Good morning from Camp 1 on Alpamayo! There were several other teams at basecamp so we got an early start for our move uphill in order to get claim the prime real estate here at Moraine Camp (Camp 1). So here we are, all camped up, enjoying the views, and getting mentally ready for our move up to Camp 2 tomorrow. The weather continues to be perfect, our bodies are performing well, and all is pretty much lined up for us to have a good climb.
That's all for now. We'll check in tomorrow.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos and team.
RMI Guide Geoff Schellens and the Four Day Summit Climb July 7 - 10 team reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today. The team enjoyed clear skies and moderate winds.
They will return to Paradise later this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb team!
Update 5:00 pm PST
Elias and team are back at high camp and will descend off the mountain tomorrow. All is well and he will check in from Huaraz.
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Hello! This is Elías and the team calling from the summit ridge of Artesonraju. We’ve been climbing since midnight. It’s 10:20 local time. We’re super-psyched, but unfortunately we cannot reach the summit. We are literally a stone’s throw from the top, and it’s got a hefty cornice, and it’s very dangerous. We don’t find it worth it to continue the last 100 meters to the top, so we’re headed down. That’s it for now!
Elias calling from the Summit of Artesonraju July 6, 2017
Today our team enjoyed a day of rest and recovery at Camp 1 on Aconcagua. Some team members read, others listened to music, others cat napped. As a group we took a light stroll in the afternoon to keep ourselves breathing well and acclimating. We were fortunate enough to enjoy beautiful weather the whole day, and made sure to heckle groups heading up and down the mountain as we lounged by our outdoor kitchen. Everyone is excited to move up to Camp 2 tomorrow, and keep our momentum going.
Hasta manana ~
RMI Guides Mark Tucker & Pepper Dee
Hello from the little Swiss oasis that is Huaraz's Hotel Andino! The Artesonraju team had a full day of acclimating. Early this morning we taxied across the city to a local rock climbing area and snuck in a few pitches before the sun got too hot. By noon we were spent and trekked back into the city to grab some lunch. An afternoon siesta left us refreshed to walk to the city overlook and enjoy the sunset.
We are all packed up and ready to launch into the mountains tomorrow morning. Wish us luck as we embark on this adventure.
RMI Guide Eric Frank
We traveled to Kilimanjaro National Park today. We registered with the Park and we began our climb. We left the cultivation zone where bananas and coffee plants abound and we entered the forest zone. The lush rainforest of Kilimanjaro's lower slopes were covered in mist.
The trail, which is an old jeep trail, soon narrowed into a beautiful trail that winded through thick vegetation and enormous trees. We kept an eye out for the elusive Blue and Colobus monkeys but they were hiding from the rain.
As we approached Machame Camp we left the forest zone and into the Heather and Moorland zone. We saw some heather that is over 30 feet tall! It's nice to be at 10,000 feet and the team is doing great!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
After a relatively good nights sleep the team woke early to have breakfast and head higher up the mountain to do some training, acclimating and put ourselves in position to climb Cayambe.
Unfortunately the clouds had gathered and some light rain greeted us for breakfast, and didn’t let up until this afternoon. However, we made the most of it by moving up to the climbers hut (Refugio), getting settled and we were able to sneak out for a quick hike to help our lungs prepare for the deep breathing we’ll be doing tonight.
Here in just a short while we will have our summit talk, where we will review the climb and game plan for tonight. Then we’ll have an early dinner before hopefully climbing into our sleep bags for a few hours of rest. The plan is to wake up around 10:30pm (yes…you read that right) have breakfast and hit the trail around 11:30.
I’m expecting the climb to take in the neighborhood of 7-8 hours to reach the summit if weather cooperates.
Everyone is doing well, a little excited and a little nervous, but that’s all very normal for climbing big mountains.
We’ll touch base as soon as we make it back down tomorrow.
Wish us luck with the weather!!
RMI Guides Casey, Jackson, Fatima and the Cayambe crew.
After lucking out with weather our team spent the contingency weather day hanging out in Cheget. Rumors from the mountain were that most teams were turned around before the summit this morning due to bad weather finally coming in. The drizzle hardly dampened our spirits after our perfect conditions yesterday and we spent the day walking around town, luncheoning, ATV renting, nearly getting run over by a horse on the loose, drinking coffee, telling lies, and eventually drinking beer. Right now we're all hanging in the hotel lobby before heading out to a celebratory dinner with the entire team including our Russian staff. Hopefully we'll survive the vodka associated with a traditional Russian celebration well enough to make tomorrow's early departure for the airport bearable.
All for now!
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
RMI Guides Dave Hahn and Ben Liken led their teams to the Mt. Rainier summit! After some light now and 5 mph winds for the ascent, the weather has improved to blue skies and no wind as they topped out. At 9:30 a.m. the teams began their descent back to Camp Muir.
Congratulations to today's summit teams!
Hola from Ecuador!
After some very long flights and a little bit of sleep the team is doing well. We started our day with a team meeting where we did our usual round of introductions and discussed the game plan for our upcoming adventure.
After the meeting we headed out on the town to explore this beautiful historical city with our tour guide Angel. We first headed north to visit the Equator from which Ecuador gets its name, then headed to the older part of town where visited several old cathedrals, and the colonial town square. Next we headed up to a small hill called La Panacia that over looks this beautiful city before returning to the hotel for a little break.
We wrapped up the day with a quick gear check to make sure everyone has all the gear needed for our climbs. Then it was off to dinner at a nice restaurant where we were enjoyed getting to know each other better.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Congratulations! I can’t wait to hear about the challenges you all faced and overcame! Thank you for choosing safety first!
Posted by: Laura Bryson on 7/6/2017 at 5:50 pm
Great job guys for getting as far as you could go. A difficult few days but the effort so now take care on the return!
Posted by: Peter Williamson on 7/6/2017 at 1:48 pm
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