RMI Expeditions Blog

5/17 - On any proper adventure, there comes a time—long after the bags are packed and the body has proven it can endure—when forward progress is no longer the prevailing goal. Instead, adapting to a new environment becomes the focus.

In those early stretches, adaptation is far from obvious. From mummifying one’s feet in athletic tape to hoisting an overstuffed pack onto weary shoulders, every action feels foreign. Eventually, though, progress seems less like a fight and more like the key to a secret world: frozen, strange, and infinitely explorable.

But this new world unfurls in unpredictable ways. Last night, I nodded off to the rustle of tent nylon in the breeze. An hour later, I was yanked from sleep by an intense blast of frigid wind. The gale persisted, an unyielding rhythm that drummed through the night. Snow puddled around us, transforming our cozy cocoons into claustrophobic reminders of who really makes the rules up here.

Today, we found ourselves stuck yet again at 11,000 feet—far from idyllic, but the best option given our forecast and supplies. We squelched back and forth between our group and personal tents, packs and sleds buried beneath reams of spindrift. Some of us read books, some took naps. Some typed long missives to the outside world on our phones.

The upside is that we are not yet working ourselves into paste hauling food and gear further up the hill. Instead, the tasks have been a light blend of the practical and absurd: digging, and then re-digging, our communal toilet out of the snow; downing carb-laden meals with competitive zeal until we are both proud of and embarrassed by our gluttony; shuffling our creaky bodies across a slick, uneven camp with all the grace of baby deer on ice; and generally extricating ourselves from our self-imposed predicament with routine bouts of only somewhat effective shoveling.

Days like today—and, indeed, trips like this—can easily be dismissed as pointless, or even wasteful: so much time and energy spent in pursuit of an ultimately frivolous goal. But in a world increasingly designed to be safe, comfortable, and instantly gratifying, there is something to be said for leaning hard in the opposite direction. What rare thing will we find up there? Or right here?

Getting to the summit is the goal, though today—our sixth on the illustrious flanks of Denali, our second battered by snow and wind—adaptation feels sufficiently ambitious.

—RMI Climber Tina Currin

P.S. Hi to Grayson and Rollie, Mom and Charlie, JK and the Little Gang. I love you all more than than you know.

5/17 - Another morning greated by the soft pitter patter of snow on the tents, as we unzipped the vestibule we were met by moderate snowfall, and low visibility. The waiting game begun. Wait to see if visibility increases, if winds decrease and if the snowfall stop after a few hours, none of those things happened and we settled into another weather day. A morning of breakfast scramble, followed by hours of tent time, some shoveling and some naps. The night was wrapped up with "burgers" and weather. Here's too tomorrow?!

RMI Guide Nikki Champion & Team

The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guide Joe Hoch turned at 10,800' at Cathedral Gap due to snow instability and potential avalanche danger.  The team returned to Camp Muir and plans to start their descent to Paradise around 9:30 am.  They will be back at Rainier BaseCamp in the early afternoon.

Saturday, May 16, 2026 - 7:26 pm PT

Greetings from La Paz!

After many hours of travel over the last few days, the whole team assembled at Hotel Mitru Sur this morning for the official start of our trip. After a gear check and a delicious steak and seafood lunch we headed out to explore the city, making use of the teleferico (cable car) system that travels all over the cities of La Paz and El Alto.  This allowed us to see some sights and reach 13,000' without having to put in too much effort as we start to acclimatize to the high altitude we start at here in Bolivia.

We plan to spend the next two days based out of La Paz, with making day hikes to progressively higher altitudes to allow our bodies to begin adjusting before we head to the big mountains. I'm so excited to be here for the second time, and to share this beautiful country and stunning mountains with a new group.

Stay tuned for more in the coming days! 

RMI Guide Henry Coppolillo

The Four Day Climb May 13  - 17 reached Camp Muir yesterday afternoon weathering the difficult conditions with smiles on their faces dispite the snow flakes whipping through the air.

Once the team reached Camp Muir, they were treated to clear skies above and a cloud deck below 9,900'.  The team was unable to make a summit attempt due to the weather including several feet of new snow causing unsafe conditions. They are descending from Camp Muir and will return to Rainier BaseCamp in the early afternoon.

5/16 - We woke up to the light sound of snow on our tents, and a thick cloud bank. As we emerged, we couldn't see either end of camp. As the snow continued to fall, and winds blew, we slow rolled our morning waiting to see what the weather would bring. After a morning of paying attention to weather, and some logistical problem solving, we opted for a weather day. 

The morning consisted of bagels, cream cheese, bagels and storytelling of infamous first dates. The afternoon was filled with sport eating, resting and building walls around camp to prepare for any incoming weather. We finished off our day with a dinner of pad Thai, listening to the weather, and mountain wide trivia. If weather allows we will move to 11 camp tomorrow.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion & Team
 

5/16 - It’s 6:30pm and I’ve just turned off the stoves in the kitchen tent after finishing melting water. I step out, get sandblasted with snow as I sneak my way to the big red Hilleberg dining tent or “the hilly” as we call it.

It’s windy, it’s cold, the snow is spinning and spinning around.

