Alaska’s Denali park rangers are getting ready for climbing season

Posted on May 20, 2012 by rbsummits

As Respicius continues his effort to attempt Mt. McKinley (Denali) this year, we bring you an update on preparations for the upcoming summer 2012 climbing season.

With spring ebbing toward summer, Denali National Park Preserve mountaineering staffers are putting the finishing touches on the base camp and high-altitude camps needed to support the 1,200 climbers who will assault Mt. McKinley and other nearby peaks this year. And they couldn’t do it without the support of three US Army UH-60’s, or Black Hawks.

The Black Hawks began flying missions from Talkeetna, Alaska, to the 7,200-foot-level on the Kahiltna Glacier, site of the Mt. McKinley base camp operations, two weeks ago, hauling almost 15,000 pounds of gear thus far.

Read the full article here.

Recap of Respicius’ June 2010 Denali Climb

Posted on May 10, 2012 by rbsummits

Respicius attempted Mt. McKinley (Denali) in June 2010. As he prepares to try again, we reprint a letter he wrote describing his 2010 adventure.

From: Respicius Baitwa

Subject: Hello!

Date: June 29, 2010 2:47:08 AM EDT

Hello Friends! Here is the report:

I arrived in Anchorage on 27th May 2010, at 01:30 pm, on arrival I told my reservation was on 28th, but they gave me a room anyway.

On 29th May 2010, everybody in our group were there, and our guides. We went through the climbing gear, I got rentals and thereafter we drove to the store to buy missing gear.

On 30th May, we left early for Talkeetna, it took about three hours. We dropped our gear at the airstrip and walked to the National Park office, for briefing and park fee payment before we turned to the airstrip ready to fly to Kahiltna base camp at 7,200ft. We had to wait until 5pm, about half an hour. We made our first camp.

On 1st June 2010, was the first time to carry all of our gear and food, carrying on back and pulling the sled was fantastic! The weather was great, sun shining, finally we made to the camp Ski Hill, at 7,800ft. Next day, on 2nd June, we cached some of our food around 10,000ft and back to the camp.

On 3rd June 2010, we moved to Motorcycle camp 11,000 ft. At this camp we spent three nights, to collect our cache below and cache above 13,000, and then we moved on 6th June 2010 to the advanced base camp at 14,200ft.

On 7th June 2010, we collected our cache at 13,000 ft; on 8th June was rest day.

On 9th June, we cached our food to 16,200 ft; and back at 14,200 ft, the following day on 10th June, was rest day. The plan was to move to high camp 17,000 ft on Friday 11th June, which was day 13 of the trip, and rest on 12th June before we summit on Sunday 13th June (day 15)! This was the best day for the summit according the weather forecast from previous four days!

Look now what happened – instead of moving on 11th June when actually most people moved (we all ready, our stuff packed), but our guide decided we should not move until the following day. Next day the weather wasn’t good – snow and wind – so we didn’t move! Our chance to summit on Sunday 13th June disappeared.

We asked our guide if we can summit from 14,000 ft., but he denied attempt. On the Sunday morning the weather was perfect, with sun shining. Everybody was angry for missing this chance!

We had a discussion about moving to high camp 17,000 ft and trying to summit on Monday if the weather permits, as storms were expected in coming days. Most of us voted to move, but amazingly our guide came up and said we should go to 17,000 ft for day trip and collect our food and back to 14,200 ft! We didn’t understand this but he was a boss! We went to 17,000ft and back down.

The following day on Monday 14th June (day 16), the weather was good. An Icelander and I were mad, so we went to the guides tent and said we want to move to high camp and summit! We didn’t find why we must stay at 14,200 ft, and wait. We even wanted to speak to the office but we were disappointed. Still, people who tried on Monday made to the summit. The statistics show the time we stayed at advanced base camp from 6th June – 16th June (11 days) about 50 people reached the summit.

Finally we decided to go down as the weather turned into storms the following days, except on the weekend, which was out of our schedule, meaning out of 21 days of our package. I asked guide if I could extend days by joining another group as I met Brazilian team and they were ready to stay with me, but again the guide didn’t agree.

On 16th June (day 18), we descend to Kahiltna base camp. We found there was no flight due to the bad weather so we had to wait until Friday evening (4 days) when we flew to Talkeetna. Here we spent a night before we drove to Anchorage.

That is what happened my friend!

Respicius

Kilimanjaro Ascendant

Posted on May 6, 2012 by rbsummits

Kilimanjaro by Kyle Mijlof

Seldom does one get this view of Kilimanjaro. The shot was captured by photographer Kyle Mijlof from 6,000 ft as he flew past Africa’s highest point.

Read the full story here.

