Summit! The Mt. Rainier Four Day Summit Climbs led by JJ Justman and Kel Rossiter stood on top just after 7:15 a.m. Snow and sometimes rain was falling on the summit and the teams are currently in a mountain cloud cap. Both teams recharged and refueled in the summit crater before starting their descent at 8:25. Although precipitation was falling, the guides reported pleasant climbing conditions and an excellent route.
Congratulations to today's summit climbers!
Thursday, May 30, 2013
Hey everyone, this is Billy. I'm checking in here with our group. We are at 11,000' part way through our descent. After our big summit day yesterday, we packed up our camp at 17,000' and then moved on down. Brent Okita's crew was kind enough to cook us up some dinner at the 14K Camp, and we continued on down to 11,000', where the crew is all, actually snug as a bug, in their sleeping bags out in the open because it is so warm compared to where we've been living. We plan on getting up in the middle the night tonight and making a run for the airstrip hoping to get a flight off tomorrow sometime before the weather takes a turn for the worst. We'll give a shout when we reach Basecamp. That's all for now.
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
Thursday, May 30, 2013 at 10:41 a.m. PT
Hi, this is Billy checking in. We are back in camp safe and sound from our successful summit bid. We got 100% of our team to the summit of Mount McKinley today, aka Denali. We are back in camp. Everyone's hanging out, rehydrating, eating some delicious freeze-dried meals, and hopefully going to get a great night's sleep before we gear up to head down and head home. And that's all for now. We'll check in again as our descent continues.
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
Billy Nugent calls in from High Camp after successful summit.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Hey everybody this is Billy here. I'm with Kel, Levi and the rest of the gang checking in from 17K Camp, high on Denali. We had a beautiful day today and it was actually pretty darn hot for our move up to high camp. We spent a good chunk of the afternoon cutting blocks and fortifying our spot. We're hoping to take a crack at the summit tomorrow. The weather forecast looks perfect. We'll call in tomorrow hopefully check in, from the summit perhaps, and then once again once we get back to camp safe and sound. That's all for now, talk later.
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
First and foremost, the biggest event of the day was Pete's birthday--14K on a sunny day is not a bad place for a party.
Today was a bit a work and a bit of play, or rest anyway. We started by moving the 13,600' cache. We moved the cache and carried the cache to 14K. Resting at the cache spot before our carry, we could hear the water flowing underground, deep under the glacier. The trip back to camp was smooth and everyone arrived back far from flippy-floppy. We enjoyed a relaxing afternoon in the peaceful oasis of our surroundings. Though we all could certainly get used to that lifestyle, we're also eager to make the most of this weather and the team's strength, so we're heading off to bed soon to get ready for tomorrow's carry up the fixed lines.
RMI Guide Kel Rossiter
Billy here checking in from Camp IV at 14,200' after a strong showing from our team on a big move up. We enjoyed mostly clear skies and incredibly strong sun on the way up from our previous camp at 11,000'. In fact, the sun was a little too strong; while the ambient temperature hovered in the teens we felt like we were boiling for the majority of our climb. It's amazing what a little radiation can do. After all our hard work we were rewarded with an easy move-in to Mike Walter's recently vacated camp. Sometimes you just get lucky. The high pressure is supposed to stick around through the extended forecast so we aim to keep on chipping away...
Wulpseeya!
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
There's a great German game show called "Stackenblocken" where contestants arrange objects on a desk at right angles. A judge then comes out with a framing square and a riding crop to punish the contestants who cannot make their desk "Stackenblocken". Well, the weather has been so sunny and warm here at 11 camp that the wall surrounding our camp was indeed no longer "Stackenblocken" and in fact leaned to the point where it comically collapsed... Fortunately for us there was no judge with a jockey's disposition and the blocks remained intact. We were actually able to rebuild it in a few quick minutes; turns out its not so hard on the second go around when all your materials are ready-made.
On another note, the team also spent a bit of the day retrieving our cached food and fuel from the 9,600' camp. We made such short work of our back carry that it really felt like a rest day. Good times!
More about our intrepid crew as our adventure unfolds...
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
In the movie "Spinal Tap" there's a comical part where the rock god explains to an interviewer that, whereas most amplifiers only go up to ten, his "goes to eleven" in case he's really rocking out and "needs that extra push." Well, our strong team definitely needed no extra push in making it to 11K camp today.
After a calm night at 9600' we woke to clear skies and prepared to "go to eleven." After caching some gear and food in a snow hole ( which we'll pick up tomorrow) we enjoyed the feeling of dramatically lightened packs and sleds as we moved up. Arriving in camp the team had its first experience with building a true Denali-style fortified camp. Some people were shoveling, some were cutting blocks, some were carrying them: everyone was working hard and in an hour or so we had a veritable Great Wall in place. Everyone enjoyed the upper body workout and the concrete results. The sun sets late at 11K (it's about 10pm now and still brilliant) and folks are settling in to a well-earned sleep.
Tomorrow will be a "half-rest" day: we'll be making a three-hour trek to retrieve our cache, but without the work of breaking down and setting up camp we'll be able to also rest and acclimatize.
RMI Guide Kel Rossiter
Another beautiful day and another strong effort from our crew! We took advantage of more amazing weather and single-carried all of our gear and supplies up Ski Hill to set up shop at Camp 2, which sits at about 9,600' on the upper reaches of the Kahiltna Glacier. Our guys clearly trained hard and the long hours on the stairmaster paid dividends today hauling massive loads. We rolled into camp around 4:30 which made for a leisurely afternoon getting situated and taking in the amazing views. After a hot dinner of tortellini alfredo, we all crawled into the tents and are currently waiting for the bitter cold to set in once the sun dips behind Kahiltna Dome.
That's all for now, we'll check in again tomorrow!
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
"Pigs" is the term of endearment climbers use to describe any heavy load on a climb. On Denali our "pigs" are our sleds, and today we took them for their first walk. The team woke to a bluebird day--welcome after the days of gray--learned about packing, strapping, and roping up our sleds, and then took them out on the trail from Basecamp to 7,600'. Day one of "walking the pigs" can often be a porcine rodeo with lots of grappling and twisting going on, but this crew made it look more like walking poodles at the Westchester Dog Show. We're now at the base of Ski Hill, firing the skillet with fajitas, enjoying the stunning scenery up the Northeast Fork of the Kahiltna, and getting ready for tomorrow's push into steeper terrain--this crew is ready for it.
RMI Guide Kel Rossiter
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A big congrats Gautam!Gritty G! Proud of you.
Posted by: Bhaktha on 6/29/2013 at 9:16 am
Congratulations Gautam!!
Posted by: Mahadev on 6/26/2013 at 9:40 am
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