Entries By chase halbert

The Four Day Climb August 29 - 1 September was unable to reach the summit today due to route conditions.  RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer and Dominic Cifelli lead their teams to Ingraham Flats at 11, 200', they enjoyed the views as the sun came up.  The team is now back at Camp Muir and will begin their descent to Paradise later this morning.

The Expedition Skills Seminar, led by RMI Guide Andy Bond, spent six days in the North Cascades.  They had a tremendous time learning mountaineering skills and to top it off, reached the summits of Mt. Shuksan and Mt. Baker!  The team is currently on their descent to the trailhead where they will celebrate together before departing for home.

We had a short day getting to our camp at Lake Ann on Tuesday. The Fisher Chimneys were too wet for us to ascend any higher.  So we woke up early  to make our attempt at the summit. Starting in the dark and ending in the dark meant we had a very long and very hard but successful summit day yesterday. Today we will descend to the trail head and complete our program.

Thanks for joining us!

- RMI Guide Alex Halliday

The Kautz Seminar, led by RMI Guide James Bealer, was stopped by route conditions this morning.  They reached 12,500' before making the call to abort their ascent.  The team is currently working their way back to high camp.  They have had a full week of training and will spend one more night on the mountain before concluding their program tomorrow.

This morning RMI Guides Dave Hahn and Alex Halliday led their teams to the top of Mt. Rainier!  The weather is cloudy and smoky from some wildfires up north.  The team began their descent from the crater rim at 9:25 a.m.

The American Lung Association Climb for Clean Air team attempted their Mt. Rainier summit bid this morning. With an overcrowded route and standstill foot traffic, which would have made continuing on unsafe due to the time of day, the guides turned at 12,500'.  The team is at Camp Muir and will begin their descent around 10:00 a.m.

The Emmons Seminar began their summit bid this morning at 9:30.  They were able to reach a height of 13,600' before weather kept them from safely continuing on to the summit.  The team is working their way back to Camp Schurman where they will spend the night.  Tomorrow morning they will pack up camp and start their descent back to the trailhead.

RMI Guide JM Gorum called from Camp Schurman (9,440') around 9 am, the Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons June 25 - 30 team had made it safely back to camp after making their summit attempt this morning.  The team encountered soft snow and poor route conditions at 12,600' which caused them to turn back.  The team will spend their third and final night on the mountain tonight.  Tomorrow they will pack up camp and descend to the White River Trailhead and return to Rainier BaseCamp in Ashford.

We hope they had a great week of training and climbing on Mt. Rainier!

RMI Guides Walter Hailes and Avery Parrinello led the Five Day Climb to Ingraham Flats, 11,200', this morning.  High winds overnight at Camp Muir had prevented the teams getting an alpine start and thus they were unable to make a summit attempt.  Winds at Camp Muir averaged between 40 - 80 mph with gusts as high as 93 mph around 9 pm.

Once the winds subsided later in the morning the teams roped up and traveled to Ingraham Flats to check out the conditions and see a bit of the route.  They will return to Camp Muir and descend to Paradise later this morning.

Thursday, June 3, 2021 - 10:27 am PT

We've waited through wind and snow for weeks and we finally got our shot. We woke up yesterday to clear skies and relatively (for 17k feet) warm temps in camp. We had stoves firing early, before sun hit camp, and got everyone up to start prepping. With breakfast done and packs loaded we stepped out of our sunny camp into the shadow of the Autobahn. It was a chilly couple hours crossing to Denali Pass and we were all psyched to get back into the sun. A slight, but cold 10mph breeze in our face kept it chilly all day, but we kept moving past Zebra Rocks, around Archdeacons Tower, onto the Football Field, up Pig Hill, and along the summit ridge to the summit! We were standing on top just after 6pm yesterday. With photos taken, we started working our way back down, well aware of the distance still to get back to the comfort of our sleeping bags. The long hours of sun help alot and we rolled back into camp around 11pm, just as the sun left camp. Tired, chilly, sore, but excited that we managed to reach our goal!

We'll start working our way down the mountain today, back to warmer temps, more oxygen, and a flight back to Talkeetna. They tend to be long days, so dispatches might be short, but we are headed home.

RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Mike Walter, Avery Parrinello, Matias Francis, Chase Halbert, Luke Wilhelm, and RMI Teams 1 and 2