Busy Weekend At IMG & Kautz Team Summits

June 20, 2009

Today – Justin Merle and crew head up the DC on a 3-day climb… They’ll pass IMG Guide Jason Tanguay and his team on their way down after summitting on a sunset climb yesterday…pretty cool!

Also today our next Kautz and Liberty Ridge teams will meet here at HQ for gear check, orientation and some training. Andy Polloczek will be leading the Kautz team while Jeff Ward will take care of the Lib Ridge climbers. Busy day!

Lib Ridge Bergschrund - Photo by Dave Smith

Oh and we’ll have an Emmons climb going up on Monday too so we’ll have the mountian pretty much coverd this week!

***Our first Kautz Climb of the season walked off the mountain yesterday with a summit! A few pitches of ice made summit day fun for all! Nice work to guides Brian Warren, Eric Gullickson, John Colver and Eric Remza and their team!Â The weather cooperated until their last day…snow, freezing rain and rain made for some wet, cold but happy climbers!

I’ll be joining the Kautz team on the mountain so I’ll bring back some details and some photos… more on this late next week…

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Tye Chapman
Operations Manage

Ershler & Co. at 14,200 On Denali

June 18, 2009

IMG Partner Phil Ershler called in early this morning to report that his team is at 14,000ft. on Denali and plans to carry to 17,000 today. If all goes as planned they’ll be on top in a few days!

Note that this is Phil’s 31st climb on Denail!

Tye Chapman
Operations Manager

Kautz Team At 2nd Camp

June 17, 2009

IMG Guide Brian Warren called in this afternoon and reported that the team is camped at roughly 10,700 near the Kautz Headwall. The winds are calm and they’re in and out of the clouds… sunny one minute… clouds the next.

They plan on heading up late tonight/early tomorrow (depending on your perspective!)… If all goes well they’ll be on the summit around dawn and back at the tents a few hours after that ready for a nap and some dinner!

A note on the Kautz: this is a great intermediate route for those looking for a more challenging route after the DC or the Emmons.
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Tye Chapman
Operations Manager

Fall 2009 & Spring 2010 Himalayan Climbs & Treks

June 12, 2009

Eric Simonson is back from Nepal and hard at work planning upcoming Himalayan Climbs and Treks…below you’ll see what’s on the horizon.

Great news for anybody looking to climb Cho Oyu (6th Highest Peak in the World) or trek in Tibet because this Fall’s Cho Oyu Climb & Trek are a GO! It looks like the Chinese roadblocks have been lifted and permits shouldn’t be an issue… The lead guide for this trip is Greg Vernovage who is fresh off our successful Lhotse climb and is en route to climb Denali with fellow IMG Guide Mike Hamill.

Also this fall is the Autumn Everest Base Camp Trek, Lobuche Peak Climb and Ama Dablam Climb. Justin Merle, just off the summit of Everest for the third time, will lead this trip again. I had the opportunity to trek to EBC last fall and had a blast – amazing views, wonderful culture and some great company (Hello to all the folks from last fall!).

And finally for all the Everest enthusiasts out there – Everest 2010 info is now available. This includes info on the EBC Trek, Lobuche Peak Climb, Everest C2 and C3 Climbs… And as a result of this year’s success on Lhotse, we’re happy to offer this as an option to the more savvy climbers out there looking for a challenge!

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Tye Chapman
Operations Manager

Second Lib Ridge Team Summits

June 11, 2009

IMG Guides Brian Warren and Aaron Mainer took the team to the summit on Tuesday morning.The team had great weather and specifically enjoyed the technical parts of this climb.To keep them honest they did get hit with some weather on their way down. All in all it was about as smooth a climb as possible! Nice work guys!

The Team’s Schedule

Day 1 – White River to Curtis Ridge

Day 2 – Curtis Ridge to Thumb Rock

Day 3 – Thumb Rock – Summit – Camp Schurman (Emmons)

Day 4 – Camp Schurman – White River (11am).

If you want to test your skills on Liberty Ridge next year but don’t have the required technical skills check out an ice climbing course this winter in Ouray, CO.

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Tye Chapman
Operations Manager

Bona Team Summits!

June 9, 2009

Below is a recap of the trip:

The group arrived at Camp 1 on schedule and spent a good night there on June 3.

On June 4 the guides scouted the route up to Camp 2 at 14,000 feet while the team took a well deserved rest day.

On June 5 the team moved up to 14,000 feet in deteriorating weather but established a very secure camp with an exposed serac wall (a vertical chunk of ice) providing good wind protection.

The weather turned out to be good on June 6 so four of the team members elected to go for the summit with the two guides Mark Allen and Eric Stevenson. The four team members and two guides made the summit, 16,400 feet, and returned to high camp tired but happy.

On June 7 guide Mark Allen summited for a second time with the two remaining team members. They made it back down to high camp safely.

