Hi everybody. Casey Grom checking in from the Kilimanjaro expedition. Just wanted to let you know that everything's going great today. We finally woke to a clear sky and we're able to hike almost all day in full sunshine, which was a real treat considering all the clouds and rains and sprinkles that we've had this whole week. Everybody's in great spirits right now. We left our Karanga Camp, which is about 13,000 feet, and slowly made our way up hill up on to a ridge line where our high camp is. It's called Barafu, and it sits about 15,000 feet. Everybody did fantastic today. They are doing well up here at the new altitude. We just had another amazing meal provided by our cook, Tosha. He's been taking great care of us. We just had our little summit talk when we went over the game plan for tonight. What time we're leaving and what to wear, what to bring, all that good stuff. If the weather continues like it is, the game plan is to get up around 11:30, have something to eat, and then start walking about 12:30 tonight. It should take us somewhere between about six and eight hours to reach the summit. If all goes according to plan, I've got a SAT phone that I've been checking in on and I'm going to do my best to let all the team members give a call home. If you're following the blog sometime around 7 a.m. Tanzanian time, that's anywhere from about eight to eleven hour difference ahead of the U.S., we're going to give you a call. If you see a strange number on your phone, realize it may be us calling to say hello from the summit of Kilimanjaro. Anyway, that's all for now. Wish us luck. We're going to head to bed and try to get a couple hours of sleep before we we take off. Thanks.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
RMI Guide Casey Grom calls in from Kilimanjaro's High Camp.
Jay and Mary…hope you guys are having a climb of a lifetime! Have fun and be safe!
Posted by: Swayts on 1/14/2018 at 5:08 pm
This might be a little late but at the summit, reach for the stars and shake Grandpa’s hand. He would be so proud of you just as all of us are. Again be safe there’s lots of love back home.
Love mom.
Posted by: Caralee (Alex’s mom) on 1/14/2018 at 10:50 am
Excited to get moving to the upper mountain, our group headed to Camp 1. Soon after leaving we could see our future route up the mountain. With full packs we battled through scree fields crumbling beneath our feet and through penitentes chest high. At last we reached Camp 1 at 16200 feet where we stashed gear and got a glimpse of our future home. Soon we were were boot skiing down the scree fields getting back to camp in no time. We get into our tents tonight satisfied with the day's work and looking forward to a rest day tomorrow.
RMI Guide JM Gorum
The Four Day Summit Climb August 1 - 4, 2017 reached the summit this morning around 6 am. The team reported clear skies with lots of shooting stars and a view of the Northern Lights.
After enjoying some time on Columbia Crest, the team began their descent. They will make a stop at Camp Muir to repack and refuel and then continue down to Paradise.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb team!
RMI teams, led by Pete Van Deventer and Chase Nelson, reached the Mt. Rainier summit at 5:45 a.m. The weather is nice and at 7:05 a.m. the teams were at High Break on their descent.
Congratulations to today's summit climbers!
Many thanks to Pete, Peter and Jordan for guiding us to the summit. It was was a great reward for our journey that began in January with “small” hikes!
Cheers,
Daryl
Posted by: Daryl on 7/3/2017 at 12:23 am
Pete, Pete, Chase, and Jordan-
You guys were the best. Thank you all for taking care of me, my closest friends, and family. Adventure of a lifetime.
What a winter wonderland for May 28! Over the past week at least three feet of snow has fallen and it is still coming down. Visions of power skiing, snowman building,and marshmallow roasting dance in our heads as we spend a day resting here at 11,200 camp. The group is in good spirits and all set up to move when the mountain gives us our chance. There is quite a community building here at camp because no one has had the opportunity to move up recently. The RMI establishment is on the upper end of Main Street with 4 tents and a communal cook tent where we enjoy pancakes, hot chocolate, and tortellini. Our latrine had a nice makeover today now has three tall walls with a chicane entrance. We are all very happy about the improvements. As for the rest of Main Street there are no Starbucks but a constant view of people shoveling out their tents.
