Entries from Expedition Dispatches

Our Denali escapade has commenced! Everyone arrived in Anchorage without incident and enjoyed a surprisingly smooth drive to Talkeetna. We spent yesterday crawling through all our gear, packing, repacking, wondering if we should bring more, less, or had forgotten something entirely and tearing it all apart to start again. Once we were sure, we weighed it all in for the planes and got sorted for the two Otters that would ferry us to base camp. We enjoyed a last dinner in Talkeetna, and some took two, three, or four showers to make up for the coming weeks and be sure to fly on smelling like roses.

We woke up this morning ready and hopeful to launch immediately, but it wasn't to be. Base camp reported that they were in a snow globe with 12 new inches overnight. We commenced the chill, sipped coffee, visited the myriad shops, ate lunch, and became somewhat convinced that we would HAVE to spend another night in a bed, have to take another shower, and have to eat a meal. Then, suddenly the RMI1 team got told to ready 5 and launched. Our hopes changed - but also Came with the realization that we would be landing quite late, and cooking dinner would be even later. So, we compromised. We would sleep on the ground and forego a shower if we could have one more mountain high pizza meal. We grabbed pizzas, trapped the stack together, and flew in with them in our lap. Our flight was stunning, with the long light of evening lighting the thousands of peaks in the Alaska range. We landed, set up our shelter, ate our pizza, and are settling in for our first night on the glacier.

We will be in touch tomorrow with more news. Stay tuned!

RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Henry Coppolillo, Tatum Whatford, and Team

Thursday, May 11, 2023 - 11:04 AM PT

Our team is caffeinated, fed, and ready to fly into Kahiltna Basecamp this morning. The morning weather isn't quite cooperating with us just yet, as Basecamp resembles a snow globe. Forecasts indicate an improving trend, so hopefully the clouds dissipate and allow us access today. We will keep you apprised of situation. Until then, it's coffee and standby mode! 

RMI Guide Mike Walter

Thursday, May 11, 2023 - 6:33 AM PT

Yesterday was spent milling around the K2 Aviation hangar in our climbing duds, hoping for the word to load the planes. But the weather never cleared, which kept the planes grounded. The forecast keeps trending better, so we'll try again today. 

RMI Guide Mike Walter

Thursday, May 11, 2023 - 12:01 AM PT

Sorry for the delay of game blogoneers! Yesterday was so jammed packed and busy with doing nothing that I forgot to blog. We awoke at 6am with high hopes of starting our summit day but instead when we poked our heads outside it looked like we were inside of a marshmallow. The lighting was so flat that up was indistinguishable from down. Suffice it to say, those are not ideal conditions for going uphill and assessing unknown avalanche terrain from the bottom up. So we stayed put and waited, and waited, and waited… until around 1pm we got sunshine for a whole 20 minutes! Then back into the clouds.

The team had high spirits and we enjoyed our weather day as best we could with movies, podcasts, music and books. Today was a new day! The skies were clear and we had a long way to go ahead of us. We packed up camp and descended from 747 Pass in great time compared to what it took us to come up it. Clouds started to pour over from the next valley and soon we had an overcast sky above us. We made it back to our cache we had left behind two days prior and had a nice, leisurely lunch. Then we reshuffled all our gear to make use of the sleds again and started tromping up glacier. A vicious headwind and snow hampered our progress but only slightly as the team was strong and motived to make it back to the airstrip. After a grueling climb of the final glacial hill, we were back where we started. What seems like a life time was only a week ago. The team expertly and quickly assembled camp, downed a tasty meal of garlic siracha bacon Mac and cheese, and promptly fell asleep. A well deserved rest after a long and arduous day. Assuming the clouds clear by morning, we’ll be back in Talkeetna tomorrow!

