RMI Expeditions Blog
Posted by: Daniel May, Drew O’Brien, Mac Nolde
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska
Elevation: 11,000'
Wednesday, June 10, 2026 - 12:07 am PT
Another lovely day of near perfect weather. We awoke to cold temps and clear skies with our sights set on caching just below 14,000' Camp
After a long day in the sun, we made it back to camp just in time to lounge and view the splendors of 11,000' Camp before our move tomorrow!
RMI Guides Dan May, Drew O’Brien, Mac Nolde and the team
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McKinley Expedition, June 2, 2026
Posted by: Jackson Breen, Lacie Smith, Raymond Holt
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska
Elevation: 17,000'
Tuesday, June 9, 2026 - 11:04 pm PT
Our team woke up early this morning for the first time in many days. We packed up and moved from 14,000’ camp up to 17,000’ Camp. We walked up through the cold of the morning towards the fixed lines. After ascending the fixed lines we found ourselves on the West Buttress itself. And in all of my years I have never had such a pleasant day on the West Buttress. It was truly a day you dream about. We climbed in base layers in the sunshine weaving through the rocks looking down at 14 Camp where we started the day. It was not all sunshine and rainbows however, and the day had its fair share of struggles and suffering. After a long hard fought day we arrived at 17 Camp where we set up tents, made water, ate dinner, and prepared our gear for a summit attempt in the morning. Thank you for reading along and sorry I am not as entertaining of a writer as our climbers. We will check back in tomorrow with an update on our summit attempt!
Best regards,
RMI Guide Jackson Breen and Team
New Post Alerts:
Mt. McKinley Expedition May 26, 2026
Say hi to Russia for us!
Posted by: Reusserzales on 6/10/2026 at 6:15 pm
Good vibes. To the top with safety, speed and style!
Love pops
Posted by: Pat Breen on 6/10/2026 at 1:03 pm
The last 24 hours have been a bit of a blur, but we are happy to report that everyone on the team summited Illiniza Norte this morning. It is only an "acclimatization peak" on our itinerary in preparation for the upcoming attempts on Antisana and Cotopaxi, but this morning's climb was exhilarating in its own right.
Yesterday morning we left Quito under sunny skies with high excitement and a questionable forecast. Midway through our approach to the Illiniza Refugio the skies opened up and we walked in a deluge for 30+ minutes. The rain tapered a bit for the final hour, but we arrived at the refugio quite wet. Gore-tex can only stop so much water!
Nevertheless, the team did a great job staying motivated and even though it rained off and on through the night we woke up at 5am to make the best of it. Our motivation paid off and by 6:15am we were headed uphill under partly clear skies. The rain through the night did leave a nice coating of snow over the entire mountain, which added to the challenge. Scrambling sections that normally would be easy were slick with slush and required careful movement.
Two and a half hours of climbing later, we reached the summit and quickly decided to descend before the weather turned on us. A slippery and muddy descent brought us back to the trailhead.
RMI Guide Eric Frank
New Post Alerts:
Ecuador Expedition June 5 - 15, 2026
We summited Illiniza Norte at 8:30am this morning. Cloudy and threatening but we started dry and had a great climb.
I'll write a proper dispatch once we get down to the refugio and send some photos.
RMI Guide Eric Frank
New Post Alerts:
Ecuador Expedition June 5 - 15, 2026
Posted by: Dustin Wittmier, Robert Whyte, Oliver Sperin
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,080'
RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier checked in from Camp Muir at approximately 7:00 a.m. High winds and blowing snow prevented the team from making a summit attempt today. The team plans to begin its descent from Camp Muir later this morning and is expected to return to Ashford this afternoon, where they will conclude their program.
Monday, June 8, 2026 - 10:26 pm PT
Today was a well earned rest day. So far the mountain has allowed us to stay right on schedule. Lucky enough to enjoy some beautiful days of easy weather. Today was spent lounging around camp, practicing our crampon-ing skills and building our fortress of solitude. Stay tuned as we look forward to moving higher up the mountain tomorrow!
RMI Guide Dan May
New Post Alerts:
McKinley Expedition, June 2, 2026
Go Chris!! See you and your team at 14k. Give me this mountain!
Posted by: The Arivs Team on 6/10/2026 at 9:26 am
Posted by: Jackson Breen, Lacie Smith, Raymond Holt
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska
Elevation: 14,000'
Monday, June 8, 2026 - 7:51 pm PT
D(ave): Hey ChatGPT, I’m writing a daily update blog for the 14 people following our expedition up Denali and I need some clever ideas about how to structure it so that it isn’t just a bland update about what we did that day. Can you help me generate some ideas?
C(hatGPT): Sure, happy to help. Before I get started, can you give me an idea about what you did today so that I can start to
D: Yep. Today we woke up to a delightful brunch of breakfast burritos and hot drinks, our guides then confirmed that the following day (Tuesday) we would be heading up to 17 camp from where we would then make a summit push on Wednesday or Thursday (obligatory “whether permitting” disclaimer, of course). We went over a lot of details about what to bring to 17, expectations and what to wear on the summit push - basically, it is going to be cold so bring every layer you have and the guides will give final instructions on the day of the summit push based on conditions. After brunch we brought our ice axes into the cook tent and we taped them up with foam and duct tape to further insulate our hands from the cold metal. Once we were done with that we and brought our overboots and crampons into the tent so we could cut slits into the over boots so that our crampons fit. Ray did mine. It was like showing a horse. He was very gentle. Would recommend. After that, we all broke up and anxiously went through our gear, making sure that we knew where everything was so that we could get an early start tomorrow. That’s pretty much it.
C: Ok, that is a great blow by blow of what happened during the day. Did anything else noteworthy, funny, or unusual happen? Do you want this update to only factual, or do you want to throw in some made up or funny things.
D: Ummm, Peter led the building of an arch with snow blocks to stay active. We listened to Alonzo’s pump up song “Into the Danger Zone”. We learned that Jackson and Ray used to neighbors and that they had opposite schedules - one getting up early while the other stays up late. Matt taught a few of us Farkle (a dice game), and Ricky gave a lecture on dark matter, dark energy, the difference between special and general relativity, and other mind bending astrophysics topics. You know, just random conversations.
C: Ok, that is helpful. Since you are on an expedition have you thought about putting this into a cabin fever theme?
D: Yeah. I thought about that. Something like “Day 2 of sitting in the tent waiting for the storm to pass. No one is here except Peter, and his pug tattoos to keep me company. Peter doesn’t say much anymore but one of his pugs, the grumpy one, told me that I smelled today, which I thought was pretty rich coming from a dog” Anyway, I didn’t think that would go very far as it is so far from our actual experience.
C: Ok, I think I have everything that I need. Here is a clever blog post for your expedition “Today we got ready to head up to the next camp and then to the summit. Everyone is in good spirits and anxious to get going.”
D: Wait, that’s it?
C: Yep. What did you expect. I’m not even connected to the internet.
D: Fair point. I guess I’ll go with that and close with the answers from yesterday’s secrets post. Here they are!
1. Dave
2. Ricky
3. Pattie
4. Matt
5. Alonso
6. Lacie
7. Ray
8. Peter
9. Lizzie
10. Jackson
RMI Climber Dave
New Post Alerts:
Mt. McKinley Expedition May 26, 2026
Farkle on the mount!
-fellow Farkle fan
Wishing you all the best!
Posted by: Nneka on 6/10/2026 at 6:10 am
Reading your daily entries reminds me of comic magazines series, let’s title it, ‘The magnificent 10?” Always exciting to read the next episode.
What a strong group you have there! As Celtics Doc Rivers says, “Ubuntu”. Praying for all.
Posted by: Tess on 6/10/2026 at 2:31 am
Mon 6/8/2026 2:45 PM PST
The Ecuador team made it to the Illinizas Hut today after braving the rain for 2.5 hours.
A highlight of the day was looking back down on the beautiful pastoral valley from our position high on the peak.
We are all a little soggy, but in good spirits and anticipate drying out before our attempt on Illiniza Norte tomorrow.
- RMI Guide Eric Frank
New Post Alerts:
Ecuador Expedition June 5 - 15, 2026
Posted by: Dave Hahn, Julian Kral, Kat Porter, Dan Harper, George Hedreen, Dylan Anderson, CJ Rogers, Sam Traylor
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 13,300'
The Four-Day Climb (June 5 - 8) led by Dave Hahn and George Hedreen turned at 13,300' today due to deteriorating weather. They will be back in Ashford this afternoon.
Posted by: Daniel May, Drew O’Brien, Mac Nolde
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska
Elevation: 11,200'
Sun 6/7/2026 - 10:58 PM PST
Today’s haiku:
Heat panic in tent
White out on the back carry
Rest day tomorrow
- RMI Climbing Team
New Post Alerts:
McKinley Expedition, June 2, 2026
We hope everyone has a restful and uneventful rest day. Lots of love from Joe’s family.
Posted by: Caitlin on 6/8/2026 at 10:26 am
Let’s go Jimmy! One day closer to the summit!
Posted by: Braxton Hurst on 6/10/2026 at 6:46 pm
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