December 2, 2009
Phil called in this morning to report that the team successfully carried to C1 yesterday in good form. It was about a 6 hour day in clear conditions – everybody is doing well. After a cold night last night they planned to carry to High Camp today and weather permitting they’ll take tomorrow as a rest day and head up to High Camp on Friday. All is well from C1 on Vinson!
Tye Chapman
Operations Manager
December 1, 2009
Phil called in to report that his Vinson Team landed on the ice on the 28th an quickly made it to Vinson Base Camp. They spent the 29th organizing their gear then made a carry to C1 on the 30th in some great weather.
The plan is to move to C1 today weather permitting…
Stay tuned!
Tye Chapman
Operations Manager
November 29, 2009
Phil Ershler called in at 9am Saturday the 28th, Punta Arenas time.
They just got the call, and the weather is a go, so they will be heading to the airport in one hour. The members are all excited and looking forward to a grand adventure.
The team was lucky to be delayed only one day by weather in Punta, which is way above the norm. All is well with the team.
-George Dunn
November 19, 2009
IMG Partner Phil Ershler breaks down some layering options for the alpine environment. Check it out and compare it to what you’ve got in your pack.
Tye Chapman
Operations Manager
November 16, 2009
Received word over the weekend that our November Mexico team, led by Peter Anderson, had picked off another summit. Let’s see – that makes them two for two. Nice job, gang. Report had it that the weather was about as good as they were going to get. Stars a bunch, knock your socks off sunrise and views for as far as you could see. And everyone climbing with Peter, Oso and Fernando went right to the tippy top. Not easy for everyone but nothing worthwhile usually is.
The trip ended as it should. Everyone safe, great success and pretty happy about the whole week. Oh yeah, that plus a good steak dinner. Flights home were Sunday and now it’s time for everyone to get back to the office. And, of course, to start planning the next adventure.
Phil Ershler
November 12, 2009
Peter Anderson, IMG Senior Guide, reported in last night from the city of Puebla. Safety and success was the message. In Peter’s words, “we slayed the ‘sleeping lady’â€. ‘Sleeping lady’ is a name used for Ixtacciuatl. Even though the ascent from high camp wasn’t that long, it is a long day. Up to the summit, back to high camp, pack, walk back to the road and then drive to Puebla. But it’s all worthwhile with Ixta in the rear view mirror.
Today, the team’s off to the town of Tlachichuca. A nice lunch with our Mexican partners, the Reyes family, and then it’s off to the Piedre Grande refugio. Orizaba, their next objective, will be waiting for them early Friday morning.
Let’s hope the good news continues. One down and one to go.
Phil Ershler
November 6, 2009
Our Winter Expeditions take place in mid-winter: January and February. It’s a great opportunity to climb Rainier when conditions can be quite extreme, providing valuable experience in cold weather, high altitude conditions. IMG Partners Eric Simonson and George Dunn developed the Winter Expedition Seminar as guides on Mt. Rainier in the mid-eighties and have refined it into the program it is today.
Mt. Rainer is the ultimate winter challenge with its world record snowfall and rules supreme as the premiere training ground for North American climbers. This program ascends Mt. Rainier in expedition fashion using two or more camps along the way at progressively higher altitudes. We incorporate avalanche level 1 training material into the climb to offer in depth snow training and avalanche risk assessment. This program has two primary goals: to attempt to climb, survive and summit the mountain, and to spend a significant amount of time learning skills and training. Weather can potentially limit our ability to climb higher at any step of the way, but this allows for more time spent training and learning skills to survive what the mountain throws at us. Winter Expedition Climbs ascend through the Muir Corridor (Ingraham Glacier, Disappointment Cleaver, and Gibraltar Ledges routes), but the selected route is weather and snow pack dependent. Camp Muir is always used as the high base for our summit attempts.
Think you’ve got what it takes?
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Tye Chapman
Operations Manager
October 30, 2009
The home to some of North America’s premier ice climbing each and every winter is in a small town in Southwestern Colorado called Ouray. Often more intimidating than the vertical water ice is pronouncing Ouray correctly! So how do you say it… Is it “Oooray” or “Ewwray”…? Actually is best pronounced You-Ray.
So now that you know how to say it correctly it’s time to see which course fits you best. We offer 2-day, 3-day and 5-day courses, private trips are no problem either…and with no experience needed to get started climbing there are officially no excuses! IMG Guides John Race, Olivia Cussen, Mark Allen, Brian Warren, Zoe Hart, Jake Norton, Matt Farmer, and Eric Remza hope to see you in Ouray this winter for some world class ice climbing.
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Tye Chapman
Operations Manager
October 27, 2009
IMG guide Justin Merle reports that everyone is safe and sound after a very successful summit day. Congrats to the climbers! They left Camp 2 at 4am and reached the summit a bit after 10am. Then they descended to Camp 2 by about 2pm, and were feeling good, so they kept moving down, eventually descending ALL the way to Base Camp by about 8:30pm! It was a long day, but everyone was feeling good, and they wanted to just keep moving down.
Justin reports that the route was in good shape and the Dablam Glacier ice cliff looked a lot better than it did the last couple years. He said there was some old debris in the vicinity of Camp 3, but it appeared that the cliff has stabilized compared to the last few years, when it was quite active.
—Eric
October 26, 2009
Justin Merle called on the sat phone to say that today they were able to move up to Camp 2. The weather and conditions remain good and the ridge was in good shape for climbing.
Their plan is to make an alpine start tomorrow morning and try to go for the summit from Camp 2 (skipping C3). This makes the summit day longer, but eliminates having to stay at Camp 3, which has been hit by falling ice occasionally in past years. We’ll keep you posted!
—Eric
