May 21, 2016 - 1:18 am PT
For most of today it huffed and puffed and the snow fell heavily. We haven't been able to see much, and the wind has been gusting pretty strongly. We made the easy choice to take today as a rest day and fortify our camp, which proved to be the right decision as the gusts grew stronger as the day went on. Instead, we ate a great brunch of smoked salmon and bagels, then set to work reinforcing our compounds with big walls (some wondered how much of a rest day it was carrying a couple hundred 20 pound blocks of snow). With our camp solid, we retired to the tents for naps and rest, before a delicious dinner of Mac and cheese with bacon. It's still snowing hard, though the winds are starting to calm. We're expecting to still wake up to some snow, but hopefully the winds abate, the visibility improves, and we take a quick walk back to retrieve our cache. If not, we still have plenty of delicious food up here and we'll continue to acclimate and get strong in the thinner air of 14.
Best
RMI Guides Pete, Robby, Jess, and our stellar team of high altitude athletes
Geez, you all seem to be eating well! Scott I hope you’re getting some good many ideas for our next climb—no more of those just-add-water instant dinner thingies! ;-)
Be safe y’all, and enjoy the journey.
Posted by: Chris Beaudette on 5/22/2016 at 1:02 pm
Mac and cheese Justin??? I feel bad for your tent mates!!!!!!! Hopefully the storm will relent soon enough. This past week, we finally had a nice stretch of sunny weather here in Colorado and I am missing you on my hikes. I almost stepped on a rattlesnake and realized I really need to review my WFR notes ...
Posted by: Patrice La Vigne on 5/21/2016 at 3:35 pm
Hey everyone. This is JJ Justman with Team Aconcagua. We are all up at High Camp, 19,600 feet. We've got camp built. We have the stoves fired as well. We're melting snow for water, getting some hot drinks going. It's a calm day right now, but the forecast is for a little bit of winds to pick up for tomorrow but then it's supposed to really be bad the next couple of days after, so we are taking advantage of this window. It's nice weather now- keep your fingers crossed for us that it will continue. We certainly are hoping that it will; but regardless, we'll have a safe climb tomorrow. We'll touch base with you. It's going to be very busy so don't worry. We're going to have a full day ahead of us but everyone is doing really well, which is the great thing. So I'm anticipating a fun summit climb tomorrow. Take care everyone. We'll touch base later on tomorrow whether we're on top of the summit or when we're on our way down. Take care everyone. Ciao from Argentina.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
RMI Guide JJ Justman calls in from Aconcagua High Camp.
Nice work mike. Just one foot in front of the other now. Praying for a Summit for you guys. Eric
Posted by: Eric on 2/10/2016 at 3:08 am
I wish I could be up there with you guys, YOU’VE GOT TO KEEP YOUR COMPOSURE!! And don’t forget your water shoes, you wouldn’t want JJ yelling at you.
Best of luck guys,
I’m pulling for you
Our team left the hustle and bustle of Moscow early this morning and made our way to the mountains. We had a long day of flying and driving to get here and we are excited to be in the Baksan Valley at the base of Mt. Elbrus. Everyone is in great spirits so we are going to just relax thus evening and listen to the thunderstorms roll on through. Tomorrow is another day and sun or no sun...it's great to be in the mountains!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
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
Hey, this is Dave Hahn with the RMI Kilimanjaro team from Utah. We're on the summit. It's 9 a.m. and we are on the highest point in Africa, Uhuru (Peak) 19,341 feet. It's a beautiful day up here, just a little breeze on top. We're all enjoying ourselves, taking a couple of pictures and will send you a dispatch from camp tonight to let you know that we've all got down safe. Everything's going really well. Thanks for following along. Bye for now.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
RMI Guide Dave Hahn calls from the summit of Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.
19,341…! Congrats to all and cheers! Looking forward to raising a glass of the finest beverage of choice upon your return! You guys “rock”...... get it, “rock” !
Posted by: Lee & Susie on 2/6/2018 at 4:45 pm
Congrats to all!!! So excited for each of you…such an accomplishment! Can’t wait to hear all about it. Continue your safe travels.
The Five Day Summit Climb May 8 - 12, 2017 reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. RMI Guides Elias de Andres Martos and Chase Nelson led a small group of climbers to the summit via the Ingraham Direct route. Elias reported strong winds with clear skies with improving conditions and a nice day. After a windy first night at Camp Muir and poor weather yesterday, we are glad this team was able to make a summit attempt.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
Summit! The Mt. Rainier Summit Climb teams, led by Mike Walter and Steve Gately, began their descent at 8:00 a.m. With such nice weather, the teams were able to spend over an hour on the summit, crossing the crater and enjoying the views with no clouds in sight. This afternoon we look forward to congratulating the teams this afternoon here in Ashford at Rainier Basecamp!
A fine adventure was had by all on this Mt. Shuksan Climb! Our team chose the Fisher Chimneys route and all that it had to offer. This route is fantastic for the variety of conditions it offers, from snow and ice to technical rock and a truly stunning approach via the absurdly picturesque Lake Ann.
We found the mountain to be in perfect shape, with smooth glacier travel and few other climbers on our route. As we made our attempt on the summit, we connected with climbers from the Sulphide Glacier route at the summit pyramid. There's plenty of room for everyone on that mountain and though it was a little busy, we somehow had the summit all to ourselves!
It was a fantastic three days in a crazily beautiful place, shared with a fun team. Peter and Ann rocked and we had a great time learning how to move through the mountains. Thanks everyone!
RMI Guide Jake Beren
Jambo! All is well at Camp One, otherwise known as Machame Hut. We are already up at 10,000' for our first night on the mountain. Interestingly 10,000' here is still below tree line whereas back home on Mt. Rainier 10,000' is way above the trees. That's due to the fact that the atmosphere bulges around the equator so 10k here in Tanzania feels lower than 10k in Washington State.
The hiking today was great with just a few sprinkles of rain. My group from last week would have considered this a dry day. We did pull out some rain gear briefly but the trail through the forest was mud free and the temperatures were very pleasant.
We have a real fun group and everyone was chatting away between themselves and with the African guides who will accompany us the whole time we are on the mountain.
We spent a total of 5 hours on the trail and combined with the jet lag should make for hungry appetites and good sleeping tonight. I'll check in again tomorrow.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
We reached the Mt. Baker summit at 9 a.m. PST! Although we had lots of smoke from wildfires, we had clear skies at the top. Our descent is going well and we will be at the trailhead later today.
RMI Guide Zeb Blais
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Geez, you all seem to be eating well! Scott I hope you’re getting some good many ideas for our next climb—no more of those just-add-water instant dinner thingies! ;-)
Be safe y’all, and enjoy the journey.
Posted by: Chris Beaudette on 5/22/2016 at 1:02 pm
Mac and cheese Justin??? I feel bad for your tent mates!!!!!!! Hopefully the storm will relent soon enough. This past week, we finally had a nice stretch of sunny weather here in Colorado and I am missing you on my hikes. I almost stepped on a rattlesnake and realized I really need to review my WFR notes ...
Posted by: Patrice La Vigne on 5/21/2016 at 3:35 pm
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