then drove down to a busy afternoon in Tarangire. We began seeing elephants, right form the start. Herds of them... big family groups and gangs of bulls. Impalas, zebra and gnus were everywhere. We developed an eye for lilac breasted rollers and for vultures and snake eagles. Although we roamed over miles and miles of twisty, turny dirt roads, we didn’t see cats today... no lions, no leopards, no cheetahs. All the animals we did see had no problem whatsoever with the lack of cats though. As the sun began to sink, we pulled into Balloon Camp where our room assignments were “tent cabins” and where we needed to request an armed escort to get over to the lobby and dining area. We are still within the park and there aren’t any fences. There is a good deal of natural beauty though. Just after sunset, we watched “bush television” (a campfire) and gazed up at the Southern Cross and the Milky Way. Then we laughed through another fine dinner together and got ready for a final night in Africa.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hello again,
Things continued to be exciting here on our final day in Africa. We started the day early with hopes of seeing a few more animals but the constant rain has most of them running for cover. We did manage to see a few more Lions, elephants, and giraffes, but those smaller cats never showed themselves.
Most of the roads were either a muddy mess or completely covered in water. It made for quite the exciting ride especially after finding our main route impassable due to a bridge being flooded. Thankfully our safari driver knew of another safe way out.
It's been a memorable experience for everyone and it's going to be sad to part ways with such a great bunch of folks. But now it's time to head home and share the stories.
That’s all for this trip.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and the Kili/Safari crew
Our Five Day Summit Climb team led by RMI Guide Andy Bond reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. They enjoyed calm winds and clear skies during their climb. The team will descend to Camp Muir, rest and pack their bags, before continuing their descent to Paradise. Once at BaseCamp they will gather for a presentation of certificates before concluding their program.
Congratulations to today's Five Day Summit Climb team!
Everyone, Thanks for an awesome trip up to the top of Mount Rainier. I could not have been more pleased with everything. Thanks for helping to make dreams come true. Mac
You remember the feast of yesterday, add some sweet watermelon and that was the start of yet another clear sunny day. A bit breezy as we headed along a ridge for a good part of the day so the shorts people had to succumb to pants. The typical fantastic views all day as we climbed to well over 14,500ft before the descent into Barranco Camp. Camp is at about 13,000ft. The spectacular of tomorrow's goal, the great Barranco Wall, looms over head. We are all settled in doing well. Aware of the challenges ahead, but as we say in Swahili, "Hakuna matata" (no problem) for this team.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
After falling asleep to a gentle rain last night, our team woke up to to star-filled skies. The clouds had dropped a few inches of snow up high and the glaciers suspended above camp glistened in the light of the moon. After a hasty 5:30am breakfast we shouldered our packs and climbed uphill three hours to the base of the Ishinca Glacier. The new snow made the hard glacial ice a bit more forgiving, and we used the terrain to train on basic mountaineering techniques such as rope travel, crampon technique and ice axe arrest. After taking a break for lunch and admiring our beautiful surroundings, we got into more advanced techniques like ice screw placement and V-thread anchors.
Tonight was the current group favorite dinner- Lomo Saltado, a Peruvian mix with beef, french fries, rice and tomatoes. Delicious!
RMI Guide Robby Young
Good Afternoon Team Peru!
I love these photos and action information! Please say hello to Neil Yoder and tell him that we will expect him to perfectly replicate the Lomo Saltado for “Family Time.” Happy climbing to all!
Karen
May 22, 2016 - 11:34 p.m. PDT
We climbed out of the tents this morning hopeful that we would head uphill to cache. Though there was a cap on the summit, the ridge of the West Buttress looked doable. As we fired the stoves though that situation began to change as the cap lowered and the winds over the Buttress picked up. By the end of breakfast we had changed our minds and decided to stay put. That was further reinforced when a climbing ranger stopped by to let us know that NOAA had called with a special weather advisory with high winds and snow. The rangers have taken to naming the storms; this one is Denali storm Daryl. We spent the day resting and hibernating in tents, though so far Daryl has been pretty gentle with us. Tomorrow sounds like it will be another rest day, but if we wake up to something unexpected, we'll rally and get our cache in.
Fra Tomas: Gratulerer med dagen Sinnekka! Jeg elsker deg, din Tomas.
Signing off,
RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Jess Matthews, and Robby Young, and team
Hi everyone. This is Solveig calling in from high camp on Ixta. We're doing wonderful. Everybody just enjoyed a nice high camp meal and we are all tucked in getting ready for our summit bid tomorrow. We'll check in from the top. Ciao.
RMI Guide Solveig Waterfall
RMI Guide Solveig Waterfall calls in from Ixta High Camp.
Christina, I meant. Thanks!
Posted by: David Basinger on 7/7/2016 at 9:12 pm
Paul, Kristina, Jessi, Jake’s team,
Grateful for your expertise in guiding us to the top. Quite a 50th Birthday for Scott! Happy Birthday again Jen! Congrats to all of team “B” (we deserve an A).
Posted by: David Basinger on 7/7/2016 at 9:01 pm
View All Comments