Entries from Alaska

May 23, 2026 - 12:50am PDT

And so, it begins.

After another Talkeetna morning cursing the clouds, we distracted ourselves practicing crevasse rescue, anchor systems and running belays. By noon there were glimpses of hope in the eyes of the pilots, a potential clearing in the evening. Our tender hearts had heard it before, so we kept doing what we do best: hacky sack and repacking. At around six our pilot came in with confirmation that it looked good enough to give it a shot! Our eager crew sprang to life, called our loved ones and loaded the planes. To our surprise lots of the range was visible in the setting sun, with a few dark clouds wisping with the wind. We flew down into the Kahiltna with little turbulence and landed at base camp. Stunned by the magnificent views that peaked in and out, we set up a hasty camp with smiles on our faces. We are all happy to be here and ready for the challenge ahead!

RMI Guide Ben Thorneycroft and Team!

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

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

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

Monday, May 18, 2026 - 11:48 pm PT

The first alarm went off at 5AM. The sound of snow falling on the tent was there, but lighter than the last few days. We spent the next hour paying attention to the weather to see how the winds and snow progressed, and they seemed to stay the same. By 7AM the stoves were rolling and the plan was to move uphill if weather didn't get much worse. The light snowfall and dense clouds lingered, but winds remained calm at camp. By 10:30 we had torn down camp and began our way up Ski Hill in the light snow and clouds. As we made our way through the first few stretches the sun would occasionally try to peak out, but sooner rather than later the clouds rolled in, snowfall picked up, and visibility was reduced to a whiteout. This continued all the way past our cache before the skies broke again. After a tough day, we finally rolled into 11 camp where we found our RMI cohorts, and set up camp right below them. The long day was wrapped up with some ramen, and a little bit of wall building to prep for the next incoming storm. 

We are hunkered down and now set to face the storm, or back carry, whatever weather brings.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion

MERVEILLEUX ENFER!

Cet oxymore correspond tellement bien à notre environnement. Lorsque le ciel est dégagé et que le vent cesse, nous avons l'immense privilège de contempler la merveille qu'est le Denali. Des glaciers à perte de vue, that's huge! Les pics rocheux gigantesques jouant avec les nuages, that's so wild ! La glace d'un bleu vif des séracs suspendus, that's so cool man ! Et la neige poudrée scintillante au soleil, for sure ! Ce soleil justement, nous apporte de la chaleur et une luminosité qui ne cesse jamais (masque obligatoire pour dormir !). Mais il est aussi notre première menace invisible ! Whaaat ? Sans protection, votre peau brûle littéralement. Même sous la tente, la crème solaire est indispensable, that's so badass! 

Les autres menaces, elles, sont bien perceptibles... Les crevasses sont béantes mais les plus dangereuses sont celles que l'on ne voit pas, that's so impressive!

Quand le temps se gâte, c'est à dire presque tout le temps..., le froid mordant vous glace jusqu'au os. Couplé aux rafales de vent, les gestes les plus basiques du quotidien deviennent un enfer avec nos équipements (non je ne vous parlerai pas du poop...). Enfin installés dans nos duvets pour quelques heures de repos, après avoir évacué la neige qui s'est infiltrée à notre passage, nous avons le plaisir de prendre sur la tête au réveil toute l'humidité de nos respirations sous forme de glace...

Bienvenue dans ce merveilleux enfer !

Les nouvelles du lundi 18 :

Hey buddy ! Aujourd'hui on s'est équipé et avons préparé nos "stuffs" pour aller les déposer à la 2eme cache, awesome !

Mais... les guides ont finalement décidé d'annuler car une nouvelle tempête arrive...

A des fins d'entraînement nous avons montés la Motorcycle Hill et, we figured it out une fois en haut pourquoi nous n'avions pas intérêt à poursuivre vers Squirrel Hill, Polo Fields et le fameux Windy Corner!

Alors, dans la lignée des derniers jours, we spilled the tea ! Des moments d'échanges joyeux, renforçant la cohésion de cette team maintenant bien soudée et où la bonne humeur et l'entraide règne. Et pour moi c'est cours d'anglais hundred percent!

Le délai s'allonge encore pour espérer rejoindre le sommet, fingers crossed!, mais nous préférons nos vies à la précipitation. La patience fait partie intégrante de l'expédition.

Il n'est pas possible de vaincre le Denali, notre plan est d'attendre qu'il accepte de nous laisser aller to the top, pour admirer de tout en haut ce merveilleux enfer! 

NB: tous les mots en en anglais sont ceux que j'entends des centaines de fois par jours, impossible de les oublier, Yeah Yeah !

Note personnelle : à ma famille, mes amis, mes collègues et tous ceux qui suivent mon projet OXYFIGHT, je veux vous dire que je suis en excellente forme, que je dors particulièrement bien et que les américains sont terriblement attachants et gentils avec moi ! A ma femme et mes enfants, I LOVE YOU

RMI Climber Thomas / OXYFIGHT (le frenchie)