The week of winter solstice was filled with sun, great attitudes and a wonderful time spent in the mountains. We started our Intro to Ski Mountaineering Seminar with a day of basic touring skills, equipment function and packing along with harness, rope, and avalanche transceiver drills. This was a great start to the trip with two young boys from New York and Ohio looking for adventure and building their mountaineering and ski touring skill sets. The mountain days were full of exciting new learning. Our first day on the hill we parked at Paradise and ski toured toward Edith Creek drainage and found a nice, secluded and well snow-covered area to camp for the evening, allowing us to make a run down a great slope in the basin. We covered kick turns and transitions along with many other key maneuvers while traveling the mountains with skis on, whether it be up or on the way down. Our camp experience was good practical winter camping… Cold…ish but clear and star filled nights.
The second day we awoke to fog filled air. We leisurely packed camp and dropped some extra overnight equipment in the van. Around 10 a.m. we stepped in to our skis and started our ski to Camp Muir, 4,500' above at 10,000'. On our way to Muir we encountered firm crust and rime ice requiring us to make use of the crampons a few times and used them a good amount on a section of the upper snow field when our skins would just not grip. In late afternoon we arrived at Muir feeling the days work. We brewed up some hot drinks, had dinner and settled in the bunkhouse for the evening. The third day we covered loads of skills in the region of Muir including ice axes, ropes, cramponing, rope rescue and then followed with many of my other teaching tangents. We had the best weather we could ask for on the true winter solstice day in the Northwest. In our evening lecture we went over frostbite, hypothermia, and altitude illnesses. Today, our fourth day, we made our decent from Muir . We traveled a section with crampons due to poor snow conditions but still managed to get 3,200' of descent. In my eyes, any skiing is good skiing. We closed the week's journey back in Ashford over a refreshing beverage and a burger. The week of ski touring has been one to remember and I look forward to teaching more ski-based mountaineering trips on one of the lower 48's best and biggest ski hills, Mount Rainier.
RMI Guide Tyler Jones
We are feeling quite lucky today. It was extremely good weather for going to the top of Mount Vinson. And there was no mystery about it. From the time we got out of the tents at high camp this morning, it was obvious that conditions were stable and that we'd be able to simply concentrate on climbing well. The team did exactly that. We left camp at 9:35 and were on the top at 3:45 PM. In fact, we passed most of the teams that had left before us, although that certainly wasn't our goal. We just wanted to move efficiently in this cold environment. On a day when about 30 climbers were going for the top, it was also quite nice for us to have the summit to ourselves for a time. Gary and Bob had the added significance to the occasion in that Vinson was the seventh continental summit for each. We could see up and down nearly the full length of the 200-mile Ellsworth chain, but our eyes were drawn continually to the sharp and lofty summits just north of Vinson, to Shinn, Tyree, Gardner and Epperly. We left the top at 4:20 and arrived back at high camp by 7 PM. Dinner was a comfortable session in our POSH tent and then we headed to bed early. Tomorrow will be another big day as we descend to Basecamp.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guides Nikki Champion and Alan Davis walked to Ingraham Flats and enjoyed a beautiful sunrise. The weather on the mountain is warm and calm. Due to hazardous route conditions the team was unable to climb higher on the route. The team has started their descent and will be back at Paradise in the early afternoon.
Hey good jobs to teams up there giving it a shot. I keep seeing teams getting turned around for “hazardous route conditions” on the last few posts. Can anyone let me know the key hazards turning teams around (heading up this week) Please lemme know good job up there!
Yesterday all members of the RMI Mexico team arrived safely in Mexico City. With a quick team meeting to cap off the night, we were off to bed to sleep off the long day of travel.
La Malinche is the first objective of the trip, an acclimatization hike that takes us up to 14,501 ft. We couldn’t have picked a better day for it. Warm, nearly windless weather greeted us at the base and followed us all the way to the summit of the peak. For many of us it was our high point! We spent a good 30 minutes up high taking in the views, petting the dogs that would mosey our way, and eating our favorite snacks (maybe that’s why the dogs came over). Before long it was time to head down, we had carne asada to get to. A safe and uneventful descent followed, just the way we like it, and the team enjoyed some relaxation before our delicious dinner. Now it’s time to rest up for the next leg of the journey. We head to Ixta Basecamp tomorrow!
