Follow our Mount Vinson Expeditions

Our second Mount Vinson expedition of the season is underway. We have a blog dedicated to their climb, and invite you to follow them through our expedition dispatches as well as podcasts from 78 degrees south latitude. Click on the link below to keep up with the team!

Mount Vinson Expedition dispatches

Our first team of the season was very successful, with all 10 of our climbers and guides reaching the summit. The depth of support we were able to provide allowed us to make three separate summit bids, to best accommodate all of our team members. We invite you to read about the expedition and listen to podcasts from the summit on our:

December 1, Vinson Expedition Dispatch Blog

We've really had a lot of fun developing our Vinson program, and the word from "The Ice" this season is that the quality of our expeditions has been without parallel. We're staying in the best hotel in Punta Arenas, have the nicest Base Camp facilities, are eating like royalty, and, of course, have our top-notch guides helping lead our teams to the top of the bottom of the world.

Please click on the following link for more information on our exceptional Vinson Massif expeditions.

Colorado Ice Climbing!

While snow has been a bit sparse in SW Colorado, the ice has been coming into great condition! Three of us got out on Friday, December 10th and climbed the San Juan Mountain classic ice route, The Ribbon (600' WI4). The ice was in fatter than in the past few years and the route lived up to its classic status!

The Ribbon follows the cleft in the rocks for four pitches of great fun!

Todd Rutledge started us up the route, which climbs a short, thin bit of ice to a long stretch of snow and lower angled ice.

The second pitch was more engaging, and was steep, right off the belay.

MT owner Todd and our buddy and newly credentialed, IFMGA Guide, Eric Larson, having some fun at the second belay.

Eric took over the lead for the last two pitches. The third pitch was pretty cruiser and ended at a nice, sheltered belay before the steep pillar at the top of the photo.

MT "Rookie of the Year" Karen Kingsley, following the steep bit at the start of the last pitch.

Karen didn't have any fun at all!

Eric near the end of the second of four rappels to get off the route.

If you have aspirations of some steep ice classic or would like to learn the basics of how to enjoy this amazing sport, please give us a call at our Colorado office. We're located minutes away from some of the best ice in the state and would love to help you get up on some frozen falls!

Recaps from our 2010 Guides' Mega-Training

We'd like to extend a special thanks to the 23 Mountain Trip guides who made the considerable effort to join us in Ouray, CO from October 25 - 31 to attend our 2010 Mega-Training. Six of us stayed on for another week to complete an AMGA (American Mountain Guides Association) Rock Instructor Course, which wound down this past weekend.

Thanks also to our guide Kevin Koprek for the time and dedication he spent developing the curriculum for the course, arranging for lodging for all our guides and generally making this whole course happen. Instructors and IFMGA Certified Guides Vince Anderson and Angela Hawse spent the better part of two weeks with our guides and we deeply appreciate their help, insights and instruction. Thanks to high altitude medicine specialist Dr. Peter Hackett and Durango Search and Rescue team leader Leo Lloyd for presenting an amazing day of medical and rescue instruction. Dr. Hackett runs the Institute for High Altitude Medicine in Telluride. Click HERE for a link to their website.

We could post an entire blog about the past 14 days of instruction, which kicked off with a big barbecue before covering heaps of technical skills, principle-based decision making, pedagogy for teaching mountain skills, and much, much more. The Mega-Training concluded with a day of guide presentations on a wide variety of mountain topics ranging from avalanche considerations on Denali, women's issues on expeditions, physics for climbers, crevasse rescue, deescalation techniques for use with emotional teammates, and more. We booked a local restaurant for a dinner to celebrate our dear friend and guide, Heidi Kloos, who we lost to an avalanche six months ago and it was really nice to see her Mountain Trip family have the chance to meet some of her local friends.

John Duncan cuts big steaks out of prime rib while his daughter Brooke looks on hungrily. John owns and runs a local fly fishing and adventure guide service called Telluride Outside and is the husband of Laura Duncan, our amazing office helper.

