Entries By dominic cifelli

The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guides Hannah Smith and Dominic Cifelli reached Ingraham Flats today. The team had a good climb above Camp Muir to 11,200'. On going route conditions and a windy morning made that the high point for the team today. They enjoyed the sunrise over the Cascades and descended to Camp Muir. They will be back in Paradise in the early afternoon. 

Strong work to all the climbers! 

The Five Day Climb led by RMI Guides Dominic Cifelli and Sam Hoffman reached the summit of Mt. Rainier on Friday Morning. The team took advantage of the cooler temperatures which made for good climbing on the route. They spent the night at Camp Muir sharing stories and soaking in their success and all the views. The team will descend to Paradise in the early afternoon today.

Congratulations team! 

The Four-Day climb of Mt. Rainier led by RMI guides, Dominic Cifelli and Sam Hoffman, were turned around this morning due to thunder and lightning. The team is currently on their descent and will celebrate their hard work at Basecamp in Ashford before team members head their seperate ways.

The Five-Day Climb with RMI Guides Casey Grom and Dominic Cifelli reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Our Five-Day Climb ascends Mt. Rainier's classic route while providing an additional day on the mountain to allow the flexibility to adjust the summit schedule to take advantage of the best window. With great weather all week, the team took a short acclimatization climb to Ingraham Flats on Tuesday, choosing to climb last night. The team had clear skies and light winds on their climb. 

Congratulations team! 

Like we’ve said before, the weather hasn’t been in a good mood here in Alaska. Keeping with that trend, was the dramatic ending to our long and hard-fought expedition. As we resigned ourselves to sleeping yet another night on the glacier, we got the call that planes were in the air. 

Hopeful, salad eyed, and smelly we packed our stuff and waited for our return trip home. Then the rain started. As we stared down the southeast fork of the Kahiltna, we could only hear the buzz of the planes and the patter of the drops on our coats. Muttering “ cmon, cmon” as if to plead with Mother Nature to abate and let the clouds lift. We willed the weather to let up just enough for the pilots to pull off a landing and high tail it out of there. 

We slept in beds last night, took showers, and celebrated like it was going out of style. We can’t wait to see our friends and family soon. Thank you all for following along and cheers to another great, successful expedition on Denali. See you next year! 

RMI Guides Dominic Cifelli, Seth Burns, Dan May and Team

Wednesday, July 5, 2023 - 12:55 am PT

The team woke up to snow and wind distorting the shapes of the tents we call home for the last 21 days. We hit snooze and hoped for the best. While I wouldn’t say the best ever came the allure of Roestis, showers, and beds pulled us out of our sleeping bags and into the fray. From 11,000 ft to the base of Ski Hill was a near total whiteout. We persevered through the wind, moisture, and visibility to reach basecamp at about 6pm, but conditions didn’t allow planes to come and land. We’re hopeful that tomorrow we’ll be back in civilization.

RMI Guide Dominic Cifelli

Sunday, July 2, 2023

While it hasn’t been unlike Denali to act up at inopportune times. Today was a low blow. We descended from High Camp today under mostly clear skies and on top of tired legs. We were awarded new views from the West Buttress that were previously shrouded and the team descended fast and well.

At 14,000' Camp we took a good break and then kept the train going. Clouds were billowing, wind was picking up, and snow was falling as we passed Windy Corner, which once again held true to its name. A storm was coming. We’re in that storm right now, hoping for it to abate and to get off the mountain we’ve called home for the past 19 days.

We’re hopeful, but not too optimistic we’ll be able to walk to the airstrip tomorrow.

Wish us luck. 

RMI Guide Dominic Cifelli

Sunday, July 2, 2023 - 3:56 am

The RMI Denali Expedition June 11 led by RMI Guide Dominic Cifelli reached the summit of Denali on Saturday evening.  The team is safely back to camp at 17,000'.

Nice work team!

People like to throw around the word ‘Conquer’ in reference to the mountains they climb. As if they defeated the mountain when they touched its apex. I find this to be a distasteful representation of summiting a mountain and as we crawled into our sleeping bags in the crisp, cold air of Denali’s 17,200K we certainly didn’t feel like conquerors. Tired, cold, and atrophied from the last 18 days on the mountain we slept knowing that Denali had granted us the opportunity to touch its peak and not that we had bested it.

The team awoke to clear skies and one of the first green lights we received from Denali, it was time to climb. At 10:25, we started our journey upward not reaching the summit until a hard, but well fought, ~10 hours. We are back down at High Camp; tired, sore, but satisfied with the effort and accomplishment. We start downward tomorrow in search of all of the cravings we have been fantasizing about.

RMI Guide Dominic Cifelli

Friday, June 30, 2023 11:47 pm PDT

The gods of Denali blessed the team with the weather window needed to begin the hardest three days of our lives. We began our assault up The Wall and eventually the fixed lines. The sun was surprisingly warm and persistent. The black rocks jutting from the frozen snow reminded me constantly of the Oreo McFlurry I will no doubt consume when I get off here. We are thinking of you all as we attempt to summit tomorrow. 

RMI Climber Travis and Team