Entries By jess wedel

Wednesday, May 13, 2026 - 12:56 am PT

Goodbye world, hello Denali!

Sorry for the late blog post, it's been a wild couple of days! We spent all day Monday ready to go at a moments notice. The weather was fickle, the clouds were playing games and the sunshine was promising flight potential. Finally around 4pm we received word of a potential window so we loaded planes and launched towards Kahiltna Base Camp. Sadly the clouds decided to reappear and we had to turn around back to Talkeetna. After about 30 minutes of sitting in the hangar, the pilots told us another gap in the clouds had appeared. Again we loaded up and took to the skies! Yet again the clouds were sneaky and by the time we got there they had cut us off from our destination. We circled for 20 minutes hopeful the clouds would shift and clear. Finally the pilots made the call - back to the Talkeetna again! We had a hearty dinner and were off to bed to try again in the morning.

Morning came quick with a 8am text from K2 saying the skies were clear! The team kicked into overdrive and within 30 minutes we were loaded up and flying! Smooth sailing took us right into Kahiltna Base Camp. We then got ourselves organized and took off up glacier towards our first camp, Ski Hill! Several hours of slogging later plus a couple more hours of hard work, we had camp established! It was a long day but we did it.

We were here. Our Denali expedition has officially begun.

Cheers,

RMI Guide Jack Delaney and the Team

Day 3 – Sunday, May 10, 2026

Hang time in Talkeetna! 

With unflyable weather, the gang spent the whole day on standby. We practiced the critical Denali skill of hurry up and wait, and also practiced our ping pong (table tennis for those who are serious) skills. 

K2 Aviation lost the Talkeetna ping pong tournament to TAT (Talkeetna Air Taxi) last year, so luckily the RMI team was there to train with the K2 pilots. Hopefully, K2 will take a win in 2026!

We also reviewed our sled rigging and had an excellent team dinner at the Lattitude 62.

All eyeballs are looking towards the weather forecast for tomorrow for flyable weather!!

RMI Guide Calvin Jiricko & Team

Sunday, May 10, 2026 - 11:19 am PT

Hello bloggateers!

Today was a busy day. The name of the game in Talkeetna is "Hurry up and Wait" - and hurry up we did. It was flurry of packing and organizing. The key to making sure you have everything for climbing Denali is pulling every item out of your bags, looking at them one by one, making sure you really need the item and then repacking them. After thoroughly examining everything we had and shedding any excess weight, we began weighing our bags. The pilots need the weights of all our gear and persons so they can calculate how to evenly distribute the weight amongst the planes and the gas needed to fly into the Alaska range. Finally we were able to able to call it a day and head to dinner. We enjoyed the fine ales and delicious food of the Denali Brew Pub. It was then off to another early bedtime in the hopes of flying off the next morning. 

Cheers,

RMI Guide Jack Delany and the Team 

Hello world!

Greetings from Alaska! After a long day of travel from all over the US and Europe, we all assembled at the Ted Stevens Airport in Anchorage. We then loaded up the shuttle bus with our eccentric driver Ross and drove the two hours to Talkeetna. We then checked into the Swiss Alaska Inn and got the lowdown on the winter Talkeetna gossip from the Inn's proprietor Critter. After a brief break to get settled in we enjoyed some fine pizza at Mile High Pizza Pie. The team finished the evening off with a walk to the river front where we witnessed a large ice flow break up at the confluence of the Susitna and Talkeetna rivers.  Then it was off to an early bedtime to prepare for an early start the next morning to begin gear checking and packing. 

Thanks for tuning in -

RMI Guide Jack and the Team! 

The daily blogs from this trip have been a huge hit at home it seems. And while many of you are reading them each day to see what we have been up to, we have also been reading your comments. They have brought tears to our eyes from both laughter (looking at you Rosie) and sentiment. 

What the daily blogs don't show you is the day to day life we have experienced together. This much time together has created a unique bond. We show up early for each meal, not because we have to but because we genuinely like spending time together. We get our daily dose of Piper over our morning coffee/tea and while none of us have met her, she is our favourite dog on this trip. We know one another's breakfast order by heart with one particular order even turning into a nickname (miss you Pancake Fred). 

