Entries from Expedition Dispatches

May 17, 2024 11:54PM PT

Today was super successful. Things were quite warm at camp and looked enticing enough to rouse everyone and start making preparations to leave.
Excitement was in the air as everyone in camp had similar thoughts - whether they were carrying or moving. Teams filtered out of camp uphill, and we made final adjustments, and then shouldered packs and headed up Motorcycle Hill. 
We moved really well - caught a little breeze over the top of squirrel, then kept swinging along the polo field. It was a bit chilly again around Windy Corner, but the wind died on the other side and the oven turned on and we started pulling off layers. 
We cruised into camp and set about building our home for the next several days tough work at 14,200’. Everybody is now recovering horizontally. 
Tomorrow should be a much easier day, dropping back down to grab our cache and returning to camp with all our treasures. 

Pete

May 17, 2024 11:22PM PT

First mountain day in the books. After a pretty grim weather forecast, we had planned to sleep in a bit and have a later breakfast. To our surprise, K2 Aviation called us at 7:30 AM to tell us the weather looked great and to make our way over to the hangar.

By 9 AM, we had changed into our mountain boots and loaded into the plane. After a beautiful flight, we landed at basecamp - unloaded, organized, and rigged up the sleds, buried a basecamp cache for our return, and made our way out onto the lower Kahiltna.

It was a long heavy day - the one day of the trip we carry everything we brought.

Under blue skies, we rolled onto the base of the Ski Hill, built camp, and settled in.

We had a dinner of mac and cheese with bacon and got gear ready to cache tomorrow.

Hoping for another beautiful day, but just glad to be moving.

Check in tomorrow!

RMI Guides Nikki Champion, Leif Bergstrom and Team

May 17, 2024 9:53PM PT

Well, I can't speak for the rest of my team, but my pictures are definitely not doing this place justice. I keep thinking about my sister, who's a professional photographer. She'd lose her mind over the views. (shameless plug - check her out at Alaska Light Photography). So far, the team has participated in some excellent bonding. We've covered important topics like the merits of various dinner bowls, pros and cons of carrying frozen carrots up 2,000 vertical feet, and what types of rare Pokémon would live up here. (Or is it Pokémen? Pokémon’s? Unknowable at 11,000 feet). Time and distance are different up here.  15 minutes can feel like 2 hours. The vastness of the terrain tricks the eye and a camp "just around the corner" is still an hour away. So, we take one step at a time, one breath at a time, and trust that every step is one step closer to the goal we’ve been working towards for months.
We’ll do it all over again tomorrow.

- Sarah and the Team 

The Mt. Rainier Four-Day climb led by RMI Guides Dave Hahn and Sam Hoffman turned around at 11,500 this morning due to deteriorating weather. They are currently enjoying a sunny Camp Muir morning. They will recollect themselves at Camp Muir before their descent back to Basecamp in Ashford this afternoon. Nice work team!

Thursday, May 16, 2024

The moment we got out of the tents, it was pretty clear we were going to rest in camp today. Gusts of wind were rolling through camp at irregular intervals, shaking the tents in waves across camp. It wasn't particularly strong, just really noisy. Above, however, it was clear that the wind was much stronger, clouds flew by, and a lenticular hovered over the West Buttress. Below, clouds were thick on the Kahiltna as well. So, we lingered over breakfast, then retreated to the tents for reading, napping, and movie time. It was good timing for a rest day for us anyways.

We'll take a look at it tomorrow and see how we go.

RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer & Team

Welcome to the first dispatch for the May 14th Denali Climb!

After a busy few days, getting to Talkeetna, and spending all day yesterday packing and preparing for the upcoming expedition, we went to bed hoping to fly the following morning.

We woke up early, called K2, and made our way to the hangar by 8 AM, dressed and ready to fly. Spirits were high, and we were optimistic. We loaded the planes and changed into our climbing gear. Unfortunately, the weather closed in on the mountain, and we entered a waiting period.

That waiting period extended into the afternoon and evening. We filled our day with a late morning coffee, walks to the river, a sanity run by Leif and me, and yet another dinner in town.

We will wake up again tomorrow and hope to fly. Until then, we enjoy the warm food and hot showers.

Cheers,

RMI Guide Nikki Champion & Team

Ever read or watch that movie about the guy that gets stuck on Mars? I thought it would be a good one to reread on Denali. You know crazy location, far away from civilization, intense weather. Somehow, I completely forgot about the bit where he was stuck for over a year. Too stressful to read in the tent, I think I'll switch to something lighter like Stephen Kings IT.

Luckily Denali and Mars can be quite different. Lots of white here on Denali (you'll likely recall that Mars is mostly a red color). We can also breathe the air without a spacesuit! Lucky us. Oh, and the views! I'd like to say that pictures don't do it justice, but they sometimes can capture some of the majesty. What they can't do is give you the awestruck feeling of watching an avalanche off in the distance, or the feeling of seeing the bluest blue coming from the frozen snowy waves of crevasses one hundred feet to either side of the trail. Quite striking.

At breakfast somehow, I'm already looking forward to dinner -- the guides, Dustin, Lacie, and Dan have been crushing breakfast and dinners. They've been crushing at the guiding too. Every suggestion or advice is gold, and we always know the plan for the following day clearly. Over breakfast a day ago I joked that in addition to being amazing guides they are also chefs and therapists. They joke that they are only somewhat adequate in the latter two. We all think they're quite exceptional at both.

Today we hoofed it to about 10k feet, buried some stuff, and made our way back to the base of ski hill. If the weather is good tomorrow, we’ll make an even longer trek out of our current camp. If it's not so good, we'll hang out here. I know which one my feet would prefer.

Да луны и обратна,

RMI Climber Ilya Dvilyanski

Thursday, May 16, 2024 1:33pm PDT

Just checking in, not too much to report. 

Winds at camp ramped up last and are strong and gusty this morning. We're hanging at 11k today and plan to move to 14k on the next good weather day.

RMI Guide Mike Walter & Team

The Five Day Climb led by Andy Bond reached 13,200' on Mt. Rainier. The team turned around due to route conditions. They are back at Camp Muir and will be descending to Paradase later today.

Congratulations Team! 

Thursday, May 16, 2024 - 12:11 am

We are camped at the base of Ski Hill, planning to carry tomorrow.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier