Entries By lauren macklin

Pico de Orizaba summit! 

With bellies full of cheese from last night’s dinner, we powered our way through a midnight wakeup. The first few hours of the route take us through “The Labyrinth”, which would be an easy place to take a wrong turn. Fortunately, we have Allen (our local guide) with us to help us efficiently navigate. Through the Labyrinth and at the base of the glacier we donned crampons and make our way up the ever-steepening slopes of the Jamapa Glacier until finally topping out on the third highest peak in North America!

Congrats to all the climbers who summitted La Malinche, Iztaccíhuatl and Pico de Orizaba! We now just spend the night at Dr. Reyes’ soap factory museum before most of us head home tomorrow.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

This morning we head towards Pico de Orizaba, one of our main climbing objectives of the trip, relaxed and rested after two nights and a full day in Puebla.

Rest day activities were varied, as usual. Some intrepid folks made their way to Cholula, where you can view and hike up ancient Aztec pyramids. Others explored art exhibits in Puebla and while others just fully relaxed. RMI Guide Lauren Macklin and I found our way to a brand-new bouldering gym before enjoying afternoon lattes at my favorite coffee roaster in town.

The evening was capped with a nice dinner at El Mural de los Poblanos where we sampled some local mezcals, ate delicious traditional foods and shared our rest day stories with the group.

Puebla feels to me like the world's biggest little city and is the place to stay when in this region. There is a ton of history, great outdoor activities and it’s more laidback than Mexico City. We could easily spend the duration of this trip having a spa day in Puebla and drinking fancy wines at rooftop bars. But alas, we have a mountain to climb. On to Pico de Orizaba!

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier and team

With dust in our eyes (it hasn’t snowed here since early January) and a dream in our hearts (no matter how dirty and tired we are, we all continue wanting it), we awoke at 12:45am this morning to climb Iztaccíhuatl (Ixta). Actually, we were all awake around 10:45pm to overhear the saga of two of our climbers trying to get a mouse out of their tent. Either way, these alpine starts always seem to come a touch too early.

Our day started with a sleepy ascent of “The Knees” section of the route. Once atop “The Knees”, there was a moderate wind that stuck around all day. Most of us wore parkas for nearly the entire climb; it was chilly but beautifully clear. Once the sun came up, we could clearly pick out skyscrapers in downtown Mexico City, which is unassumingly, the fifth largest city in the world.

The group powered through cold, wind and dust and everyone who made the attempt today also reached the summit! Congrats to this bus full of climbers who will enjoy their well-deserved Tacos Arabe in Puebla this evening.

Dustin

Feliz Día de San Valentin :)

We are now settled in at high camp on Ixta after a day of good Mexican eating and a four hour hike with heavy packs.

Everyone is in good spirits as we enjoy another nice sunset and prepare for our first big summit attempt of the trip.

Dustin

Today we are headed to Ixtaccihuatl via a several hour bus ride from the La Malintzi resort. It was a restful evening feasting on a parrillada and watching the Superbowl on a Spanish telecast. A well-deserved restful evening after successfully summitting La Malinche, which is hit or miss and dependent on how much argument (in Spanish) you’re willing to engage in with a heavily armed police officer. This time they left us alone, perhaps because it was such a nice day with no threat of lightning or rain.

Now we are in transit to Amecameca for some last-minute supplies. Today is mostly a travel and organization day, not quite a real rest day yet. We will update via InReach from the mountain so you can follow our progress!

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

RMI Guide Henry Coppolillo and team had a successful climb of Mt. Shuksan yesterday. After a hazy morning wake-up call, the team ascended the Sulphide glacier and enjoyed some Class 4 scrambling on the summit pyramid before topping out yesterday. The team has made it back to the trailhead and team members are on their way home.

Nice work team!

After several days of training on Mt. Erie and in the lower alpine of Mt. Baker, our Mt. Baker seminar teams have successfully summited Mt. Baker. They were on top this morning around 8:45 am. Completion of this program is one step on many mountaineers' journey to accomplishing other peaks like climbing Denali or Aconcagua.

The team will take the rest of the day today to rest and continue their training before walking out to the trailhead tomorrow.

Congrats team!

The Four Day Climb for August 1 - 4 led by RMI Guides Hannah Smith and Joe Hoch were unable to summit today due to a descending cloud and gusty winds. The teams reached the top of Disappointment Cleaver but were unable to continue due to weather.  As of 7 am the teams were safely back at Camp Muir.  They plan leave Camp Muir around 9 am to make the remaining 4,500' descent to Paradise.  We look forward to seeing the teams at Rainier Basecamp this afternoon.

After several days and lots of hands-on training, our Emmons seminar team successfully reached the summit of Mt. Rainier yesterday. RMI Guide Avery Parrinello reported beautiful weather for the climb. The team enjoyed several days of great weather during their training days and ascent from camp to camp before their climb yesterday.

The team is currently on their descent from Camp Schurman back to Basecamp in Ashford where they will celebrate their successful summit. Congrats team!

The Four Day Climb with RMI Guides Mike King and Dustin Wittmier were on the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Above this heavy marine layer, team had clear skies, sunshine and mild winds. The climbing was great with a with a direct route and it took the team 5 hours to get to the top.

Congratulations team!