Entries By alan davis
July 4, 2018
Posted by: Robby Young, Alan Davis
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Peru Seminar
Elevation: 14,600"
Tuesday, July 3, 2018 - 7:43 PM PT
Greetings!
Today we set our sights even higher than the day before. The team’s goal; Laguna Churup at 14,600’. We took a quick bus ride this morning after a Hotel Andino coffee fiesta, and before we knew it, we were staring at the crystal clear blue and green waters of Churup, gazing up the steep moraines at the first glaciers of the trip. The scene at Laguna Churup is surreal, and we spent a good amount of time soaking it in, and letting our bodies register the new altitude record for our trip. A quick descent led to an afternoon of packing, resting, eating, and Huaraz City-living. We capped off our acclimatization days with yet another exquisite dinner here at Hotel Andino! We even had the chance to catch up with ElÃas de Andres Martos and team upon their return from Alpamayo. Tomorrow, the climbing begins as we make our approach into the Ishinca Valley, and build our Base Camp at 14,500’. The comforts of city-life will soon be in the rear view, but the joys of the alpine will soon follow. Until then, thanks for following.
RMI Guides Robby, Alan, William, and team Lomo Saltado
July 2, 2018
Posted by: Robby Young, Alan Davis
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Peru Seminar
Elevation: 12,000'
Greetings from Huaraz!
Your
Peru Expedition Skills crew had a full day of fun here in the beautiful city of Huaraz, Peru. Nestled in a valley at 10,200’, we set our sights higher today, and hiked above town to 12,000’ as part of our acclimatization sequence. We stimulated our muscles, and sparked cellular changes in our blood as we work towards a move to Base Camp in the Ishinca Valley (14,400’) in a few days. The views from Puca Ventana (Red Window) did not disappoint this morning. We followed our hike up with a delicious lunch at a local climber favorite, Cafe Andino. Fresh squeezed juices, Inka Kola, Burritos, and Lomo Saltado were popular choices amongst our team. The rest of our afternoon was spent perusing the narrow streets, shops, and restaurants of Huaraz (aka, the Chamonix of South America). Tomorrow, more acclimatization and prep is on the docket. Well keep you in the loop!
RMI Guides Robby Young, Alan Davis, William, and your ESS-Peru climbing team
July 1, 2018
Posted by: Robby Young, Alan Davis
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Peru Seminar
Elevation: 10,000'
Greetings all!
Your
Peru Expedition Skills Team has arrived in the beautiful mountain city of Huaraz, Peru! What a nice introduction to Peru we’ve had thus far; breakfast in the bustling city of Lima, a drive along the Pacific Coast, and altitude gain up and over the mountain pass (13,500’) into the Rio Santo Valley. The views of the Cordillera Blanca (White Mountains) and the Cordillera Huayhuash were ‘out of this world’. We made a stop to admire the first of many ice capped peaks, Pastoruri (see photo). After a fantastic dinner here at Hotel Andino, our team is doing our best to rest and recover from long days of travel. Alpaca steaks, Inka Kolas, and apple fritters were popular choices for many of us as we dove in head first to some exotic Peruvian fare. Tomorrow, acclimatization hiking above Huaraz and body nourishment are the name of the game as we prep for our climbs later this week. Until then, thanks for following!
RMI Guides Robby Young,
Alan Davis, and your Peru 2018 Team
The
Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons June 16 - 21, 2018 led by
RMI Guides Andy Bond, Alan Davis, Bryce Foster and Jenny Konway reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning via the Emmons Glacier route. Andy reported a beautiful day with low winds. They will return to Camp Schurman for a final night on the mountain.
Congratulations to the Emmons Seminar team!
June 6, 2018
Posted by: Mike Walter, Robby Young, Alan Davis
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 17,200'
Wednesday, June 7, 2018 - 10:59 am PT
Nothing is easy about
Denali. After two hard days of climbing and finally reaching the summit yesterday, we are currently hunkered down in our tents, avoiding the wind and spindrift that the mountain is throwing at us this morning. It is currently too cold and windy to safely pack up and climb down the exposed West Buttress. So we're on standby, chilling out in our tents waiting for the wind to abate. Hopefully we'll be able to bump camp down to lower altitude and warmer temps soon.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
Tuesday, June 6, 2018 - 10:50 pm PT
Despite a less than ideal weather forecast, we awoke to clear skies and no winds. We fired up the stoves and woke our team. Muscles were weary after climbing for seven hours yesterday, but we couldn't pass up this opportunity.