I step down into the hilly and feel the warmth from the stove, the whole team all bundled together as Jack and Calvin use creative methods to cook delicious pepperoni and cheese pizzas. Everyone slides over and I slot in between layers of down jackets.

We spend the next couple hours slowly eating pizzas and chatting about a range of topics.

At 7pm, we listen to the weather on the radio and the nightly trivia question. Jack answered it immediately and correctly and ended the dispatch with “RMI RULEZ” so the whole mountain knows our lead guide is an expert on the similarities between sea horses and sea dragons. (you should ask him)

Today we took a somewhat forced but also perfectly timed rest day. Somewhat forced because more unsettled weather has arrived.

Perfectly timed because we have been working so hard nearly every moment since we landed on the Kahiltna glacier.

I keep thinking of the phrase “be here now” and it’s something so challenging in our daily lives but out here there is a forced nowness. We eat long meals together, we shovel walkways to our tents and then shovel them again. Our efforts and our lives are all revolved around a singular goal of moving the team forward. We are living in the now in the most raw way possible and there’s something so beautifully brutal to it all.

We will wake up tomorrow, look at the mountain and see what she says.

Maybe we will stay put at 11k camp, maybe we will have the chance to carry our gear to our 14k cache.

We’re open to what is. We’re in the now-cast.

RMI Guide Jess Wedel & Team

5/15 - Day Four on the Mountain was a Success!

Before we get into our activities from today, we are going to get to know the characters on this expedition a little better. There are 11 of us and we come from very diverse backgrounds.

We have representation from Alaska, Colorado, California, Utah, Washington State, Oklahoma, Iowa, Alabama, and also have a lone European from France. Aside from the three guides, our professional backgrounds include two physicians, a business owner, nuclear chemist, park ranger, Army Officer, consultant, and a business manager. The average age amongst the group is mid to late -thirties.

Despite our differences, we have a lot in common. We all have significant experience climbing mountains in various parts of the world. Between the team members, we have climbed on every continent and tackled six of the seven summits. To say we are all adventurous would be an understatement. We all enjoy going after new challenges, exploring the unknown, and meeting great people along the way.

Now that we have been together for four days we are coming together as a team. We have been looking after each other and motivating each other during the challenging daily hikes.

The witty banter within the group is starting to flow freely. The guides haven’t come out and said it but we are confident we are the toughest and best looking Denali group they have ever been a part of.

As for today, our goal today was to retrieve the food and supplies we cached at 9’600 feet two days ago. After waking up and coming out of our tents to see a sunny day with a gorgeous view overlooking the mountains, we enjoyed hot oatmeal courtesy of our guides/cooks. We got ready and prepared our gear for the hike down to the cache. Knowing we were going to recover equipment and it was going to be a shorter day, we packed light. Today was the first time this expedition we tied our sleds on the back of our backpacks. We departed our camp at 11,000 feet at 10 am and enjoyed the hour-long hike downhill to the cache at 9,600 feet.

The walk felt like we were wading through a winter paradise, surrounded by imposing mountains and impressive glaciers. After arriving at the cache, the guides dug up all the team and personal equipment and we set up the gear on our sleds. Then began the 2.5 hour hike back up to our camp at 11,000 feet. The hike was much easier than the previous day after having a good night’s rest and a shorter distance to cover.

The rest of the day was spent resting and improving our living situation in camp. Despite minor blisters, some initial effects of altitude sickness, and some minor sunburn, everybody is doing great. Morale is high and we are looking forward to the days ahead.

RMI Climber Scott Wyly

5/15 - What a splitter morning! We woke up to clear skies, and the entire mountain on display. We had spent the evening before going through our gear. So we were set up to have a quick breakfast, pack up everything we plan to cache, and begin our way up Ski Hill for the first time of the trip.

With much lighter packs and sleds, the climb in the clear weather flowed by and in no time we were pulling into our cache site, right around 10,100'. We took a break, shoveled a deep hole, and dumped about 1/2 of our food and fuel in the hole to see at a later date.

We then turned around with empty packs and sleds and made it back to camp 1 for a night of beautiful views, and mac and cheese with bacon. When weather allows we will pack up, and make our way up past our cache all the way to 11 camp.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion & Team
 

5/14 - Day one, done and dusted! We woke up to the call that we could fly, so we got our last fancy coffee drinks for a long while and shuffled over to the hangar to get our soft shells on, and ready to fly. We loaded the planes and by 10AM - planes were in the air!

Once we landed, it was a mad dash to reorganize, leave a cache of goodies for later, and rig up to start to move to Camp One.

A little bit after noon, the teams was tied in and ready to roll. Down Heart Break Hill, and across the Kahiltna Glacier we went. Many hours later we were pulling into Camp One, a welcome home for the night. We quickly began the work of building camp, melting water, and getting a quick dinner of broccoli cheddar soup and chicken sausage rolling. It was a long day, and a late night, but by 11P everyone was tucked into their sleeping bags. Tomorrow we aim to carry somewhere between 9.5-10k, and then make our way back to camp.

Here's to hoping for another day of good weather!

RMI Guide Nikki Champion