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Entries from Expedition Dispatches


Ecuador Seminar: Wittmier and Team at Chimborazo High Camp

Sunday, February 18, 2024 - 7:11 am PST

Summit Chimborazo, walking down from high camp. Another blog and more pictures later!

 

Saturday, February 17, 2024 - 4:14 pm PST

We are settled in for the night at Chimborazo High Camp. One final climb for the team, wish us luck.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier & Team

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Ecuador Seminar: Team Rests and Prepares for Chimborazo

Friday, February 16, 2023 | 5:38 PT

This morning everyone reported having slept soundly. As it turns out, even climbing half of Antisana is still hard. We're recovering and now looking forward to Chimborazo, which has been giving us quite the show this evening. We're staying at the Chimborazo Lodge, an historic mountain lodge run by Marco Cruz, a climbing legend in Ecuador. It sits at about 13000' right at the base of the southwest flank of the mountain. There is no cell reception and no wifi, giving us a chance to unplug and hone our focus towards the task at hand, climbing another massive volcano. With any luck and a lot of trying hard we may have a chance to visit a truly majestic summit. Stay tuned!

-- RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

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All the Best Dustin and Team!!! Climb Strong!! Climb High!!!

Posted by: Dave Kestel on 2/17/2024 at 2:00 pm


Ecuador Seminar: Team Turns at 17,500’ on Antisana

Yesterday morning the wind began blowing from the east around 2am, accompanied by moisture in the form of a light rain at basecamp. It continued in this manner until, well... it's still raining at basecamp. The rain was never too horrible at camp and was often accompanied by sun to the west. We had a really successful time practicing some skills and just enjoying a nice couple of nights up high (14700').

However, today we attempted to climb Antisana and ultimately were turned around at about 17500'. The team climbed strong, but the further we pushed towards the summit and therefore towards the cloud, the wetter and windier it got. It was great experience for the team and we came away from it without too epic of a tale to tell. We now set our sights on Chimborazo, the final climb of the trip. The remainder of today is for resting and tomorrow we continue the drive south to Riobamba and ultimately to the Chimborazo Lodge for one more relaxing night prior to our climb.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier & Team

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Hey Dustin! You guys gave it your best! Best wishes for perfect weather ahead for you!
Farmer Dave

Posted by: Dave Kestel on 2/16/2024 at 3:09 am


Expedition Skills Seminar - Ecuador: Team Trains at Antisana Base Camp

Happy Valentine's Day!

We spent the day up here at Antisana Base Camp (14700'). The weather was too mediocre all day to walk to the glacier, so we practiced skills around camp. The main topic for the day was crevasse rescue and we spent several hours dialing it in. The rest of the day was spent physically and mentally resting in quite a romantic locale.

The camp chef made great meals today, which would have made lovely meals to share with our significant others :( Seriously, this place is so beautiful, and the food is so delicious, it's worth booking a couple nights just to camp. Alas, we don't get to enjoy such a civil night in this wonderful place. Instead, our alarms will be going off in the next few hours for another alpine start.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier & Team

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All the BEST!!!! Climb Strong!!!

Posted by: Dave Kestel on 2/15/2024 at 9:22 am


Torres Del Paine: King and Team Complete the O Circuit

We had hoped that the clouds would lift if we woke up early and headed for the Torres. A little rain last night and another warm morning had us walking by 4:30 am. We gained a 1500’ and walked into the clouds just before getting to the Chileno Refugio about halfway through. We waited at the Refugio to watch the clouds and see if they had any movement in them. There was no wind present to encourage the clouds to lift so with the rain increasing we made the difficult decision to head back to Central. The terrain above Chileno is rocky and filled with roots in steeper terrain. Avoiding injury in this terrain when wet and with the clouds covering the Torres seemed like the right call. 

It has been a great trek down here, lots of laughs and scenic views with a fun group. We head back Puerto Natales this morning for flights tomorrow.

Thanks for following along,

RMI Guide Mike King & Team

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Great job Mike!  Bummer that you didn’t make it to to the towers, but I’m sure there was plenty of great scenery along the rest of the trek to make up for it.  I hope the group had as much fun as we did last year!

Posted by: Mark Nelson on 2/15/2024 at 3:32 pm


Ecuador Seminar: Wittmier & Team Antisana Base Camp

We are off the grid! Battling through holiday traffic as the bus was continually sprayed with celebratory foam and squirt guns, we made it beyond the hoards. Arriving at Antisana Base Camp was a welcome relief as we showed up to our private camp and pitched tents in the páramo. The mountain was out, and we caught glimpses of Cotopaxi as well. The team spent several hours learning how to rappel safely and added to our knowledge a couple more hitches.

Now we are settled into our tents, waiting for dinner. Tomorrow morning will include more training before we rest in the afternoon in preparation for our climb.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier & Team

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That looks so peaceful!! Rest up!!!

