Current report from RMI's Everest team:
Windy and cool with the jet stream right over the region today. Wind usually means not much snow and that is the case today.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn and crew went on a hike toward Camp 2 and are now back at Camp 1 for another night in their great First Ascent tents. Sherpa team is planning to carry more gear up to Camp 2 tomorrow. We are just stock piling Camp 2 for now, leaving gear in duffel bags and not putting tents up since it will still be about a week before the team stays overnight. Without a staff at Camp 2 to keep track of tents, there is no sense in subjecting them to tough weather conditions. The whole team is in great shape and the game plan is right on schedule. It is just a matter of time and next thing you know it, it will be summit push time. Big mountains take a while but they are sure worth it.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Yo Mark -
Kim and John reporting in from the deck of the Tides Tavern in Gig Harbor! It’s been spectacular here the last couple of days - but we miss hanging out with you; well, maybe except for those two days in Gorek Shep.
Looks like you’ve settled in for the long haul - but hopefully you’re finding time for some golf!
Be safe, we’ll be following the team the next few weeks. Namaste.
J&K
Posted by: John Gilman on 4/23/2012 at 9:43 pm
Conrad and Dave H. you guys rock. if i had never seen the video of you guys climbing the Pacific Ocean wall in Yosemite, i never would have began to climb. Climbing has changed my life and i owe it all to you guys (along with Jimmy) Keep charging on, and be safe.
Hello everyone,
Our team has arrived in Mendoza excited and ready to start our Aconcagua adventure!
After finishing up our permits, grabbing the last minute supplies at the grocery store and gear shops, we are ready to head out of town. It is a beautiful day here in Mendoza and should make for a great drive to Penitentes where we will ready our gear for the mules and have one last night of Argentine cuisine before switching to the equally appealing mountain cuisine that will fuel our climb.
Tomorrow we will leave civilization for a few weeks and start the climb. Wish us luck everyone and stay tuned as we work our way up this beautiful mountain.
RMI Guides Jake Beren, Elias de Andres Martos, Geoff Schellens
It was a wee bit chilly overnight as the clear skies allowed all the heat to escape into outer space. So, we did what any responsible mountaineer would and we waited until the sun was directly upon us before leaving our tents. After a tasty breakfast of bagels, cream cheese, and salmon lox, we ourselves got locked and loaded, ready for glacier travel! After 6ish hours of a slightly less heinous trail breaking through deep snow we arrived at our new campsite.
Our camp is in the middle of two mountain saddles, perfectly situated to catch maximum early morning and late evening sunshine. The rest of the day was consumed by building camp and consuming burritos. We got to bed under overcast skies and were excited to see what tomorrow will bring!
Sunday, May 30th, started out clear and cold but quickly warmed up as the sun hit our camp. The good weather meant moral was high in 14,000' Camp as everyone who was acclimated and ready to go started to climb towards High Camp at 17,200'. We, of course, being new to this high elevation stayed in camp and watched the conga line turn into a log jam at the base of the fixed lines. We made good use of our day by brushing up on our fixed line and running belay techniques. At the end of the day a well worn trail was stomped in by the uphill traffic and left us feeling optimistic about our own plans to cache at 16,200'.
Today (May 31) the team braved a cold morning in order to get a head start out of camp. We climbed up the fixed lines and cached at 16,250' on the West Buttress. The afternoon turned into a scorcher on the way down as the solar energy made it feel like 90 degrees outside. We returned to camp and had delicious burritos for dinner.
Mt. Rainier, everyday, when it’s not cloudy … I get to see Mt. Rainier. Ever since I moved to the Seattle area 10 years ago, I’ve been looking at that mountain, knowing that I would summit it someday. This September, with RMI Expeditions, I will be able to attempt the climb and hope that the mountain allows me to summit. Every day for the past 8 months I have been waking up and heading to the gym at 4 AM to work out. I have been part of a fitness program getting back into shape, and now, down 80lbs, I have been inspired to make my summit a reality this fall. The great thing about living in the Pacific Northwest is that I get to look at the mountain almost daily and it serves as a constant reminder of what I am training for. That training has to be incorporated into a very busy life, balancing my work and family schedules, but as many I have talked with, every bit of training you do is more ‘fuel’ in your tank for when you summit - that is what drives me to get up every morning. As someone who works in marketing for a major software company in Redmond, my days are kept very busy, and 9 - 10hr work days on top of training is at times challenging to keep up with. The way I keep life balanced is by starting my days early as it helps me get in what I need to at the gym and allows for some quiet time in the office to catch up on email before the busyness of the day begins. My days look like the following:
• 4 AM: Alarm goes off and I drag myself out of bed.
