Entries By leif bergstrom
Posted by: Nikki Champion, Leif Bergstrom, Lauren Macklin
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 11,000'
-640x480.jpg)
Sunday, May 21, 2023 - 9:47 pm PDT
Today was a big day! Our first official rest day of the trip. After a few long hard pushes, we decided to sleep in and take the entire day to recover, and prep for the big carry tomorrow. We woke with the sun, and had a few rounds of breakfast burritos. After a leisurely breakfast, the remainder of the day was spent resting, recovering, reading and napping. Just before dinner we reviewed a bit of cramponing and ice axe techniques to prepare for the terrain above 11k Camp, and then rolled into an early dinner. Tomorrow we'll make our way towards 14k Camp to cache some food, and gear before returning to 11k Camp.
RMI Guide Nikki Champion and Team
Saturday, May 20, 2023 - 11:18 am PT
We woke up to snow lightly falling at camp this morning, and slow rolled into a warm breakfast of toasted bagels and bacon. After enjoying a second cup of coffee, we rigged the empty sleds to our backpacks, roped up and headed out from 11,000' Camp down to our cache at 9,900'. Making quick work with empty packs, we arrived at the cache in just under a half hour. We dug up the cache, divvied up the group gear, re-rigged our sleds and traced our steps from yesterday back to 11,000' Camp. It was short, but hard stretch to roll back into 11 Camp. We spent the rest of the afternoon in and out of snow storms, and enjoying the afternoon to recover. After a few hours of down time, we had a festive dinner of beef burritos with salsa verde and then prepared to potentially carry tomorrow. We will see what the morning brings, check in tomorrow!
Keep us updated!! Climb Strong Kevin!!!
Posted by: Dave Kestel on 5/22/2023 at 3:33 am
Love the updates! Such an epic adventure!! Cheering you all on from Seattle!
Posted by: Mary Upton on 5/21/2023 at 10:34 pm
Posted by: Nikki Champion, Leif Bergstrom, Lauren Macklin
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 11,200'
-640x480.jpg)
Friday, May 19, 2023 10:22pm PDT
After a long night’s rest, we woke up to clear skies, and warm temperatures. We had a quick breakfast of pop-tarts and grits as the sun began to shine onto ski hill. After our quick breakfast, we worked to tear down camp and begin our journey towards 11,000’ camp. We strapped into the snowshoes, and made our way up ski hill, through the 9,500’ camps, past our cache and finally up the final hill into our final destination for the night.
After a short break, we found a nice spot to call home for the next few days and spent the next few hours building camp and moving in before a warm dinner of ramen. Looks like a little bit of weather is coming in, but we are hoping to wake up with the sun and go get our cache tomorrow morning. Looking forward to a mellower day tomorrow! Check back in after the back carry.
RMI Guides Nikki, Leif, Lauren & Team
Hey Kevin! Great Job!! Climb Strong!!!
Posted by: Dave Kestel on 5/21/2023 at 3:29 am
Posted by: Nikki Champion, Leif Bergstrom, Lauren Macklin
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 9,600'
-640x480.jpg)
Thursday, May 18, 2023 10:36pm PDT
After a late night and long day yesterday, we woke up around the time the sun hit our tents. After a quick breakfast of frosted mini wheats, we put together the group loads to cache and begin our climb up ski hill. After 4.5 long hours we pulled into our cache site, dug a hole, and tossed our group food, and personal caches in. After attaching the sleds to our packs, we began the descent back to camp. A bit earlier this evening than last, we made some reindeer sausage jambalaya and prepped for our big move to 11 camp tomorrow.
The weather looks good, hopefully we'll touch base from 11k tomorrow!
RMI Guides Nikki Champion, Leif Bergstrom, and Lauren Macklin
KC is cheering you on Scott! So proud of you!
Posted by: Deb Eldridge on 5/20/2023 at 9:31 pm
Bravo to all!
Gonna Fly now…
Feeling strong now…
(Rocky)
Posted by: ERIC PETERSON on 5/20/2023 at 5:28 pm
Posted by: Nikki Champion, Leif Bergstrom, Lauren Macklin
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 7,800'
Wednesday, May 17, 2023 - 11:46 pm PT
We woke up to an early call from K2 that said chances looked good to fly, so after a quick cup of coffee we rushed over to the hangar. After a few hours of hurry up and waiting, we were able to get out on a flight and land on the Kahiltna glacier in beautiful conditions. We unloaded all the group gear, organized everything for moving, and made our way to our first camp for the night. After six long hours, we finally pulled into the base of Ski Hill. Set up camp, and made a quick dinner of Mac and cheese under the clear skies. We are set up to carry tomorrow, but might sleep in a little bit first.
Check in tomorrow,
Get it done Dawny!!! Watching you!!!
Posted by: Tiff on 5/19/2023 at 9:47 am
You got this Dawn! We are all thinking about you down here and cheering you on!!
