Entries from Expedition Dispatches

Saturday, June 25, 2021 1:18 am PDT

Everything we worked for all came together today. We woke to nearly perfect weather conditions. It was game time. We packed and tied into the rope. A quick downhill gave away to steep terrain up the autobahn. Step by step we worked our way up the mountain. A breeze here and there kissed our cheeks, but all things considered was pretty calm until the summit ridge. One final steep uphill up pig hill brought us to the summit ridge. This is where the winds picked up. But we dug deep and pushed forward to the tippy top. What an accomplishment! The team trained hard, and it showed. They gave it their all and came out on top.

Congratulations team!!

Tired legs and bodies brought us back to our camp where we are resting up for two more big days walking to the airstrip.

Night everyone,

RMI Guides Hannah Smith, Kiira Antenucci, Daniel May and Team

Today was our first real rest day. The task was to do nothing, and we excelled at it.

After sleeping for about 12 hours, we got our aching bodies into the breakfast tent and were served several delicious courses to replenish as many calories as possible: bagels with bacon and salmon, cereals and breakfast burritos.

Happy and with full bellies, we dug comfortable resting places into the snow and spent most of the day out in the sun, listening to music, eating some more, chatting and just enjoying the amazing view over glaciers and clouds below us.

The day finishes with shredded beef burritos and the feeling that we are ready for another big day tomorrow, moving our camp to 14,000’ feet.

Sebastian and Team

Thursday, June 23, 2022 9:41 pm PDT

We made the big move from 8,000 to 11,000 ft today.   This was on mostly familiar terrain for us, of course.  But the unfamiliar parts brought us into a whole new world.  We set out at 5:30 AM from the base of Ski Hill in perfect conditions for mountain climbing.  It was cool, shady and calm and the snow surface was frozen up nicely.  We cruised right on past our food and fuel cache from yesterday and reached the head of the 46-mile long Kahiltna Glacier.  What remained was a little steeper terrain on a feeder glacier, but we managed that hard work without any trouble and pulled into camp at 11 AM.  Things had clouded up a little, which was a good thing, keeping the sun off us as we did the hard pull into camp.  It was nice to be greeted by Andy Bond and his RMI team, enjoying their rest day at 11K.  We set into the hard work of building a new camp at a new elevation.  The clouds began to fade, and we were stunned at the beauty of our surroundings.  Whereas the scenery from within the valleys has been great, now that we are getting up a little, we can start to see out.  The glacial ice surrounding us is endlessly fascinating with giant walls and towers pitched at impossible angles.  We napped away the intense sun that came with the afternoon.  Dinner in a new camp with a new view was excellent. 

Tomorrow we’ll go back down for our supplies. 

Best Regards,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn & Team

The Climb for Clean Air Team along with their RMI Guides Mike King and Abby Westling reached the summit of Mt. Rainier Early this morning. Mike King reported a good route, clear skies, but strong winds on the summit. The team spent a short time on top celebrating before starting their descent.

The funds raised by these climbers will support the American Lung Association’s mission of saving lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease. 

Congratulations team for your success on and off the mountain! 

Thursday, June 23, 2022 7:28 pm PDT

What a day, what a day!

The weather was a little up and down but all things considered allowed us to move to 17k camp. It is a burly move. The morning started we suspect clouds but they soon gave way to mostly clear skies. Of course by time we started to walking the clouds came back and made for some tough seeing. Buy we made it to the fix lines and were greeted by a snowy slope making for better walking. We cruised the fixed lines, dug up our cache at 16,400 and continues our journey up. More fix line bring us to Washburn's thumb and on the buttress ridge. It is an amazing walk with amazing exposure. One last snow slope dips us into our new home. Life isn't easy up here but we make strong work setting up camp and making water. Dinner is currently being served, scrumptious dehydrated Mountain House. We are working on relaxing and recovering for tomorrow. Tomorrow is going to be our big day. The weather looks good enough and is our opportunity before the winds pick up and shut the door on us.

Wish us luck!!

RMI Guide Hannah Smith and Team

Matias and the Kautz seminar team will spend their last night on the mountain tonight and plan for an early departure off the mountain followed by more training at Basecamp in Ashford.

The guide team have the following to say in reflection of the last week of training:

We have spent the past 4 days and 3 nights experiencing the mountain and the heat that accompanied it this week. Our high point may have only been 9,400’ but an abundant of learning and training was accomplished.

