Entries By dave hahn

Early this morning, the Four Day Climb teams, led by RMI Guides Dave Hahn and Dominic Cifelli, successfully reached the summit of Mt. Rainier!

They were treated to a stunning sunrise and clear skies as they stood at 14,410 feet, taking time to celebrate their achievement and soak in the incredible views. After savoring their moment at the top, the teams began their descent to Camp Muir around 7:00 a.m. and are now continuing down to Paradise.

We look forward to welcoming them back in Ashford later this afternoon and celebrating a safe and successful climb!

Congratulations climbers!

Friday, July 4, 2025 - 1:33 AM PT

After we got in the tents at 11k last night, there was a violent thunderstorm passing over with inches of hailstones. We awoke at 2:00 AM to fire the stoves, choke down some oatmeal and get ready for a big day. It was party cloudy but mostly clear, which led to easy  walking conditions. We were walking by 4:00 AM and and fairly soon, we’d reached the upper regions of Ski Hill and then our old camp at 8k. It only took us a further three hours to reach base camp. For late season, conditions were amazing. We never had to cross an open crevasse. We stayed busy at base camp sorting our own gear and helping others to load planes. Our flights came in around 1:00 PM and then we were headed to Talkeetna. Our team had donated pizzas in their mouths within 5 minutes of landing in Talkeetna. K2 Aviation did an excellent job bringing us home. In checking out with the National Park Service, we learned that we had been the absolute last team on the mountain and that the success rate for the season had only been 36%.

We sorted gear for the afternoon and then celebrated with a dinner at the brew pub. We celebrated a safe and enjoyable climb that didn’t reach the summit. That seemed appropriate given how much we enjoyed the effort of simply trying to get up the mountain.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn and Team   

PC: Dave Hahn

Wednesday, July 2, 2025 - 10:43 pm PT

There are amazing views every step of the way from the crest of the ridge, but with heavy packs and steep terrain to negotiate, we didn't take so many pictures. Sure enough, the wind was still blowing and the slope was still loaded when we woke at 17,000' this morning. We packed up and started down the West Buttress at 11AM. The fixed rope section went smoothly and we were digging up our 14,000' cache by 2PM and continuing our descent by 3:30. Much snow had fallen on Windy Corner since we'd last been there and the walking and sled pulling was a little challenging as a result. We persevered on down the Polo Field, Squirrel Hill and finally down the reflecting oven that Motorcycle Hill tends to be in late afternoon. At 11,000' we got right to work building a hasty camp and running the stoves. We'd been in blazing hot sun but as soon as we sat down to an outdoor dinner, a spectacular hailstorm hit. But we were hungry and sat through it. 

Folks are getting a few hours rest now. We'll get up in the night and make a push for the airstrip in the early morning hours.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Tuesday, July 1, 2025 - 10:04 pm PT

Today was windy from start to finish, which we weren't quite expecting from the forecasts. There was plenty of sunshine though and so it wasn't uncomfortable. But we mostly hung in the tents, just coming out occasionally to look at the world stretched out below. And to look at the route to Denali Pass, over and over. The avalanche hazard still exists and we can't will it away by staring at the slope. The team is agreed that we'll look at it one more time -tomorrow morning- but then, without some dramatic change, we'll descend, as the teams around us have done.  The forecasts are calling for strong winds up high now in any case. 

It is a tough situation.  Luckily we are climbing with tough people.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Monday, June 30, 2025 - 11:04 pm PT

Perfect day for moving on up.  We took advantage and climbed to 17,200. The team was already roped and moving toward the headwall at 8:30 AM when the cold shadows still covered the entire basin. We got much needed sun at the first rest break. It was a pleasure as always to top out the ropes at 16,200.  We broke into our cache for a few essentials... just to make sure the guide packs were heavy enough for climbing the West Buttress. The spectacular walk up the crest went smoothly for us and we rolled into 17,000' Camp at 3:15. As usual, it was tough to build a solid and safe camp at such a high elevation just after arriving. But we got it done and sat down to a nice dinner inside our dining tent. Snow conditions on the route to Denali Pass are still unstable so there is no chance for us to go for the summit tomorrow.

