Entries By ben ammon

Friday, August 23, 2019 7:11 PM PT

The rains came shortly after we finished our breakfast this morning, and refused to let up until 3 o'clock this afternoon. We spent the majority of the day passing the time in our tents before finally getting out for a little training this evening. The views cleared in time for us to enjoy them while eating dinner, and we're all ready to head for the summit tomorrow! RMI Guide Ben Ammon & Team

We had some nice cloud cover that kept our walk to camp nice and cool. Once we arrived the clouds cleared to reveal awesome views of the North Cascades and of our Mt. Shuksan climbing route up the Sulphide Glacier. We are training to prepare for our summit attempt tomorrow. RMI Guide Ben Ammon

The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guides JM Gorum and Ben Ammon climbed above the clouds and reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Ben reported clear skies and chilly temperatures. The team has started their descent and are en route back to Camp Muir. Congratulations to today's team!

RMI Guide Mike Walter and team reached the summit of Mt. Baker via its iconic and forbidding North Ridge yesterday. Mike reported 100% team success and fantastic climbing conditions! Today, the team took in their last few views of Mt. Baker before beginning their descent back to the Heliotrope Ridge trail head and the comforts of town. Congratulations to today's team!

The Four Day Summit Climb teams led by RMI Guides Tyler Jones and Ben Ammon reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Tyler reported chilly temperatures with winds of 25 mph. The team will spend some time celebrating on the summit before starting their descent. Congratulations to today's team!

The Expedition Skills Seminar - Paradise Glacier team, led by RMI Guide Ben Ammon, spent the week on Mt. Rainier. The crowning point was this morning. They reached the summit of Mt. Rainier! The week entailed various mountaineering skills, such as crevasse rescue techniques, anchor placements, ice climbing, belays, rappelling and much more. We look forward to congratulating them on a successful week this afternoon!

Well folks, a lot has happened over the last 48 hours and I'm sorry to have been keeping you waiting. June 1, we woke up to somewhat clearing skies at 14,000' Camp and decided to pack up and get as far downhill as we could. Aside from an interesting GPS guided tour through an area known as the "Polo Field" the weather held out and we made it all the way back to the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier where we began our trip. We arrived just before midnight and quickly set up our tents, had a quick dinner and went to sleep with dreams of flying out the next morning. Well those dreams came true. This morning we woke to the sound of camp bustling with life when clear skies and the sound of basecamp manager Lisa's voice booming through the early morning with warnings that we should start getting ready to fly off. A few hours later we were in the sky heading towards Talkeetna. The trip has finally come to an end. It's been a fantastic three weeks here in the great Alaska Range and its bittersweet to see it end. We'll meet up for one last team dinner tonight before going our separate ways tomorrow. Thanks to everyone for following along. It's been a wild ride! RMI Guide Steve Gately

Friday, May 31, 2019 4:36 PM PT With the forecast still calling for heavy snow we have opted to stay in the confines of our camp here a 14K. The team enjoyed a late morning breakfast and is now napping away the afternoon. Sunday is still looking like our first possible day to fly off the glacier with the weather only improving into Monday and Tuesday. The plan as of now will still be to launch downhill around midday tomorrow and travel all the way to the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna hopefully chasing improving weather down glacier and ultimately a flight out of here early Sunday morning. We'll see what hand we are dealt with tomorrow. The hope here is to avoid having to travel and set up camp in bad weather but rather time it just right that we walk straight into a plane. For the time being however, we rest and wait for our opportunity. RMI Guide Steve Gately

Thursday, May 31, 2019 12:11 AM PT The team is know all safely back down at 14 camp and tucked in for the evening. Summit day was a long hard fought battle but everyone did fantastic. The morning of our summit attempt we woke up in early in an attempt to beat the crowds up our first obstacle, the "auto bahn". This section often takes a couple hours to complete without a break and is steep and exposed. The exposure of this terrain requires us to use a form of running protection that protects the team against a fall but is quite time consuming. The end of this hurdle puts you at Denali Pass and our first rays of welcome sunshine. From here steep rolling glacier takes us up and around a swirled white and black rock feature known as "zebra rocks". At the top of this feature we were faced with a gentle but cold 15 mph wind. The terrain mellows out quite a bit as we meander through open glacier past a prominent rock point known "arch deacons tower" and into the football field, a flat depression just before our final slope to the summit ridge. Once on the summit ridge a short but dramatic climb brings us to the summit. The team took a few moments to take pictures and celebrate the ascent before our attention was turned toward getting back home. All in all the trip took us 13 hours round trip, all at elevations above 17,000 ft. With the summit behind us we turn our focus now to trying to truly get back home. Cloudy and snowy weather are abundant in the extended forecast which means chances of flying off anytime soon are nil. Tomorrow we'll check the weather in the morning and make decision to further descend, or to keep the luxury of our fortified camp here at 14, or opt for better weather. That's all for now, it's late again as I'm writing this and I'm in need of some serious rest! Thanks for following along everyone! RMI Guide Steve Gately & Team

Thursday, May 30, 2019 - 12:56 AM PT The team is all safely back at High Camp now. It was a long day for everyone and it's past midnight now and were finally killing the stoves for the evening. I'll try and put together a better picture of summit day tomorrow for everyone. Stay tuned! RMI Guide Steve Gately

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