Entries By josh geiser

Saturday, June 15, 2024 - 8:44 pm PT

Good evening readers,

Today was a day of rest and a small excursion. After breakfast we roped up and took a short stroll to the Edge of the World. From here we can see all the way down to the Kahiltna Glacier, thousands of feet below. Everyone got there hero shots on the rock and will have their new profile picture. The rest of the day was resting and organizing and of course more chess. The weather seems to be cooperating so tomorrow we are going to move up to 17,000' Camp and try for the summit on Monday. This is when we need all the good weather vibes, the strong leg vibes, and health vibes from all you loyal readers. This is what we have been training for. This is our moment. Tonight is our last sleep before we hit it hard for the next 4-5 days. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers! Goodnight all.

RMI Guide Hannah Smith and Team

Hello readers,

It was a cold morning. The coldest thus far. We packed our bags for our carry and then warmed up with some oatmeal and coffee. Putting in crampons is difficult when your fingers hurt and takes longer when you pause to warm them up before the next crampon. With time and cold fingers, we all suited up for our walk uphill.

It's a steep hill out of camp. Not much of a warmup, but we cruised up it and got to the fixed line. The fixed lines are quite steep and have blue ice underneath the snow. It's engaging climbing as we ascend the slope. It warmed up fast on our climb and we were back to base layers and sweat in no time. We cached our gear at the top of the fixed lines at 16,200'. It's great views from there of everything below us. It's a Crazy feeling sitting on the side of a big mountains with snowy mountains and peaks all around. Just gorgeous. After an hour or so sitting at 16200' we made Our way back to camp. It was a productive day, and we are ready for our sleeping bags and rest day tomorrow.

The rest will be productive for our bodies to gear up for our final push to high camp and the summit.

Goodnight, all,

RMI Guide Hannah Smith and Team

Thursday, June 13, 2024 8:34 pm PDT

Hello again,

Today we enjoyed our well-deserved rest day! It started with a casual breakfast of hot drinks and blueberry pancakes. That's right folks, Our very own pancake house at 14,000'. With bellies full of pancakes, we then enjoyed lounging in our very hot tents. Letting the bodies recover and rest is Important for the big days we have in front of us. In the afternoon we fine-tuned some skills needed to go up the fixed lines and use running belays. The Team is ready and psyched to get one step closer to our goal of getting to the top and home safely.

Tomorrow, we will do our carry. Once we get the carry in, we Are in position to wait for our summit window. So once again wish us luck and send all the good weather vibes our way.

RMI Guide Hannah Smith and Team

Wednesday, June 12, 2024 8:40 pm PDT

Clothes and food in our packs and headed down to our cache. The round trip only took 2 hours and we were back in our tents relaxing. Relaxing is the main focus from now through tomorrow. The team has earned a rest day to recover from some big days and to recover for a big carry day on Friday. We are trucking along and right on schedule. Hopefully the weather keeps holding and we keep hitting all our target days. As we get ready for bed, light snow falls on our tents It’s a soothing sound to fall asleep to. As always keep up the good weather vibes and throw in there some sleep like 10-pound baby vibes.

Thanks for following along!

RMI Guide Hannah Smith and Team

Monday, June 10, 2024

Good evening all,
Today was a good day. Today we made our carry to 13,500'. The skies were mostly clear with no breeze. We were the first team out of camp. We didn't see another team until we headed back down. The route was in great condition which made for smooth walking. We are getting closer and closer to our goal but we still have many days ahead of us. Many hard days ahead of us. We made it back to camp just as it started to snow. The snow hasn't stopped since.  We aren't sure what tomorrow will bring. If the weather is good, we will move. If the weather isn't good we will rest up for when it is good. Keep sending those good weather vibes!

RMI Guide Hannah Smith and Team

Hello again,

Today we decided to take our rest day. All night the wind battered our tents and send snow swirling between the rain fly and tent body. The gusts kept up until the morning but later subsided and turned into a calm, bright, hot day. The team enjoyed the warm weather. They occupied themselves with a chess tournament. They are currently playing for seeding. Tomorrow we are looking to make our carry to 13,600' and Tuesday move to 14,000' Camp. Weather looks to be in our favor, so keep sending those good weather vibes our way the next couple days. Now we must catch some sleep for our day tomorrow. 

Goodnight all,

RMI Guide Hannah Smith and Team

Saturday, June 8, 2024 - 8:55 pm PT

Greetings readers!

Today we had a casual morning eating breakfast burritos and sipping coffee. By 9:50am we were packed and roped uo for our back carry to our 9300' cache. A light wind kept the temps down and the team made fast work getting to the cache. After a bit of digging we retrieved all our things, packed it all up and headed back uphill. Up, down, up, down, sleep, eat, and repeat is the the name of the game out here. If you ain't walking you are sleeping or eating. After a bit of rest in the afternoon we reviewed walking in our crampons and packed for our carry to 13,600'. If the winds don't turn up which they are forecasted to, we will carry our gear and get in position to move to 14,000' Camp. The team is very eager to get up there. But we have to take our time and properly allow our bodies to compensate to the decrease in oxygen molecules up here. As I write the winds are picking up but maybe they will get it out of its system during the night.  So goodnight all and send those good weather vibes.

RMI Guide Hannah Smith and Team

Friday, June 8, 2024 8:43 pm PDT

Good evening readers!

We are writing to you from 11k Camp. Our day started early with an alpine start thinking it was going to be the wee hours of the morning when the weather would clear. That turned out to be incorrect. We woke to white all around us. We were in a cloud. You could barely see the tents up glacier. We dragged our feet and took a nap. After a few hours the clouds started to lift so we packed up our camp.

The walking was tough today. The trail Had been blown in with lots of snow. The trail breaking was slow and exhausting but we made hung in there and rolled into 11k Camp. Feels good to be higher on the mountain. Just one step closer to our goal. At dinner we filled our bellies with Annie's Mac and Cheese and now we are all ready for a much-deserved sleep. We are all looking forward to uninterrupted sleep tonight. Tomorrow we will head back downhill to our cache to be reunited with our gear.

Goodnight, all!

RMI Guide Hannah Smith and Team

Thursday, June 6, 2024 6:11pm PDT

Hello readers!

The snow pitter pattered all night. With every tap to the side of the tent snow slides off. It was a winter wonderland. White surrounded us. You could see nothing but white. With visibility being low and tents wet, we decided to lay low and hang tight for the day. The team rested and the snow Fell most of the day. Towards the late afternoon the base of the peaks became visible. An optimistic sign that maybe the weather is letting up. We are Hopeful that we can get still move to 11k camp in an alpine start fashion much like we do on Rainier. So, after dinner we are going to rest a few hours and hopefully the weather is descent, and we can make our move.

Wish us luck and send good weather vibes.

RMI Guide Hannah Smith and Team

Wednesday, June 5, 2024 - 8:25 pm PT

Good evening everyone. Today we woke to clear skies above with clouds lingering over Denali. So it was go time to get our carry in. We knew the storm would come sooner or later so we got an early start and we walking by 5am. Fueled by bagels, cream cheese, and salmon we made our way up Ski Hill. The cool air felt good to walk in compared to the rather hot and sweaty walk yesterday. After gaining two thousand feet and the beginning of snow flurries, we decided to call 9300' our cache spot. We dug a big hole to fit all our cache items and then scurried out of there before more snow fell. The rest of the day we enjoyed a bunch of tent time which included naps, reading, watching shows, listening to music, and eating snacks. Some of the best sleep comes in the afternoon. Tomorrow we hope to move to 11,000' camp. This will depend on what the weather brings us in the morning. We may need to be patient but that's part of the Denali game. As for now, we are all settling into our sleeping bags as the snow pitter patters on our tents. It's quite relaxing. So goodnight all!

RMI Guide Hannah And team