Entries By henry coppolillo
August 2, 2023
Posted by: Henry Coppolillo, Joey Manship, Will Ambler
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Paradise July 28 - 2 August led by RMI Guides Henry Coppolillo, Joey Manship and Will Ambler reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today. The team met last Friday for their first day of training, equipment checks and orientation. With full packs they ascended to their first camp on Saturday. They have spent the last four nights on the mountain, moving camps expedition style and practicing glacier travel, ice axes arrest, cramponing, crevasse rescue techniques while gradually ascending. Yesterday they jumped up to Camp Muir and launched their summit attempt with an alpine start today. After reaching the summit, the team descended to Camp Muir. Once at Camp they will repack gear and continue down to Paradise.
Congratulations to today's Paradise Seminar crew!
July 26, 2023
Posted by: Brent Okita, Henry Coppolillo, Erika Birkeland, Michael Murray
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Five Day Climb July 22 - 26 led by RMI Guides Brent Okita & Henry Coppolillo were standing on Columbia Crest just before 7 am today. Brent reported a gorgeous day on the mountain with very light winds. The teams began their descent from the crater rim around 7:20 am. They will return to Camp Muir for a short break to pack up their gear. They will then descend to Paradise and transfer back to Rainier BaseCamp later this afternoon.
Yesterday winds were high so the team did some additional glacier travel skills and explored Ingraham Flats. These photos are from their adventure yesterday courtesy of Brent.
July 19, 2023
Posted by: Seth Burns, Henry Coppolillo
Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades
Elevation: 8,816'
Wednesday, July 19, 2023 - 3:00 pm PDT
Hi there,
It was a beautiful day of climbing on the West Ridge, nice temps and not a cloud in the sky. We are back at camp soaking our feet in the creek and enjoying a lazy afternoon.
RMI Guides Seth Burns, Henry Coppolillo and Team
July 7, 2023
Posted by: Henry Coppolillo, Leif Bergstrom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades
Elevation: 10,781'
The RMI Mt. Baker Team led by RMI Guides Henry Coppolillo and Leif Bergstrom were standing on the summit of Mt. Baker at 1:15 pm PDT today. Henry, Leif, and Team traversed the stunning North Face of Mt. Baker to scale the ice cliff of the North Ridge route. Leif reported clear skies, light winds, and great day of climbing. They will descend via the Coleman-Deming route and make their way back to camp for the night.
Congratulations Team!
June 30, 2023
Posted by: Mike Walter, Henry Coppolillo
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guides Mike Walter and Henry Coppolillo reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Mike Walter reported moderate winds, clear skies and a solid climbing on their way to the top. The team is on the descent, and will be celebrating with cold beverages and at Rainier Basecamp by the early afternoon.
Congratulations Team!
June 25, 2023
Posted by: Brent Okita, Henry Coppolillo, Trevor Katz, Sam Hoffman, Mike Bennett, Evan Redman
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Five-Day climb led by RMI Guides, Brent Okita and Henry Coppolillo, reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. They enjoyed absolutely beautiful day on top this morning with a great route and enjoyable weather.
They will enjoy a casual walk back down to Camp Muir to do some more training this afternoon and tomorrow morning. The team will return to Basecamp tomorrow.
Nice work team!
June 4, 2023
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Henry Coppolillo, Tatum Whatford
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 348'
Saturday, June 3, 2023 - 9:28 pm PT
After a another day of waiting, false starts on packing and taking down our tents, and some general finger twiddling, we suddenly got the very positive news that K2 had launched all four of their otters to come get us yesterday evening. The trusty planes hit the runway in quick succession, not unlike a military drill and we were loading duffels, packs, and sleds with excitement. We went on the slide down the runway one more time and we were off, airborne for Talkeetna. The flight out was a bit bumpy and we dodged clouds through the Alaska range to get home. It was quite evident how hard the pilots had worked to come get us.
We landed in Talkeetna and disembarked to the fragrant smell of plants, technicolor hues of leaves and grass, and gratefully removed our boots and traded for flip flops. And just like that, we had reached the end of the expedition and achieved our ultimate goal - to come home whole. We gathered at the Denali Brew Pub for a celebratory dinner and poked our head in the historic Fairview Inn for a touch more celebrating.
This morning we dried our gear, repacked bags for flights home, and got ready to head our separate ways. There is a strong bond that develops sharing tents and some trials over 23 days on a glacier. It's bittersweet to move on, but we do so knowing that this team came together in a way that made everyone stronger, they stretched to meet all of the many challenges we faced, and we came back successful. From Henry, Tatum, and myself, we would like to thank all of our team sincerely for being so strong, fun, and patient, and many thanks to everyone's families for the support and for following along. This is a long strange trip that none of us will soon forget. Flight plan closed.
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer
June 2, 2023
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Tatum Whatford, Henry Coppolillo
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska Denali
Elevation: 7,200'
June 1, 2023, 10:30 pm PDT
We had hopes this morning as the base camp manager said to ready everything and that planes were on the way. By 8:30 several planes hit the runway and stayed to load climbers. They departed and as the clouds edged closer, we were told they were launching planes for us and they were trying to get in. But the snow started and visibility shut down and the planes stopped landing. We kept waiting for the snow to stop and a hole to open, but it didn't come. It is now calm, but snowing prolifically. Midwinter, we would be going to sleep excited about the powder day to come. Here, we beg for it to stop so we can make our way home. But we are in a beautiful place, and we count ourselves warm, dry, and lucky to experience the power of the Alaska Range.
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer and team
June 1, 2023
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Tatum Whatford, Henry Coppolillo
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 7,300'
Thursday, June 1, 2023 - 8:25 am PT
We made it to base camp! We had a smooth, though sticking with the theme of the trip, pretty white walk out to Base camp. We got in in the early afternoon relieved to be done pulling our sleds and shouldering heavy packs. The clouds didn't promise much for flying out, but we stayed hopeful and lounged on our packs and sleds. We had left ourselves some celebratory materials and we enjoyed those. A few clearing trends and blue skies gave us hope a few times but by 8pm we accepted that we would have another night in tents and set then up, made a last dinner of burritos, and crawled back into sleeping bags. We are happy to have done our part now. No more packs or sleds, just waiting for weather to cooperate. And it is so much warmer, and easier to breathe down here!
Hopefully weather let's us fly off soon!
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer
So relieved you are on the final leg. Congratulations, Brian and team!
Posted by: Lettie Kirk Goltry on 6/1/2023 at 11:13 am
May 31, 2023
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Henry Coppolillo, Tatum Whatford
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 11,000'
Wednesday, May 31, 2023 - 1:28 am PT
Denali's 17,000' Camp is a necessary evil. It's not particularly pleasant to exist there, even when it's nice out. With our objective secured yesterday, we were all ready to get out of that high and forlorne place. We set out today to get as far from 17,000' Camp as we could. We descended the West Buttress, down the fixed lines to 14,000' Camp. After some socializing with the other teams at 14,000'. We set our goal again with the intention of getting to 11,000ft. It has been snowing quite a bit since we passed these locations. There was a good boot track in, but there was well over 12 inches of new snow blanketing the Polo Field and Windy Corner. We'll wake up early and rally to the airstrip with the hope that we can fly first thing tomorrow. Fingers crossed. Snow camping is fun, especially at altitude, but all anyone can talk about is beer and burgers, and it is time for a shower and feeling warm once again.
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer
Great job everyone! Sorry I couldn’t climb with you.
Posted by: David Jesmer on 6/25/2023 at 9:01 pm
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