RMI Expeditions Blog

The August 28 - 1 September Glacier Peak climb led by RMI Guide Avery Stolte reached the summit this morning around 9 am.  The entire team stood on top today.  Nice work team! The group will descend to camp and spend another night on the mountain. Tomorrow they will return to the trailhead and conclude their program.

The day started out just so-so.  It was cloudy, it was raining.  When we drove up onto the rim of the Ngorongoro caldera it was still raining, still cloudy and the road was rough.  Down in the immense valley it was still a little miserable but at least we were seeing wildlife.  Then it got amazing. 
We considered ourselves lucky to have spied a few lions at some distance.  But then we started coming on prides of them at close range.  When three rhinos walked toward our vehicles, we were over the moon.  Such a thing doesn’t happen.  And it did.  They came into iPhone range.  Whole trips pass without a rhino even at great distance.  We moved a few miles away and considered ourselves ridiculously lucky then to see a different pride of lions on a zebra kill. And then a rhino casually walked within a few feet of the pride and the kill… again, so close that a phone was all the camera needed for capturing it.  Our guides had never seen such a thing before.  We were simply amazed.  We drove off to the lunchtime picnic grounds shaking our heads in wonder.   After lunch we made our way up to the crater rim again and stopped in for a tour of a Maasai village.  We danced we watched them throw spears and make fire. We toured their homes and tried to understand their traditional way of life in an otherwise modern world. 
Then we drove back down the bumpy roads to Plantation Lodge and the lap of luxury for another evening. 

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Rivertrees beds were comfy last night after a week sleeping on the ground.  But we got up early anyway to get started on our Safari. It took about an hour to get through Arusha and out into the wide open country to the west. But then we cruised through arid farmland, seeing herd after herd of Maasai cattle being shifted from one watering hole to another.  By midday we’d reached Lake Manyara National Park and our guides, Richard and Stephen, got us in and started showing us around.  Before long we were right up close to elephants and baboons. One car even got lucky enough to see a leopard up a tree.  Eventually we were getting used to seeing giraffes and hippos and impala.  There were hornbills and hawks. Three lonely zebra and a few waterbucks caught our eye.  It was a fine start to safari life and then we were checking in to the ultra comfortable Plantation Lodge in the Ngorongoro highlands outside Karatu.  The team enjoyed a very relaxing evening in the beautiful bar and dining room as we plotted out tomorrow’s itinerary in Ngorongoro Crater. 

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

The Five Day Climb team, August 27–30, led by RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer and Joe Crawford, reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning!

Pete reported a beautiful day overall, with light winds as the team reached 13,800' around 7:30 a.m. Winds increased as they climbed higher, but the team continued upward and reached the summit around 8:00 a.m.

They are currently descending from the crater rim and will return to Camp Muir for a quick break before continuing down to Paradise later this afternoon.

Their patience yesterday in waiting out the storm paid off, as did having two nights on the mountain, which allowed for a more flexible itinerary. The team was able to take advantage of improved conditions and stand on top of Mt. Rainier today.

Nice work, team!

We are back at Rivertrees Country Inn, showered, well fed and celebrating our climb.  Waking at 10,000 ft in the forest this morning was relatively easy, but we all were thinking how much more comfortable we’d be off the mountain.  The trail down to 6000 ft was a tricky one.  There were steep and muddy sections, despite the fact that we were doing it in perfectly dry weather.  There were several hundred porters flying down the track at flank speed.  Every step required concentration.  But there were some pretty vistas, some beautiful trees and we were lucky enough to see colobus monkeys.  We reached the end of the hike at 11:30 and then had to check out of the National Park.  We then sat down to a farewell lunch with our 51 Barking Zebra mountain staff.  After which there was singing and dancing and a brief tip ceremony in which we tried to express our gratitude to our local guides, chefs, waiters, camp staff and porters.  They did a fabulous job and treated us as old friends. 

We then boarded the bus and headed for the showers.  We prepared for Safari, had a mountain climbing victory dinner this evening and said goodbye to Tim who will be heading home. 

Our journey continues. 

RMI Guide Dave Hahn, Dominic Cifelli & Team

Coppolillo and team summited Mt. Baker via the Coleman-Deming route to wrap up their 6 day skills seminar. They reported a cold but beautful day and the entire team made it to the top! The team is now off the mountain and celebrating in Sedro Woolley.

What a day! What a mountain!  What a team!  It all came together today, perfect weather and the entire team ready to take advantage of it.  We got 100% of the team to the summit.  We got walking from Barafu camp at midnight and climbed through the cold and dark for what seemed like forever.  It was a full moon night and dead calm… but it was still quite cold.  The sun rose close to 6:30 as we were just below the crater rim. By 7:52 we were at Uhuru… the true summit and the highest point in Africa.  Basically, we then spent the rest of the day climbing down.  The journey from 19,341' ft to 10,000' ft was broken up with a wonderful brunch back at our 15,200 ft high camp.  The team made it down to Mweka Camp at the respectable hour of 4:30, just in time for tea and then a last dinner on the mountain.

- RMI Guide Dave Hahn & Team

Congratulations to the Four Day Climb team, led by RMI Guides Stella Johnson and Dustin Wittmier, on reaching the 14,410-foot summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning!

Despite cold temperatures and strong winds, the team was rewarded with clear skies above the cloud layer surrounding Paradise. They are currently descending and expect to arrive back at Camp Muir shortly.

Well done, Team!

Today was easy!  At least for our team of seasoned mountain climbers it was easy.  We just took two rest breaks between Karanga and Barafu Camps and the weather was calm, sunny and clear.  We had unobstructed views of Kibo -Kilimanjaro’s central peak- and its ice and snow fields shining in the morning sun.  Our Barking Zebra support team had done a brilliant job of building high camp for us and so our entrance to life at 15,200 ft was as easy as it could be.  We lunched and strategized for tonight’s climb.  There were some easy packing chores to be done and then we rested.  We’ll still meet for an early dinner but then the plan is to get to bed right after. The beautiful sunset we saw last night from Karanga Camp will have to suffice.  We are prioritizing rest tonight because we will get up super early and head out for the roof of Africa.

Best,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

The Four Day Day Climb August 24 - 27, 2026 led by RMI Guide Joe Hoch and Nick Sinapius were forced to turn around today due to high winds.  The teams left Camp Muir but the winds were just too strong and they retreated safely to Camp Muir. The teams plan to leave Camp Muir around 9:30 am and descend to Paradise.