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 has been a busy few days here on Shishapangma. Yesterday a number of teams reached the summit and we are very happy for them. Our team is back at Base camp after a solid rotation up high. Our team carried, put in and spent a few nights at Camp 2, roughly the same height as the summit of Aconcagua.
On this last round were able to get in a pretty windy carry to Camp 3, somewhere around 24,500’ above the ocean. Now we're resting and recouping here at Advance Base Camp. If weather holds we will launch this weekend for shot at the top.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
RMI Guide Jake Beren checks in from Advance Base Camp on Shishapangma.
Hey Jake, congrats to you and Elias on your summit of Shishapangma without o2 and sherpas - a bit late but I just read about it.
Thanks again for the great trip up Rainier this past July (ALA climb)!
Posted by: Lance on 12/7/2011 at 5:00 pm
Hey Jake, good to hear you’re all safely down. Climbing in the Himalaya must be incredible. As you told our group on Rainier last year:“The mountain will always be there”. Sounds like everyone used good judgement.
Learned a lot from you and Billy during Rainier expedition skills trip last September and trained differently for second attempt. Made it to the top this past August with Paul, Maile, and Cody as guides. Thanks for what you contributed to my mountaineering education. Be well and I’ll hopefully be climbing with you in South America or Mexico next winter.
Best regards,
Tom Falvo
Hey guys, this is the Shishapangma team. We are just calling to check in. Everybody is well. We did feel the big earthquake the other day. Both our team up at Camp 1 and our team at BC are just fine.
We are going to send another team up in the direction of Camp 1 later this afternoon. We are going to start our rotations a little higher up. All is well here. We are waiting for a weather window and just hanging out.
So, we hope all is well back in Ashford. We’ll be giving you a shout when we have a little more to say. That is all from Tibet.
RMI Guide Jake Beren
Well I'm sure you all have been wondering where in the world we are. Forgive the suspense, but it has been an action packed few days. After our last sub-space frequency, we had to re-reevaluate our situation and make the difficult, but ultimately very clear decision to return to lower elevations. After many days at 17,000 feet and over a week waiting for a window at 14,000' camp we were plain out of time for a realistic summit attempt. Often these expeditions make allowances for running over budget on time and our team was prepared to hold out for a workable window to go for the top. However, the weather never did us the favor of cooperating. Such is the way of the mountains and we are wise to read their signals.
Our stay at 17,000 feet was marked by deep snow, drifting thigh to waist high outside of camp and persisting for days. Accompanied by high winds that loaded start zones and released multiple full track avalanches that ran down almost to the ranger station at 14 camp, stability seemed far from our reality. Our route to Denali Pass ran several times and when the storm cleared long enough the famous autobahn is positively pregnant with deep windslabs. The weather reports we have been monitoring continue to predict unstable weather, high winds and more snow, followed by a large low pressure system bringing more bad weather to the mountain. Still we didn't want to head down, but staying longer in such weather exposes us to greater risk the longer we stay.
Capitalizing on a lull in the weather, we began our descent of the West Buttress yesterday. That is my favorite part of the route and presents some of the most interesting climbing on this route. Our 19 days on this beautiful mountain prepared us well to move efficiently and though I would gladly have gone to the top with such a great team, I was glad to be able to handle the route's namesake feature in windy conditions with safe teammates.
Despite the spindrift and new snow, conditions did present us with some pockets of sunshine where we were able to see this mountain in its stormy glory. We made it down to 14 camp where we regrouped and hoofed it down to 11,000 feet for a hot meal and a few hours sleep with some amazing skies on our way around Windy Corner.
Three hours of downtime, then it was off again and we raced the warming Lower Kahiltna Glacier's snow bridges to the runway. On our exit we were able to see the upper mountain up the NE Fork and again from the airstrip. It was still socked in with a cloud cap and high winds and our call to escape, though bittersweet, remains sound.
Having not heard the sound of planes in the air for days, it was a treat to see the Otters, Beavers and Cessnas amongst the spectacular backdrop of Mt. Hunter and Foraker. Our gear sorted, we were on the afternoon flight and are now back in Talkeetna, magically back to summer and a land where green things flourish and showers imply happiness instead of misery. In a few hours our team will meet again for another dinner, prepared by strangers and without the ambiance of a snow fort. It will be a welcome treat.
Thank you friends and family for the support and love on our adventure. We went out not knowing what would happen and we returned safe, but with some unfinished business. I am content that we gave it our all and emerged friends and stronger for the time amongst the clouds and upper atmosphere. Thanks to a great team and excellent colleagues, it was an adventure I am happy to have shared with everyone,
RMI Guide Jake Beren
Thanks Jake, Gilbert and Mike for your outstanding leadership on this climb. We all made it out safely, and that was the ultimate goal. It was great to meet new climbing (and ultimately drinking) buddies and friends. An awesome experience and we are a little older and wiser in the ways of Denali. We have some unfinished business, and I suspect some of us will be back to take care of things. Thanks again, guides! Vince
Posted by: Vince Vilasi on 7/1/2011 at 5:45 am
Thanks so much for generously allowing me to tie in on the descent. Both the folks that I roped up with, and the fantastic welcoming committee at 11,000’ were awesome!!!
Hey Rich! Checking in every other day & thinking of you always. Have an amazing time & send me a postcard from the top!! Stef
Posted by: Stef on 12/18/2011 at 11:09 pm
Dave G. Thinking of you constantly, have a good and safe climb. Love you.
Posted by: Connie on 12/16/2011 at 1:36 pm
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