Posted by: Dave Kestel on 2/14/2024 at 4:19 am


Torres del Paine: King & Team Enjoy Trek into French Valley

After the long day up the French Valley, we had a really warm and windy day into the Central area. There was a close sighting of a Condor which was the highlight. We had to just duck our heads and push forward and get over the humidity as much of the day was out of the trees and the sun was intense. We are hanging out watching clouds roll over the Torres, catching a few naps and cleaned up for dinner. Tomorrow, we’ll get up early for an attempt to see the Torres, the forecast is for rain and wind so fingers crossed. 

RMI Guide Mike King

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This is So Awesome Mike!!!

Posted by: Dave Kestel on 2/14/2024 at 4:21 am


Ecuador Seminar: Wittmier & Team Move Through Weather to Summit Cayambe

Ok, so what we got when the alarms went off was more rain. It wasn't a downpour, but certainly any amount of rain (and also wind in this case) is not the way to start a long day on Cayambe. As we sat staring at our coffee mugs, the sound of raindrops against the window broke the silence. The guide team made the decision to delay our start and took routine trips outside to see if the situation was improving. By 1:00 am, it really hadn't gotten much better, but given the current afternoon temps and weather patterns it seemed like to have any chance we needed to just gamble and get started. 

To our astonishment and excitement, we quickly moved out of the cloud and stayed mostly dry to start the day! The stars came out and climbing on Cayambe gives quite a show. The highest point on the equator crosses over the slopes of Cayambe and there is very little light pollution, it really is spectacular. However, that feeling of excitement quickly dwindled as clouds set back in. There were still intermittent views of the stars and town of Cayambe below, but the weather was changing. As we moved higher, it began to snow lightly, getting heavier as we got closer to the summit. It was clear that to make the summit, we would need to move quickly and this team was able to pull it off! We took a short break on the summit, anticipating more precipitation. The surface conditions were rapidly changing on us, so we just kept the train rolling downhill. Eventually, we reached the lower part of the glacier, emerged from the storm cloud and breathed a sigh of relief and satisfaction. 

Luck was certainly on our side today as we were able to safely ascend Cayambe on what turned out to be a marginal day. Now we are resting at Casa Ilayaku and with a late start to head to Antisana Basecamp tomorrow morning. We will spend two nights at basecamp and plan to cover a variety of mountaineering skills while enjoying the scenery of the high grasslands. Our summit attempt on Antisana will start on Wednesday night!

-- RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

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Awesome!!! Just Awesome!! Congratulations Dustin and Team!!

Posted by: Dave Kestel on 2/13/2024 at 3:28 am


Torres del Paine: King & Team Hike into the French Valley

After a shorter day the team headed from Paine Grande into the French Valley. Clouds and wind set the tone for what would be a partially sunny day where the clouds stayed high above. The glaciated Paine Grande massif dominates the valley to the left. Then as you get up higher, the largest of the alpine cirque comes into view with granite towers and walls everywhere you look. The remaining trail to Refugio Los Cuernos goes along a massive turquoise lake and is situated under the Cuernos (Horns) rock formation. Tomorrow we’ll be back in the Central area for the night and a hike to the Torres Wednesday morning concludes our trek. 

RMI Guide Mike King

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Mexicos Volcanoes: Hoch & Team Turned Back on Orizaba, Conclude Trip

After two successful summits of La Malinche and Ixta, team Mexico Volcanoes took our show back on the road to the small town of Tlachachuca to prepare for our climb of 18,500' Pico de Orizaba. 

Our perfect sunny weather continued as we gear exploded and sorted on the lawn of our Mexican outfitter Servimont. After a quick lunch we loaded into the 4x4 trucks and 1964 Dodge Powerwagon that take us to our basecamp. A couple bouncy hours later, we unloaded, dusted off and set up the tents for a quick sleep. 


11:30pm dawned calm and star-lit, and we made quick work of the lower part of Orizaba. As we neared 17,000 feet, the sun came up and gave us the spectacular and classic pyramidal mountain shadow that Orizaba is famous for. 

As we climbed higher, it became clear that rumors of a very icy summit section were true. We watched as multiple teams above us on the steep summit headwall found more of the bullet-hard ice we’d found lower on the glacier, and winds strong enough to put them down on that ice multiple times. 

We had a chat as a group and concluded that our 18,000 foot high point (highest for all but the guides!) was certainly the best spot to turn around. It was a hard decision as Orizaba was our biggest goal. But ultimately we all agreed that safety on this huge exotic mountain was number one. 

We descended into a hot sunny afternoon and enjoyed our final evening with a delicious dinner, then made our way to the airport in the morning to some fond farewells. 

Until next time Orizaba!

Thanks to the team for a great trip and way too many memories to list here! 

RMI Guides Joe Hoch & Sam Hoffman

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