Entries from Locations

RMI Guide James Bealer checked in from the summit of Mt. Baker this morning. He reported that 100% of the team was on top! The team enjoyed a beautiful bluebird day with little to no wind on their ascent to the top.

They were beginning their descent back to camp to celebrate and will get a good nights rest before packing up camp tomorrow.

Congratulations to the climbers!

Saturday, June 25, 2022 12:27 pm PDT

Today, we waked up at 6:30 am with a blue sky and still a beautiful view over the mountains. We ´ve had a nice warm drink and breakfast with Bagel cheese and bacon. We took off our tents, made ready our backpack.

We have filled up our 11000 cache with duffels bags, snow shoes and some foods. We started moving from 11,000' camp at 9:30am and come to 14,000’ camp at 2 pm. We went through motorcycle hill, polo field, squirrel point, windy corner. We didn’t see horses at Polo Field, but we heard noises of horses couple of time from the group :-) Getting higher, we saw the valley with the rivers getting water from the glaciers. We have been lucky with a Moon walked above our head.

We saw the beautiful Mount Hunter and the difficulty to climb this mountain.

When we arrived, we set our camp and are ready for the rest day tomorrow.

-Yann

Thanks to Yann and Sebastian for writing the last two dispatches in their 2nd and 3rd languages and giving our group a diverse and international feel.

Everyone is doing great, and we climb incredible strong.  Rest days have been filled with dance parties, great conversations and lots of food.

As we sit at 14,000 camp we’re enjoying another much deserved rest day. Are hope is to carry up the fixed lines tomorrow than wait for a weather window.

RMI Guide Andy Bond & Team

Easy day today!  We were up at 5 AM on another fine weather day at 11,000 ft.  Shortly after 7 AM we started walking downhill to retrieve our cached food and fuel at 9700 ft.  The low clouds had cleared out overnight and so as we came close to Kahiltna Pass at 10,000 ft we could see well out into the tundra and an endless series of lakes and ponds down in the lowland.  It took just over a half hour to reach our cache.  Thankfully the ravens hadn’t disturbed it (they’ve been known to end an expedition or two) and we dug it up and loaded up.  We got back up the hills in about 2 hrs.  During the day it was worth doing a little review and practice with avalanche beacons, some discussion of crampon and climbing techniques and a refresher on handling the ice axe. 

Tomorrow, the game changes a little as we take on steeper and more serious terrain.  Out of the snowshoes and into the crampons.  With all of that training we managed to fit in some excellent naps as well.  After dinner and storytelling, we got our packs and sleds ready for a carry tomorrow. 

Best Regards,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn & Team

The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer and Josh McDowell reached the summit of Mt. Rainier at 6:45 am.  Pete reported clear skies, calm winds of about 5 mph, and a good route with easy walking. It took the team 5 hours and 45 minutes to get from Camp Muir to the Summit. 

Congratulations Team! 

Saturday, June 25, 2021 1:18 am PDT

Everything we worked for all came together today. We woke to nearly perfect weather conditions. It was game time. We packed and tied into the rope. A quick downhill gave away to steep terrain up the autobahn. Step by step we worked our way up the mountain. A breeze here and there kissed our cheeks, but all things considered was pretty calm until the summit ridge. One final steep uphill up pig hill brought us to the summit ridge. This is where the winds picked up. But we dug deep and pushed forward to the tippy top. What an accomplishment! The team trained hard, and it showed. They gave it their all and came out on top.

Congratulations team!!

Tired legs and bodies brought us back to our camp where we are resting up for two more big days walking to the airstrip.

Night everyone,

RMI Guides Hannah Smith, Kiira Antenucci, Daniel May and Team

Today was our first real rest day. The task was to do nothing, and we excelled at it.

After sleeping for about 12 hours, we got our aching bodies into the breakfast tent and were served several delicious courses to replenish as many calories as possible: bagels with bacon and salmon, cereals and breakfast burritos.

Happy and with full bellies, we dug comfortable resting places into the snow and spent most of the day out in the sun, listening to music, eating some more, chatting and just enjoying the amazing view over glaciers and clouds below us.

The day finishes with shredded beef burritos and the feeling that we are ready for another big day tomorrow, moving our camp to 14,000’ feet.

Sebastian and Team

Thursday, June 23, 2022 9:41 pm PDT

We made the big move from 8,000 to 11,000 ft today.   This was on mostly familiar terrain for us, of course.  But the unfamiliar parts brought us into a whole new world.  We set out at 5:30 AM from the base of Ski Hill in perfect conditions for mountain climbing.  It was cool, shady and calm and the snow surface was frozen up nicely.  We cruised right on past our food and fuel cache from yesterday and reached the head of the 46-mile long Kahiltna Glacier.  What remained was a little steeper terrain on a feeder glacier, but we managed that hard work without any trouble and pulled into camp at 11 AM.  Things had clouded up a little, which was a good thing, keeping the sun off us as we did the hard pull into camp.  It was nice to be greeted by Andy Bond and his RMI team, enjoying their rest day at 11K.  We set into the hard work of building a new camp at a new elevation.  The clouds began to fade, and we were stunned at the beauty of our surroundings.  Whereas the scenery from within the valleys has been great, now that we are getting up a little, we can start to see out.  The glacial ice surrounding us is endlessly fascinating with giant walls and towers pitched at impossible angles.  We napped away the intense sun that came with the afternoon.  Dinner in a new camp with a new view was excellent. 

Tomorrow we’ll go back down for our supplies. 

Best Regards,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn & Team

The Climb for Clean Air Team along with their RMI Guides Mike King and Abby Westling reached the summit of Mt. Rainier Early this morning. Mike King reported a good route, clear skies, but strong winds on the summit. The team spent a short time on top celebrating before starting their descent.

The funds raised by these climbers will support the American Lung Association’s mission of saving lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease. 

Congratulations team for your success on and off the mountain! 

Thursday, June 23, 2022 7:28 pm PDT

What a day, what a day!

The weather was a little up and down but all things considered allowed us to move to 17k camp. It is a burly move. The morning started we suspect clouds but they soon gave way to mostly clear skies. Of course by time we started to walking the clouds came back and made for some tough seeing. Buy we made it to the fix lines and were greeted by a snowy slope making for better walking. We cruised the fixed lines, dug up our cache at 16,400 and continues our journey up. More fix line bring us to Washburn's thumb and on the buttress ridge. It is an amazing walk with amazing exposure. One last snow slope dips us into our new home. Life isn't easy up here but we make strong work setting up camp and making water. Dinner is currently being served, scrumptious dehydrated Mountain House. We are working on relaxing and recovering for tomorrow. Tomorrow is going to be our big day. The weather looks good enough and is our opportunity before the winds pick up and shut the door on us.

Wish us luck!!

RMI Guide Hannah Smith and Team

Matias and the Kautz seminar team will spend their last night on the mountain tonight and plan for an early departure off the mountain followed by more training at Basecamp in Ashford.

The guide team have the following to say in reflection of the last week of training:

We have spent the past 4 days and 3 nights experiencing the mountain and the heat that accompanied it this week. Our high point may have only been 9,400’ but an abundant of learning and training was accomplished.

After a scorching first day moving across the Nisqually Glacier, we decided to move to a night schedule, only climbing when the snow hadn’t been tarnished by the blistering sun. Very Denali-esque of us. We hit on rock climbing, mixed climbing, ice climbing, crevasse rescue and many other skills. Hot weather and beating sun created unstable snow conditions and difficult trail breaking. But as one participant said, “It’s not all about the summit on trips like this”, and we feel like we were able to accomplish all our training and learning goals. The wisping clouds float below us like pillows awaiting to catch us on our decent.

RMI Kautz Team,

George, Leif, Lauren, and Matias