Entries By hannah blum

Wednesday, June 17, 2025  - 10:20 am PT

Well, like all good things, this too must come to an end. Sorry we’ve been a bit MIA since summit day—those final days all start to blur together. You don’t get much downtime until you're either sitting at the airstrip waiting out the weather or lucky enough to fly straight to Talkeetna.

Three days ago, on June 14th, we stood on top. The following morning, June 15th, the team packed up camp and began the long, challenging descent. We dropped down the West Buttress around noon, descended the fixed lines, and stopped at 14,000' Camp for a brief six-hour nap.

After our rest, we had a quick dinner at midnight, then loaded up all of our gear from the last two weeks and began the march back to basecamp. We made our way around Windy Corner, down Squirrel and Motorcycle Hill, and finally back to 11,000' Camp. There, we whispered hellos to Dom’s team—who were sound asleep—grabbed our cache, transitioned back to snowshoes, and continued past Camp One to basecamp.

By around 9 a.m. on the morning of June 16th, we arrived at basecamp to good weather and the chance to fly straight off the glacier. By noon, we were back in Talkeetna wearing flip-flops, and by 2 p.m., we were sharing beers and laughter, wrapping up our expedition at the Brew Pub.

It’s all been a bit of a haze—amazing, exhausting, unforgettable. In the moment, it felt like it moved slowly, but now that we’re back on dry land, it’s hard to believe how fast it all went by.

If you've been following me for years, you know I'm a fan of Hiakus...

Fresh socks, frozen boots
Glacier sunburn, summit views
Fly me to a beer

RMI Guide Nikki Champion

June 14th

The teams made it to the top! We've got a lot to say, but for now it's a late night and we are trying to eat dinner and get some sleep. Everyone pushed hard, and it was a beautiful summit day! About 11-12 hours round trip, primarily filled with sunshine.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion

Friday June 13, 2025 10:04pm PDT

One step closer to the summit.

This morning we woke up under surprisingly warm temperatures (for Denali) and started the stoves. After a quick dinner and packing of the essential overnight gear we began our journey out of 14,000’ camp, up towards the fixed lines and onto the west buttress proper. After the steep technical climbing of the fixed lines, we transitioned to the picturesque but Exposed ridgeline that makes up the name of this classic route. Comprised of steep drop offs, and beautiful exposed granite we weaved Our way from 16,200’, to our final destination for the night 17,200’ camp.

Still blessed by sunshine and warm temperatures (again, for Denali). We quickly built our new camp, started water, and settled into our home for the night. Tomorrow is still looking good for our summit Push, and everyone is feeling all the emotions - but primarily excitement.

Our goal is to start climbing at 10am tomorrow before We roll into our long summit day. Hopefully check in tomorrow with the best news!

RMI Guide Nikki Champion & Team

Thursday June, 12, 2025 9:21pm PDT

Our final rest day in the books. We let the sun warm our tents before we finally crawled out to share a meal of hashbrowns and eggs. After a relaxed and slow morning, we then spent the day basking in the sun like lizards, seeing what other climbers were offering up, and getting our gear ready for the summit push - which would be starting tomorrow.

We are all very excited and looking forward to moving to 17,000’ camp tomorrow.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion & Team

Wednesday, June 11, 2025 - 10:22 pm PT

Today brought the perfection we've been waiting on since our journey began. Blue skies, sunshine, warmth. We walked up the fixed lines with the sun on our backs. The most technical climbing we have seen to date, we secured ourselves to the fixed lines with our ascenders and made our way to the ridge where we placed our final cache. We made it back to camp around 5pm, greeted with more sunshine, and re-hydrated before dinner. Mac'n'Cheeze was in the menu for the evening accompanied by chatter of a potential summit window. We look forward to a day of rest tomorrow, and are hopeful to move to 17,000' Camp Friday.

Fingers crossed!

Thanks for tuning in.

xoxo RMI Guides Hannah, Nikki, & Leif

After our big day yesterday, today was some well deserved R & R. We slept in a bit and had a slow morning of bagels and bacon. We then headed to the edge of camp to dig up our cache. After a few hours of rest we then took some time to review fixed rope skills to prepare us for tomorrow, to carry up the fixed lines up above 16,000'.

