There is no better way to start a day than sleeping in. After some long days of climbing, we have earned it. This morning we slept late, had breakfast burritos and started the work day at a leisurely 11am. While 23.5 hours of sunlight a day is a bit disorienting at first, hard work has been a great sleeping aid for the team. Our crew is getting stronger every day. After our leisurely morning, we completed a back carry from 10,000' with no problems. We now sit at our 11,000' home, hiding from the beating radiation and gorging ourselves on goodie bags of food we recovered from our cache this morning. This afternoon we plan to meticulously re-pack the kit for a cache at 14,000' camp. We look forward to caching and moving up in the next few days, if weather allows. Thank you to all for your comments and words of encouragement. RMI Guide Tyler Jones

On The Map

The Camp Muir Skills Seminar is back down off the mountain! We had hoped to give the summit one more shot but, as was our luck, the rain returned overnight. The mountain did clear at the mid elevations yesterday giving us hope but the weather fronts were stacked up end-to-end this week so we packed our things this morning and headed down. Even though we weren't able to summit, Camp Muir provides an excellent high-altitude training site so we were able to train in the complex skills necessary to climb a glaciated peak. And so when the team parted ways everyone was psyched up for new adventures. One of the main things that makes a successful trip for me is if everyone returns as friends. This is no small feat with 15 climbers and 5 guides, but if this is our yardstick we definitely succeeded after our week at Muir. RMI Guide Seth Waterfall

This is Seth again checking in from Camp Muir. After a blustery and cold day yesterday we have been enjoying the warm and calm conditions today. We began our day with breakfast at 7 and by 8:30 we were heading out onto the Cowlitz Glacier. We then found an awesome set of crevasses for practicing crevasse rescue. Everyone was able to alternately practice arresting a fallen climber, setting up a pulley system and descending into a crevasse. We also had a backup rope set up where we could practice belaying techniques. After the rescue practice everyone was still feeling good so we lowered folks back into the crevasse and had them ice-climb back out. It was a great day of training and with any luck tomorrow we'll do the real thing and climb the mountain. We'll check in again in the morning.

It's a beautiful day here at Camp Muir! The winds have died down and we're out practicing our rope work. We've been above the clouds all morning an the views of Mt. Adams, Hood and St. Helens are fantastic. Hopefully the weather continues to hold out for the rest of our trip. RMI Guide Seth Waterfall

Hi this is Seth and the Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir. Today we climbed the Muir snowfield. We began at 9:45 a.m. from Paradise (elev. 5,420') and spent the day in the clouds with light snow flurries. It made for nice walking temperatures throughout the day and the sun actually came out to welcome us into Camp Muir (elev. 10,000). Everyone is enjoying their dinner now and getting ready for our first night at Muir! RMI Guide Seth Waterfall