Entries from Mt. McKinley

The hottest new restaurant in Alaska is Maureen’s, currently located at the 11K camp on Denali. Started by a trio of up-and-coming chefs (Jackson, Ray, and Seth), who also happen to moonlight as mountain guides, Maureen’s serves up delicious Tex-Mex fare with Asian and Creole inspirations, reflective of the chefs’ diverse backgrounds. “Corn is pretty much my greatest inspiration; I can turn a tortilla into just about anything,” says Chef Jackson, citing his Iowan roots. The pop-up restaurant is small, seating 9 and squatting 1.

On a busy night of service, guests can hear Chef “Sweet Baby” Ray rapping to OutKast with an inexplicably thick Eastern European accent while whipping up a jambalaya in the open kitchen. The portions are generous, much appreciated on big efforts such as caching heavy packs of gear up to 13K ft.

When not working the breakfast shift, Chef Seth runs front of house, chatting up the regulars and offering sweet words of affirmation, which they desperately need to wake up each morning. There is relatively little to complain about, except maybe the limited beverage list (despite the chefs’ weird insistence on tasting the glacial terroir — it’s just hot water), the overpowering red polyester decor (reportedly Maureen’s favorite color), and the ever-present undertones of body odor. Dress code is casual, although insulated down is highly recommended. Gluten-free options are available upon request.

– Jason

Tuesday, May 20, 2025 - 12:31 pm PDT

Well, we woke up this morning to much better weather. Headed over to the cook tent for a quick bowl or two of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and coffee.  Breakfast of champions! We got our sleds and packs ready to set off for our first cache of the expedition. Everybody was anxious to get going after a great rest day.  Many other teams had the same idea, and we certainly didn’t mind a few of them in front of us breaking trail after we got about a foot of snow at camp in the last 24hrs.  All three teams were moving great up the mountain led by our fearless leaders Seth, Jackson and Ray.  They rock!  We had three breaks on the way up and as we moved up the mountain, clouds and a wisp of wind and snow started to move in. We reached 10,200' and cached our gear and food.  Super nice being able to walk downhill with a light pack and no sled! We made our way quickly downhill passing teams as we did on the way up. We are now snug back at our lower camp waiting for what we know will be an amazing dinner of jambalaya. Being originally from Louisiana and all…no pressure on Chef Ray.  Ha!

Our team is really firing on all cylinders and feeling good. Happy for that!  Hydrating, fixing feet and getting some rest are on the agenda after dinner. Oh, and the skies parted on the way back a bit giving us spectacular views when we arrived back at camp, so grateful to be in this moment.

RMI Climber Shannon and Team

Saturday May 17, 2025 2:07 pm PDT

Seth Burns and Team checked in from Talkeetna, they are loaded and Flying onto the Kahiltna Glacier. 

Let the climbing begin! 

Friday May 16, 2025 11:10 pm PDT

We had the perfect rest day. It was in turns quite snowy, whiteout and incredibly hot, and blue and calm. We crushed a breakfast hash scramble, then some cinnamon buns, then lingered in the cook tent swapping stories and stretching. That gave way to midday siesta/saunas. Eventually Nick and Ben got motivated and dug a pit to hang skis over and make a passable pull-up bar (#lookatmenowpaul). Video evidence was collected of numbers 100 and 101 from both Ben and Nick. No wasting away and getting weak on Denali for those two. A good dinner, and we’re hoping to wake to weather that lets us make the next move.

RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer & Team

Friday, May 16, 2025 - 10:19 pm PDT

We started our day with breakfast at latitude 62 and ended our day with dinner at latitude 62. Can anyone guess where our day will start tomorrow?!

We spent the morning talking about the finer points of Denali climbing while learning and practicing some new skills. In the afternoon, our pilots at K2 along with the Denali base camp manager saw a break in the weather. Giddy with excitement, we loaded up the plane with all of our bags, put on our mountain clothes, and patiently waited for our chance for take off. Unfortunately, mountain weather can be a fickle beast and the mountain wasn't ready to let us in just yet. We became mesmerized by some classic Denali climbing films and fantasized about when we would soon be in those very spots. 

