Entries from Expedition Dispatches

The Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons led by RMI Guide Leif Bergstrom reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today via the Emmons Glacier.  The team bumped up to Camp Schurman yesterday putting their glacier travel, ice ace arrest and cramponing skills they learned over the last few days to the test. Once back to Camp Schurman, they will enjoy the afternoon and evening.  Tomorrow they will break camp and descend to the trailhead, returning to Ashford tomorrow afternoon.

Congratulations to our first Emmons Seminar team!

The Four Day Climb June 1 - 4 reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning led by RMI Guides Dustin Wittmier & Tom Skoog.  Dustin reported moderate winds but blue skies above as they were approaching 13,500' just after 7 am today. The team reached the summit and is currently on their descent to Camp Muir. Once back at Camp, they will take a short break before continuing down to Paradise. Their program will conclude this afternoon at Rainier BaseCamp.

Congratulations to the team!

Wednesday, June 3, 2026 - 11:38 pm

Today was another beautiful day in Talkeetna. We felt the buzz of excitement and anticipation as we spent the whole day packing, weighing, and organizing all our gear to prepare for an early flight onto the south east fork of the Kahiltna glacier!

RMI Guide Dan May

Wednesday, June 3, 2026 - 9:40 pm PT

We woke to cold temps around 20 below zero and did our best to stay warm as we emptied our tents, broke them down, and cached anything we wouldn't need for the next few days up high. Over half the route was already familiar as we did our acclimation day two days prior to 16.2k at the top of the fixed lines. Today, we needed to not only get there but an additional 1000 feet of gain while traversing the West Buttress, for which our approach is named.
 
The chilly morning very quickly turned hot as the sun crested the edge of where we set our sights, camp at 17.2k elevation. By the first break we had shed at least a layer and by the second, most of us were in our base layer sun-hoodies for the rest of the hike. We have not seen a clearer day so far on the trip and the bluebird skies made for epic photo ops of not only the Kahiltna Glacier from which we started but the entire valley - about 270 degrees of snowy mountains, rivers, and the snowless flatlands beyond. Once we reached the Buttress we could peer down at the 2000+ foot drop at 14 camp where we had slept the night before.
 
We navigated the fixed lines using our ascenders, sliding up an anchored rope while allowing us to easily not slip back down very steep slopes. We clipped in and out of anchored pickets with caribeners across the snow and the sometimes rocky Buttress spine. We used a mixture of steps - the crossover and duck step to carefully drive our crampons into hard snow and blue ice while balancing with our ice axes. All in all, we did everything needed to safely arrive at our destination.

After chiseling very hard snow and ice to make flat platforms, we pitched tents and settled in to rest our legs, get hydrated, and refuel. The weather tomorrow is forecast to be clear as well with some possibility of moderate winds. If we wake up and the mountain isn't blowing snow we will most likely go, if it's too windy we will rest and go Friday. All of our team is still relatively healthy and in good spirits. We are all super stoked for the great weather forecast and the hard work we have put in to get to this point. Tonight, we settle into freeze dried meals and watch the midnight sun drift across the horizon. Tomorrow, we all hope to summit this great and beautiful mountain.

RMI Climber Treavor 

Wednesday, June 3, 2026 - 7:57 pm PT

UGH, IT’S SO DAMN HOT
MILK WAS A BAD CHOICE THIS MORNING

I believe this variation of an Anchorman quote captures our cache carry to 14k Camp today perfectly after our granola breakfast with condensed milk before we started our day in the Denali heat. The morning started off cold as we ditched our snowshoes and toboggans and donned crampons as we marched onward and upward, inching closer to our ultimate objective of the summit. The snow and ice creaked and groaned under the stabs of our technical gear, and the ice glistened with a beautiful blue hue as colorful as the sky above us.

Little by little, we attacked this section meticulously making it up Motorcycle Hill, Squirrel Hill, across the Polo Fields, and finally around the bend at Windy Corner. The views were spectacular, breathtaking, with a horizon that stretched for hundreds of miles. The team still had some fuel in the tank and we pushed upward towards 14k Camp electing to cache higher vs lower. This stretch proved the most challenging for many as the midday heat baked and redlined our bodies. Arriving at camp was a godsend for many as we cached our gear and returned back down to 11k camp.  

I’m so damn proud and happy to be part of a cohesive and high performing team with knowledgeable, expert guides. As the demands on the mountain continue to increase, the team and guides increasingly continue to gel together- teammates lending a helping hand to one another with self care provisions, dinner banter continuing well past the meal is finished, and collective respect being earned as we witness each other’s grit and determination on the mountain to achieve our ultimate goal. We have Ricky- the ultra athlete who continues to impress me with his cool as a cucumber attitude, Matt- the gruff Utah SAR mountain man, Dave and Peter- the team’s muscle men Mr Universe personas (Schwarzenegger would be proud), Pattie- the IronWoman athlete, and Lizzie- the award winning author and qualified wilderness fire fighter. Our guides- Jackson, Lacie, and Ray who are consummate professionals, funny and lighthearted- push the team in all the right ways to make us better climbers and help us achieve our prized goal of a successful, safe summit of Denali. 

