Entries By tyler jones
On The Map
Ty thanks for the birthday wishes. much success to you and your team. love you Pete and Elaine
Posted by: Peter Tobin on 5/30/2013 at 5:18 pm
Jess,
Have an awesome climb!!!! Everything is great at the home front.
To the team,
Have a great climb.
Hector
Posted by: Hector on 5/30/2013 at 4:20 pm
Posted by: Tyler Jones, Pete Van Deventer
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 11,000'
What an amazing experience. Sorry you had to turn back, but glad you’re all safe! Can’t wait to hear about the adventure!
Posted by: Susan White, Allyson's mom on 5/27/2013 at 8:43 am
Posted by: Brent Okita, Tyler Jones, Tyler Reid, Mike King, Nick Hunt
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
Awesome job, so glad you made it! So proud of my husband Curt! Yaaaay
Posted by: Rebecca McCLellan on 5/19/2013 at 5:01 pm
You did it! Scott I’m so excited to hear you made the summit! You must be so proud! I know I’m proud of you. I can’t wait to hear the stories! Safe travels home. I love you.
Posted by: Nina on 5/19/2013 at 10:26 am
Posted by: Tyler Jones, Zeb Blais
Categories: Guide News
RMI: That night you left Camp Muir with the intention of skiing Liberty Ridge. Were you able to ski that line?
Zeb Blais: The key to skiing big exposed lines is always the snow conditions. When you're looking at skiing a line like Liberty [Ridge] you can only know what the conditions are like when you get there. We were hoping that the north and northeast facing snow would be chalky, smooth, and wind packed, but when we looked at the entrance to Liberty it was clear that it wasn't going to be skiable. The Liberty Ridge Route looked like mid-summer, maybe good for ice climbing, but certainly not skiable. The Liberty Cap Glacier was down to blue ice with lumps of rime glued to it, which I imagine is fairly common since it is so steep, but the skiing below looked the same. Rappelling the Liberty Cap Glacier and skiing the rest of the line did not look like an inviting option.
RMI: What did you end up skiing instead?
Zeb Blais: After realizing that Liberty was not suitable, we turned our focus to the Mowich Face - an amazing, steep face on the northwest side of the mountain. This looked tempting at first, but it was heavily rimed with blobs of water ice. It was not a place to be on skis! We retreated back to the ridge above and decided we needed to focus on warmer, spring like-snow. We decided on the Sickle, a west-facing chute on the Tahoma Glacier. The snow in the Sickle was prime for skiing!
Tyler Jones: On our ski we had nice soft spring snow down to 8,500 feet. From there we were able traverse to our objective for the next day: Success Ridge between the South Tahoma Glacier and the Success Glacier. We spent the night on the ridge, getting some well-deserved sleep, with the magnificent 4,000-foot Success Glacier Couloir above us waiting to be skied. The conditions on the Success Glacier were superb. The snow was firm for climbing and soft for skiing. After the amazing fall line decent, we continued traversing to [the trailhead at] Paradise. As we hit the Nisqually Glacier we added more vertical to our trip and finished at the Nisqually Bridge. In total Zeb and I traveled 24 miles, gaining 19,000 feet and skiing 21,000 feet in 3 days.
RMI: How does being a Guide help prepare you for trips like this?
Tyler Jones: Being a guide helps to develop your intuitive mountain sense, which is very important for making good decisions in the mountains. It is that gut feeling that can make all the difference.
Zeb Blais: Guiding also gives me a good base-line fitness for doing long days in the mountains. Mountaineering is a unique sport that requires specific techniques and fitness to be efficient. The more you do it the better you get!
RMI: What was your favorite part of this ski trip?
Tyler Jones: My favorite part of this trip was seeing a few new places, skiing a new run, and enjoying the views of the Tahoma Glacier from Sunset Ridge.
Zeb Blais: A huge part of the trip was sharing it with Tyler. Moving in the mountains with a partner who you enjoy and trust makes all the difference. There are thousands of big and small decisions to be made when doing a trip like this, from what gear to bring to what line to ski to 'do we go left here or right?' Making these choices and learning from other experienced climbers or guides is always something I enjoy.
Can't forget skiing! Maybe I should have said this first, but the skiing was awesome! Steep, exposed skiing with great snow is one of the most exhilarating things a person can do.
RMI: What adventures do you have planned next?
Zeb Blais: I am guiding a mountaineering trip on Shasta at the end of the month, and then I'll be back on Rainier for the climbing season with a Denali West Buttress trip at the end of June.
Tyler Jones: I am guiding a Denali trip in June. After that I am planning on flying back onto the mountain for a ski trip with my fiancé Laura. After that I will return to guiding on Rainier and the Grand Teton. Then, I am getting married in September!
Great trip guys! Serious vertical.
Zeb let me know if you’re still trying to unload those Spatniks. This is Steve, the splitboarder in Spatniks. We chatted on the way up Ellery Bowl back in April.
get me at stevebrezovec at the jeeeeeeemail dot com
Posted by: Stevee B on 6/19/2013 at 5:50 pm
Posted by: Seth Waterfall, Tyler Jones
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
Posted by: Seth Waterfall, Tyler Jones
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,000'
Posted by: Tyler Jones, Seth Waterfall
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,060'
Michelle we are all so very proud of you and the rest of the team.
Please know that we’re keeping you in our prayers. Glad to hear the weather is good.
May God keep you all safe!!
Posted by: Flor Frei on 9/19/2012 at 3:26 pm
Posted by: Tyler Jones, Tyler Reid
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: Summit
Congratulations to the Team! (Hi Daniel!)
Posted by: Marybeth on 9/8/2012 at 7:43 am
Way to go Donny! LaWoo!
Posted by: Donny's Wife on 9/7/2012 at 10:42 am
Posted by: Tyler Jones, Geoff Schellens
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
Way to go Brandon and Evan!! Can’t wait to hear about the journey.
XO, Linda and Eliza
Posted by: Linda Hull on 9/3/2012 at 2:39 pm
Way to go Scotty, happy b- day ;). We will meet
you at the bottom, xoxo. Siena, Chase and me
Posted by: Sheryl on 9/3/2012 at 9:09 am
Tyler, Garrett and James -
Hi Guys!!
I feel like I should be up there with you! I’ve been following Logan and Brent and they have been having great climbing conditions so far. I hope it holds together for you.
By now you’ve probably learned that James Choo and I were tentmates on Aconcagua. He’ll carry his weight-you can depend on him. Fred Klingbeil was also in the tent with us and I see he has posted on the blog and is following along. Hi Fred!
My poor substitute for Denali this year is going to Elbrus in July. I was on Kilimanjaro this past February. I’ll be at Elbrus with Casey and he and I were also at Kilimanjaro.
Good luck and climb safe. I miss you guys. XXOO
-Larry Seaton
Posted by: Larry Seaton on 5/31/2013 at 11:06 am
have an excllent trip and we’ll see if we can get the elmendorf guys to give a gentle flyby
Posted by: stump on 5/31/2013 at 9:04 am
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