An early snowstorm confined us indoors on our first day, where Vince and Angela discussed an array of technical skills and considerations that would lay the foundation for the rest of the week. Read more about Vince at his website HERE.

A heartfelt thanks to the Ouray County Search and Rescue Team for allowing us to use their "Rescue Barn" as our base for the course.

The weather improved and we took things outside to the beautiful setting of Unaweep Canyon, and it's granitic walls, some of which rise over a thousand feet tall. For more information on Angela, click HERE to see her website.

We interspersed technical instruction with plenty of hands on application. This meant getting to climb some great routes!

Evenings generally saw us congregating at the Rescue Barn for more topics of discussion and slide shows presented by our guides.

We opted to spend more time in Unaweep than planned, as cold temperatures did not let much snow melt around Ouray. This added some travel to our days, but provided a great venue for learning. Thanks to the Western Colorado Climbers Coalition for helping keep access open to these spectacular crags. Check them out at: http://westernslopeclimbers.blogspot.com/

Joe Butler belays a climber up on his bomb-proof anchor.

Chris Kerrick about to trust me to lower him down a route.

We returned to Ouray for a couple of days of short-roping practice and instruction. Here Angela models how to short-pitch and efficiently belay up two climbers at a time.

After the official MT Mega-training ended, six of us remained to complete an AMGA Rock Instructor Course, during which we climbed a lot more, including a day up a super-fun route called Otto's Route on Independence Monument, a 400 foot tower in Colorado National Monument.

Joe Butler battles the tricky overhanging off-width crack on pitch 2 of Otto's Route.

Jacob Schmitz belays Karen Kingsley up the exposed and fun last pitch.

The MT RIC team on top of Independence Monument
From left to right: Chris Kerrick, Karen Kingsley (in front), Joe Butler, Todd Rutledge, Jacob Schmitz and Peter Ingliss.

Jacob, having fun while being lowered to the base of the route.

Mountain Trip Everest Summiters Receive Honors

Orange County Metro recently honored three Everest summiters from Mountain Trip's 2010 Everest Expedition: Cindy Abbott, Denise Fejtek and Paul Fejtek. Congratulations for this recognition and all of your accomplishments. Check out the full article: http://ocmetro.com/t-Cover_Hot25_24Everest_Climbers1110.aspx.

Mount Everest Expedition 2011

The Summit of Mount Everest May 23rd, 2010

We are all excited and preparing for next year's expedition to Mt Everest!

Join us.... on one of the true challenges on our planet!

Namaste,

Bill Allen and Scott Woolums

Check out the Everest Dispatches and lots of photos from our 2010 Expedition at http://mteverest2010.blogspot.com

and find out about 2011 at
http://mountaintrip.com/International/everest.html

Our new Vinson Massif e-Magazine is live!

We just launched our latest expedition planning magazine for our trips to Antarctica. We wanted a publication that reflects the quality of our expeditions, and will be converting all of our expedition booklets to this format in the coming months.

Read and enjoy!

7th SUMMIT FOR BILL ALLEN!

Mountain Trip co-owner Bill Allen just completed the Seven Summits yesterday with an ascent of Elbrus, the highest peak in Europe!

Bill, along with returning climber Ephi Gildor and fellow MT guide Con Sevaris reached the summit at a little after 8am local time. They had acclimatized for several days in the beautiful Cheget Valley before making their summit bid.

Bill is just a couple summits away from having completed the famed highest points on each continent twice, and has climbed most of the seven numerous times. In the past 13 months he has stood on top of Denali, Carstensz Pyramid, Aconcagua, Everest and Elbrus and with upcoming trips to both Vinson Massif and then Everest in 2011, he's not showing much sign of slowing down.

Special thanks to Ephi for choosing Mountain Trip for his go-to guide service for Elbrus as well as other climbs!

