Entries By leif bergstrom

The Four Day Climb June 17 - 20 led by RMI Guides Leif Bergstrom, Mitch Valaitis and Arianna Drechsler enjoyed nice weather over the course of their climb but unstable snow conditions on the upper mountain prevented the team from ascending above Ingraham Flats.  The team enjoyed some additional training and spent the morning at Ingraham Flats.  They plan to descend from Camp Muir at 10 am en route to Paradise.

The Four Day Climb led by Tatum Whatford and Jackson Breen reached the top of Disappointment Cleaver before high winds, cold temperatures, and incoming weather forced them to turn. On the descent the team enjoyed the sunrise from Ingraham Flats.

Congratulations Team! 

June 3: The team started their descent from Camp Muir at 7:30 AM PT today.  We expect them to arrive at Paradise around 10 am.

The Five Day Climb May 30 - 3 June led by RMI Guides James Bealer & Tatum Whatford reached the top of Disappointment Cleaver, 12,300', today before deteriorating weather forced them to descend.  The team is enroute to Camp Muir. They will spend the night at Camp Muir tonight and descend tomorrow. 

The Four Day Climb Led by RMI Guides Brent Okita and Drew O'Brien reached 13,400' on Mt. Rainier before poor weather forced them to abort and head back towards the shelter of Camp Muir. The team is currently at Camp Muir and will start their descent to Paradise soon.

Congratulations Team! 

The team came to the challenging decision, where part of the team chose to continue uphill and part of the team called yesterday their high point. 

For those who chose to continue uphill, you can follow along with their journey on the May 12th Expedition with Dustin Wittmier. For the remainder of the team, we packed up late last night, walked through the night and flew back to Talkeetna mid-morning where we can now enjoy a shower and beer for our hard work.  

RMI Guide Nikki Champion & Team

Today was a challenging day. We rigged up with half the food and gear to go cache around Windy Corner. We made our way up Motorcycle and Squirrel, and through the Polo Fields but not all the way to Windy Corner. Going to see what tomorrow brings.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion & Team

Wednesday, May 22, 2024 - 9:44 pm PT

Another weather day in the books. We woke up hoping to carry this morning, but instead were greeted by another morning of strong winds and snowfall. After looking up Motorcycle Hill for a bit, and watching to see if weather improved we crawled back in our sleeping bags and decided it was going to be another rest and weather day. We needed winds to die down a bit to make it around Windy Corner. After camp warmed up a bit, we made some coffee and breakfast burritos and settled into another day of acclimating and resting. The weather broke a bit, and we were able to get the caches reading for tomorrow, practice putting our crampons on and just getting a bit of fresh air. Tomorrow we are yet again hoping for a bit better weather, and the chance to carry.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion

May 21, 2024

Our first real rest day - and our first real weather day. Winds picked up overnight and didn't let off all day. Along with the winds came the snow. We spent all day in our sleeping bags or battling to keep track of our belongings in the snow. We wrapped our first weather day up with some hand delivered burritos, and crawled in bed hoping to carry beyond Windy Corner tomorrow.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion

Tuesday, May 21, 2024 - 9:58 am PT

Our first relaxed morning in the books. We woke up with the sun, and had an experimental breakfast of pan fried cinnamon rolls. Update, the experiment went well - and we've got another two cans for higher up the mountain. After breakfast we took some down time and then rigged up the empty sleds to make our way down to our cache. After a quick 40 minute downhill, we were reunited with the rest of our group, and personal food and gear. We rigged the sleds back up now full, and made our way back to camp. Once back at camp, we had a relaxing afternoon and prepped camp for some incoming weather. We wrapped up the evening with some butter chicken, and then crawled in bed looking forward to our first full rest day.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion

Hello from 11,000' Camp on Denali!

After a quick breakfast of oatmeal, we tore down camp and retraced our steps from yesterday. As we worked our way in and out of the clouds and limited visibility we finally pushed past our cache site, and continued to 11,000 ft. Once we rolled into camp, the work for the day wasn't done. We made quick work setting up tents and building camp. After many hours of hard work we finally wrapped up the evening with some ramen as it lightly snowed at camp. Tomorrow we will make the quick jaunt downhill to our cache and get the rest of our gear. Check in tomorrow!

RMI Guide Nikki Champion