Respicius meets with Tanzanian government and media in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Posted on April 23, 2012 by rbsummits

Respicius spent several days last week in Dar es Salaam conducting meetings with the Tanzanian government and media outlets. Respicius met with the Tanzanian Tourism Board and also with the Minister of Information, Youth, Culture and Sports. During these meetings he stressed the need for Tanzania to promote local African guides and improve employment and tourism.

“Until now there are some companies in Europe and America that do not believe the expertise of our specialist guides. With this regard they happen to bring their own guides which backpedals our domestic efforts to improve employment,” he said. His comments and efforts were covered by IPPMedia.

Respicius also highlighted his plans to climb Mt. McKinley (Denali) in North America in June-July 2012, followed by Mt. Vinson (Antarctica) and Mt. Everest (Nepal) in the next 12 to 18 months. He hopes to have the endorsement and support of the Tanzanian government for his effort, so stay tuned for more updates.

Respicius guides Cecile Serilas to Kilimanjaro summit

Posted on February 20, 2012 by rbsummits

On February 14, 2012, Respicius guided Cecile Serilas to the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, finishing the first peak in her own effort to climb the Seven Summits.

Ms. Serilas is Belgian and studying to become a pilot. Her passion for mountaineering was fueled by a recent trek to Mt. Everest base camp with mountaineer, Manuel Pizarro. Ms. Serilas is also keeping her own blog on her seven summits bid and you can read about her successful Kilimanjaro climb here.

Altitude Sickness may be all in the Genes

Posted on February 1, 2012 by rbsummits

On his 27th birthday, David Hillebrandt and his wife Sally began to climb Mount Kenya, the second-highest mountain in Africa after Kilimanjaro. Instead of gearing up and heading straight for the mountain’s tallest peak—which reaches 5,199 meters—the couple started their journey more leisurely, trekking through scenic ridges and valleys around the mountain at an altitude of about 3,000 meters.

David, who today serves as a medical advisor to the British Mountaineering Council, already had considerable climbing experience at the time: he had scaled a 5,790-meter peak in Pakistan and 3,960-meter peaks in the European Alps. Sally, in contrast, had never done any serious climbing and did not consider herself a mountaineer.

But Sally wasn’t the one who needed to stop and turn around.

“I am meant to be this tough, rugged mountaineer,” David says, “and I celebrated my birthday by throwing up all over the place.” Plagued by a throbbing headache and relentless nausea, David retreated to lower ground. He knew from previous climbs that he was prone to altitude sickness, but he thought circling the mountain at 3,000 meters would be a good way to acclimatize. This time it didn’t do the trick. Even though she was a far less experienced climber, Sally adjusted to the altitude much faster.

It wasn’t experience that made the difference—it was genetics. Scientists have known for a while that some people are inherently more susceptible to altitude sickness than others—and that this susceptibility is heritable—but only now are they on the trail of the culprit genes. Preliminary studies suggest that a group of six genes predicts who will get altitude sickness with greater than 90 percent accuracy. Such a precise genetic test would greatly benefit the military, which currently has no way of predicting which soldiers will fall ill when flown to high altitudes and would rather not waste money on expensive acclimatization drugs. In a parallel research effort, scientists have been searching for the genes that determine which cows develop altitude sickness, also known as brisket disease, when they graze in the Rocky Mountains. Because tens of thousands of cows die in the western U.S. from brisket disease annually, ranchers would like nothing more than to strip the responsible genes from the breeding population.

See the full article by Ferris Jabr in Scientific American here.

Hail the porters of Kilimanjaro

Posted on January 27, 2012 by rbsummits

Up from the equatorial plains they climb, into a dripping rain forest, through a shrub-riddled wasteland and across a desolate alpine desert before finally making a nighttime trudge up the lonely ice-capped crater that’s Africa’s tallest peak.

Every year, some 50,000 or so adventurous foreigners brave the oxygen-starved air atop Mount Kilimanjaro for the stunning dawn view of the hazy shapes and shadows from which they emerged just days before.

The tourists, however, aren’t the only ones who make the journey. In fact, the foreigners are vastly outnumbered. For every foreigner who climbs Kilimanjaro, at least three Tanzanians, and often many more, swarm up the volcanic slope like worker ants, 50-pound bags perched precariously on their heads and baggy shirts flopping over their skinny frames.

For the world’s restless travellers, the allure of Kilimanjaro is clear: It’s the world’s highest free-standing mountain, yet ascending it requires no technical climbing skills, and its icy chill is far more bearable than most comparable altitudes, thanks to Tanzania’s tropical location. Middle-aged professionals and 60-something retirees aren’t uncommon on its trails.

The flip side of that is that all these amateur hikers need help.

That’s where the Tanzanians, with their blistered feet and sore backs, come in.