I know this might come as a surprise to many of you, but we woke up at the same time as the last 5, ate the same food and packed our bags for another meditative day of trekking. The departure was a bit more emotional than the previous mornings because I had to say farewell to the host family I so thoroughly enjoyed seeing after so many years but as we all know, time continues to roll, and we will one day see each other again.
Easing the sadness of leaving Phortse was the crystal blue skies and breathtaking views of the mountains we have been waiting to see. Within 30 minutes of leaving the Phortse Guest House, we were greeted with stunning vistas of three major peaks, one being Ama Dablam, arguably the most iconic peak in all of Nepal. Later in the day Mt. Everest even made a quick showing. Energized from such a powerful landscape we cruised the three hours to Pangboche which is the oldest Sherpa village in the entire region. It is also the location of a very old Monastery where we were lucky enough to arrange a Puja ceremony with the head Lama of the village. This ceremony is a special blessing granting us passage into the mountains with luck and safety. Shortly after the Puja we had a good lunch giving us strength to polish off the remaining distance to camp.
Making better time on the second half of the trail, we could focus on the walk and not take a thousand pictures because the clouds moved in and shut down the views. We rolled into our tea house just in time to have the fire warming the great room and hot tea ready. We were also very happy to see the other RMI group and share stories of the adventures already had and the ones to come. Casey Grom is one of my closest friends, so I feel lucky to have gone from one emotional encounter to the next. Although the visits are brief, they are meaningful, nonetheless.
Now the team is all tucked in and I myself am off to bed, happy to have a rest day tomorrow. Everyone is in good spirits and doing well.
Today the trail became steeper on Kilimanjaro and rockier as we left the Giant Heather Zone. The team did a great job as the terrain got rockier. We even climbed some large rock bands testing our solid footwork on the slippery rocks.
We now are in the Moorland consisting of unique grasses and beautiful wild flowers unique to East Africa including Lobelias and Senecios.
After climbing a wide ridge we gained the broad and sloping Shira Plateau. It was a terrific day and we would love to include photos but the heavy mist kept the distant views out of sight. However, now at Shira Camp (12,200') we are hoping it clears offering our first view of the upper stretches of Kilimanjaro.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
Dear Nat, John and Dave, looks like things are going well!!!! So happy for you all to be sharing this experience. Can’t wait to hear all the stories. Happy trails. Beth,Bill,Rachel,Lauren&Maria; :)
Posted by: Mastros on 8/1/2013 at 9:49 am
Way to go Samantha!! So very proud of you and Team Junell! A couple more days and you will be at the Summit and it will all be worth it. Enjoy yourselves and have fun. Lots of Love!
Today proved to be a much less stressful day than yesterday. Waking up to five thousand vertical feet of relief directly out your window, fabulous crisp Himalayan air and the absence of a bajillion people trying to run you over is pure bliss. Combine that with French press coffee, pancakes, eggs and homemade chapati bread and the day is off to a good start.
After breakfast we got our porters loaded up to carry our unneeded gear ahead to our next lodge then hit the trail for our first miles towards Everest Base Camp. What is so unique about this area is this trail is not only a trail but an interstate, superhighway, autobahn, or backwoods country road; it is the single line on which literally everything in this area gets moved through. If you want a beer, it came up on a human’s back. If you want French fries, noodles, toilet paper, clothing, or anything else under the Himalayan sun, it was moved by legs of some kind. No automobiles have ever driven this path, nor will they. It is the way things used to be.
After three delightful hours of walking, we stopped at a small tea house for lunch then polished off the remaining 2 miles to Namche Bazaar, capitol of the Khumbu Region. This last two miles gained us more elevation than the previous four so by the time we rolled into or lodge we were ready for a rest. Despite being over 11,000 feet, the team is feeling good and looking forward to an even more mellow day tomorrow. We are enjoying decent weather in the morning and light rain by the afternoon. A great combo for walking then drinking tea and beer.