Signing off from the little city with a population of 60 people here on the side of Denali.
RMI Guides Christina, Brent, JT & Team
Hey Bill, I would have turned around at the first word of “no Starbucks” at basecamp. The team here is rooting for you! Good luck. -M
Posted by: Mike Wood on 5/30/2017 at 9:27 am
So fun being on the other end this year and reading these updates!(of course I’d rather be there with you!) I’m remembering that igloo at 11k camp…I hope no one had to use it if it’s still there! Steve and Lindsay, I’m so happy to hear you are doing great! I had no doubt you would be rockstars! Brent and Christina I’m remembering all the hard work you put in and how amazing you guys are! Thanks for the updates! Rooting for you guys and for a stretch of good (enough) weather!
Hello from Camp 2 -
Our team has now ascended to 18000' and set up camp. We had a slow roll out of camp thanks to a bit of wind gusting overhead. We decided we might enjoy a little later start to the day, so we hung around until about 10:30 to let the sun warm things up and push those pesky winds farther east.
The Team felt the push to 18k and the gusting winds, grey skies and colder temps didn't make for a lot of conversation. Now tucked in at 18,000' the Team is sport eating and resting in their tents. The winds have calmed down and the sun is baking the tent fabric, this creates an optimal napping microclimate.
We miss you all and are jubilant to be in a position for summiting on the 13th.
Warmest of regards,
RMI Guides Mike King, JM Gorum & the team
The Four Day Summit Climb August 24 - 27, 2016 led by RMI Guides Casey Grom, Jess Matthews and Blake Votilla reached the crater rim of Mt. Rainier just before 7 am this morning. They reported nice climbing and sunshine with winds and chilly temperatures.
Way to go!
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)
Hey, it's Billy here checking in from the Sulphide yet again on our Expedition Skills Seminar. We ended up not going for the climb today despite the perfect weather. There's a ton of new snow up on the upper summit pyramid. We figured we'd give that stuff a chance to sort of settle out and melt and see whatever it was going to do on the first truly hot day in quite a while. We let things just sort of mellow out up there, and we kept ourselves busy with ice climbing in and out of crevasses. We went for a little walk around the Sulphide Glacier and then capped off the day with some belaying and rappelling practice. Everyone is super excited for our summit attempt tomorrow. We'll call and hopefully check in from the tippy top and let you know what we run into up there. Alright. All for now.
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
RMI Guide Billy Nugent calls in from the Shuksan Seminar.
Hello, this is RMI Guide Elias Andres and the Alpamayo team, along with local guide, Peter. We are currently at high camp on Alpamayo at 5,400 meters. The team crushed it. We came up here in a mere four hours overcoming some steep terrain, but it was not difficult for anybody. We are currently setting up camp. Everyone will be chill tomorrow. We are going to take advantage of the elevation to continue to acclimatize for the summit bid and let a couple of teams that arrived here ahead of us climb the mountain so we have the route to ourselves. We'll keep you posted tomorrow. Stay tuned at this time and we will let you know how we are doing, which is presumably very, very well. Hopefully in 48 hours you will have a summit report. That's it for now.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos calls in from Alpamayo High Camp.
Hi Kara
The mtn. looks awesome. I know you’re having a ball.
Kristen and all enjoyed your kayak while you were hiking.
Everyone here sends their best. Can’t wait to hear about
the summit.
Love Mom
Posted by: Jean on 7/21/2015 at 8:36 am
Andres - thank you for the great radio report - best to Wolf and the team and have a chill day! Feli (Wolf’s wife)
Posted by: felicitas funke-riehle on 7/20/2015 at 8:30 pm
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Jay and Mary…hope you guys are having a climb of a lifetime! Have fun and be safe!
Posted by: Swayts on 1/14/2018 at 5:08 pm
This might be a little late but at the summit, reach for the stars and shake Grandpa’s hand. He would be so proud of you just as all of us are. Again be safe there’s lots of love back home.
Love mom.
Posted by: Caralee (Alex’s mom) on 1/14/2018 at 10:50 am
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