Entries from Locations

Day 10 - Strong Winds and Snow Persist

Today is another weather day, so the blog is about birds.

Birding is the act of intentionally wandering around outside and looking for birds. People who engage in this hobby are called birders. There are many types of birding, some enjoy seeing local birds that are native to where they live, others enjoy making a life list of all the unique birds they’ve seen in their life, and for some - the most extreme birders their goal is to complete “A Big Year”. There are many types of Big Years but the most popular and competitive is The Lower 48 American Bird Association Big Year. The Big Year starts on January 1st each year and ends on December 31st. The goal during this time frame is to see or hear as many unique birds as possible in the contiguous United States and up to 50 miles offshore. There is a fantastic documentary about this competition available for free on YouTube called “Listers”, I highly recommend you give it a watch. 

Now here is a list of bird facts that I can remember to spice up the end blog…

• The Loggerhead Shriek is a small carnivorous songbird that uses thorns of plants and the spikes of barbwire to impale its prey.
• The Golden Finch is the state bird of Iowa.
• The Common Murre is a pelagic sea bird that can dive upwards of 300 feet below the surface.
• Horned Puffins nest on sheer ocean cliffs and lay eggs with a flat side on them, so the eggs don’t accidentally roll out of the nest.
• Blue-Footed Boobies have one of the top 5 funniest bird names.
• Bald Eagles have been known to sink their talons into fish that are too large to fly away with and are unable to release their talons, so they are pulled underwater and drown.
• Roadrunners are one of the few known predators of rattle snakes.
• At least one songbird dies every year on the West Buttress route of Denali.
• Varied Thrush can sing through two sets of vocal cords simultaneously, allowing them to sing incredibly complicated bird songs.
• Marbled Murrelets nest dozens of miles from their ocean habit, exclusively in old growth forests near rivers. This allows their chicks a higher survival rate due to the fact old growth offers more protection for nesting and when they’re pushed out of their nests to learn to fly, they plop into the river below.
• Red-Winged Black Birds are territorial and have been known to attack elementary school students walking to their friend Andrew’s house.
• The Steller Jay was the key to the first Russian expeditions knowing they had made it to Alaska as the Blue Jay family of birds is endemic to North America exclusively.
• And finally contrary to popular belief, the mosquito is not the state bird of Alaska, it is in fact the Ptarmigan.

Cheers,

Jack and the well-rested team.

Thursday May 21, 2026 - 9:44pm PDT

Welp, we woke up to drifting snow, heavy winds, and the sun outlook of yet another weather day. Today haiku was brought to you by Adam, because it was his favorite day ever.

Wizards of the stove

Waving wands of ice and snow

What will you do next

Adam’s favorite day ever consisted of his two favorite meals. The day started with Cinnamon Toast Crunch and the day wrapped up with Zatarain’s (Jambalaya). The in-between times were filled with cribbage, rotating in your sleeping bag like a hot dog in a gas station and some more story times. The snow continued to fall throughout the day.  We are still set up to carry to 13.5 whenever weather allows.

Check in tomorrow!

RMI Guide Nikki Champion and Team

Rain rain 
go away
K2 said not today

Today is not looking like our day. Grey skies and on and off rain is the theme so far. We spent the morning enjoying a slow breakfast and hot cups of coffee.   With our extra time we went over sled set up and rigging as well as fixed line climbing. We hope things change for us tomorrow. 

Best

RMI Guide Seth Burns and Team

The whole team stood on top of Pequeño Alpamayo today! We woke up to an almost shockingly warm night, and although it still got a little chilly at 17,000' at 4 am we spent most of the day in just one or two layers and thin gloves. Conditions were vastly better than the last time I climbed Pequeño in 2024, but don't be fooled, this was still a very long, hard day and everyone had to give it their all. To even get to the mountain one first must summit Tarija, itself a glaciated 5000m peak, before descending several hundred feet of 3rd and 4th class rock terrain to the saddle with Paqueño Alpamayo, all before the really steep climbing starts. All told you essentially summit three 5000 meter peaks, since you have to climb back up the rocks to Tarija on the way back, which makes for a pretty challenging "acclimatization" day, but such is the nature of climbing in the Cordillera Real. Hannah and I are both so proud of this team and impressed by everyone's efforts both on the mountain and in the preparation at home. We couldn't be more excited for two more big summit attempts within the next week!

RMI Guide Henry Coppolillo

Wednesday, May 20, 2026 - 9:28 pm PT

Tonight’s dispatch starts with a Haiku from Oliver:

Trango home on snow 

Vented, sturdy and solid 

Palace of solace

Today we woke up to a low cloud, light snow and calm winds. It was our chance to go back and grab our cache. As we let the morning slow roll, we enjoyed the the second smoked salmon meal of the trip and then geared up with empty packs and sleds and started back downhill to be reunited with our snacks and group meals we have been missing. After a quick 30 minutes of down we were digging. 

We then loaded everything up, and headed back up hill for a short hour. As we finally made it back into camp, weather mellowed out and we enjoyed a solid afternoon of building a kitchen, good burritos, and snapping a quick team photo. 

Weather might be a bit tough tomorrow, but when things allow we will gear up to carry to 13,500'

RMI Guide Nikki Champion

We finally had a good weather day!

Everyone was stoked that we got to cache near 14,000' Camp. We lugged extra food, some empty poop buckets, summit clothes - such as the super warm mittens (or as Jenn calls them, the "oh shit mitts") and our ascenders a few thousand feet up the mountain. The weather was spectacular. A stark difference from the cold, windy, snowy weather we had the last few days. There were dozens of rope teams out and about caching or moving camps. We made it back to tent city at 11,000' and some of us finally got to change into clean underpants! It's a good day.

Hi to Goose (the best dog) Matt, Betsy, mom and dad!

RMI Climber Katie

Wednesday, May 20, 2026 - 4:52 pm PT

Made it up to Condoriri basecamp today with the help of about a dozen mules. After setting up camp and having lunch we kept walking up to the toe of the glacier at around 16,000,' where we spent a few hours reviewing some more advanced mountaineering skills- steep cramponing, ice climbing and lowering and rappelling. We're getting to bed early ahead of an alpine start tomorrow, we'll check in when we're all back in camp tomorrow afternoon!

RMI Guide Henry Coppolillo

Hello from Talkeetna!

All of our travels went well yesterday and we are moved in to our hopefully temporary accommodations in Talkeetna. Today will be a packed day with a meeting with the park service and then lots or organization and preparation for our expedition.  Everyone is excited to be here and get things moving. Send us good weather vibes!

-RMI Guide Seth Burns and Team

white noise of the night

flapping prison of nylon

sky breaks evening light

- anonymous

Tuesday, May 19, 2026 - 5:49 pm PT

We left La Paz in the wee hours of the morning, navigating the maze of city streets to the highway leading to Huayna Potosi. As we neared the base of Huayna we could see headlamps high on the summit ridge, an exciting preview of what's to come. The sun was just beginning to rise as we turned north on a road that seemed improbable at best in a passenger van, but our driver navigated with ease and precision while we took in breathtaking early morning views of the west face of Huayna. After creating a 16000+' pass the "road" dropped down towards the Condoriri valley, and we hopped out of the van to stretch our legs for the final few miles to the Rinconada trailhead. We set up camp in the meadow surrounded by grazing llamas and alpacas. After lunch the rest of the afternoon was spent napping and organizing gear into loads for the mules that will help us move up to Condoriri base camp tomorrow. It's great to be out of the hustle and bustle of the city and under the spectacular Milky Way sky.

RMI Guide Henry Coppolillo