Cheers,

RMI Guides Jack, Mike and the team

The team started the day with a simple, quick breakfast before disassembling camp and loading packs for our climb. We stripped all excess gear and built a cache that was buried and marked. We departed the empty camp around 10am and began our slow march toward 747 Pass. The snowpack remained thick and made for a slow progression as Jack and Mike swapped leads breaking trail. We crested the ridge around 5 pm under partly cloudy skies accompanied by a strong breeze coming through the gap. Camp was rapidly assembled and the team took refuge in their tents, relaxing and waiting for better weather. Dinner was simple and quick and the team relaxed the rest of the evening, preparing for our morning summit push.

Wish us luck!

RMI Guides Mike, Jack and the team.

The Five Day Climb May 4 - 8, 2023 reached the summit of Mt. Rainier yesterday afternoon led by RMI Guides Ben Ammon and Dominic Cifelli. The team had a nice day with the clouds below until they reached about 13,500', then they were enveloped by a cloud cap but were able to push through to the summit.  They did quick high fives, hugs and quickly started their descent. They returned to Camp Muir for a well deserved rest.  The team began their descent from Camp Muir at 9am.  We look forward to their return to BaseCamp this afternoon.

Congratutions to the team!

Sunday, May 7, 2023, 10:01 pm PT

Be very quiet…we’re hunting for crevasses!

Today we took our skills out into the wild, to test ourselves against the Ruth Glacier. No we didn’t walk around until someone fell in, we instead wandered through the maze of crevasses looking for the perfect one to safely lower someone into and haul them out of. The intricacies and difficulties of crevasse rescue don’t fully translate practicing on flat ground. Our biggest challenge was finding a crevasse that wasn’t drifted full of snow from the last storm and subsequent winds. After a lot of weaving and winding through the broken edge of the Ruth we finally found one that was a little more open than the rest. We sent RMI guide Mike Bennet in as our guinea pig to see if the snow floor could be collapsed and our crevasse deepened. Surprisingly the snow floor was deep and solid, so we made due with the 25 feet of snow wall we had available. The team performed admirably and even dialed in a second crevasse rescue system known as the “Drop C”. By midafternoon the sky was blue and the sun was hot and the team had completed training. We spent the rest of the afternoon lounging and organizing 

for our move to high camp tomorrow!

Beunos noches,

RMI Guides Jack, Mike and the team

Saturday, May 6, 2023 - 10:07 pm PT

The team awoke to find a cloud formation had snuck into the valley during the night, leaving wet, overcast, and flurry like conditions. We gathered for coffee and some morning pancakes, then retreated to our tents to read and watch movies for the afternoon while we waited out the weather. The sky slowly broke and the precip let up enough for the team to work some skills training into the afternoon. We knocked out a quick refresher on arrest techniques and then a comprehensive crevasse rescue. The team took to it quick, running some drills around camp and dialing in their systems. We wrapped up the day with a nice dinner and some relaxing talk. Morale remains high and the team is stoked for the upcoming days of the expedition!

All the best,

RMI Guides Mike, Jack and the team.

It was a wee bit chilly overnight as the clear skies allowed all the heat to escape into outer space. So, we did what any responsible mountaineer would and we waited until the sun was directly upon us before leaving our tents. After a tasty breakfast of bagels, cream cheese, and salmon lox, we ourselves got locked and loaded, ready for glacier travel! After 6ish hours of a slightly less heinous trail breaking through deep snow we arrived at our new campsite.

Our camp is in the middle of two mountain saddles, perfectly situated to catch maximum early morning and late evening sunshine. The rest of the day was consumed by building camp and consuming burritos. We got to bed under overcast skies and were excited to see what tomorrow will bring!

Cheerio,

RMI Guides Jack, Mike and the Ruth Team

The Five Day Climb led by RMI Guides Eric Frank and Seth Burns climbed the Ingraham Direct Route on Mt. Rainier and reached 12,800'. Firm route conditions kept the team from climbing higher.

The team is at Camp Muir where they are in and out of the clouds. They will spend some time re-fueling and organizing their gear before starting their descent.

Congratulations Team!