12 Year Old Climber Climbs 50 Highpoints in 43 Days!

When the father and son team of Mike and Matt Moniz approached us about climbing Denali we quickly picked up on two things: they had seemingly boundless energy and enthusiasm and 12 year old Matt was the driving force in the decision. As we worked together over a period of months on a plan for the expedition, Mike let me in on a secret, secondary plan that would be contingent on their reaching the top of Denali. I've not mentioned it previously, but would like to offer up a hearty congratulations on the two of them for their recent accomplishment.

The two climbers stood on top of the highest point on each of the 50 states in the US in a record 43 days!

The logistics involved were mind-boggling, but Matt's determination, combined with dad's planning and attention to detail resulted in things pretty much going as planned.

This amazing feat was fueled by Matt's desire to raise both funds and awareness for a dear friend's illness, Pulmonary Hypertension. They raised $25,000 and hopefully a lot of awareness in the process. You can read about their travels, find articles and links as well as some great video on their website HERE. (Yes, that is a Mountain Trip logo on the top left corner of their tricked-out van's window. Thanks for the props, guys!!!)

Denali 2010 Season Wrapped Up

Our last team of the 2010 Denali season just flew off the glacier this afternoon. We had a great year, with lots of happy climbers. Weather was really challenging this season in Alaska and specifically on Denali, but we still managed to have 14 of our 17 Denali teams stand on the summit.

Each expedition had its exceptional moments and probably heartbreaks as well. Most teams spent their share of time camped in stormy weather, although a couple teams did manage to move up in mostly clear, blue sky weather.

Some highlights of the 2010 season:

We led the first ever guided ski descent of Denali to ski off the summit! Our goal was to travel on skis up to the 14,200' camp and perhaps make some turns in the big Genet Basin above camp. The climbers were fit, motivated and the weather cooperated enough for the team to carry skis up to high camp. Our guides did a great job of evaluating the climbers and the snow conditions and assessed that everything looked good for a descent from the summit!

We also ran a Wilderness West Buttress expedition for some adventurous souls in mid-April where they were able to experience Denali without any other teams on the hill one might have seen it 30+ years ago. They had a cold trip, but it was certainly a unique wilderness experience and the response from the climbers and guides was very enthusiastic.

Toward the end of the season, we led two "Alaska Adaptive" trips for disabled athletes. In conjunction with Telluride Adaptive Sports Program, we flew a number of wheelchair bound, traumatic brain injury and visually impaired athletes to the Pika Glacier, south of Denali for almost a week of skiing, climbing and instruction. Highlights included the athletes orchestrating a crevasse rescue scenario to raise a sit-ski "victim" out of a gaping crevasse! Kevin Koprek, lead guide on our first trip this summer said the experience was so rejuvenating and invigorating that it probably added five years to his guiding career.

Thanks to all the climbers who joined us for this, our 37th year of guiding in Alaska. Thanks also to the family and friends who supported these climbers, we realize it isn't only the climbers who sacrifice for these trips. Hopefully, we helped ease some of the stress through our Expedition Dispatches and podcasts.

We are enjoying a two week respite before the next expedition goes out the door. We're heading to Mt Elbrus (Russia), Vinson Massif (Antarctica), Carstensz Pyramid (Indonesia) and Aconcagua (Argentina) all before 2010 is over.

Interested Everest climbers should contact our office, as we are looking to add further services to our 2011 Everest Expedition in the hopes that we can exceed the expectations of our climbers. The feedback from our 2010 expedition was great. Here's a bit of what our climbers have been saying:

"From beginning to end; Mountain Trip was professional yet friendly, organized but open for suggestions, and produced a safe, successful 60-day expedition that resulted in all the climbers, guides, and climbing Sherpas joining the elite ranks of those who have climbed the world's highest mountain. The thousands of details involved with such an endeavor boggles the mind, but almost without exception: it was a perfect trip."
-Cindy Abbott (Click HERE for Cindy's blog)

New Aconcagua Planning Booklet is live!

