Entries By matias francis
June 23, 2022
Posted by: Matias Francis, Leif Bergstrom, Lauren Macklin, George Hedreen
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 9,400'
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Matias and the Kautz seminar team will spend their last night on the mountain tonight and plan for an early departure off the mountain followed by more training at Basecamp in Ashford.
The guide team have the following to say in reflection of the last week of training:
We have spent the past 4 days and 3 nights experiencing the mountain and the heat that accompanied it this week. Our high point may have only been 9,400’ but an abundant of learning and training was accomplished.
After a scorching first day moving across the Nisqually Glacier, we decided to move to a night schedule, only climbing when the snow hadn’t been tarnished by the blistering sun. Very Denali-esque of us. We hit on rock climbing, mixed climbing, ice climbing, crevasse rescue and many other skills. Hot weather and beating sun created unstable snow conditions and difficult trail breaking. But as one participant said, “It’s not all about the summit on trips like this”, and we feel like we were able to accomplish all our training and learning goals. The wisping clouds float below us like pillows awaiting to catch us on our decent.
RMI Kautz Team,
June 17, 2022
Posted by: Bryan Mazaika, Matias Francis
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,080'
High winds kept the Four Day Climb led by RMI Guides Bryan Mazaika and Matias Francis at Camp Muir overnight. The guides repoted an upper level cloud deck at 11,000' with a lower level cloud deck just above Paradise at 6,000'.
The team has started their descent and will be back at Rainier Basecamp in Ashford this afternoon.
June 2, 2022
Posted by: JT Schmitt, Matias Francis, Jackson Breen
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska Denali
Elevation: 20,310'
Thursday, June 2, 2022 1:35 am PT
The last two weeks of working hard on Denali payed off today. At 5:30 pm today we stood on top of the highest point in North America!
It was a beautiful sunny day, with a bit of wind but not too much to turn us around. It was a relatively quiet day with only a few other teams trying for the summit. The team performed incredibly well and summited in style! Now we are back at 17 camp, enjoying clear views all the way down to the tundra, where you can see the Alaskan sun shimmering off lakes over 15,000 feet below us.
Tomorrow we start the process of retracing our steps back down the mountain.
RMI Guides JT, Matias, Jackson and the RMI team.
June 1, 2022
Posted by: JT Schmitt, Matias Francis, Jackson Breen
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 17,000'
Tuesday, May 31, 2022 - 10:08 pm PT
We woke up to a beautiful morning at 14,000' Camp and decided to move to 17,000'! The team did well and the forecast looks good for tomorrow. Stay tuned to see what we get up to tomorrow!
RMI Guides JT, Jackson, Matias and the RMI team
Exciting news! Thanks as always for the updates - sending lots of high-altitude best wishes!
Posted by: Nestor Davidson on 6/1/2022 at 8:38 am
Fantastico! Hola from Spain and best of luck on the summit push!
Posted by: Caleb on 6/1/2022 at 8:14 am
May 31, 2022
Posted by: JT Schmitt, Matias Francis, Jackson Breen
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 14,000'
Monday, May 30, 2022 - 10:43 pm PT
Today we rested again at 14,000' Camp. The team has been soaking up the rest, eating lots of food and drinking plenty of fluids. Thanks for following along and we will keep you posted on what we end up doing tomorrow!
Thanks,
RMI Guides JT, Matias, Jackson and the RMI team.
Hi JT Schmitt I am your Great Aunt who lives on a farm by Cresco Iowa. Your Granddad Joe is my brother. I am so happy to beable to keep in touch with you way up in the air. I will stay where it is nice and warm. The farming is going good for the farmers around here. Crops all in and growing. I hope to see you in august this year. Hope is works out. Just want to say Hello from Iowa. auntie Joyce PS Be safe you and the rest of the climbers
Posted by: joyce mrachek on 5/31/2022 at 5:28 pm
Rest well. Exciting days ahead!
Posted by: Amy Houston on 5/31/2022 at 8:08 am
May 29, 2022
Posted by: JT Schmitt, Matias Francis, Jackson Breen
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 14,000'
Sunday, May 29, 2022 - 6:20 pm PT
The team enjoyed a beautiful day at 14,000' Camp today, resting from the days prior and preparing for the days ahead! We are planning to rest again tomorrow, after the last ten days the team deserves it!
RMI Guides JT, Jackson, Matias and the RMI team
Looks as though you’ve all built quite a lovely camp there at 14K - hard to imagine a better view! (Are those skis near that snow wall? Ambitious!)
Enjoy the rest and thank you for all the updates - they really mean a lot.
