Hi everyone,
We woke early to catch a mule ride across the Vacas River. A few chose to walk across the icy water, which felt good on sore feet from the two previous days of walking.
We enjoyed spectacular views of Aconcagua with snow wisps off the top of the Polish Glacier near the summit.
The team is resting after gaining 3,000+ feet and adjusting to the air at base camp. We will rest tomorrow and prepare for our first round of moving food and gear to Camp 1 on Saturday.
Look for a message from the entire team tomorrow as it will be Christmas.
RMI Guide Mike King
Merry Christmas Bob! Everyone here at BNSF in Fort Worth is wishing you well. Hope you had a good trek into base camp. Say “Hi” to J.J. when you see him from the rest of our team in Texas. Good luck with your carries to the higher camps and hope you get good weather. God knows we’ve seen good and bad on the big mountains. We all can’t wait until you get back in January. Again, good luck and be safe.
Posted by: Rick & Mary Kay Knutson on 12/25/2015 at 10:05 am
Merry Christmas Michael! Headed to Bachelor for X-country with Abby. Wish you were here at the lower altitude! XXOO Wendy & Larry
RMI Guide Mike King here along with the Team at 10,600 ft. We had a very windy day getting into our camp at Casa de Piedra. The group is resting and practicing a crucial expedition skill; the tent chill session. After 2 long days in the sun and wind we our looking forward to base camp tomorrow.
We got our first view of the mountain today, so far no "buyer's remorse".
Christmas Eve tomorrow and a rest day on the 25th, many in the group are already speculating what Base Camp will serve for dinner. The good times and good eating continue but one of these days we will have to shoulder the heavy packs and head up, where the real trip begins.
Thanks for following along!
Bob W
Thought you were going to swim the English Channel next…
Enjoy doing something others can only marvel at!
Have a Merry Chistmas!
Bill F
Posted by: Bill F on 12/24/2015 at 7:31 am
Meredith,
We are missing you and Jessie at our annual visit to the office this Christmas Eve. The popcorn doesn’t taste as good without you! We are looking forward to following you on your climb. Be safe and have fun!
RLEEC
This is Mike and team checking in from Pampa de Las Lenas which translates to "flat spot where meat is grilled", consumed and then bragged about to everyone you meet. Morton's Steak House ain't got nothin on meat grilled by Argentinian cowboys.
The team is doing great and currently sleeping under the stars sans tent to take in the Milky Way and incredible night sky here in the Andes.
We have another enjoyable hike tomorrow as spirits are high and we look forward to our first glimpse of Aconcagua.
Thanks for following along and if the thought of delicious steak and climbing big mountains has crossed your mind, join us next year in Argentina.
Ciao,
RMI Guide Mike King
Hi Kevin from Denali, hi Mike! Keep an eye on John he’s a troublemaker! Sending angel wing wishes to help carry you to your dreams… Merry Christmas!
Posted by: Rhonda on 12/23/2015 at 5:53 am
Hi Mike and team! Abs and Ron here from one of your Rainier climbs. We will be following you closely on this trip as we aspire to climb Aconcagua with you next year! Best to you and your team on this trip!!!
This is Mike and team checking in from the Andean ski resort of Los Penitentes. We enjoyed a scenic drive through the vineyards of Mendoza and the twisty highway that brings our team into the Andes.
There is a lot of snow in the hills and we are looking forward to starting our trek to base camp tomorrow.
All the gear is sorted and packed to survive the mule ride to Plaza Argentina. If you are wondering what our gear will encounter just picture your duffel bag in an industrial paint shaker going for 12 hours straight.
The team is in high spirits and we will check in from Las Lenas tomorrow evening!
RMI Guide Mike King
Hi everyone,
This is Mike and Caleb from Mendoza. The entire team is in Mendoza safely with all bags accounted for. We enjoyed a nice dinner of Argentinian style grilled meat and pastas.
Tomorrow once our permits are secured we will head to Los Penitentes so we can sort our gear for the trek to Aconcagua Base Camp. Expeditions are comprised of a series of small goals that hopefully culminate in standing on the summit. Having everyone arrive healthy and with all their gear in tow, was the first goal. We are looking forward to starting the approach to Aconcagua in a few days. Thanks for checking in and stay tuned for more updates.
