Entries By dustin wittmier

The American Lung Association Climb for Clean Air team was unable to reach the summit due to route conditions. The team climbed to Ingraham Flats to watch the sunrise before starting their descent. This team spends the year raising funds and supports the mission of the American Lung Association to saving lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease.

Congratulations Team!

The Four Day Climb July 12 - 15 led by RMI Guides Dustin Wittmier & Abby Westling reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning.  Dustin reported sunny skies and winds from the west at 20 mph, which was less than forecasted.  The teams were leaving the crater rim just after 7 am today for their return to Camp Muir.  Once at Muir they will have a short rest before continuing 4,500' down to Paradise.

Congratulations to today's climbing teams!

RMI Guides Brent Okita & Dustin Wittmier led their team of climbers to the summit of Mt. Rainier.  The Four Day Climb team July 9 - 12 enjoyed a beautiful morning on the mountain with a nice route and 15 mph winds.  The teams were on Columbia Crest at 7:30 am and began their descent from the crater rim just after 8 am.  The teams will return to Camp Muir for a short break to repack and refuel before descending the remaining 4,500' to Paradise.

Congratulations team!

Wednesday, July 5, 2023 - 11:59 pm PT

Difficult day today, waiting for the weather to clear, then scrambling like crazy in the evening to fly and finally an unintentional split of the team. As some made it in to town and some remained on the mountain for the night. 

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Tuesday, July 4, 2023 - 11:57 pm PT

Long day, but it ended with us reaching basecamp safe and sound, so it was a very good day. The start was hard, it was still snowing and blowing as we packed. There was a lot to do since our gear had been buried under a few feet of fresh snow. We set out at 9:40 in a whiteout, working by Braille and GPS. The first three hours were like that, pushing through endless new snow. We started to come out of the storm below ski hill, but conditions were quite mushy. Our snow shoes were sinking in, which made finding crevasses fairly difficult. We trudged on in surreal lighting as the clouds came and went. Heartbreak Hill didn't break any hearts. We were happy to be on the home stretch. We pulled in to basecamp at 6PM. It was all ours for a few minutes. Dominic Cifelli's team pulled in just behind us, but otherwise, camp was empty and gone, closed up for the season. Weather didn't permit a flight so we camped.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Monday, July 3, 2023 - 12:28 am PT

We battled our way down to 11,000 ft.  A big day of work.  Lots of packing, lots of dicey climbing down the tricky steps of the West Buttress. This day was supposed to be a nice one, but we could see every sign that the storm was coming in early.  We had to fight a little to get around Windy Corner. It snowed on us as we climbed down and as we fought to get a camp up at 11,000'. But we are happy to have made such progress should the storm now come in hard.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

July 2, 2023 - 4:16 am PT

Summit!!! On a fine day. A little bit of a long one though -fifteen hours round trip. We got tangled with a couple of other guided parties.  Those other teams were breaking trail, so it is tough to fault them for being slow. We were on top at 8:30 PM and back to 17,000' Camp just after 2 AM. The weather was very nice, but it wasn't the warmest day on top.  Most of us had on all the clothing we had. 

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Saturday, July 1, 2023 1:12 AM PDT

Right on schedule, the clouds cleared out and the wind dropped down. First nice day we've had, actually. We used it well. The team made the jump to 17,200' feet. It was tough climbing and the packs got even bigger and heavier when we stopped at 16,200' feet to add yesterday's loads. But we got 'r done. The views were amazing, considering that the team really hadn't seen much of our surroundings yet. We have a forecast of fine weather tomorrow. Perhaps we go up.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn & Team

Thursday, June 29, 2023 10:25 pm PDT

Not much of a break in the weather today but we made the best of it. We watched, waited, and slow-rolled and then went for it, leaving camp at noon.  There was still snow falling, but the wind had quit. We trudged up to the fixed lines and then ascended them with little difficulty, reaching 16,200 ft. Nobody got to enjoy the spectacular views as we were still locked in cloud and snow, but we cached our supplies and dropped back down, reaching camp at 6PM.

Hoping for some clearing tomorrow (as usual) we would like to move to 17,200ft.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn and Team

Wednesday, June 28, 2023 - 9:41 pm PT

We celebrated Tibor's birthday with a storm day and a no-bake cheesecake.  Familiar weather to us, clouds and snow with winds aloft kept us confined to 14,000ft Camp. We slept, we ate, we dug snow and cut snow blocks. We talked and we read... we passed time.  Looking forward to going climbing again when the storm quits.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn