Entries By kiira antenucci

The Emmons Seminar August 1 - 6, 2021 made their summit attempt today after several days of training and climbing on the mountain.  Leaving Camp Schurman the team climbed to 13,500' before deciding to turn back due to difficult route conditions and fatigue. The team returned to Camp Schurman this afternoon and will spend their final night on the mountain.  Tomorrow they will continue their descent to the trailhead near White River Camp Ground and make the return drive to Ashford.

We hope you enjoyed your week of training and climbing on Mt. Rainier!

RMI Guide Mike Haugen reported sunshine, great weather and a light 5 mph breeze as his team was on the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The Four Day Climb July 25 - 28, 2021 led by Mike Haugen and Alex Halliday were descending from the crater rim at 7 am.

Congratulations to today's climbers!

Today's Mt. Rainier teams reached the summit at 6:00 a.m.  They reported windy conditions with clear skies.  The teams began their descent back to Camp Muir at 7:08 a.m. where they will pack up the rest of their gear and continue down to Paradise.

Congratulations to the summit teams!

The Five Day Mt. Rainier Climb teams, led by RMI Guides Eric Frank and Jenny Konway, turned at High Crack today due to hearing and seeing a significant amount of rock and icefall. They are back at Camp Muir and will be descending early this morning.

Yesterday we got to the air strip nice and early. We arrived at the Kahiltna Glacier air strip at 7 am after a long trip down from 17,000' Camp. Unfortunately the weather was not conducive to flying until 6:30 pm, but we made it off! The team was excited to get back to Talkeetna and enjoy hot showers and food. Now everyone is working their way back home. It’s been a successful Denali expedition and thanks so much for following along!

RMI Guide JT Schmitt and the Denali team 

Sunday, June 20, 2021 - 8:23 pm PT

This afternoon around 2pm the team stood on top of Denali! After weeks of hard work we got the sweet reward of the top.

We were the first team to summit in at least four days, which made for a true Alaskan climbing experience. We broke trail for 7.5 hours to get to the top. Most of the permanent protection was buried, so we placed our own and put in the track to the top!

Starting early made it so we had the peak to ourselves and really got a true experience of a summit day on Denali!

Now we just have to descend from 17K Camp to the upper airstrip over the next couple days. Thanks for following along.

RMI Guide JT Schmitt and the RMI team

Saturday, June 19, 2021 - 3:51 pm PT

Today we woke up to snow and wind. We are resting and acclimating today, hoping to climb tomorrow!

RMI Guides JT Schmitt, Alan Davis, Kiira Antenucci and the RMI team

Friday, June 18, 2021 - 10:18 pm PT

The team tried to summit today, and as usual we performed like a well oiled machine. Unfortunately we weren’t able to make it to the top due to adverse and unexpected obstacles that again, the team handled exquisitely. We put in a track up to Denali pass and hope to make it up again in the coming days.

RMI Guide JT Schmitt

Thursday, June 17, 2021 1:33 pm PT

This morning we woke up to a foot of new snow and the winds have been blowing 30 mph all day, which is slightly unpleasant but what we expected. There is a lot of strategy in expedition climbing, and this plan is part of that. We got up to 17,000' camp yesterday knowing it would not be possible today, and now we are in position to take advantage of tomorrow’s supposed high pressure.

Send good thoughts our way for good weather tomorrow!

RMI Guides JT, Alan, Kirra and the RMI team.

Wednesday, June 16, 2021 - 8:29 pm PT

We made it to High Camp, 17,200' on Denali. It’s a little blustery but other than that all is good here. Keeping our fingers crossed for good weather tomorrow!

RMI Guide JT Schmitt and the RMI team