Entries By tyler jones
Hello! It’s Tyler,Eric and Logan checking in after a long day of work in Talkeetna.
Yesterday we had a sunny drive through the Alaskan scenery before arriving in Talkeetna in late evening. This completed a long day of travel from our various home bases to our soon to be new home on the “Great One”- Denali.
This morning the team met for breakfast at the Roadhouse Restaurant to officially start the program. After chatting about the day, we walked across the small town of Talkeetna to K2 Aviation. As planes took off and landed around us, the team spread out clothing and equipment in the airport hanger and consulted endless checklists. As we made our final gear selections, the hanger was buzzing with excitement.
After an afternoon break for pizza and salad, we all headed to the National Park Service headquarters for an orientation meeting. We chatted about the importance of keeping our impact low as we climb and live in the park for the next few weeks. After the orientation, we spent some time working on rigging sleds, setting up tents and building other skills.
At noon the hanger looked like a yard sale; clothing and gear scattered everywhere. By the time we left for dinner, all of our ducks were in a row. We now have duffels and packs neatly stacked in the front of the hanger. We are ready to go and eager to get on the glacier.
The Four Day Summit Climb led by Tyler Jones reached the summit this morning! This was our first summit since May 20th. The team began their descent from the crater rim at 9:15 a.m.
Congratulations to Tyler and his team!
thx Tyler for the amazing trip. and pls say hi for me to your teammates!
Posted by: Dan Pan on 5/29/2012 at 4:02 pm
Way to go TJ. See you in a couple of days!
Posted by: Larry Seaton on 5/27/2012 at 10:20 pm
The week of winter solstice was filled with sun, great attitudes and a wonderful time spent in the mountains. We started our Intro to Ski Mountaineering Seminar with a day of basic touring skills, equipment function and packing along with harness, rope, and avalanche transceiver drills. This was a great start to the trip with two young boys from New York and Ohio looking for adventure and building their mountaineering and ski touring skill sets. The mountain days were full of exciting new learning. Our first day on the hill we parked at Paradise and ski toured toward Edith Creek drainage and found a nice, secluded and well snow-covered area to camp for the evening, allowing us to make a run down a great slope in the basin. We covered kick turns and transitions along with many other key maneuvers while traveling the mountains with skis on, whether it be up or on the way down. Our camp experience was good practical winter camping… Cold…ish but clear and star filled nights.
The second day we awoke to fog filled air. We leisurely packed camp and dropped some extra overnight equipment in the van. Around 10 a.m. we stepped in to our skis and started our ski to Camp Muir, 4,500' above at 10,000'. On our way to Muir we encountered firm crust and rime ice requiring us to make use of the crampons a few times and used them a good amount on a section of the upper snow field when our skins would just not grip. In late afternoon we arrived at Muir feeling the days work. We brewed up some hot drinks, had dinner and settled in the bunkhouse for the evening. The third day we covered loads of skills in the region of Muir including ice axes, ropes, cramponing, rope rescue and then followed with many of my other teaching tangents. We had the best weather we could ask for on the true winter solstice day in the Northwest. In our evening lecture we went over frostbite, hypothermia, and altitude illnesses. Today, our fourth day, we made our decent from Muir . We traveled a section with crampons due to poor snow conditions but still managed to get 3,200' of descent. In my eyes, any skiing is good skiing. We closed the week's journey back in Ashford over a refreshing beverage and a burger. The week of ski touring has been one to remember and I look forward to teaching more ski-based mountaineering trips on one of the lower 48's best and biggest ski hills, Mount Rainier.
RMI Guide Tyler Jones
Posted by: Casey Grom, Tyler Jones
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,500'
Our Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir was a microcosm of mountaineering: athletic, challenging, moments of joy and occasional disappointment, but ultimately and most importantly a safe adventure. Heavy rain on Monday negated our planned ascent to Camp Muir, but we had a productive day at Rainier Basecamp going over numerous techniques. We reached Camp Muir on Tuesday and spent the next three days practicing skills and preparing folks for future climbs. These skills were crevasse rescue, cramponing, ice climbing, beacon searches, rope travel, route finding and more! Conditions at Muir were sunny, windy and icy most of the week. We encountered a layer of hard ice on the surface of the Cowlitz Glacier (and above) which unfortunately prevented a summit attempt. Our high point was the top of Cathedral Gap, approximately 10,500’.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
Despite the change in the weather our Four Day Summit Climb team led by Tyler Jones reached the crater rim at about 8:35am PST this morning. It was a touch and go summit for the team as winds were strong, temperatures were cold, and snow was beginning to fall.
Our Five Day Summit Climb team also attempted the summit today but due to deteriorating conditions aborted their attempt at 13,500’. Both teams are descending back to Camp Muir.
Congratulations to both teams for your hard work on the mountain today!
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Have an AMAZING and AWESOME experience, Logan!!! Thinking of you and the rest of the team…. Can’t wait to follow the expedition!
Posted by: Lindsay Randolph on 6/16/2012 at 1:51 pm
have a great time
billy k
Posted by: billy and mary on 6/3/2012 at 4:04 pm
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