Entries from Locations

The Five Day Climb April 26 - 30 led by RMI Guides Avery Parrinello and James Bealer completed their Mountaineering School on April 27 and made the ascent to Camp Muir on April 28.  The teams spent the last two nights at 10,080' Camp Muir.  Climbers were able to ascend to Ingraham Flats but due to adverse weather conditions were unable to climb any higher. Today the team is descending from Camp Muir to Paradise.  We look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.

RMI Guides Grayson Swingle and Ben Liken reported the Five-Day climbing teams enjoyed a beautiful sunrise this morning. The team spent two nights at Camp Muir and enjoyed lots of hands-on training and practice to enhance their glacier travel skills all while ascending to Camp Muir in wonderful spring conditions. The team will descend to Basecamp and celebrate their accomplishments before everyone begins their next adventure home.

After a week of unexpected park closures and a wonderful spring storm, our first Muir seminar of the season has concluded. Despite the less than stellar weather conditions, the team was able to shift gears and make the most of their time on the mountain. Climbers learned important skills like route planning, glaciology, snow sciences and spent several days practicing and honing their crevasse rescue skills.

Congratulations team – we hope you enjoyed your time on the mountain!

On Monday, the Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir was foiled from getting into the National Park by a large Spring snow storm.  We spent the day learning and practicing technical skills like rope ascension and ice climbing.  The team then learned about route planning, glaciology, and snow science. Hopes are high that the team can reach Paradise today.

RMI Guide James Bealer

Day 16-17

Waking into Namche this round through was much different than the first time.  Despite our sizable group, we were by no means the largest on the trail.  

This place is now in full swing with Everest climbers, international trekking teams and yak trains going up the valley towards Everest Base Camp.  

Even though the traffic resembled more of a US interstate than a single-track trail, we were pleased to land back at camp de base where we were welcomed with hot showers, Nepal Ice “extra strong beer” and the comforts of nice rooms with personal bathrooms. The hike was roughly 8 miles from Pangboche consisting of many ups and downs but nothing the seasoned team couldn’t handle.    

After a normal 7:30 breakfast the following morning, we set our sights on Lukla, home of the infamous dead-end runway and gateway to Everest.   Eleven miles and 6 hours after leaving Namche we strolled in with time to spare before dinner so naps all around became the team activity.   The clouds were thick as pea soup by 7 pm so our flight status was a bit unknown.   With fingers crossed we went to bed. When our alarms ripped us awake at 5 am the disheartening presence of this fog was still lingering out the window.  

We made our way anyhow, walking to the airport to check in and hope for the best. After waiting for ten hours to fly on the way in, we were not hoping for a repeat.   Two hours in we were beginning to get a bit worried and then the first plane landed.   Ten minutes later we were loaded up and, in our way, back to Kathmandu!   

Now we are clean, fed and content, celebrating a fun and successful trip. I can’t thank this team enough for a great few weeks in Nepal.   

This wraps up the Everest Base Camp and Lobuche expedition. Thanks for following!  

RMI Guides Adam Knoff and Hannah Smith and Team

It has been a very satisfying past two days as we have descended from high camp with our sights set on Lukla and the flight ready to take us back to Kathmandu.   

On Monday we left our beautiful camp situated at 17,200 feet on the western flanks of Lobuche peak and began our descent towards Pangboche, where we would spend the night.  We passed many other camps of expeditions who will use this mountain as a warmup for Everest in the coming months; acclimatizing enough to hopefully skip a rotation through the dreaded Khumbu ice fall which looks quite treacherous this season compared to years past.  After getting through the valley and back onto the main trail, we were astonished by how much the river had risen due the warming temperatures compared to crossing it just a week previous.  The weather and temperatures are definitely concerning because of the impacts on the glaciers and the volatility it creates in the mountains.  We are glad to have climbed when we did and be finished before things get too melted.   

Upon our arrival in Pheriche, we ate some lunch, repacked a few things then hit the dusty trail for a few more hours of walking down to Pangboche.  Feeling happy about our climb and healthy from the thick oxygen of 13,000 feet, the team went out for beers before dinner and enjoyed a couple hours of well-deserved free time resulting in fun conversation and reflection of the trip.  By 8:30, we were mostly in bed resting for yet another day of walking to Namche.   

Come morning we put the ball in motion almost automatically by this point and headed off by 8:15 for our 10 miles to Namche.   This team is now very accustomed to these distances, and we arrived in Camp de Base by 2:00 pm leaving us a solid few hours to shower, rest and shop before needing to eat more food, which is the general past time we all need to indulge in because three meals a day is no joke.   

