Lou Whittaker started this place in 1969, Peter Whittaker grew up inside it and was guiding before he had his driver's license, and now the third generation is getting involved. That's kind of how RMI works: mountaineering gets into people early, and most of them never quite leave. Our staff exemplifies that ethos.
Several of our office and logistics team have been here for over 20 years, and a handful used to guide and eventually moved into other parts of the operation. Logistics, marketing, equipment, program coordination - they brought everything they learned on the mountain into work that happens far from it, which means the person writing your gear list has slept at 14,000 feet, and the person answering your fitness questions has watched a few hundred people find out the hard way they weren't ready.
When you call, you end up talking to someone who has been on the glacier, genuinely cares whether you have a good trip, and has heard your question enough times to give you a real answer instead of a careful one.
