Entries By kiira antenucci

Monday, June 13, 2022 - 8:50 pm PT

Hello from 11,000' Camp!

The alarm rang, we unzipped the tent and the conditions looked great. It was time to move to a new camp! Getting to 11,000' Camp is a great milestone. Here we get to spend several nights getting ready to move higher up the mountain. Step by step we are making it higher and higher. With all our camp loaded in our packs and sleds we hit the frozen trail. A brisk morning welcomed us on our trails and soon turned into a brisk breeze. A sting to the face brought us to the sunlight. We had finally climbed out of the clouds and man is it nice to be above the clouds. This camp has more teams. We are no longer alone. It's nice to see other teams around and have energy flowing through camp. Shoveling, chopping, and eyeballing the levelness of the tent platforms leads to a good looking camp. More naps and more snacking bring us to dinner. Life is simple out here. We walk, we set up camp, we sleep, we eat, we rinse and repeat. Tomorrow we will walk back downhill to our cache and be reunited with our things. It's a great feeling getting your food back. Hopefully the weather keeps treating us well and tomorrow is a smooth day.

Talk to you all tomorrow,

RMI Guide Hannah Smith and Team

Sunday, June 12, 2022 - 8:59 pm

Good evening readers,

After sending the dispatch last night we listened to the weather from Kahiltna Basecamp. With the weather, basecamp also reads a trivia question. And guess what? We won it! What is a group of ravens called? An unkindness. And what an unkindness they will do if you don't bury your cache deep enough. So today when we arrived to our cache spot at 10,000', we made sure there would be no unkindness done to our belongings. Once again it was an early start to our day. A few snoozes to the alarm to let the weather clear up a bit led to some oatmeal and packing up half our gear. Carrying half our gear will allow our move tomorrow to be a little more enjoyable. The team cruised up ski hill, stepping over several crevasses, and making easy work of the first major uphill of our journey. Clouds took away most of our views but every once in awhile parts of the mountain showed its beauty. It was a good day and we also got our first taste of moving downhill. Sitting at camp looking up, it's amazing how much more terrain we need to cover. In due time we will get there. Tomorrow we will repeat what we did today plus a little to bring us to 11k camp. Getting to 11k is a great feeling because it will be our first camp we truly get to nest into and enjoy a rest day. For now, we have four minutes till the weather comes on, so we will end it here.

Happy reading,

RMI Guide Hannah Smith and Team

Saturday June 11, 2022 – 9:13pm PT

Greetings from the Kahiltna,

Snow pitter pattering on the tents lulled us to sleep before disappearing as our alarms rang out. Midnight came far too fast, but the snow had stopped and the clouds lifted.

The first mornings are a little hectic trying to find our groove, our routine in packing up. But with some yummy bagels topped with cream cheese and lox to fuel us, we were ready to take on the day. Our cache buried, sleds loaded, and legs ready, we hit the trail.

Luckily, the first part is downhill, a nice ease into the heavy loads. We will have to climb this hill at the end but that's for another day. The Kahiltna glacier is impressively large with giant crevasses. This glacier goes for 36 miles, and we are going to walk the beginning of it. Several hours of walking brought us to our camp. We made swift work of flattening some spots and setting up.

The afternoon was filled with warm naps, music, and reading. Everyone is enjoying all the naps and snacks. The snow danced its way back in and has been the sound of the evening. We are hoping it quits once again in time for us to begin our walk tomorrow. This trip is all about flexibility so we shall see what tomorrow brings. For now, it's off to bed to stay dry and warm.

Goodnight all,

Hannah and Team

Evening all,

We did it, we flew onto the glacier! Today is a hurry to wait kind of day. In order to be the first to fly, we were the first in line for coffee. On our way to coffee we saw a fox on the railroad tracks. The last time I summited Denali, I saw a fox before flying. So I think this is a good omen. We shall see. Any who, with caffeine surging through our bodies we are ready to fly. Since our odds looked good for flying we said good bye to the flip-flops and hello to our mountain boots. These bad boys would be our mode of transportation for the next few weeks. With the planes ready for us we began shuffling our gear to the planes. Excitement rushes through you as you walk across the tarmac knowing the moment is here. Next stop the Kahiltna glacier. Seatbelts buckled, headphones on, and the smell of the engine signals its time to fly. The views are so beautiful one can not put it into words. Huntington, Foraker, Hunter, peak 11,300 and many more awe-inspring peaks keep us wide eyed and trigger happy on the camera. After a loop up the Kahiltna showing what we will walk on tomorrow we descend into basecamp with a bumpy landing. It's a quick fire line to move the gear from the plane to the glacier before watching our ride fly away. We are on our own now. We decided to bump down to the lower airstrip which gave us practice pulling the sleds. The team is in tip top shape. Once camp is set up we enjoyed some down time followed by a refresher on skills. Some gear sorting and deciding what hot drinks to bring on the mountain led us into our pizza party dinner. Why eat mountain food when you can fly on pizza! It's an early to bed for us since for the next few days we will be on the night schedule, walking during the cool part of a day.  

