Entries By nick hunt
May 25, 2015
Posted by: Adam Knoff, Nick Hunt
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 11,200'
May 24, 2015 - 11:48 pm PT
Hello again from 11,000ft!
We woke up this morning to a fresh dumping of snow at camp, covering our tents and cook tent. First order of business this morning was getting everything dug out and reinforcing our snow walls.
The weather was still looking a little squirrelly afterwards, so we opted for a bit of a relaxed breakfast while we continued to watch what was going on outside. After a couple hours, our patience was rewarded and things cleared up enough for us to get organized and take off downhill to retrieve our cache at 9800'. We made down, grabbed our cached goods, and jammed back uphill in good time. This is a strong team! Everyone just keeps going and is having fun!
Once back at 11,000' with all our gear, the weather made a turn for the better. The skies cleared out, the winds died down, and the sun warmed us as we relaxed for the rest of the evening. If all goes well, we'll push up to 13,500' tomorrow to cache our gear around Windy Corner in preparation for our move to 14k.
Goodnight for now!
RMI Guide Nick Hunt and the rest of the team
On The Map
May 24, 2015
Posted by: Adam Knoff, Nick Hunt
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 11,200'
May 23, 2015 - 11:00 pm PT
In the real world the saying goes"the early bird gets the worm". This season on
Denali, the early bird gets the weather window. Now I've never been a bird before so I'm not gonna judge on how good a worm must taste, but I have been here before and I can tell you that moving camp in clear weather is much tastier than moving in a storm. So, with a clear but windy morning we scarfed down a warm granola breakfast cached some unneeded gear and quickly broke camp. Our team is getting very proficient at this skill so we were rolling by 9:15. Nick led the team out and in 2.5 hours of sustained up hill travel had us all sitting at 11,200 feet. It wasn't long after we began building a fresh camp that the weather had enough of being nice and took a quick turn for the worst. It held out just long enough to get camp built and then really started snowing and blowing. The forecast is calling for up to a foot of snow by the end of tomorrow so we feel blessed to be in a good spot to wait things out. Everyone sends big hugs to those following the blog and little hugs to those who aren't.
From from Camp three.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff and team saying goodnight.
On The Map
May 23, 2015
Posted by: Adam Knoff, Nick Hunt
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 9,800'
Saturday, May 23rd 12:44 am PDT
I would like to dedicate this dispatch (one of many I'm sure) to my six year old son, Liam, who's kindergarten class will be following the blog as our adventure unfolds. Hi kiddo! Daddy misses you a lot!
Up here on the mountain, day two was again a well executed day. We packed up camp at 7,800 feet and made a
single carry of all of our things up to 9,800 feet were we are camped for night. We each moved well over one hundred pounds divided between our sleds and packs. From here on up we begin to split the loads, taking some up the mountain in one carry and then returning the next day to retrieve the rest. The weather here is well below freezing at night and we have strong gusty winds that are blowing snow around. We got lucky to move into a camp that already had big snow block walls built to protect us a bit from the heavy gusts. Tomorrow we will decide what the plan is after we have breakfast and check the weather. So far so good.
RMI Guides Adam Knoff, Nick Hunt, and Andy Hildebrand
On The Map
May 22, 2015
Posted by: Adam Knoff, Nick Hunt
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 7,800'
May 21, 2015 - 10:46 pm PT
The team has made it to Camp 1 in almost perfect style. I am on my seventh
Denali climb as a guide and have never gone from Base Camp to Camp 1 with such seamlessness. No one had a single sled issue or cursed my name for giving them so much gear. No one got a blister or fell behind a single second. Like I said earlier, I am very pleased with this team. One day down, who knows how many more to go.
Stay tuned for tomorrow's report.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff
On The Map
May 21, 2015
Posted by: Adam Knoff, Nick Hunt
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Denali
Elevation: 348'
Thursday, May 21st 10:02 am PDT
We got the call this morning at breakfast that base camp is clear and the light is green. We are on the plane now ready for an adventure of a lifetime! Wish us luck and send us love.
Our next dispatch will be from
Mt. McKinley.
Rock and Roll!
