Kili Climbers Reach Barranco Camp

June 29, 2012

: Sunrise from Shira Plateau Camp. (Eben Reckord)

: Kili team before Barranco. (Eben Reckord)

IMG guide Eben Reckord reports that the team had another spectacular day today, hiking from Shira Plateau to over 14,500 feet near Lava Tower, before dropping back down to the Barranco Camp.Â Barranco camp is situated in a valley below the famous Breach Wall, with the glaciers hanging down.Â Everyone is acclimatizing well and feeling good.Â The acclimatization profile of our 7 day Kili climb via the Machame Route is perfect in this regard, with ample time to get well acclimatized before the summit day.

Theyâ€™re On And They’re Off

June 28, 2012

The weather allowed some flying yesterday.Â Mike Hamill was able to fly off with his team and Greg Vernovage was able to fly on with his.Â Nice for everyone.Â Mikeâ€™s team will be anxious to get cleaned up and celebrate their success while Gregâ€™s team is anxious to get to the project at hand.

: Ready to go!

: Mike and Greg pass each other in the international terminal at Talkeetna Air Taxi

Even if weather isnâ€™t perfect, itâ€™s normally quite possible to travel down low in marginal weather.Â Thatâ€™s important.Â If you only move during perfect weather, youâ€™re going to need either to be incredibly patient or incredibly lucky.Â Better to move when you can and put yourself in position to take advantage of that good luck when itâ€™s needed up high.

Phil Ershler

Kili Team Reaches Shira Plateau

June 28, 2012

: Lunch break (Photo by Eben Reckord)

: Looking up at Kili from about halfway between Machame Camp and Shira Camp. (Eben Reckord)

Eben Reckord reports that the IMG Kili team has been enjoying fantastic weather.Â Yesterday they had a nice hike up through the forest to the Machame Camp (just below 10,000â€™) and today they had gorgeous day hiking up to the Shira Camp (a little over 12,000â€™).Â Everyone on the team is doing well and their Chagga team is doing a great job with the camps and meals.Â Tomorrow the team will be heading for the Barranco Camp, at about 13,000 feet.Â So far, so good!

Eric Simonson

Kilimanjaro Climbers On Their Way

June 27, 2012

: Eben & the Kili team ready to go!

: Sign at Machame Gate

IMG guide Eben Reckord reports that our first summer season team is on the way to Machame Camp.Â For Kilimanjaro (3 degrees south of Equator) there is not really a summer and a winter, just two wet and two dry seasons a year (June-early Oct is one of the dry ones).Â Â There were some clouds this morning in Moshi, making a team photo in front of the real mountain impossible, so they used a mural at the hotel!

Today they will head to the Machame Gate, where they meet their porters and crew, before heading into the forest for a nice hike up to the Camp, located at about 10,000 feet at the timberline.

Eric Simonson

The Talkeetna Hang

June 26, 2012

Denali Team hanging out, waiting for The Call (photo: Greg Vernovage)

Yesterday was a classic ‘hurry up and wait’ scenario – hurry up to get on the airplane, go for a quick ride down the taxi strip and then turn around and shut down the engines.Â That’s OK – no guts, no glory.Â Today, all the gear is still in the van and we are on standby.Â Pilot Paul says – “be ready to roll in 5-10 minutes, IF we call”.Â Expedition climbers need to be patient.

Greg Vernovage

Next Stop – Denali!

June 25, 2012

Next Stop - Denali!

IMG guides are always coming and going.Â Mike Hamill and Greg Vernovage should be exchanging handshakes this week when Mike flies off Denali and Greg flies on.Â Mike’s been guiding with AMS on Denali, had a great trip and is heading back to Seattle to repack and get on a plane for Russia.Â He’s got a full IMG team to take on our first Elbrus trip of the season After that, he’ll be in Salt Lake City at the Outdoor Retailer Show, autographing copies of his new book – “Climbing the Seven Summits”.

Greg’s waiting, ready to rock and roll, with his Denali team in Talkeetna and hoping to fly onto the mountain soon.Â After leading IMG’s hugely successful Everest expedition this spring, Denali won’t be easy but maybe a bit less stressful. Weather always determines flights so a little luck and a little patience is needed to get one team off and one team on.

Greg’s been going over personal gear with each of his 6 team members.Â The weather delay will give them more time to work on knots, crevasse rescue and maybe some of the finer points of setting up tents.Â It’s all good.Â When the weather breaks, everyone will be moving in the right direction.

Phil Ershler

Next Stop – Kilimanjaro!

June 24, 2012

IMG Guide Eben Reckord ready to go!

Well, my duffels are all packed and I can’t wait to get this show on the road.Â Kilimanjaro is one of my favorites.Â Not only is the sunrise on summit morning one of the best I ever get to see, we go on a real safari as well!

I’m looking forward to another successful season on the mountain.Â I hope everyone on our team is gearing up and getting excited for the adventure ahead.Â Ill see you all soon.

And to all those following us please keep an eye on the blog as we make our way up (and down) the mountain.

Eben Reckord

Liberty Ridge Team Summits!

June 21, 2012

Above Thumb Rock

Justin Merle just called in from the summit plateau at 2:10 pm PDT after his team topped out on Liberty Cap, a false summit on the mountain, but the end of the technical difficulties on the Liberty Ridge route. They have a couple of hourâ€™s slog over to the true summit, then will stop to brew up some water and rehydrate.

Justin says theyâ€™ll continue their descent via the normal Camp Muir route and will likely stop for the night at Camp Muir. Theyâ€™ll be down mid-day tomorrow.

Congratulations to the team for a job well done!

George Dunn

Liberty Ridge Team Climbing Strong

June 20, 2012

Good news from Liberty Ridge!

Camp at Thumb Rock

Justin Merle called in this afternoon at 2pm PDT. The team is doing well. They spent last night on lower Curtis Ridge at Â 7,000â€™ and got an early start this morning, walking by 6am. They made good progress climbing the Carbon Glacier to the foot of Liberty Ridge at 8,500â€™ , reaching that point at 8:30am. The team climbed up the west side of the ridge in good firm sun cupped snow, then bumped to the east side after 500 feet, continuing up in more sloppy, wet snow but with good step kicking conditions. Justin reported that they had been in camp for a couple of hours already. He and guide Aaron Mainer were planning to climb a bit higher this afternoon to kick in steps for the following morning.

The plan is to depart even earlier tomorrow, with a 3 or 4am departure, heading for the summit.

The team plans to climb up over the summit and descend via the Camp Muir, Disappointment Cleaver route down the south side of the mountain. Theyâ€™ll likely spend a final night somewhere down near Camp Muir.

Weâ€™ll hope to be able to report the teamâ€™s success tomorrow!

George Dunn

JanSport DC Team Spins At 12,800

June 14, 2012

: Top of The Cleaver (Austin Shannon)

: Little Tahoma (Jess Culver)

Even George Dunn turns around from time to time! The group left the flats and after reaching the top of the cleaver they encountered some slopes they just weren’t comfortable with, so they stopped, took some photos and headed back to the Ingraham Flats. A great effort by all on a beautiful, cold & windy morning.

Both JanSport teams will convene on IMG here this afternoon before heading to The WellSpring Spa for a nice dinner, a couple drinks, and a well earned rest!

No summits this year, but all will make it home safely with 10 fingers and 10 toes!

Tye Chapman