RMI Expeditions Blog

The Four Day Climb (June 2-5) led by Joe Hoch and Ben Ammon turned at the top Cathedral Gap (10,640’) early this morning due to strong winds that were making climbing and continuing uphill very difficult. They are back at Camp Muir and plan to descend from Paradise later this morning. They will be back in Ashford this afternoon. 

Way to hang in there team!

Friday, June 5th - 12:15AM PST

Guest dispatcher Joe reporting in from Denali.

The DDM Expedition (Daniel/Drew/Mac) departed Talkeetna this morning in good order. Blue skies and calm  air made for an easy flight for our daredevil K2 Aviation bush pilots so everyone enjoyed a little extra sightseeing swooping through the peaks along with a couple barrel rolls just for a little spice. Deposited safely on Kahiltna Glacier early, the group repacked yet again for foot travel and proceeded directly to Skill Hill Camp. The exceptional weather persisted throughout the day, with just a few chill winds interleaved with atypically hot sections. Arriving with plenty of energy, the team stomped out a camp area and got down to the real business of the day: Mac's Mac & Cheese.

On a more tragic note though, departing Talkeetna also meant departing Zach's lunch meats and cheeses abandoned in the hangar fridge. Although he'll survive just fine having apparently packed at least 50lbs of other snacks, this was an emotional blow for his and your reporter's Rope Team Hoarding Marmots, and honestly an affront to our venerable mascots. Tomoki also left a few things in that refrigerator but him and his companions Chris and Paxton on Rope Team World Best #1 Rope Team weren't as loud about it so our guides still don't know and they villainously avoided their fair share of judgement and demerits.

Meanwhile under Sarah's strong leadership and Erik's silent execution, Rope Team Erik and the Squatters continues to be all Rope Team We're So Perfect We Show Up Two Minutes Before Every Meetup And Had All the Gear We Were Supposed To Have And Didn't Leave Anything In The Refrigerator. Some people your faithful chronicler just doesn't understand. Tomorrow the expedition will make an outing to cache supplies and gear uphill in preparation for a hoped-for move to 11 Camp ahead of an expected downturn in the weather.

-RMI Climber Joe
 

Thursday, June 4th @ 8:20PM PST

“No jump tonight! The channel coast is socked in with rain and fog.” Just like the airborne drop just prior to the Normandy invasion in WW2 was postponed in Band of Brothers, our move up to the 14,000 foot camp was also postponed. One of our teammates woke up under the weather so the team, led by Jackson’s sound thought process, decided to stay here at 11,000 feet. As much as we wanted to hear Jackson mimicking Mr. Miagi in the Karate Kid when he says “packs on, packs off,” to signal the start and end of our rest breaks while in the trail, we are all grateful that individual wellness is valued and prioritized. Today, for all 13 readers of the blog, (we went up in readership or at least that’s what I’m telling myself) you will get a glimpse in what we do on a rest day. 

Each member of the team has been giving it their all, their daily 100% for the team. Earlier in the week we all carried team gear and personal items to higher in the mountain for our teams success. Today’s 100% was spent resting so our teammates can stay strong on the upper mountain. We had some folks engaging in “light” reading of quantum mechanics and discussions about the concepts, many cinephiles, some naps, and language study. So many snacks were eaten, shared, and personal snack preferences turned into lively and spirited debates about which Oreo is the best (it’s double stuff by the way). Some tent teams place all their snacks in the middle of the tent, like a small family of squirrels in their burrow, while they read, watch movies, and listen to audio books.

Others played backgammon and trivia while counting the number of times Peter walked in front of the tent to get his step count in. We’ve decided that we all make an incredible and formidable bar trivia team.

Our team has also developed some enjoyable routines. Each morning we talk about the dreams we had while we all huddle over our hot drinks in the kitchen tent. Each evening we have intriguing and often intellectually challenging conversations. One of those was how do you connect John Travolta to Tom Cruise, similar to the game degrees of Kevin Bacon. We’ve also argued over our favorite conspiracy theories. We are really a cohesive group. If someone could leave a comment to help us explain who Kevin Bacon is we’d greatly appreciate it.

RMI Climber Matt
 

Thrusday, June 4, 2026 5:53pm PDT

Summited at 4:20 with 100% . Headed down now.

Thursday June 4, 2026 10:12pm PDT

Everyone is back at 17 Camp. 

Thursday June 5, 2026 12:24am PDT

We will start with the great news, our entire team went to the top of Denali today! We reached the point where we could go no further at approx. 4:30 pm.

Our day started on the colder side with clear skies and a mild but biting wind. We left 17 camp and began our We broke out into the warming sun at Denali pass and continued steadily up, enjoying decreasing winds and sunshine, climb across the autobahn.

By the time we had reached the Football Field, a broad basin below the final climb to the summit, we were down to only one or two layers. With the summit ridge in sight, we climbed up Pig Hill to Kahiltna Horn, breaking 20,000'. Here we were quickly reminded of our location as freezing winds had us scrambling for more clothes.

The final push to the true summit went slowly but smoothly as we topped out on the highest point in North America. Strong and cold winds made our stay on top short, but lifelong goals and aspirations were fulfilled in those fleeting moments.

We are all now back down to 17,000' camp and tucked into our sleeping bags. Our descent continues tomorrow!

Cheers - RMI Guide Seth Burns & Team

The Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons led by RMI Guide Leif Bergstrom reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today via the Emmons Glacier.  The team bumped up to Camp Schurman yesterday putting their glacier travel, ice ace arrest and cramponing skills they learned over the last few days to the test. Once back to Camp Schurman, they will enjoy the afternoon and evening.  Tomorrow they will break camp and descend to the trailhead, returning to Ashford tomorrow afternoon.

Congratulations to our first Emmons Seminar team!

The Four Day Climb June 1 - 4 reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning led by RMI Guides Dustin Wittmier & Tom Skoog.  Dustin reported moderate winds but blue skies above as they were approaching 13,500' just after 7 am today. The team reached the summit and is currently on their descent to Camp Muir. Once back at Camp, they will take a short break before continuing down to Paradise. Their program will conclude this afternoon at Rainier BaseCamp.

Congratulations to the team!

Wednesday, June 3, 2026 - 11:38 pm

Today was another beautiful day in Talkeetna. We felt the buzz of excitement and anticipation as we spent the whole day packing, weighing, and organizing all our gear to prepare for an early flight onto the south east fork of the Kahiltna glacier!

RMI Guide Dan May

Wednesday, June 3, 2026 - 9:40 pm PT

We woke to cold temps around 20 below zero and did our best to stay warm as we emptied our tents, broke them down, and cached anything we wouldn't need for the next few days up high. Over half the route was already familiar as we did our acclimation day two days prior to 16.2k at the top of the fixed lines. Today, we needed to not only get there but an additional 1000 feet of gain while traversing the West Buttress, for which our approach is named.
 
The chilly morning very quickly turned hot as the sun crested the edge of where we set our sights, camp at 17.2k elevation. By the first break we had shed at least a layer and by the second, most of us were in our base layer sun-hoodies for the rest of the hike. We have not seen a clearer day so far on the trip and the bluebird skies made for epic photo ops of not only the Kahiltna Glacier from which we started but the entire valley - about 270 degrees of snowy mountains, rivers, and the snowless flatlands beyond. Once we reached the Buttress we could peer down at the 2000+ foot drop at 14 camp where we had slept the night before.
 
We navigated the fixed lines using our ascenders, sliding up an anchored rope while allowing us to easily not slip back down very steep slopes. We clipped in and out of anchored pickets with caribeners across the snow and the sometimes rocky Buttress spine. We used a mixture of steps - the crossover and duck step to carefully drive our crampons into hard snow and blue ice while balancing with our ice axes. All in all, we did everything needed to safely arrive at our destination.

After chiseling very hard snow and ice to make flat platforms, we pitched tents and settled in to rest our legs, get hydrated, and refuel. The weather tomorrow is forecast to be clear as well with some possibility of moderate winds. If we wake up and the mountain isn't blowing snow we will most likely go, if it's too windy we will rest and go Friday. All of our team is still relatively healthy and in good spirits. We are all super stoked for the great weather forecast and the hard work we have put in to get to this point. Tonight, we settle into freeze dried meals and watch the midnight sun drift across the horizon. Tomorrow, we all hope to summit this great and beautiful mountain.

RMI Climber Treavor 

Wednesday, June 3, 2026 - 7:57 pm PT

UGH, IT’S SO DAMN HOT
MILK WAS A BAD CHOICE THIS MORNING

I believe this variation of an Anchorman quote captures our cache carry to 14k Camp today perfectly after our granola breakfast with condensed milk before we started our day in the Denali heat. The morning started off cold as we ditched our snowshoes and toboggans and donned crampons as we marched onward and upward, inching closer to our ultimate objective of the summit. The snow and ice creaked and groaned under the stabs of our technical gear, and the ice glistened with a beautiful blue hue as colorful as the sky above us.

Little by little, we attacked this section meticulously making it up Motorcycle Hill, Squirrel Hill, across the Polo Fields, and finally around the bend at Windy Corner. The views were spectacular, breathtaking, with a horizon that stretched for hundreds of miles. The team still had some fuel in the tank and we pushed upward towards 14k Camp electing to cache higher vs lower. This stretch proved the most challenging for many as the midday heat baked and redlined our bodies. Arriving at camp was a godsend for many as we cached our gear and returned back down to 11k camp.  

I’m so damn proud and happy to be part of a cohesive and high performing team with knowledgeable, expert guides. As the demands on the mountain continue to increase, the team and guides increasingly continue to gel together- teammates lending a helping hand to one another with self care provisions, dinner banter continuing well past the meal is finished, and collective respect being earned as we witness each other’s grit and determination on the mountain to achieve our ultimate goal. We have Ricky- the ultra athlete who continues to impress me with his cool as a cucumber attitude, Matt- the gruff Utah SAR mountain man, Dave and Peter- the team’s muscle men Mr Universe personas (Schwarzenegger would be proud), Pattie- the IronWoman athlete, and Lizzie- the award winning author and qualified wilderness fire fighter. Our guides- Jackson, Lacie, and Ray who are consummate professionals, funny and lighthearted- push the team in all the right ways to make us better climbers and help us achieve our prized goal of a successful, safe summit of Denali. 

To our 12 readers of the RMI blog post, we’re safe and sound back at 11k camp, ready to treat ourselves to clean base layers as we transition phases on the mountain. Hormel meat snack marketing- if you’re reading this, Ray says to call him. A wet wipe bath beckons my name now and the Brolonso hair flow is in full effect after a day of wetting my hair with wet snow to cool my head.

HEY, EVERYONE, COME SEE HOW GOOD I LOOK.

RMI Climber / Aviator Alonso 

The Expedition Skills Seminar - Kautz May 29 - 3 June led by RMI Guide George Hedreen reached the summit of Mt. Rainier yesterday.  The team established their High Camp yesterday afternoon and then made their summit attempt and returned to camp. Today the team will descend to Paradise and conclude their program.

Nice work team!