Wednesday, May 20th 4:18 pm PDT
Our team is doing great up here in Talkeetna, AK.
We are swamped in gear, doing an inspection that would make the FAA proud. Nothing is going unseen and I am proud to announce that everyone is passing with flying colors. Overall I couldn't be more happy with the first impressions of what should be a strong team. Let's hope it stays that way. One never knows what can happen on Mt. McKinley. Prayers for good morning weather for flying tomorrow.
Bye for now from Talkeetna.
RMI Guides Adam Knoff, Nick Hunt, and Andy Hildebrand and Crew
January 29, 2015
Posted by: Casey Grom, Nick Hunt
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador
Elevation: 19,348'
We made it today, despite the cold, wind, and snow!
RMI Guide
Casey Grom & Team
Hola Amigos!
Things are good here in Ecuador and the team is well rested after two nights at the wonderful Chilcabamba Lodge. Everyone is excited for tonight's climb on
Cotopaxi.
Today we bumped up to another Lodge that is nestled in right below Cotopaxi itself. Normally we stay at the Refugio on the mountain, but it is currently under renovation so we'll be climbing from here. We have done this on the last few climbs and it has worked out well for the past teams and I expect the same for us.
Tonight our plan is to have dinner around 4:30 then head right to bed. We'll wake at 10pm and have a sit down breakfast and then hit the road around 11pm. We'll drive our bus to the base of the mountain and start our climb close to midnight. Based on how well everyone did on
Cayambe, I'm guessing it's going to take us somewhere around six to eight hours to reach the summit.
The weather has been improving each day and we have our fingers crossed it will continue for one more day. We'll check back in tomorrow hopefully with good news.
Wish us luck!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Rest day at the beautiful Chilcabamba Eco Lodge! Our team enjoyed the opportunity to sleep in and relax, and prepare for
Cotopaxi, our next objective for this trip.
After a delightful breakfast, we were able to catch a few glimpses of the mountain in the distance and talked about the route. Based on the team's performance on
Cayambe, we'll have no problem with this next climb!
We spent the day reading books and sharing stories, and wrapped the evening up with a technical skills session. We learned a variety of knots, talked about climbing anchors, and finished with a full-blown crevasse rescue scenario in the lawn.
Spirits are high and we are ready to go! Tomorrow we move on to the Tambopaxi Lodge in preparation for our summit bid on
Cotopaxi.
Until then,
RMI Guide Nick Hunt and the Ecuador team
January 26, 2015
Posted by: Casey Grom, Nick Hunt
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador
Elevation: 18,997'
RMI Guide Casey Grom sent us some photos of their
Cayambe summit. 100% of the team reached the top!!! The team is currently on their descent and will celebrate at the Chilcabamba Eco Lodge this evening. Stay tuned to hear from
Casey as he recounts their summit day.
On The Map
January 25, 2015
Posted by: Casey Grom, Nick Hunt
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador
Elevation: 15,300'
Hola from
Ecuador!
All is well here on the equator. Saturday we spent a few hour at the massive Otavalo outdoor market where the team practiced their bartering skills with the locals. Buy the number of bags people had in their arms, they must have done a good job.
We then headed up to the hut on
Cayambe to drop off our gear and add a little to our acclimatization. Normally we like to spend the night at the hut, but due to a hut remodel and new park management, we opted on staying in the town of Cayambe at a wonderful Hacienda call San Luis. Everyone enjoyed the day and the warmth of the fires that were awaiting us in our rooms.
Today the team headed back up to the hut and went on a short hike, then returned to the hut for a little training. We have had our dinner and discussed the climb here on
Cayambe and everything seems in order. Hopefully the weather will hold and we'll have a good climb tomorrow.
That's all for now. We'll check in tomorrow post-climb
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
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Much respect for you all and your endeavor on Denali. This is your year Will. Godspeed….
Posted by: John on 5/26/2015 at 8:10 am
Shannon—sorry we missed your calls Sunday night. Thought of you through the weekend and missed your smiling face and sarcastic jabs at Shakamak. Wishing you and the entire team better weather and a safe climb. We’re cheering you on!
Posted by: Mark on 5/26/2015 at 7:34 am
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