How do you utilize rest breaks in your training and climbs? Do you take a break to eat? And another when you are thirsty? Perhaps when your legs get tired and uncomfortable? A quick bathroom break on the side of the trail? It's important to take care of all of these needs but they need to approached strategically to prevent rest breaks from turning an otherwise long endeavor into an epic. Learning to manage your rest breaks and keep them efficient makes a big difference on summit day.
At RMI, the oft-used cliché is that we take "maintenance breaks," not rest breaks. Consider all of the needs that need to be taken care of mid-climb: you need to relieve yourself, take in enough calories to maintain your energy output, hydrate, adjust your clothing layers to changing conditions, perhaps take care of a hot spot so that it doesn’t become a debilitating blister, get a few minutes off of your feet, and just maybe snap a couple of photos. This list can easily turn into a half an hour of tasks, even if each only took just 4-5 minutes to accomplish. After thirty minutes your legs will likely start to stiffen and your temperature start to drop, not to mention that a few half-hour breaks together can turn a 10 hour day into a 12+ hour day in the mountains, stretching the limits of how long we can climb safely and maintain our focus.
The moral of the story is that efficiency is key: we want to try to take care of all of our needs in the span of ten minutes to leave a few minutes to relax before getting back on the trail and making progress towards the finish line. Ultra marathoners do this with "walking breaks," slowing to a walk every hour to make sure that their body is primed for the next hour. Mountainous terrain doesn’t let us take breaks on the fly, but the principle remains the same. Taking short, deliberate, and consistent breaks keeps us climbing strongly throughout the day. Making rest breaks efficient takes practice. Learn to multitask in your breaks: take a couple bites of food while you shuffle clothing layers, relieve yourself before you sit down to start your other chores, and sip on water throughout the break. As you get better at it, you’ll find that you’ve taken care of everything in the first few minutes, and you can relax and let your legs get a bit of recovery for the rest of the break.
No matter how efficient you are, the time rest breaks take add up. Taking efficient breaks too frequently can drain just as much time as taking a couple of long breaks. In the mountains, we try to maintain a consistent pace for an hour or so before stopping for ten to fifteen minutes to refuel and take care of ourselves. This proves to be an effective interval for our bodies in terms of replenishing depleted stores yet still allows us to reach our destination. Practice this interval in your training too and by your next climb it will feel like second nature.
Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts here on the RMI Blog!
As we descended the path leading to the Moni tribal village Ugimba, two men - wearing only traditional kotekas (penis gourds) and tribal markings and wielding large bow and arrow sets - stepped out of the bush and onto the path, raising their weapons toward us as they did so. Our hearts stopped, but just for a breath. A moment later two pairs of young women also stepped into our path. Equally modestly dressed in grass skirts and colorful jog bras – I guess that’s what I should call their tops – also with a variety of facial paintings and tribal markings, the women began a series of repetitive calls that sounded very much like an old style emergency alert siren. The sound that issued from them rang amazingly loud and clear and others, further toward the village, responded in kind, setting up a sort of path of sonic bread crumbs for us to follow. We were being treated to an entirely genuine and traditional village welcome ceremony, complete with dance and song.
The welcome committee, now growing rapidly as additional warriors, women and children joined in, guided us patiently toward Ugimba. Running ahead about fifty feet, then stopping to dance as we caught up, and all the while calling out, the six of us were soon engulfed in a small sea of Moni tribes-peoples. In the distance, even from entirely across the valley and opening meadows, we could see all eyes on us.
I asked Sara, one of the two teens on our trip - and a stalwart kid at that! - if she would like to lead. I was afraid that perhaps she was not able to see some of the traditional welcome ceremony as I was walking in front and blocking her view. I wanted for her to experience this as fully as possible since this was by far a most unexpected and exceptional experience. She responded, a bit reservedly, “Oh, I’m experiencing this!” And we were.
What a fantastic climax to our day of trekking through the heat, humidity and wetness of the jungle. We knew we had a lot to look forward to on this trip as we were engaged on an excellent adventure via a route that has seen few western travelers, with a two-fold goal: first, safely reach and return from the summit of Carstensz Pyramid and second, build relationships with indigenous people which would respectfully balance our visit with their way of life. This excursion represented our inaugural effort and we were full of hope that we might attain our goals.
