Entries By Andy Bond
August 4, 2024
Posted by: Andy Bond, Henry Coppolillo
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Bolivia
Elevation: 11,942'
For most of us, its been quite a journey to make it to Bolivia, as many of us had to deal with cancelled and delayed flights. Most of us arrived early this morning into El Alto at 13,500' with the airport sitting on the plateau above the city of La Paz. Due to the high elevation, (La Paz is the highest capital city in the world!) planes need to land at night with colder air temperatures in order to be able to take off.
After a little bit of sleep and some breakfast at our hotel Mitru Sur, our group went for a ride on the teleferico (cable car) system that travels all over the city of La Paz and El Alto. This allowed us to see some sights without having to put in too much effort as we start to acclimatize to the high altitude we start at here in Bolivia.
We're beginning to pack as we head out tomorrow on Isla del Sol on Lake Titicaca (2nd highest freshwater lake in the world) where we will continue to acclimatize at the famous La Estancia Ecolodge before heading into the mountains.
RMI Guides Andy Bond & Henry Coppolillo
PC: Andy Bond
Sign Up For Bolivia Expedition, August 3, 2024 Emails
June 17, 2024
Posted by: Andy Bond, Jess Wedel, Charlie Harrison, Will Ambler, Layne Peters, Rosie Hust
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,080'
The Five Day Climb reached Camp Muir after what we deemed “the spiciest snowfield ascent ever”. We worked together in high winds and low visibility to stay warm and keep climbing. After a night of higher winds, colder temperatures and more snow, we opted to do some training at Camp Muir. We started the morning with some avalanche basics culminating in digging pits to assess snow instability. The results weren’t promising so as a team we made the safe, but hard, choice not to ascend any higher. The sun came out and we spent the day learning snow anchors, crevasse rescue and taking in the beautiful views from Camp Muir.
We’ll begin our descent to Paradise this morning and conclude our program this afternoon. All in all, this team unified in tough conditions to have an incredible climbing experience.
RMI Guides Andy Bond and Jess Wedel
PC: Jess Wedel
Amazing Experience! Jess, Andy and all the Guides were phenomenal as they kept us safe and maintained High Spirits and PMA throughout a “Ghost Pepper Spicy” day.. Can’t wait to share pics and stay connected! Couldn’t have picked a better group of people for a truly Epic Adventure! Thank you RMI !
Posted by: Doug Thompson on 6/18/2024 at 11:24 am
“The summit is what drives us, but the climb itself is what matters.”
Couldn’t have asked for a better team to be with on a trip, summit or no summit. Hootah!!!
Posted by: Raleigh Hobson on 6/17/2024 at 8:21 pm
June 11, 2024
Posted by: Andy Bond, Raymond Holt, Layne Peters, Ben Luedtke, Calvin Jiricko, Arianna Drechsler
Categories:
Elevation: 11,200'
The Five Day Climb led by RMI Guides Andy Bond and Ben Luedtke reached 11,200' today and watched the sunrise from Ingraham Flats. High winds with higher gusts kept the teams from ascending any higher. The climbers returned safely to Camp Muir and began their descent to Paradise around 9 am. They will conclude their program this afternoon.
PC: Arianna Drechsler
Congrats on your adventure. Can’t wait to hear the stories.
Posted by: Patrick VDH on 6/11/2024 at 2:53 pm
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The Expedition Skills Seminar - Kautz team trained all week to hone the mountaineering skills needed to qualify for a Denali, Aconcagua, and other big mountain expeditions. The team learned crevasse rescue, fixed line travel, route finding, and avalanche forecasting. Poor weather and high avalanche danger prevented the team from making a summit attempt via the Katuz Glacier, but the time spend training and learning the advanced mountain skills will benefit all team members on their next mountain adventure.
Congratulations Team!
May 16, 2024
Posted by: Andy Bond, Mike Bennett, Drew O’Brien, Charlie Harrison
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 13,200'
The Five Day Climb led by Andy Bond reached 13,200' on Mt. Rainier. The team turned around due to route conditions. They are back at Camp Muir and will be descending to Paradase later today.
Congratulations Team!
May 2, 2024
Posted by: Andy Bond, Seth Burns, Jackson Breen, Joey Manship, Robert Whyte
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 11,200'
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir team led by RMI Guides Andy Bond and Seth Burns has concluded their week of training and returned to Paradise. Although the weather threw a few curves at them, the team was able to get in lots of training including cramponing, glacier travel, ice climbing, rappelling, and crevasse rescue. We can probably consider it winter camping as well. They endured some cold temperatures but also enjoyed some beautiful sunrises and sunshine.
Nice work team!
August 20, 2023
Posted by: Andy Bond, Leif Bergstrom, Charlie Harrison, Joey Manship, Evan Redman, Will Nash
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 11,200'
The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guide Andy Bond and Leif Bergstrom climbed to Ingraham Flats today. The teams were above the smoke and enjoyed a wonderful sunrise. While at the Flats the team learned crevasse rescue and did some ice climbing. The team will finish up their training soon and return to Paradise later this afternoon.
Someone add 10 extra pounds to Sara’s pack and DON’T TELL HER!! Good luck to everyone.