We'll keep evaluating to see whether we get a chance on following days.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Sunday June 29, 2025 - 10:49 pm PT

It was the ultimate luxury to lie in until the sun came around this morning. We ate our last bagel breakfast and lounged about in the sunshine. We rested, but we also schemed and plotted our ascent for the next few days, and that scheming got tougher as the day progressed. We became aware that the teams at 17K had turned around from their summit bids after finding avalanche conditions on the "autobahn". Of course we will need some improvement in that condition by the time we reach the same terrain, so the team will have the challenge of trying to remain optimistic and positive while acknowledging that a problem lies ahead. We said goodbye to Dom's RMI team as they descended through 14 camp, we ate our dinner and we prepared to climb. 

- RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Saturday, June 28, 2025 - 10:28 pm PT

Today was the day for us to get up on the West Buttress. But it was the day for everybody else to get up on the West Buttress too. We had no choice but to climb in a crowd. That said, it was a crowd of pretty nice folks all around. We didn’t try to be the first out of camp, there was no desire to race anybody. We had a leisurely breakfast and geared up in time to leave by around 10 AM. There were perhaps thirty climbers ahead of us and thirty behind. The storm and waiting for snow to stabilize had put everybody on the same schedule. The downside of that was that we couldn’t go at our own pace, the upside was that we didn’t have to break trail. Patience was the word of the day and that paid off for us. It was neither cold nor windy and we could afford to be patient. The entire team did just fine on the much anticipated “fixed rope” section and then we topped out on the ridge at 16,200 ft, shattering altitude records for Bailey, Calvin, Rahul and Frederick. We cached our food and fuel and got down to camp by 5 PM. Tomorrow will be a rest and recovery day and we’ll be keeping fingers crossed for Dom Cifelli’s RMI team to ring the summit bell. 

- RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Friday, June 27, 2025 10:38 pm PDT

Dispatch 14.2 – Storm Day 2

As forecasted, today was a better day. It was sunny and calm… and we didn’t go climbing. The guide team felt that the recent snowfall needed at least one good sunny day to settle and reduce the avalanche hazard. As it turned out, all other teams on the mountain came to a similar conclusion—no teams moved today.

We ended up making pretty good use of the day, though. We roped up and took a field trip to the Edge of the World! Since we are camped in the middle of a large glacial basin, it’s easy to forget just how high we’ve already climbed. A short walk to the edge is a quick reminder. It was thrilling today to climb a rock at the edge and look down a few thousand feet to the Kahiltna Glacier—where we camped a while back.

Back at camp, Calvin gave a well-received instructional session on avalanche beacons, and Sam put all his culinary skill into boiling water for our freeze-dried dinner.

We hope to carry up onto the Buttress tomorrow.

– RMI Guide Dave Hahn & Team

It snowed continuously through the night and all day. Finally, at six in the evening, it stopped, and we could see a bit more than a hundred feet in any direction. There was never a possibility of climbing today, so we made the best of a storm/rest day by enjoying a slow, leisurely breakfast in our dining tent. Afterward, we dug out the camp, took naps, and read books.

We managed to squeeze in a little training for the “fixed ropes” we hope to climb next. We practiced as the last snow fell and the clouds began to clear. That put us in a good position to witness the event of the day—a big avalanche roaring out of the Messner Couloir on the South Peak. We knew we weren’t in any danger from that particular couloir, but it was still sobering to be engulfed by the powder cloud thrown up by the slide. We’d heard several avalanches over the past 24 hours, but it was thrilling to actually watch one.

As we ate dinner, the clouds continued to melt away, and it was wonderful to be in actual sunshine again. Many of us found it hard to take our eyes off the mountain and all the fresh scars from sliding snow. We hope to climb the West Buttress in the morning, but that will depend on whether the new snow has had enough time to settle.

— RMI Guide Dave Hahn & Team

Wednesday, June 25, 2025 - 10:19 pm PT

Today, life at 14,200 was pretty easy compared to yesterday.  We had a slow breakfast and then roped up to retrieve our cache down at 13,500 ft.  The day started with a cloud cap on the South Peak. As we went about our business that gradually morphed into cloud everywhere and a snowy day. But our timing was right and we got our work done before the snow.  It only took 20 minutes to walk down to the cache, perhaps another 20 to dig it up and a little more than an hour to climb back up to camp. We were home by a little after noon.  Then it was a tent afternoon while the snow fell.  It was light, but persistent. Still snowing now at 8:40PM but without any wind.  Certainly we’ll hope for some clearing in the night or tomorrow morning.

- RMI Guide Dave Hahn