After a scorching first day moving across the Nisqually Glacier, we decided to move to a night schedule, only climbing when the snow hadn’t been tarnished by the blistering sun. Very Denali-esque of us. We hit on rock climbing, mixed climbing, ice climbing, crevasse rescue and many other skills. Hot weather and beating sun created unstable snow conditions and difficult trail breaking. But as one participant said, “It’s not all about the summit on trips like this”, and we feel like we were able to accomplish all our training and learning goals. The wisping clouds float below us like pillows awaiting to catch us on our decent.

RMI Kautz Team,

George, Leif, Lauren, and Matias

RMI Guides JT Schmitt and Alex Halliday led their Four Day Climb June 20 - 23 teams to the summit of Mt. Rainier today.  JT reported good conditions on the ascent with occasional wind gusts.  The teams reached the summit around 8 am.  As of noon, all climbers had returned to Camp Muir from the summit.  The teams will pack up and continue their descent to Paradise and return to Rainier BaseCamp later this afternoon.

Congratulations to today's climbers!

Wednesday, June 22, 2022 - 10:18 pm PT

Greetings from airy 11,000' Camp where the mountaineers flock like the salmon of Capistrano. Would you indulge us in settling this morning’s debate: is there a more superior cereal than Cinnamon Toast Crunch (CTC to those in the know). This writer thinks not and attributes todays stellar team performance to this fortifying breakfast enjoyed over laughter and the spirit of camaraderie that only six days of shared tents, suffering and toilet buckets can conjure.

Today’s adventure began with the famed Motorcycle Hill. We cruised harder than Harry and Floyd en route to Aspen. Squirrel Hill elevated us to new and exciting views as we caught our breath before crossing the polo field. No polo was played. And then of course the much anticipated windy corner, which was hot and windless. Overall a gain of over 3000 feet.

On the descent the heavens darkened and in recognition of the fervor and prowess of this team, released thunder that rolled and echoed off the surrounding ice. We have declared our team name: the thundercats. And like Thor wielding his hammer, the thundercats will brandish their ice axes on the upper mountain if the weather allows.

We have handed off the hula hoop to Hannah’s team at 14,000'. Kiira claims she cannot be beaten in a hula hoop contest. We beg to differ, and look forward to proving it in a couple short days when we return to 14k to claim our camp and our cache and our hula hoop title.

We are enjoying resting at camp tonight and have planned a spa day for tomorrow. The hot springs here are just divine.

RMI Climber Holly

Wednesday, June 22, 2022 - 9:43 pm PT

We set out at 6:30 AM today for a carry of food and fuel.  Skies were clear and winds were calm as we walked through the early morning shadows up Ski Hill.  Ski Hill wouldn’t actually have been such great skiing with about a half dozen crevasses opening up, but it wasn’t bad for walking.  We enjoyed great views of Denali’s steep South Face and of the rocky southern aspect of Kahiltna Dome.  Our loads were considerably lighter than those we carried yesterday and we made good time.  The terrain got easier as we cruised along the plateau before Kahiltna Pass.  We cached at 9700 ft at about 10 AM, burying the supplies deep enough to thwart the ravens.  It took just over an hour to descend to camp, by which time the sun was getting quite strong.  We did a few camp chores before diving in the tents to snooze the afternoon away.  It was burrito night on the Kahiltna.  We filled up and most of the team was getting ready to turn in -under skies that had clouded up- by 7:30. 

The plan is to move on up to 11,000' Camp tomorrow if the weather cooperates. 

Best Regards

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Wednesday June 22nd - 5:34pm PT

To the edge and back. Not a lot of excitement today, given it was a rest day.

Breakfast burritos started our day and led into a walk to the Edge of the World. The Edge of the World is a cool rock feature one can stand on, a lot like pride rock on Lion King but this one had a relief of 7,000 feet. The view will give you chills from the beauty and the sheer height of it. The walk is short but is nice to stretch the legs. Our legs are about to have a handful of large days coming their way. More napping and snacking have wrapped our day, along with a visit from another RMI team who did their carry to 14k camp.

Tomorrow we are hoping to move to 17k camp and be in position to summit this beast. It's all so close and yet, so far away. Send all the good weather vibes our way.

All the best,

Hannah and Team