The rest of the team had considered climbing nearby Mt. Churchill on June 7 since they had the extra day, but after the Bona climb they decided that one summit was good enough and instead took the day off.

Mark Allen called in this morning at 8:30 a.m. today, June 8, and says the entire team will descend this morning all the way back to the landing site. They will be down at Base Camp by 4:00 pm and hopeful of a pickup by the bush pilot at his earliest convenience. Optimal would be June 9 in the morning, but it will be conditions and weather dependent.

JUNE 9 UPDATE: I received a call from the team at Mt. Bona Base Camp at 6:30 a.m. Alaska time. The winds are calm with unlimited visibility. The group all arrived safely last night.

I contacted the bush pilot and he is in the air.

This was a remarkable ascent of Mt. Bona, I have rarely seen a smoother climb!

Thatâ€™s all for now, my congratulations to the team!

George Dunn

Rainier Team Summits…Route Moves Off Direct To DC

June 6, 2009

As expected the early season route up the Ingraham Direct has shifted to the standard summer route on the Disappointment Cleaver. IMG Guides Eben Reckord and Mike Haft spent some time shoveling out the route to the nose of the cleaver last week and our team this morning reported that the route is in good shape! Great news!

We had 100% on top this morning – nice work team!

**On a different note IMG Partners Phil Ershler and George Dunn are up above Paradise today with close to 20 Boy Scouts doing some volunteer work. The Scouts are helping shovel out the summer hiking route above Paradise near Pan Point. This will help avoid any harm to vegetation accidentally caused when hiker punch through the shallow slushy snow. By shoveling out the trail all hikers will be able to see and stay on the trails that are well defined when not buried in a winter’s snow.Good stuff!

The Scouts will also spend some time learning some mountaineering fundamentals from both Phil and George… Who better to learn from than from #1 and #2 on the Most Rainier Summits List (George Dunn 495, Phil Ershler 435)?

Thanks to the Scouts for their help this year!!

IMG Mt. Bona Update #1

IMG Guide Mark Allen called in late last night. The group met and organized on Saturday in Anchorage, then breezed through the 4-5 hour drive to Chitina on Sunday. Rather than spend the night at the bush pilotâ€™s lodge on the Chitina River, bush pilot Paul Claus was able to fly the group directly on to the Klutlan Glacier at 10,500 feet at the base of Mt. Bona in his turbo Otter.This is a broad, gentle landing area on the Klutlan Glacier and the normal site for base camp.

Mark reported perfect weather, no wind and a very happy group at camp last evening. They will rest, acclimatize and do some low exertion training today. Mark will consider making a group carry to the next camp at 12,000 feet tomorrow. The group will spend at least a second night at base camp before moving up to occupy the 12,000 foot camp.
We’ll pass on more details as they comes in…

Tye Chapman
Operations Manager

IMG Guides Summit Lib Ridge

May 31, 2009

Earlier this week IMG Guides Erica Engle, Eric Gullickson, Austin Shannon and Brian Warren summitted Mt. Rainier via Liberty Ridge…

About Liberty Ridge:

Liberty Ridge on Mt. Rainier is a very serious, technically difficult and physically demanding ascent that is reserved for strong climbers with prior climbing experience. The route is a prominent ridge that divides the Willis and Liberty Walls on the North Face of

Mt. Rainier. It is steep, exposed, and committing. The program begins at our facilities in Ashford but we shuttle the team around to the northern side of the mountain and the White River entrance for the start of the climb. The approach to this route is long and fairly involved, and circumnavigates part of Mt.Â Rainier on its north-eastern flank. We climb the route using two or more camps as we progress to successively higher altitudes. Technical difficulties start at the base of the ridge, 8,600ft and end at Liberty Cap, 14,112Â ft. The climb ends with a long trudge across a saddle to the true summit, Columbia Crest, 14,411ft. We carry our gear up and over the top with us and descend the technically easier Emmons Glacier route and back out via the White River entrance. Four days are the minimum time required to complete the climb, but we offer a 5Â½ day program that allows for an extra summitÂ day.

Tune up your skills and join us on one of our Lib Ridge climbs in 2010.

More Info On Lib Ridge

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Tye Chapman
Operations Manager

Winds Calmed For Another Rainier Summit

We had 100% on top this morning! The group just pulled into IMG HQ and reported that it was pretty windy on top today but not windy enough to stop them. They summitted around 6:15am and promptly turned around and headed back down to camp. The route continues on the Ingraham Direct for now.

Our next group of climbers is pulling into Muir right now and reporting a significant lenticular cloud building – looks like it’ll continue to be windy up high and nice and warm down low. They’re scheduled to move to the Flats tomorrow and try to summit early on Sunday…so… fingers crossed.

Summit Crater

Tye Chapman
Operations Manager

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