We know if we see any animal on the trail that Steven is going to try and pet it and Vanessa is most likely going to be taking pictures of it.  We know to never leave our phones unattended around Brian but if this happens we know the resulting photos will be hilarious. Some days our biggest decision is what kind of tea we want to have and with the ongoing fresh mint shortage this area seems to be experiencing we have had lemon ginger honey tea almost as many times as Jack has asked if it's finally time to pull out the microspikes. 

We almost always end each night with a card game where inexplicably Rick always has Aces. We were all blessed to be part of Kevin's journey to basecamp, fulfilling a promise he had made to his daughter.

We are a competitive bunch and while this has led to many aggressive games of 22 - now shortened to 12 and including rock paper scissors for "funsies" it has also led us to push one another to keep going on the days when it was hard to keep moving and breathing. Some days it's the small things that help like Vanessa's dancing while on trail or Brian pretending to be on a rollercoaster when crossing a bridge, or watching Tim and Fred's friendship blossom in real time (still is and will always be my favourite TV show).

The real joy in this trip has been the people. Our amazing team of porters who carried our heavy gear with smiles on their faces. Our local guides who arranged and rearranged plans constantly for us, kept us on schedule and made sure none of us were trampled by Yaks. Our climbing guides who stayed up all night to set the fixed lines on Lobuche then successfully led the team to the top. Our amazing guide Jess whose sense of humour was a bright spot on many days.

Today we flew back to Kathmandu after 17 days in the Khumbu valley. The snack weight in our bags has been replaced by yak bells and Everest Outfit gear, although not as much as Tim who is an unofficial Everest Outfit influencer. Our bucket list has 1 or 2 extra check marks on it. 

For me this trip was a 30 year dream turned into reality. I knew it would be amazing but it turned out to be so much more. Chatter has now turned to which mountain we will climb next and if we are lucky enough we will climb together again.

RMI Climber Jen

Thursday, April 2, 2026

Hello there,

The trail from Namche to Lukla is long — longer than you remember — but yesterday it was lined with rhododendrons in full bloom, which makes just about any suffering tolerable. On the way down, we carried out bags of trash collected for the Sagarmatha Next and SPCC clean-up efforts. Small contribution, but it felt right to leave the trail a little better than we found it.

The real story of the day, though, happened at dinner.

In Lukla last night, we gathered around a shared table to honor the porters and guides who made this entire expedition possible. These are the people who carried our loads, knew the trail in every kind of weather, kept us moving when we were tired, and kept us laughing throughout. No summit happens without them — and we wanted to make sure they knew we knew that.

The meal turned into dancing. Someone produced a boom box, and for many hours after dinner, we celebrated together — not as clients and crew, but as a team that had been through something real. It was one of those nights you don’t want to end.

Tomorrow we fly to Kathmandu!

— RMI Guide Jess Wedel & the Team

Namaste!

If the past few weeks have been defined by purpose and altitude, today was defined by the sweet relief of coming down from both.

The trail from Pangboche to Namche is deceptive — one might assume a descent would be all downhill, but the Khumbu has a sense of humor. As the saying here goes, “sometimes up, sometimes down.” Legs went to autopilot, brains finally went offline, and the team moved smoothly through the mountains with something that felt a lot like ease.

Arriving at Namche on the back end of an expedition hits differently than arriving on the front — the altitude is kinder, the breathing comes easier, and the body quietly begins to recover.

We made a beeline for Eat Smart, a welcome break from teahouse fare: barbecue chicken sandwiches, wraps, and a freshly baked matcha cheesecake. The afternoon was spent wandering Namche’s vibrant streets — yak bells, hand-painted art, and prayer beads found their way into packs.

Tonight, there’s talk of moving our nightly card games to the Irish Pub or maybe the Dancing Yak. Or if some people’s dreams come true — both. Time will tell. We’ve spent weeks locked in on our goals. It’s nice to just… be here.