RMI Guide Mike King
Well folks...I had my best weather day on Ixta. And yesterday and today, I had my worst weather day on Orizaba. The team is great but we were unable to summit Orizaba. High winds and a constant rain prevented us from going higher. However, that is not preventing us from having a great experience. As for me, this was a phenomenal team and we had I think, too much fun. Mike and I hope to climb with everyone again. We are now back at Sr. Reyes and are drying all our soggy gear.
This is the last blog for Team Mexico. Thank you all for following along.
RMI Guides JJ Justman and Mike King
Hi everyone. This is JJ Justman and Mike King and Team Mexico. This morning we parted the beautiful colonial city of Puebla. We had a great rest day yesterday in Puebla enjoying a little bit of the good life. This morning we took off and headed to Orizaba, which is where we are right now. We set up camp. We are actually going expedition style, so the tents are up and the stoves are going for some hot drinks. The weather right now is a little little bit cloudy, little bit foggy and a light mist. The weather actually isn't too bad; nice and calm so that's good. Everyone's doing really, really well. We're looking forward to a great summit day tomorrow. Our plan is to have an early dinner, and then wake up and start climbing just after midnight, give or take. It should be a full day for us tomorrow, so stay tuned. We'll give a call, keep your fingers crossed, and hopefully will call you from the summit of the third highest mountain in North America, Orizaba. Thanks for following along. We'll touch base again tomorrow. Bye.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
RMI Guide JJ Justman calls in from Piedra Grande Hut in Mexico.
The RMI Mexico team is in Puebla. While at their hotel, RMI Guide, JJ Justman, was able to send us photos and a video of his team's successful Ixta summit. Check it out below!
Hey, everyone, this is JJ and Mike and Team Mexico. I'm going to give everyone 3 seconds to guess, that's right, three seconds to guess where we are. You don't need that much time you guessed it, we are all 100%, the entire team, is on the summit of Ixta as we speak. I'll tell you what, it was a beautiful day climbing, actually probably my best day on Ixta of all my years, over a decade of coming here. Just a beautiful day climbing and a great strong team, we worked hard but everyone did well. We are taking a few summit photos, have a little bit of water and food and then we are going to throw the rucksacks back on and head down hill. Don't go too far away we are going to go all the way down to Puebla later this afternoon. And I'm going to hopefully make a summit video as well as post a few photos. Thanks for following along. We are really excited to be up here and we really appreciate your support. So stay tuned a little later and you'll see how beautiful today was climbing. Take care everyone, chao from the summit of Ixta.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
RMI Guide JJ Justman calls from the summit of Ixtaccihuatl, 17,340', Mexico.
Congrats to Rhonda and the rest of the team. Stay strong and be safe.
Posted by: Judy on 11/11/2015 at 10:13 am
Awesome!! Congratulations on summiting Ixta! We love the blog and hearing how the expedition is progressing. Can’t wait to see the photos and videos! Hello to our son, Nick:-)!! Good luck with the rest of the week.
Hello RMI Blog followers. Team Mexico is coming at you live from high camp on Ixta. It was a beautiful day. It was a tough day; however, the team did awesome getting to 15,400 feet.
We are busy setting up camp and the name of the game is recovering with a good meal and some hot drinks. We will depart tomorrow at 3 a.m. for the summit so wish us well!
RMI Guides JJ Justman and Mike King
Merry Christmas Bob! Everyone here at BNSF in Fort Worth is wishing you well. Hope you had a good trek into base camp. Say “Hi” to J.J. when you see him from the rest of our team in Texas. Good luck with your carries to the higher camps and hope you get good weather. God knows we’ve seen good and bad on the big mountains. We all can’t wait until you get back in January. Again, good luck and be safe.
Posted by: Rick & Mary Kay Knutson on 12/25/2015 at 10:05 am
Merry Christmas Michael! Headed to Bachelor for X-country with Abby. Wish you were here at the lower altitude! XXOO Wendy & Larry
Posted by: Wendy on 12/25/2015 at 8:34 am
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