We just posted our new Aconcagua Expedition Planning and Preparation Book on our website. It was a lot of fun to produce and we're quite proud of it, so please check it out. Click on the booklet below for a larger version!

Open publication - Free publishing - More seven summit

Denali Updates July 1, 2010

Our Denali season has been full-value, with brutal storms interspersed with stretches of stunningly beautiful, clear days. Our last two teams to go high reached the summit and here are some podcasts from the climbers on the summit of North America.

June 7th team:



June 13th team:

Images from our 2010 Everest Expedition

Vivian James Rigney climbing up the Lhotse Face

The team negotiating the Hillary Step on summit day

Looking back across the South Summit of Mount Everest

On the top of the world!!
May 23, 2010

Descending through the Khumbu Ice Fall

The 2010 Mountain Trip Everest Team, back in Base Camp, safe and sound...

EVEREST SUMMIT!!! May 23, 2010

We are thrilled to report that our entire Everest team stood on the top of the world at 9:30 am on May 23rd!

We were on pins and needles, waiting as our team moved up with a decent, but far from perfect weather forecast. Fortunately, the gusty winds predicted failed to materialize and the team enjoyed a beautiful, warm night and a clear dawn as they climbed to the summit. They made good time, even with having to negotiate a large number of other climbers, and returned safely to Camp 4 at 26,000 feet at about 3:30 pm.

Congratulations to our five climbers, two guides and 12 Climbing Sherpas!!!!!!!!!

Here is a podcast from Scott Woolums, our expedition leader, as he checked back in from Camp 4, following their successful summit:

Denali Weather Forecast

This is an interesting widget that provides a nice, concise forecast for Denali weather. It should update daily, so check back and track what's blowing on Denali!

Weather by meteoexploration

Bill Allen featured in Salem, OR newspaper

I can only post this because Bill is over in Nepal, as he would be too self-conscious about it to let me. Bill's hometown paper, the Statesman Journal, covering all the news that's fit to print in Salem, Oregon, recently ran a front page story about Bill's Everest current expedition.

Bill and the other six climbers are currently waiting for the jetstream to shift, lowering wind speeds up high and presenting them with an opportunity to head for the summit of the highest peak in the world. They are roughly 40 days into their expedition and everything is set for their summit bid.

You can read the article from the Statesman Journal by clicking HERE.

MT Everest Team ready for summit bid!

Our 2010 Everest team has been resting in Dingboche after two rotations up high on the mountain to acclimatize. They are about to head back up to Everest Base Camp and wait for a favorable weather window in order to make their bid for the summit!

Everyone is doing well and all the requisite supplies are in place on the upper mountain, meaning our Camp Three is fully stocked and we have over 70 bottle of oxygen at High Camp! Our custom weather forecasting is the best available, so as soon as the team decides that the winds up high seem to be trending in the right direction, they'll make a push up high.

You can follow the expedition dispatch blog for our crew by clicking on the link to the right.

Good luck to all the climbers!

Annual Pre-Season Guide Training

The 2010 Alaska season is well underway...and it's only the beginning of May?? Of the climbers currently on Denali, the Mountain Trip family makes up the majority by a long shot. We have groups all over the lower mountain biding their time so they will be prepared for the upper mountain when the time comes.

The previous two days have been busy around the MT house in Anchorage. We just finished our annual pre-season 2 day guide training. The group reviewed topics such as professionalism in mountain guiding, menu planning and design, risk management, rescue systems, systems for assisting struggling climbers, general physics in ropework, snow anchors, and of course a review of our medical protocols. We were fortunate to have Dr.'s Paul Anderson and Joe McLaughlin present on some current research in the areas of high altitude physiology and disease transmission in the expedition setting. It was an action packed two days topped off with an amazing BBQ.

The May 2nd team will gather on Sun and begin their journey here in Anchorage. Then off to Talkeetna on Monday morning. The Mountain Trip family is most excited as this looks to be one of our biggest seasons ever. Remember to check out the great blog posts and pod casts from each individual expedition as they make their way up the mountain. Until next time...happy trails!