Waiting is inevitable in the mountains, but always hard, especially at the beginning of a trip. I could not be more proud of our team's attitude. They are taking everything in stride and with a smile. We are enjoying constant laughs, telling stories, and building camaraderie that will enable us to run when our feet hit the ground. We will be ready to fly when our time comes. Hopefully that time is tomorrow morning! 

RMI Guides Jackson, Ray, Seth and Team

Thursday, May 15, 2025 9:49 pm PDT

In the words of Thornjamin “when we awoke the weather was like nahhh, but then it was like jahhh”, and we carried to 13,500’.

It was windy when we woke but it quieted enough to convince us to go walking and turned out to be a quite smooth day. Tomorrow looks snowy and we intend to chill hard. These are times that lead us to say thanks to those in our life providing a multitude of remote weather advice, especially to Henry, whose whiteboard of weather models, maps, sharpies, and seemingly random red lines have yielded incredibly accurate results. Ask him how he does it?

But in all seriousness, we are psyched to have a cache up high and be looking at a rest day tomorrow. Things are going smoothly, the snow makes climbing quite forgiving for this time of year, and temps have been balmy (relatively) as well.

Best from 11,000’,

RMI Guides Thornjamin Bennycroft, Nick, Pete, and Team

Thursday, May 15, 2025 - 9:00 PM PDT

Well, we did not fly today. The clouds around Talkeetna and especially on the Kahiltna kept the planes on the ground. While this is not exactly what we wanted it is not unusual. Our friends at K2 aviation run a professional outfit and do everything they can to get us safely on and off the mountain.  While they kept their eyes on the weather, we spent the day enjoying coffee, going over rope skills, eating plenty of food, and even going on a nice run.

If you're reading this, send us clear sky vibes. 

RMI Guides Seth, Jackson, Ray, and Team

Tuesday, May 13, 2025  - 10:27 pm PT

11,200’ is our new home! We weren’t entirely psyched when we woke this morning as there was a thick cloud bank and ripping winds where we needed to go. We did a partial pack and stalled and waited. As the sun climbed and warmed our camp, the clouds began to rise, and the wind began to die. That was enough for us - we pulled the rest of the camp down, loaded up sleds (all have names, goose and Tinkerbell are a few) and started uphill.

We had as smooth and steady of a climb as we could wish for and rolled into 11k this evening after a 7-hour walk. We are happily dug in and working towards dinner. Tomorrow we’ll go back to retrieve our cache which is a short day, and then be set to keep looking uphill.

RMI Guides Pete, Ben, Nick, and Team

Monday, May 12, 2025 - 12:17 AM PDT

Today showed us the dichotomy of weather in Alaska. After a cold windy walk yesterday, today’s carry to 10,200' was calm and HOT. We had a pretty leisurely start this morning after getting to bed late last night. Folks enjoyed the sleep, and woke up surprisingly (to them) recovered and feeling well. We left around noon and made good time up to the cache site, dug a hole to hide some things in, and then turned back to our home, enjoying the lighter-weight, downhill walk as the light got long. We got back to camp a bit before it went into the shade and plowed through some burritos as a reward. Sounds like we may see snow tomorrow, so what we do tomorrow will be a gametime decision in the morning. We would like to say Happy Mother’s Day and so many thanks to all the incredible mothers in our lives who give us so much support as well and who let us be in this incredible place! 

RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Nick Sinapius, Ben Thorneycroft, and Team

It was a pretty full day, prepping everything for a few weeks of glacier living and making sure we get it right. We started with an orientation from the Park Service this morning, before diving in to unpacking our kits, and repacking them for the flight to base camp, where we will unpack them again, to pack for climbing. It's a lot of shuffling but we're feeling confident that everything is set to go. And everyone was buoyed as the skies were clear as could be all day. These clear days are when Denali (McKinley) shows off, encased in white and gleaming brightly on the skyline. Weather continues to look good for tomorrow, so we are prepped to fly first thing and get this expedition truly underway!

RMI Guides, Pete, Ben, Nick, and Team