Tomorrow is the day we take our first steps toward our goal of the summit. Here's to a great journey!

RMI Guides Hannah, Kiira, Dan and Team

Hello everyone!

Welcome to the start of our Denali Expedition!

The team arrived in Alaska yesterday. After loading 24 duffels into the van, equaling far too many pounds to mention, we made our way to the launching point of our trip: Talkeetna. Talkeetna means where the rivers meet and it is also where many different groups of people meet. It is a dead end down bustling with energy and great food. Tourist from cruises, climbers sunburned and ravenous, fresh climbers with wide eyes and eager all gather at the various restaurants to enjoy a drink and soak in the scenery. 

Today was our prep day to get ready to fly tomorrow. After a scrumptious breakfast and several cups of coffee we headed to the hanger and exploded our gear. Before committing to the glacier we need to make sure everyone has the appropriate gear. The team passed with fly colors. Once all our gear was back in our duffle and backpack we divided the team into two for the planes. First we weighed each climber followed by their backpack and their duffle. We are carrying a lot of weight but looking at this team I think they are going to handle it just fine. With everything weighed and sorted we are set to jet in the morning. As long as the weather holds and clouds stay away, tonight will be our last night in a bed, last time flushing a toilet, and last time with cell service. Here's to disconnecting and enjoying the wilderness of Denali for the next few weeks. 

Climb on,

RMI Guide Hannah Smith and Team 

The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guides Brent Okita and Kiira Antenucci reached Ingraham Flats at 11,200' on their summit attempt before poor weather forced them to turn and retreat to shelter of Camp Muir. The team is going to enjoy the morning on the mountain before descending. 

Congratulations to today's team! 

Hello world, it’s us the Camp Muir Seminar!

Yesterday, we awoke early, donned our technical gear and launched towards the Ingraham flats to train before the next storm system hit in the mid afternoon. Sadly the storm had other plans and hit Camp Muir around 9am. We retreated in a white out with winds averaging 58mph during our time on the Cowlitz glacier. The storm has been impressive in its power and consistency. It is not snowing so much as it is launching ice pellets at us with high velocity. Moral stayed high as we continued to practice various technical skills in the bunkhouse. The team took brief forays into the violent snow globe that was the outside world to shovel out the bathroom. We were highly motivated to maintain our access to the facilities.

We are excited to find a lull in the weather to head down hill, dry out and enjoy some pizza and beer at the Basecamp Bar and Grill. 

All is well - The Muir Seminar Team

There we were, finished up with our day of training, enjoying the amenities of the Gombu Hut. A screeching howl ripped across Camp Muir - the wind was here. We spent the rest of the evening discussing altitude illness and taking bets on the high score for strongest gust. Ends up we were all wrong, so so wrong. The darkness fell and our winds averaged 70mph with gusts in the 90mph. Things were knocking, shelters were rocking, and we hunkered down. This morning we awoke to thick solid ice rime covering the surface of our world. We affixed Everest style hand lines to the bathroom. Full battle gear mandatory. Today we will practice the most important mountain skill, entertaining ourselves while the storm rages.

RMI Guide Jack Delaney and the Muir Seminar signing off, till tomorrow...

On Friday the Camp Muir Expedition Skills Seminar returned from five days of training on Mount Rainier.  Aspiring climbers learned a variety of movement and technical skills that will further their future mountain experiences.  This wraps up RMI trips on Rainier this season, thank you to everyone who has been following along!

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

RMI Guide James Bealer led his team to the summit of Mt. Baker this morning!  The route was steep and icy making for a challenging day but everyone was up to the task.  They are four days into their six-day program where they are also receiving their credentials for the Leave No Trace Master Educator Course.