The weather stayed good all day and the route was in great shape. It was a hard day of climbing but we got to stand on the
top of North America! We were ten hours round trip (high camp-summit-high camp). And now that we've eaten dinner and crawled in our tents, the temperature has plummeted, winds have increased, and snow is falling. Timing couldn't have been better.
We will start our descent tomorrow...
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
June 5, 2018
Posted by: Mike Walter, Robby Young, Alan Davis
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 17,000'
Monday, June 4, 2018 - 9:27 PM PT
We woke to mostly clear skies, with some visible wind above us. With very cold temps we waited a little to let it warm up and to see if the winds abated. Temps did warm but the winds remain...not atrociously strong, but something to keep an eye on.
Leaving camp at 10:00, along with about 100 of our best climbing buddies, we headed up the
"Autobahn" towards Denali Pass. The temps were cold and winds made it chillier. By the time we reached Denali Pass and turned the corner, the winds were in our face, colder and stronger than before. We pressed on, in the hopes that the winds would decrease. But as we gained more altitude, the winds kept increasing and getting colder; it was challenging to stay warm--especially our hands, toes, and fingers. So we turned around at the top of Zebra Rocks (~18,800') and headed back to High Camp. We climbed for seven hours and got back to our tents cold and tired. We'll check the weather forecast to see what our next move will be. Hopefully we will get another chance to go for the top.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
June 3, 2018
Posted by: Mike Walter, Robby Young, Alan Davis
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 17,200'
Sunday, June 3, 2018 - 2:00 PM PT
We woke this morning and looked up at the upper mountain to see a little bit of wind coming off of
Denali Pass; something to keep an eye on, but nothing too concerning. Our stoves were stubborn to heat up at this altitude and with these cold temps, but soon they were firing away, working hard to melt our cook pots full of solid ice (which, just last night, were water).The winds of early morning transformed into a menacing lenticular cloud cap that refused to dissipate. We hung around on "stand by" for a few hours, hoping conditions would improve. That never happened and we decided that we would write this one off as a rest day. We're hoping that tomorrow morning will present us with better climbing weather for a summit bid. Stay tuned.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
June 2, 2018
Posted by: Mike Walter, Robby Young, Alan Davis
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 17,200'
Saturday, June 2, 2018 - 8:30 pm PT
We woke to perfect weather so we fired up the stoves, had a hot breakfast and packed up camp. We were climbing before 9am, headed up toward the headwall en route to
17k camp. The weather was perfect and so were the views. We made it to camp in six hours. And then it took us another couple of hours to build camp, and another few on top of that for us to get dinner made (our stoves are rather anemic at this altitude).
If all goes well, we'll try for the top tomorrow. We'll see what the weather throws at us in the morning, but the forecast remains good through mid week.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
June 2, 2018
Posted by: Mike Walter, Robby Young, Alan Davis
Categories:
Elevation: 14,000'
Friday, June 1, 2018 - 5:01 PM PT
A good weather window appears to be forming right now, and lasting through the weekend. Our plan is to take advantage of the good weather and move camp to 17,000' tomorrow and, hopefully, summit the following day. We'll keep you posted with our progress.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
May 31, 2018
Posted by: Mike Walter, Robby Young, Alan Davis
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 14,000'
Thursday, May 31, 2018 - 1:11 PM PT
We woke early this morning and fired up the stoves, intent on moving to high camp today. But as the morning progressed, lenticular clouds formed over the Alaska Range, clouds increased, and we could see winds coming off of the
West Buttress above us . With a good weather forecast into next week, we decided that we'd sit this one out and try again tomorrow. We're sitting in great shape and lined up for the upcoming goo weather window. And spending another night at 14,000' Camp will make our team stronger for our bid up high.
Hopefully our next dispatch will come from High Camp tomorrow.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
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Hi to Jen & Mark from Uncle Ric!
Posted by: Ric Meese on 7/3/2018 at 11:16 am
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