• 5 AM: At the gym to get in a 60 - 90 minute workout doing either circuit training, or a mountain conditioning class at the Pro Sports Club.
• Around 7 AM I am into work for a full day.
• 4 PM: I either head home for the day to relax or I head to Tiger Mountain’s cable line trail for training on Tuesdays & Thursdays.
• Eat dinner when I get home.
• 8:30-9 PM: Head to bed to rest for another busy day.
Right now I’m doing a combination of circuit training and a mountain conditioning course Monday - Thursday at the gym and on Fridays I workout my bigger muscle groups and do a short 30 min on cardio. On Monday and Wednesday after work I head to the driving range to mix it up a bit and have some fun. Tuesday and Thursdays are my big days where I have both mountain conditioning and I head up and do the Tiger Mountain Cable Line Trail (1000 vertical feet in a little over a mile). I use Fridays to recover and I do major hikes for training over the weekends, and try to include my wife on some of these more “fun” hikes.
Balancing the heavy training schedule with work and a family is very tricky, but I also remember this is only for a short period of life, and I am constantly reminded of the goal ahead when I catch a glimpse of Mt. Rainier peeking out from the clouds.
- Jeff Marcoux
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Jeff Marcoux is an avid hiker & lover of micro brews who lives with his wife in Seattle, WA.
Hello everybody back home. This is Casey checking in.
Yesterday we spent some time hiking around Cho Oyu Basecamp. Fair amount also doing some training and getting some of our gear ready to move further up the mountain, which we did today. We left early this morning and hiked for several hours to our interim camp at 17,500'. One more day to reach Advanced Basecamp, which we'll be based out of basically for the rest of the expedition. It'll be our home for the next month. Everybody's doing well. We just finished a Nepalese meal prepared by Kumar. Currently we are settling into our tents, which are surrounded by all of the yaks that have carried all of our group gear, food, and supplies for this trip. Everybody's down for the night.
Everything is looking good for us. We got our first snow, just a light dusting but it was nice to see it.
We'll check in again tomorrow after we reach Advanced Basecamp.
Hope you guys are doing well back home,
RMI Guides Matias Franics and Seth Burns led their Four Day Climb August 16 - 19 teams to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The teams reported good conditions with a bit of increased wind and some light precipitation on their descent. Once back at Camp Muir they will have a short break before continuing the final 4,500' down to Paradise to complete their climb. They will conclude their program at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon with a celebration ceremony.
11 PM sure seemed like it came early last night. Some got a little sleep, some got none, but we all got up to go climbing. We had an 11:30 “breakfast” before leaving Barafu High Camp just after midnight. It was magically clear and calm. We could see the lights of Moshi and a thousand other towns. The moon didn’t rise until about three so there were plenty of stars to see as we marched by headlight. Naturally, all the other climbing teams were getting going at the same time, so Naiman -who led the way- had to do some bobbing and weaving to get us free of traffic jams. Eventually we broke free and were able to set our desired pace up the steep, zig zag of pumice and lava steps. We took short breaks every 60 to 90 minutes, generally adding clothing layers as we got higher and colder. It was still dark when we hit the crater rim at Stella Pt at 5:48. We took a short break and the guides broke out thermoses of sweet black tea which the team devoured. Then we walked the rim to Uhuru as daylight slowly came on. There is a lot to look at on a 19,000 ft stroll at sunrise. We hit the tippy top… Uhuru… at 6:47 AM There were a few tears and cheers, then a bunch of happy photographs. We sat to eat and drink and then -after 25 minutes on the top of Africa- we began our descent. The team made good time, boot skiing down thousands of feet of loose pumice. In three and a half hours we were back at High Camp. Our staff welcomed us with cups of fruit juice and joyful songs. Tosha -our chef- prepared a 15,200 ft pizza lunch to fortify us for our continued climb down. The team pulled out of High Camp at 11:40 AM and got down 5000 ft of rocky and dusty trail in three hours. It is clear and sunny still at 10,000 ft Mweka Camp. Our team is tired but happy. We’ll sit down to our final dinner on the hill in a few minutes and we’ll review the highs… and the hard parts of an excellent day. There will certainly be a few mentions of the amazing job our guides and staff did to get us living out a dream.
After making great progress on their descent, RMI Guides Dave Hahn & Melissa Arnot and team are safely at Camp 2! It was a long day but sleep will be so nice with the thick air of 21,000'.
I will continue to send updates as the team makes their way back to Everest Basecamp.
RMI Guide and Everest Basecamp Manager Mark Tucker
Hooray!! # 14!!! We’re so glad for you Dave and look forward to that celebratory MARGUERITA upon return. Its hot , dry, and beautiful in Taos; but we’ve followed you once again on the RMI Blogs and cannot quite believe the number of climbers you have to contend with!! But then you usually wait it out until almost the end of your permit, and are thus successful—we’re so proud of you!!!
