Entries By walter hailes
Sunday, January 16, 2022 4:01 PM PST
After a rough first night at base camp because of the big jump in altitude, we started the day a little slow. We went for a nice casual walk to check out the local penitentes and breathe off the slight headaches that lingered from the night before. It was beautiful walking into the 15’ tall glacier spires. After lunch we got to work sprucing up our camp. The whole team worked really hard shoveling, hoeing, and raking the rock filled dirt into plush flat platforms for our tents. We will sleep better tonight partly because the tents will be more comfy and partly because making the tents more comfy was exhausting. Another beautiful day in the mountains with a great team!
RMI Guide Walt Hailes & Team
January 15, 2022
Posted by: Walter Hailes, Jack Delaney
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 14,500'
Hola Amigos! It’s finally happened, we have arrived on the mountain! After some last minute packing and eating a lot of empanadas while we waited, we got a weather window and flew into Plaza de Mulas at 14,000 feet. It was one of the most scenic and incredible helicopter flights I’ve ever been on. We settled nicely into our Basecamp, where we will spend the next several days acclimatizing. We’re happy to be here and are going to bed with full bellies thanks to the amazing food and hospitality of the staff at camp.
RMI Guides Walt Hailes & Jack Delaney
Aconcagua 2022! Yes, it’s happening. Covid delayed this trip by a full year but we are all in Argentina, healthy, happy and ready to climb.
I must thank the hard work of Jeff, Autumn, Jack and Luke for working out all the logistics of my covid related delays and making sure that this trip didn’t stop before it ever got started. The whole team is now together in the town of Uspallata, spending tonight in a beautiful hotel a few miles outside Aconcagua National Park. If the weather report holds, we will fly to Base Camp mid-day tomorrow. But until then, we are enjoying more of the friendly people, tasty food and great wine of Argentina.
Our 3 Guardsman, Alden, Brett and Chip are raising money during our climb. We welcome everyone following along with our adventure and thanks for your support and generosity.
RMI Guides Walter Hailes & Jack Delaney
Wish I could be there with you guys.
Enjoy the ride. Will be thinking on you these days.
Keep safe. I want to celebrate your climbing soon with you.
Best
Roman
Posted by: Roman Martin on 1/15/2022 at 7:52 am
I miss you all and and am with you in spirit! ¡Abrazos fuertes!
Posted by: Jeff Gordman on 1/15/2022 at 7:34 am
August 15, 2021
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Walter Hailes, Henry Coppolillo, Daniel May, David Shuer, Keeley Rideout
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 11,200'
Today's Mt. Rainier Summit Climb teams, led by RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer and Walter Hailes, turned due to hazardous route conditions. The teams ascended to Ingraham Flats to watch the sunrise before descending back to Camp Muir where they had breakfast. They left Camp Muir around 9:45 a.m. and are working their way back to Paradise.
June 15, 2021
Posted by: Walter Hailes, Chase Halbert, Erika Birkeland, Avery Parrinello, Grayson Swingle, Leif Bergstrom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 11,200'
RMI Guides Walter Hailes and Avery Parrinello led the Five Day Climb to Ingraham Flats, 11,200', this morning. High winds overnight at Camp Muir had prevented the teams getting an alpine start and thus they were unable to make a summit attempt. Winds at Camp Muir averaged between 40 - 80 mph with gusts as high as 93 mph around 9 pm.
Once the winds subsided later in the morning the teams roped up and traveled to Ingraham Flats to check out the conditions and see a bit of the route. They will return to Camp Muir and descend to Paradise later this morning.
June 11, 2021
Posted by: Walter Hailes, Camille Leininger, Augi Fleer, Dominic Cifelli, Leif Bergstrom, Liam Weed
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,080'
The Four Day Climb June 8 - 11 led by RMI Guides Walter Hailes and Dominic Cifelli were unable to make their summit attempt this morning. Strong winds and blowing snow made for unsafe climbing conditions and kept the team hunkered down at Camp Muir over night. The telemetry from Camp Muir shows wind averages ranging from mid 20 to mid 60 mph over night with gusts up to 79 mph. When the group radioed the office this morning they were experiencing estimated 50 mph winds. The team will be descending from Camp Muir today and return to Rainier BaseCamp. Unfortunately, today was not their day to reach the summit of Mt. Rainier.