The village of Ugimba lies in the heart of Moni land in Papua, deep in the jungles of New Guinea. It is the deepest of the tribal villages; only immensely dense jungle and the high marshes and limestone plateau’s of the Sudirman mountain range lie further afield. We would travel this road less traveled en route to Carstensz Pyramid, the jutting high point of the Australasian continental mass (or the high point of Oceania as some call it.)
Six days of arduous trekking eventually led us to our Carstensz Base Camp at 13,900 feet alongside a pair of sky blue alpine lakes known as the Peacock Pools. Rising all around and above camp, amazing rock ridges and towers fought for our attention. If this were the U.S. Rockies or Cascades, the place would be inundated with routes. Here, however, only the most significant line of weakness on the highest peak – the original route – remained the solitary choice for climbers. (Sadly, we knew others had travelled here as plenty of garbage had been left strewn about Base Camp. We have since begun an initiative to help clean this beautiful area, and look forward to working cooperatively with locals and visiting climbers in the future.)
The climbing of Carstensz Pyramid is rather spectacular, with rock that just won’t let you go, even when it runs with rain water (and it rains every day.) The route initially climbs a series of 4th and low 5th class rock gullies before traversing along the narrow summit ridge and over several small notches, toward the summit. The climbing involves mostly scrambling, with dramatic exposure and a few short sections of mid 5th class climbing. Fixed lines and a Tyrolean traverse bypass many of the difficulties. Even with rain, fog and a bit of snowfall, and the altitude, it remains an imminently do-able adventure.
After a long day of effort, two of us - including 17-year old Sara - reached the summit, and all of us returned tired but unscathed. Still some distance from the summit, with the lateness of hour and deteriorating weather on our shoulders, Tuck and I, as guides, made the choice to split the team: Sara and I headed for the summit, with the expectation that we would catch the remainder of the team just before the Tyrolean, and rejoin to complete the descent. Even with more than two hundred high altitude peaks between the two of us, guiding thousands of climbers on hundreds and hundreds of climbs, decisions like this remind us that professional mountain guiding is a most serious profession.
Sara’s dad, Bill (who climbed phenomenally well), and I plan to return to Ugimba in the following six months to help the Ugimba Moni explore options for healthy community development. Bill and I were both strongly and positively impacted by the Ugimba people who helped make this adventure a reality for our team. As we continue to support the development of local enterprise and promote the rights of indigenous peoples both to develop tourism and maintain their traditional lifestyles and customs, we invite you to follow us. I will be posting monthly at http://climbcarstensz.wordpress.com.
RMI Guide Alex Van Steen
I have seen the above comments that others has given and read the comments that describes about Carstensz Pyramid Expedition. I congrats you for proving the such a wonderful information.
Posted by: Climb Carstensz Pyramid on 5/16/2014 at 4:26 am
Hello everybody back home this is Casey Grom checking for RMI’s Ecuador Expedition.
We are currently on the summit of Cotopaxi. We had a great day, pretty tough conditions, lots of new and loose snow. We made it up in just over 6 hours. Everybody did great. We are hanging in some sunshine right now taking a few photos and are going to be heading down in just a little bit.
We will check in again as soon as we get back safely to the hut. We’ll be heading back to Quito tonight.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
RMI Guide Casey Grom and the team check in from the summit of Cotopaxi!
Well done team! I am looking forward to getting the full report when you visit for Xmas Spence. Feel free to bring what ever amount of snow you can manage to Idaho because we are dying up here.
Congratulations to the whole team! Amazing work; may you be blessed with beautiful weather! Home soon!!!!!!!!! Lots of love, Mom
Posted by: Betty Sullivan on 12/17/2014 at 7:22 am
Hey - yes you did it!!!!
Congratulations to everybody!
Wish you a save way back under the antarctic sun!
See you soon, Hans!
Ute ;-)
Posted by: Ute Novak on 12/17/2014 at 7:11 am
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