We then enjoyed some dinner of potato soup and chicken sausage and called it a night.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion

Monday, June 9, 2025 - 10:21 pm PT

Today was a long day. Around midnight the snow finally stopped and the skies begun to clear. This morning we woke up to lingering clouds, but a few hints of sunshine and finally, a day without snow. After a quick breakfast and hot drinks, we began to shovel out our camp, that had taken a real beating over the last few days of really heavy snowfall. Once we shoveled our camp, we began to pack up the gear we needed for 14,000' Camp, and gather the gear we were going to leave at 11,000' Camp until we came back through. This included snowshoes, one trekking pole, and for everyone besides the guides - the dreaded sleds. We also left behind trash, and food we realized a week in we might not eat in the remaining two weeks. Once our cache was buried and left, we strapped on our crampons and began the slow trek up Motorcycle Hill. It was no easy feat, the trail breaking was close to waist deep in places. We continued our way up Squirrel Hill, across the Polo Fields, and around Windy Corner - which was less windy than a few days ago. And finally made it to the promised land, 14,000' Camp. Greeted by friends and sunshine, it was nice to finally make it to our launching point for the rest of the mountain. We quickly built camp, and eventually enjoyed a late dinner of ramen. The team did great, everyone pushed themselves, and showed up.

Tomorrow we will sleep in and take a well deserved rest day at our new camp.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion

Sunday, June 8, 2025 - 11:01 pm PT

It started snowing yesterday afternoon while we were doing our carry, and it seems it hasn't stopped since. Heavy snowfall has made our entire world a snow globe. We woke up to the sound of snowfall on the tent, a signal to us that today would be another weather day here at 11,000' Camp. After our big effort yesterday, a little bit of a mellow morning was welcomed. So after a later alarm we all gathered in the cook tent for some toasted bagels, cream cheese and bacon. The day continued on with heavy snowfall covering every past sign of other teams or climbers. People would cycle out every hour to brush or shovel off the tents and by the next hour, the snow had just refilled. Wading from one camp to another was a waist deep adventure. After hours of keeping the camp unburied we had yet again, some burritos - and chatted about our plan for tomorrow. The big move. We are all excited about the prospect of a new camp, flat tent platforms, and one step closer to the summit. The weather looks a bit more promising so we are going to bed optimistic.

One more thing - happy birthday to Brandon's Mom!

RMI Guide Nikki Champion

Sunday, June 8, 2025 - 9:55 am PT

Holy cow the team crushed it today. Woke up to lightly cloudy skies, but visibility.  We threw any remaining items to be cached into our packs, ate a quick breakfast of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and just as the sun was hitting camp we began walking up Motorcycle Hill. After a quick break on top of Motorcycle Hill (where the guides applied glitter to celebrate my birthday), we made our way up the steep Squirrel Hill, and across the Polo Fields toward the base of Windy Corner. As we made our way across the Polo Field the snow lightly began to fall and winds were picking up. As we climbed towards Windy Corner, winds were gusting and visibility was decreasing. Teams made a strong push around Windy Corner, through the broke part of the glacier, past 13,500' and all the way to 14 Camp.

At 14,000' Camp we took a nice long break, dug a cache hole, threw on more layers to weather the storm and left all our gear to return to in a few days. Layers on, we made our way back now in moderate snowfall, strong winds, and poor visibility. The team put their head down and made it back to camp in good time. After the long, and impressive day we all shared some Jambalaya and cosmic brownies with candles. It was a great day, and set our team up well to move to 14,000' Camp when weather allows.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion

Friday, June 6, 2025 - 10:37 PM PT

We could hear it before we could see it, the dreaded wind. It woke us this morning, before we saw it moving snow all across the mountain. We drank some coffee, and watched to see if the winds would die down - but they stayed elevated. Drifting snow all around camp. By 10:00 am it became obvious it was going to be a weather day here at 11 Camp for our team. We had another egg and hashbrown scramble and then spent a few hours out of the wind in our tents. By the mid-afternoon, we layered up and reviewed some of the skills that will make the next day of climbing go smoothly - from running belays, to cramponing techniques, it was nice to get a refresher. After sharpening our skills we rolled into another dinner of mac and cheese and loaded our packs with the group loads for tomorrow. Though there's a little snow in the forecast, winds look more favorable for carrying.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion and Team