Next time boys!
Posted by: Brandon Sprout on 6/11/2021 at 9:54 pm
June 7, 2021
Posted by: Walter Hailes, Jenny Konway, David Price, Matt McEttrick, Liam Weed, Axel Ryd
Categories: Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,080'
The Five Day Climb June 3 - 7, 2021 is completing their climb today. The teams did training at Paradise on Friday with instruction on cramponing, rope travel and ice axe arrest. On Saturday they made the ascent from Paradise to Camp Muir. Yesterday, they enjoyed some additional time walking in crampons and working as a rope team by walking to Ingraham Flats at 11,200'. This allowed them to see abit of the route in the day light hours. They planned their summit attempt for today but unfortuaty the team was unable to make a summit attempt due to high winds. According to the Camp Muir Telemetry wind averages were 34 - 53 mph with gusts up to 68 mph.
The teams will descend from Camp Muir to Paradise and make the drive back to Ashford. We look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp later today.
January 31, 2020
Posted by: Walter Hailes
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mexico
Elevation: 17,000'
We pushed as hard as we could today but the weather just didn't let us summit Orizaba. We all climbed strong up to about 17,000ft when the combination of strong winds, wind loaded slopes, and reduced visibility made the decision to turn around and head downhill quite clear. It is always disappointing to not make the summit, but the while team is in great spirits back at the Casa pierde hut. Now we load onto the 4x4 for our final push to Mexico City and a nice hot shower and dinner. See you all very soon.
RMI Guide Walter Hailes checks in from Orizaba Summit attempt.
Damn those high winds and white out conditions!! Obviously the right call to make! Have fun in Mexico City. Looking forward to seeing pics and hearing stories. Safe travels!
Posted by: Chip on 2/1/2020 at 12:24 pm
You’re all unstoppable!!! Warm greetings from Florida and Boston!
Posted by: Team Alden on 1/31/2020 at 8:06 am
January 30, 2020
Posted by: Walter Hailes
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mexico
Elevation: 14,000'
Update: January 30th at 1:30 pm PT
Hello friends and family,
We spent a few hours today climbing higher on Orizaba in partial sunshine and protected from the wind by the mountain. During the trip we refreshed our ice axe and crampon skills and may have done a little scheming about new business ideas. We are sticking to the plan of an early dinner and bed and really early rise to attempt the summit. No matter what the weather does we will be safe and have fun.
January 30th at 6:30 am PT
We made the correct decision to abandon the tents and sleep in the hut at Piedra Grande. The wind gusts gradually got stronger till early morning. Another team did attempt the summit but turned around before the summit because of the wind.
The wind is still strong but we are going to get out and do a little training/acclimation hike and enjoy the day. We'll keep looking up and see what the weather gives us for tonight.
On The Map
January 29, 2020
Posted by: Walter Hailes
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mexico
Elevation: 14,000'
Our day started calm and orderly, but did not finish that way. We had another great meal at La Malinche before we started driving to Tlachachula. Then we loaded the van and hit the road. After sorting gear and eating lunch in town we loaded up the 4x4 and drove the bumpy road 2 hours to camp. Camp was a little windy when as we set up our tents. We choose to sleep in tents instead of the hut so that we could have a nice quiet night. However, just as we finished the last tent big wind gusts started hitting us. When we almost lost one tent 3 times we decided to change plans, drop the tents and retreat to the hut. The team made quick work of relocating and we settled into the hut nicely. We'll sleep sound tonight and see what the wind is like in the morning.
RMI Guide Walt Hailes & Team
Walt,
Good to seeing you on the Blog. Looking forward to climbing with you again someday.
Stay safe.
Pat and Lynn Morrison
Posted by: Pat Morrison on 1/16/2022 at 9:07 am
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