To our 12 readers of the RMI blog post, we’re safe and sound back at 11k camp, ready to treat ourselves to clean base layers as we transition phases on the mountain. Hormel meat snack marketing- if you’re reading this, Ray says to call him. A wet wipe bath beckons my name now and the Brolonso hair flow is in full effect after a day of wetting my hair with wet snow to cool my head.

HEY, EVERYONE, COME SEE HOW GOOD I LOOK.

RMI Climber / Aviator Alonso 

The Expedition Skills Seminar - Kautz May 29 - 3 June led by RMI Guide George Hedreen reached the summit of Mt. Rainier yesterday.  The team established their High Camp yesterday afternoon and then made their summit attempt and returned to camp. Today the team will descend to Paradise and conclude their program.

Nice work team!

Tuesday, June 2, 2026 - 10:27 pm PT

The team met up today in Anchorage in glorious spring weather. We made the drive to Talkeetna with views of Denali, Foraker, and Hunter lurking in the foreground. Upon arrival we quickly dropped our gear off at the K2 hangar and met up for a nice meal and some desserts, get the calories in while we can! The team walked down to the Talkeetna river to watch the fast-moving waters while staring up with clear skies at the immense Alaska range. Early to bed tonight to prep for a long day of packing and organizing before waiting our turn to fly onto the glacier and begin our climb. Stay tuned.

RMI Guides Dan May, Drew O'Brien, Mac Nolde 

Tuesday, June 2, 2026 – 8:57 pm PT 
On May 26th, the RMI Denali team was waiting for a person to walk through arrivals who was aiming to be the youngest woman from her country to claim all seven summits. They waited at the Anchorage airport for minutes, then hours, eagerly watching for her to walk through the arrivals gate.

She never did.

Instead, it was I that showed up, knock-kneed and nervously shrill, a meager replacement Instead of an international overachiever, this will just be one missive from one woman trying desperately to conquer one summit, breaking no records in the process whatsoever. The lawn will have to wait another three weeks. 

I wish I could tell you that I’ve been strong and tough and loving this experience so far, but it would be truly embarrassing to tell you the number of hours I’ve wasted fantasizing about having a strong man here who volunteers to carry my heaviest things for me. Feminism, I will sell you down the river in exchange for a lighter sled and a fresh veggie tray. 

As a woman whose personality is better suited to all inclusive resorts in tropical locales with five star spas attached, I have felt a growing sense of dread and fear. After all, having to buy equipment from a store called ‘40 Below’ does not bode well for my internal body temperature, which hovers barely above hypothermic during an Arizona heat wave. Although I do think the down camp booties will look rather flattering next to my Pomchi back home. 

I was delighted to discover that dragging a sled is just like staggering home drunk from the bar. I can do this! I exclaimed to myself, I’ve been training my whole life for this. The lopsided jerking of the sled with each slow step reminiscent of brooklyn all nighters, of which I am a pro. Perhaps this mountain won’t be too bad after all. 

But then the mountain laughed at me and called my bluff. A gentle breeze turned into a personal crisis, as I found myself pulling on my summit parka at 10,000 feet, less than halfway to said summit. Setting up tents at the airstrip took us just under six minutes. Here, it took all hands on deck and just under two hours before we were tucked into our nylon ice caves. Just think of this as a cold plunge, I told myself, it’s good for your lymphatic system. 

The sauna relief didn’t arrive until 12 hours later, when our tents transformed into sweat lodges and we took the opportunity to do alpine laundry, taking full advantage of a rest day by stuffing ourselves with highly processed carbs. Forget the summit, leave me here forever, please and thank you. Perhaps later on I will even treat myself to half a wet wipe and a daydream about indoor plumbing. 

RMI Climber Patty

Tuesday, June 2, 2026 - 7:24 pm PM

Today we rested! Tomorrow we climb!

Send us well wishes and good vibes!

Stoke is high!

RMI Guide Seth Burns

Tuesday, June 2, 2026 - 4:26 pm PT

We awoke in the early morning cold at 11,000 feet to break down camp for the final time. One last descent over familiar terrain back to the airstrip! The first leg of our journey started out with a less than auspicious start - in a cloud with blowing snow. After a couple of hours we popped out of the cloud into blinding sunshine and panoramic views of the Alaska Range! Three hours of scenic glacier travel later we arrived at Kahiltna Basecamp. After checking in with Mary, the lovely basecamp manager, we were in the queue to be picked up by K2 Aviation. The team dug up the cache we had left on day one revealing a wealth of treasure inside, forgotten snacks, beers and bubbly waters!  We got organized, relaxed and sipped our beverages until we heard the whine of Turbo Otter engines in the sky. Less than an hour later we were in Talkeetna, a strange and alien place full of greenery and modern conveniences. The final 48 hours from summit to town felt like a fever dream. The trip is officially over with everyone back, safe and sound. Thanks for following our journey dear readers!

Cheers,

RMI Guide Jack Delany and the Team