RMI Guide Jess Wedel and the team

Hello from Pangboche.

I’m writing this from a tea house window watching snow fall on the valley below, which feels like the appropriate punctuation to a trip that has given us weather in every form except usually the one we actually wanted.

Until yesterday.

Yesterday, the mountains gave us a gift.

Summit day was the most sun we’ve seen this entire trip. No wind. Perfect snow conditions — more coverage on the upper mountain than our Sherpa guide team has seen in years, which turned the typical steep, slabby rock into a beautiful snow climb. We got extraordinarily lucky, and we knew it.

We left high camp just after 3:00 a.m., headlamps on, the dark enormous around us. Seven and a half hours later, the team stood on the summit of Lobuche.

What happened in between is harder to put into words.

Hard things are hard. I know — profound. A quote we’ve joked about but actually hits. There’s something that happens on a mountain at altitude, in the dark, with steep terrain above you and your legs already tired, where that simple truth becomes the whole truth. The technical sections near the top demanded everything. Every step deliberate, every breath rationed. And I’ll be honest: I did not stop talking. Probably to a degree that could be classified as unhinged. “You’ve got this.” “Dig deep.” “Keep moving.” “You’ve got this.” If any of my team is reading this — I’m only slightly sorry.

What I watched in return was something I don’t take for granted, no matter how many times I get to see it. People tapping into strength they didn’t know they had. Facing real fear — of heights, of the unknown, of their own limits — and stepping forward anyway. Tears behind glasses. Shaking legs that kept moving. At one point I looked up through the thin air and saw a climber moving through steep, challenging terrain with a power and grace that stopped me. Elegant and strong in exactly the moment it was hardest to be either.

That’s what this mountain asks for. That’s what this team gave.

By summit, every one of us was running on fumes — the kind of tired that lives in your bones and doesn’t apologize. The Khumbu cough we’d somehow dodged the entire trip? Consider it found. Turns out all it needed was one very long, very hard day at altitude to make its entrance. Worth it. Completely worth it.

We returned to high camp, celebrated, and slept the deep sleep of people who had earned it.

Today we descended to Pangboche, where it is snowing (of course it is) and where I am sitting warm and still and deeply grateful.

To the families reading this: your people were extraordinary. They showed up, they dug deep, and they stood on top of a very big mountain in the Himalayas. More heart and courage on this team than I’ve seen in a long time.

Everyone is safe, everyone is proud, and everyone is very ready for a hot shower.

And we’re very, very glad to be sleeping below 14,000ft for the first time in 8 days.

RMI Guide Jess Wedel and the Lobuche team

Monday, March 30, 2026 - 3:30 am PT

The RMI Lobuche team reached the summit of Lobuche peak at 20,075' today with seven climbers and four Sherpa.  RMI Guide Jess Wedel reported a great summit day and by far the most sun they have had this trip. Everyone is tired after a hard effort, but doing well.

They have returned to High Camp to spend another night. Tomorrow they will descend to Pangboche.

Nice work team!

Photos courtesy: Guide Lopsang - High Altitude Dreams

Sunday, March 29, 2026 - 4:04 am PT

Big day today.

We made our move up to Lobuche High Camp — and the mountain wasted no time letting us know what we’re here for. 

The route climbs steep, loose rock that demands your full attention with every step. No crampons yet, just patience, footwork, and a little faith in your trekking poles. Our first real test before the climb, and the team passed it with flying colors.

High camp is something else. Settle into tents, pack our summit packs and we’re about to have an early dal bhat dinner. There’s more snow here than I’ve ever seen and that will make for a fun snow climb instead of the typical steep and slabby rock.

Cross your fingers the cloud we are in lifts! The forecast tomorrow looks like the most sun of the trip so let’s see. 

The mood tonight is that good kind of nervous. Excited chatter, quiet moments packing, a little bit of both happening in the same person at the same time. Summit day is close. We’re ready.

RMI Guide Jess Wedel