Now, at 9:00pm on Tuesday evening we are back in our rooms ready for 10 more hours of sleep before biting off the last leg to Lukla tomorrow.   This place is almost indescribable in both beauty and hospitality, but nothing beats home after a long visit.   

Stay tuned to see if we can fly when scheduled.   It is often times the most unpredictable part of the trip.  

Adam Knoff

We are happy to announce that the Lobuche climbing team successfully reached the summit this morning at roughly 10 am.  It was a much more demanding climb than originally thought but everyone pushed hard and gave it all they had resulting in 100% of the team making it to the summit. Because the day was so challenging, we got down much later than expected so we are currently still at High Camp.  We will descend in the morning to hot showers, wi fi and beer!   All of the guides are proud of today's efforts.  Stay tuned for a more detailed description later.

RMI Guide Hannah Smith

Back safe and sound in Kathmandu!

Managed to get the team out of Lukla with the help of helicopters. It was too cloudy for the planes to fly, but the helicopters are able to fly out following the rivers and avoiding the mountains. It was a first for a few of us.

Everyone is back enjoying the comforts at the Yak & Yeti hotel, hot showers, good food, and the warm temps.

It's been one amazing adventure with a great team and it will be sad to say goodbye, but we are all looking forward to getting back home to our loved ones.

Thanks for following.

RMI Guide Casey Grom and a happy crew

Today was not unlike most of our others the last week.  Breakfast, packing then walking.  Except today we would finally reach Everest Base Camp. It is almost agonizing to see the bright yellow tents in the distance and feel like they are not getting any closer.  But three hours of steady walking landed the entire team safely at the Base Camp rock.  We were greeted upon arrival by our gracious Base Camp Staff with cookies and hot tea.  The views of the Khumbu icefall, Mt. Everest and Nupste were incredible the entire morning.   After our entrance greeting,  we hiked the final 30 minutes to our camp site and enjoyed hot showers, a great dinner and interesting sounds of far off avalanches.

Everyone is now tucked into their cozy tents ready for a good nights rest.  We  will report tomorrow after our hike back to Lobuche.

RMI Guide Hannah Smith

This morning came as both a blessing and a curse.  Most of our previous evenings have transitioned nicely from our enjoyable group dinner into bed time which we naturally gravitate towards around 8:30 or 9.  On paper this trip offers yak loads of down time and should, if played right, give each of us a solid 9 hours of shuteye.   

But we all know plans, as perfect as they may seem, play out far differently than the spreadsheet says they should.  Just ask Vladimir Putin about that.   

But thankfully none of us are crazy, demented humans and simply get a bit sidetracked with issues such as stomach funkiness, altitude weirdness and in the case of last night, a pack barking dogs.  There were only four of them, I know because I chased them around the village of Lobuche at 2 am with rocks and a ski pole, but nothing would make them stop.  We were sleeping at an altitude of 16,000 feet so it wasn’t the easiest anyway but never had I heard nonstop dog shouting for 8 hours straight.   So this morning was a blessing because they finally shut up when the sun hit but a curse because I was tired and cold and just wanted to stay in bed.  But we had miles to cover!

After our standard breakfast, complete with dog stories, admissions of no sleep and an eagerness to get on the trail, we slung our packs and followed our Sherpa leader Dawa.  The path started easy but soon steepened and became a lot more rugged when we began to cross a small glacier.   Our objective was the last village of Gorak Shep, before getting to Everest Base Camp tomorrow.   A steady three hour stroll landed us on target with views of Nuptse and Everest dominating the views up ahead.   The day was perfect and we knew our hike up a ridge line to a small summit called Kala Patar was going to be stunning.   

We powered down some lunch and headed out.  The trail head was conveniently located two minutes from our lodge so before we could say yak cheese we were head up.  The summit sits at 18,500 feet which we achieved an hour and a half after leaving.  The vistas were as good as advertised and no matter how man times you see it, one can’t help but to be blown away by the size and power of the Everest cirque.  We could also see Base Camp far below and got excited to go there tomorrow.   

By 3 the clouds began to move up the valley, like they do every day at that time so it motivated us to descend and go get some tea.  

Now we are resting before dinner and our schedule horizontal time.  This isn’t planned, it’s a product of challenging days and a demanding environment.   Plus it keeps us healthy.   

Stay tuned for our journey to EBC tomorrow.   

RMI Guide Adam Knoff