Our first Denali team is on the glacier!

Our first team of the season flew into the Kahiltna Glacier this morning. Six climbers and four Mountain Trip guides are headed up as some of the very first climbers of the 2010 climbing season. This expedition is a benefit climb, with all net proceeds going to support a program and school in southwest Colorado that helps special needs kids in the area.

Best of luck to all the climbers! You can follow their progress on their dispatch blog at: http://april182010denali.blogspot.com/

Mountain Trip's 2010 Everest Expedition

The team has gathered in Kathmandu, Nepal for Mountain Trip's 2010 Everest Expedition. This is the 3rd year that Mountain Trip has been leading expeditions to this giant of a mountain. This year Scott Woolums has joined the Mountain Trip program as our Expedition Leader, and director of our Himalayan Programs. We are excited to have Scott's depth of knowledge and years of experience.

You can follow this expedition dispatches at www.MTEverest2010.blogspot.com

A Very Successful Event!

Thanks to everyone who participated in our February 18th slide show in Durango, CO. By all accounts it was a success!

Dave Nettle entertained us all with amazing images and fascinating tales of his trip to climb the Eternal Flame route on Trango (Nameless) tower in the Baltoro region of Pakistan. He did a great job of showing how an expedition is about much more than just standing on the summit of a peak. while they did make the top of Trango tower, it seemed as if the time spent traveling up and down the Karakorum Highway and making friends in iconic places like Skardu and Islamabad.

We raised a good amount of money for the Skills for Living And Learning program in Bayfield, CO, but the highlight for me was when two fathers approached us about their young sons having "something going on." We listened, shared stories and then put them in touch with the director of the program, Susan Livingston, an Occupational Therapist who has made helping kids with Sensory Processing Disorder her life's work. It's not often that you can literally help change someone's life, and it give me shivers just thinking about it.

Special thanks to:

Pine Needle Mountaineering in Durango, CO for providing the venue. They carry a great selection of clothing and equipment for big mountain endeavors. You can find out more at: http://www.pineneedle.com

Osprey Packs for generously donating two very nice backpacks which we had a drawing for. We use their packs on Denali, so please check them out at: http://www.ospreypacks.com/

Carver Restaurant and Brewing Company for providing refreshments. If you're looking for good food and tasty brews in Durango, look no further: http://www.carverbrewing.com/

Dave Nettle and his sweetie Danika Gilbert (an accomplished guide and climber in her own right!) for all their help and support.

Cheers,

Todd

Check out our new Everest e-Magazine

This is a "beta version," but we're pretty excited about it. Please let us know if you think this works:

Denali Benefit Climb!

Every now and then you have the opportunity to do good work.

We are thrilled to announce that we are donating all proceeds from our April 18th, 2010 Denali climb to a small, non-profit school for kids with special needs.

The Piedra Learning Community is very special to us at Mountain Trip, as MT co-owner, Todd Rutledge's son attends their program, which provides an alternative education for kids with Sensory Processing Disorder and on the Autism Spectrum.

This expedition could be the first team to summit Denali during the 2010 season as we are currently the first team registered to attempt the highest peak in North America. We are offering special pricing for this opportunity, in the hopes that we can fill the team and raise enough money to help the Piedra Learning Community with a down payment on a new facility.

This team will head up glacier before the Park Service, and will experience a West Buttress climb in as close to a wilderness setting as you can get (outside of a winter ascent- brrr!!!). Late April conditions are a bit cooler than early May, but we have seen the same success rates on our past April ascents as during the rest of the season.

If you or someone you know is looking for an adventure with the added bonus of helping do something special for some really deserving kids, please contact us. Spaces are limited.

Please click HERE for more information on this climb, the school and on Sensory Processing Disorder, a challenge faced by perhaps 1 in 20 kids in the US today.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!