Posted by: Jean Richards, Lily Woll on 5/29/2012 at 7:08 pm
Congratulations Dave, Melissa and Team. Dave, please do not ever act your age. You are an inspiration to all of us.
Posted by: John Wayne Rogers on 5/27/2012 at 5:59 am
This was the third day of rest for my team. We began it in the usual way, by collecting outside the dining tent for coffee in the sun. Except this morning we sat in light fog until the sun finally burned it all away. Even in fog, sitting on a few thousand feet of ice, it wasn't uncomfortable as now we are past mid-May and temperatures are relatively mild. Kent Harvey, Seth Waterfall and I are by now on pretty much the same internal clock... Erica, being a teenager and therefore presumably in need of more sleep, sometimes still needs a morning yell when the breakfast gets served. With the fog gone, we watched Melissa Arnot work her way safely down through the lowest part of the icefall. She is feeling better and we figure a couple of days BC rest will make her a strong addition to our upcoming summit bid. We could hear Ed Viesturs and Peter Whittaker from time to time on the morning radio, working their way up through the Yellow Band and ultimately the Geneva Spur, the final barrier guarding the approach to the South Col. They, along with Jake Norton, Gerry Moffatt, and John Griber, reported calm and easy conditions on the Lhotse Face and it was obvious they were making fine progress on their way into high camp. Tendi and Lama Babu spent last night at the South Col, building up the camp for the rest of our team and even scouting the first few hours of the route to the summit to make sure that the fixed ropes were still useable after last week's snowstorms.
Erica Dohring and I went for a light hike toward civilization after breakfast. We didn't go all the way to Gorak Shep as neither of us wanted that much (or that little) civilization at this stage of the game, having gotten quite used to basecamp living and not requiring too much more than that before the summit. But the trail toward Gorak Shep is still useful. Basecamp is in a dead-end valley... there really aren't any exits, save some very burly climbing routes that might take one up Pumori, Lingtren, Khumbutse or Nuptse... or of course, one could wander up the Khumbu Icefall, but we only intend to do that one more time. The trail down-valley toward Gorak Shep was the next best thing for us on this morning. We still need to rest and recuperate from our pushes to high altitude, but then we also need to stretch our legs for this final push to the highest of altitudes. We were relieved to note that the trekker traffic had greatly diminished on the trail, along with the yak trains and porters... not that we don't like yaks, trekkers and porters, just that it is easier walking on an empty track now that the season has moved along. Erica and I got just far enough down the trail to enjoy an unobstructed view of Everest's rocky summit pyramid. Before heading back to Base, we sat watching the mountain for a time, not picking up any of the usual signs of wind... no cloud plume spawned by the summit, no streamers of snow. It all looked pretty serene and contrary to the forecasts, which still call for winds of 40 and 50 knots on these days. It gave us hope that our first summit team will luck out with calm conditions tonight so as to launch their final push. Most of the other teams are in the camps behind and below them now, lining up for what could be a busy four or five days of Everest summiting. We hope they all succeed and that the Jet Stream drifts far to the North in our next days of rest.
We are torn between fully imagining the challenges and discomforts that our first team faces, now that they are safely tucked in the tents at Camp IV, and giving our imaginations a break (since we'll face all of those same challenges ourselves soon enough). Tonight will be an interesting time. Linden Mallory will do the important work of staying up through the night, here at basecamp, so as to monitor the first team's progress. They don't have to go for it tonight. Winds may build up on the Col and prevent an attempt, but our gang would still have the ability to hunker down and wait a day for better conditions. But of course, the clock is now ticking... the team is now breathing bottled Oxygen (with the exception of Ed Viesturs) and using up resources -to say nothing of brain and brawn cells... We hope they get their break soon and jump all over the opportunity.
Peter Whittaker on the radio with Linden Mallory.
Peter Whittaker explains choice to stop climbing for the night.
Yo Mark -
Kim and John reporting in from the deck of the Tides Tavern in Gig Harbor! It’s been spectacular here the last couple of days - but we miss hanging out with you; well, maybe except for those two days in Gorek Shep.
Looks like you’ve settled in for the long haul - but hopefully you’re finding time for some golf!
Be safe, we’ll be following the team the next few weeks. Namaste.
J&K
Posted by: John Gilman on 4/23/2012 at 9:43 pm
Conrad and Dave H. you guys rock. if i had never seen the video of you guys climbing the Pacific Ocean wall in Yosemite, i never would have began to climb. Climbing has changed my life and i owe it all to you guys (along with Jimmy) Keep charging on, and be safe.
Posted by: Samuel Short on 4/23/2012 at 12:29 pm
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