Posted by: Kendyl and James on 5/19/2023 at 5:18 am
Posted by: Nikki Champion, Leif Bergstrom, Lauren Macklin
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 348'
Monday, May 15, 2023 - 8:02 pm PT
The May 14th Denali has officially begun!
After a long day of travel yesterday, the entire team made their way to Talkeetna and spent the day packing, organizing, weighing, repacking, and finally getting all the gear weighed, set up and ready to fly.
While the weather doesn’t look promising, the entire team is primed and ready to go as soon as a weather window opens. We will wake up tomorrow morning with the goal of flying and see what the skies bring.
Until we fly, we will continue to eat warm food, drink cold beer, and enjoy all the amenities we will soon miss.
Dramatic pics with lots of smiles. Best of luck to all.
Posted by: Marcia Mikolaj on 5/18/2023 at 7:31 am
Hi, I wish You good luck, perfect wether, a safe tour. Return healthy! Enjoy each moment.
Elisabeth
Posted by: Elisabeth on 5/18/2023 at 5:00 am
Posted by: Daniel May, Leif Bergstrom, Henry Coppolillo, Lacie Smith, Tatum Whatford, George Hedreen
Categories: Guide News
From Dan May
At the beginning of April a crop of RMI guides including myself, Leif Bergstrom, Henry Coppolillo, Lacie Smith, Tatum Whatford, and George Hedreen, headed off to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado to work on honing our alpine guide skills with the help of the AMGA. We split our time between Boulder and Estes Park, Colorado while completing the Alpine Guide Course. Often in these courses, you are amongst colleagues spread across other guiding companies, however in this instance, we had the opportunity to work and learn together. Being able to sharpen our guiding skills in alpine terrain amongst our peers that we work with in the North Cascades, Denali, and South America was a great opportunity.
These courses offer us the chance to add additional tools to our ever-growing toolkit as guides while being reviewed, critiqued, and taught by the AMGA instructors. While romping around the Flat Irons, Eldorado Canyon, and Tyndall Gorge of Rocky Mountain National Park, we took turns climbing rock, ice, snow, and mixed routes while guiding each other through the terrain. These chances and skills as a guide are invaluable. It is easy to convince your friends to go climbing with you, but to convince your friends to let you guide them through peculiar terrain to practice your techniques and skill sets is another story.
At the end of the nine days, all RMI guides successfully completed the course and had a great time doing so. Now we are all turning our sights to Ashford and Mt. Rainier in preparation for another great summer of climbing.
Thank you for sharing how you, as guides, maintain & improve your skills. I hope to climb with RMI this year. I wish you all a safe and healthy climbing season!!
Posted by: James O’Neil on 4/23/2023 at 9:49 am
Posted by: Hannah Smith, Leif Bergstrom, Nick Sinapius
Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades
Elevation: 10,781'
RMI Guide Hannah Smith checked from the Summit of Mt. Baker at 12:04 pm PDT today. The team successfully reached the summit via the Easton Glacier Route. Hannah let us know, that the team is stoked and had a beautiful day of climbing. The team will descend to the trailhead tomorrow.
Congratulations Team!
Hannah, Lief and Nick - you did great work with our group. You were consummate professionals and excellent company as well. I look forward to joining you again on a future journey. James
Posted by: James Coley on 10/8/2022 at 4:38 am
Posted by: Alan Davis, Jack Delaney, Leif Bergstrom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades
Elevation: 9,131'
Our Mt. Shuksan seminar tagged the top of Mt. Shuksan this morning. After many days of training in the rain, the team awoke to clear skies for their climb. The previous five days were spent learning about rope travel, weather patterns, avalanche safety, snow and ice anchors, etc. RMI Guide Alan Davis reported great route conditions and a top out time of 9:30am.
The team is back at the trailhead and will enjoy some good food and drink before starting their journey home.
Nice work climbers!
Posted by: Mike Walter, Abby Westling, Leif Bergstrom, Josh Geiser, Nicole De Petris, Nick Sinapius
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
RMI Guides Mike Walter & Abby Westling led the Four Day Climb August 26 - 29 to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning with all climbers in both groups. Mike reported a beautiful day on the mountain as the teams were approaching the crater rim around 7:10 am. Climbers will spend time in the summit crater before starting their descent, dropping 4,500' back to Camp Muir. After a quick stop they will continue the remaining 4,500' to Paradise. Once back at Rainier BaseCamp later this afternoon the program will conclude with a small celebration for the teams.
Nice work today everyone!
Wow! Amazing view!
Glad you got some rest time Kevin and team
Posted by: Karie Seubert on 5/23/2023 at 6:37 am
Climb Strong Kevin and team and rest strong too!!! Spectacular!!!
Posted by: Dave Kestel on 5/23/2023 at 3:27 am
View All Comments