Posted by: Dwight on 8/21/2023 at 1:33 pm
Best of luck to all the group especially my son, Heath Scheibmeir. Enjoy the wonders of your trip and above all STAY SAFE! GOD BLESS YOU ALL!
Posted by: Joni Y Thummel on 8/20/2023 at 8:49 am
August 14, 2023
Posted by: Andy Bond, Jess Wedel, Charlie Harrison, Nick Sinapius, Tom Skoog, Will Ambler
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Four Day Climb August 11 - 14 led by RMI Guides Andy Bond and Jess Wedel reached the summit of Mt. Rainier just before 5 am today. Andy reported a beautiful morning climbing in base layers with no winds and meteors filling the sky as they climbed toward the summit.
Congratulations to the team!
Your prep and hard work are blessed with such a spectacular view! Awesome!
Posted by: Ron on 8/19/2023 at 2:58 pm
Congratulations to the team on your Summit climb today!!
What a awesome accomplishment for each of you!
Posted by: Evans on 8/14/2023 at 7:32 pm
August 10, 2023
Posted by: Andy Bond, Jess Wedel, Abby Westling, Josh Geiser, Bailey Servais, Calvin Jiricko
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 11,200'
The Four Day Climb August 7 - 10 led by RMI Guides Andy Bond & Jess Wedel did not reach the summit today due to gusty winds. The teams left Camp Muir on their alpine start but turned around at Ingraham Flats due to wind. The teams returned to Camp Muir and climbed Muir peak to enjoy the sunrise. Photos above are from RMI Guide Calvin Jiricko.
The teams plan to descend from Camp Muir after 9 am today. We expect them to return to Rainier BaseCamp in the early afternoon.
June 25, 2023
Posted by: Andy Bond, Jack Delaney, Joey Manship
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
June 25, 2023 10:00am PT
It seems surreal that just 24 hours ago we were sitting on the East Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier with our fingers crossed for flyable weather. Kahiltna International Airport (KIA) could have just as easily been our home for the next week but instead we slept easily and comfortably on real mattresses for the first time in nearly 3 weeks. Today and only today the weather cooperated for us to make our escape. How did we get here? Let me tell you...
24 hours prior to the 24 hours that we just experienced...
We woke up to a mix of clouds and sunshine at 14k Camp and casually dismantled camp and packed up all our things. The weather and clouds mostly stayed below us with an occasional surge of precip and wind at camp. The walk down to 11k Camp was uneventful other than a quick reunion with Dominic Cifelli and Dave Hahn's respective RMI climbing teams. High fives were had but we kept moving, we had a timeline to meet.
Once at a 11k Camp again we located our cache, set up tents, made water and ate dinner. The clouds rolled in and out of 11 Camp like the tide on the shore. Like the tide, what was in the clouds was wet and gross. After "napping" for around 3 hours, we "woke up" at 9:30pm to get moving again to catch the lower glacier in its most stable and frozen condition.
Sadly, the cloud we walked into below 11 Camp was hovering around 33 degrees and raining. The team was quickly covered in a layer of ice and rime. Everything - backpacks, trekking poles, goggles, jackets, pants, were incased in a 1/4 cm of ice. We trudged for several hours through this freezing rain. Eventually we got below the cloud, and everyone shed their icy armor that had accumulated. After a break at the bottom of Ski Hill to recover our cache (and thaw out), we resumed trudging on the lower Kahiltna.
A simple 3 more hours of trudging in what ended up being a fairly direct path across the Kahiltna glacier, we arrived at Heart Break Hill. It was time for the final hour of uphill that must be ascended to return to the airstrip. The team's morale stayed high, and hearts stayed unbroken. We made quick work of Heart Break Hill. Shortly after 5am, we were back at the airstrip; 19 days had elapsed since we were last here. It seemed surreal to be back. Even more surreal the weather continued to cooperate, the cloud ceiling stayed high, the sun showed itself briefly! Around 8:45am the drone of a K2 Turbo Otter was heard. 24 hours after leaving 14k Camp, we were picked up in the most wonderful red plane you've ever seen and whisked back to civilization, Talkeetna.
Everyone has been awake for 24-36 hours at the time of writing this. There is still much clean up and packing to do before we can sleep.
The trip is over, but our memories and experiences will last a lifetime. This is the final blog from The Bond Girls. If you want to know more, contact your loved ones, they have service now! Even if they're pretending they don't...
Cheers,
Reading the first sentence, the unplugged acoustic version of the Ramones’ “I Wanna Be Sedated” started playing in my head as soundtrack and accompaniment. Reading what the Bond Girls had to do to get to the plane from 14k, I would say they are the real rockstars.
Posted by: Mike Forsyth on 6/25/2023 at 11:55 am
Thank you, Jessee! Early squirrely is your jam now, (is it too soon?)thanks for covering for me! I am very grateful to be able to breakaway to do those things I think about everyday. I miss the crew but I will be back soon. Keep us at the #1 spot while I’m gone. Send It!!!!
Posted by: Katherine on 8/6/2024 at 3:37 am
We miss you Katherine, I see the planes can only land at night/early morning. But I know bright and squirrely is your MO. Give that mountain hell and come back safely!! Enjoy the trek and some much deserved time off!
Posted by: Jessee Wyld on 8/5/2024 at 12:25 pm
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