Posted by: Nestor Davidson on 5/29/2022 at 11:01 pm
May 29, 2022
Posted by: JT Schmitt, Matias Francis, Jackson Breen
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska Denali
Elevation: 14,200'
May 29 12:04am PT
This morning we woke up with the goal of caching gear and food as close to 17 camp as possible. As we passed each of the normal places people cache below 17 camp, such as the top of the fixed lines, below Washburns thumb etc., we just couldn’t find a reason to not keep going.
The weather was perfect, not a whisper of wind, and the views endless. The team was performing extremely well at such high altitude for the first time this trip, not to mention how they floated through the most technical terrain we’ve encountered thus far, so we went all the way to 17,000 ft camp. After digging ourselves a hole to cache in, we retraced our steps back down the west buttress and the fixed lines until we rolled into camp just as the shadow of the mountain engulfed the tent city.
All in all, a successful day completed by a strong team!
Strong team makes big progress at high altitudes. We love it!
Posted by: Amy Houston on 5/30/2022 at 4:59 am
Way to go guys! Thinking of you all and hoping for fair weather the next few days. Just back from a week of sailing in gale force winds on the west coast of Scotland so am very glad you don’t have that!! Love, Charles and Jennifer.
Posted by: Charles Platt on 5/29/2022 at 12:53 pm
May 28, 2022
Posted by: JT Schmitt, Matias Francis, Jackson Breen
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska Denali
Elevation: 14,200'
Friday May 27, 2022 10:37pm PT
It was a beautiful day today at 14,000' camp. We slept in, ate breakfast burritos, then napped, read and ate some more.
After reviewing some more mountaineering skills, we ate more burritos for dinner. With the sunny skies, warm temperatures and the menu today, it almost felt like we were in Mexico.
Stay tuned for what we get up to tomorrow!
RMI Guide JT Schmitt and the Denali Team
Great progress so far! Hope you enjoy some well deserved R&R!
Posted by: Ramsay Bader on 5/29/2022 at 6:56 am
Go Team RMI - sending positive thoughts and wishes from Mount Washington NH!
Posted by: Jennifer Huntington on 5/29/2022 at 3:47 am
May 27, 2022
Posted by: JT Schmitt, Matias Francis, Jackson Breen
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska Denali
Elevation: 14,200'
Thursday, May 26, 2022 10:14 pm PT
Our first full day at Camp was a beautiful one! We slept in and then did a back carry to get all of our gear up to our camp here at 14,200'. Then we enjoyed relaxing and enjoying the sun for the rest of the day.
Tomorrow is going to be a much deserved rest day!
Thanks for following.
RMI Guide JT Schmitt and the RMI Team
Love seeing this top of the world images and imagining all you strong climbers taking it in. Good luck and thanks for sending these back down to the rest of us cheering for you!
Posted by: Sarah Williams on 6/1/2022 at 6:50 am
Hi Ken! Really enjoying the updates and pictures of the magnificent scenery!
Hope you and your teammates are all doing well!
Diane & John
Posted by: Diane & John Bertosa on 5/28/2022 at 10:52 am
May 26, 2022
Posted by: JT Schmitt, Matias Francis, Jackson Breen
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 14,000'
Thursday, May 26, 2022 - 1:09 am PT
Today started with a classic case of the Denali waiting game due to another snowy morning at 11,000' Camp. After breakfast we waited (mostly packed) in our tents to see what the weather was going to do.
As we waited in nervous anticipation, the only sounds you could hear was the flit, flit, flit of snow falling against the tent, the occasional clang of a pot from somewhere in camp, and the ziiiiiip of a tent opening just enough for a restless head to peek out and look up the mountain.
At around 930 the clouds broke enough for us to see that the winds were not blowing around the newly fallen snow, so in organized chaos we finished packing up and departed camp.
We then spent the day in and out of the clouds which saved us from the heat we have become quite accustomed to trying to avoid.
And now we are all set up at 14,000' Camp and looking forward to some rest after a hard week!
RMI Guides JT, Matias, Jackson and the rest of the RMI team.
Enjoy your R&R at 14, and good luck when it’s time to move higher! Great following your excellent progress upwards!
Posted by: Henry & Kathy Huntington on 5/26/2022 at 9:11 am
AMAZING! Keep the post coming. They are a highlight of our day. :)
Posted by: Pat & Amy Breen on 5/26/2022 at 8:08 am
CONGRATS!! It’s absolutely incredible to follow your journey and to see this great news!
Posted by: Ramsay Bader on 6/5/2022 at 9:28 pm
Yay!!! Congratulations!!! I’ve had so much fun following you along your climb. Big congratulations to my brother, Scott - I am SO PROUD of you! Way to go, team!
Love, Julie
Posted by: Julie Joyce on 6/3/2022 at 3:19 am
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