Entries By nick sinapius

5/16 - We woke up to the light sound of snow on our tents, and a thick cloud bank. As we emerged, we couldn't see either end of camp. As the snow continued to fall, and winds blew, we slow rolled our morning waiting to see what the weather would bring. After a morning of paying attention to weather, and some logistical problem solving, we opted for a weather day. 

The morning consisted of bagels, cream cheese, bagels and storytelling of infamous first dates. The afternoon was filled with sport eating, resting and building walls around camp to prepare for any incoming weather. We finished off our day with a dinner of pad Thai, listening to the weather, and mountain wide trivia. If weather allows we will move to 11 camp tomorrow.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion & Team
 

5/15 - What a splitter morning! We woke up to clear skies, and the entire mountain on display. We had spent the evening before going through our gear. So we were set up to have a quick breakfast, pack up everything we plan to cache, and begin our way up Ski Hill for the first time of the trip.

With much lighter packs and sleds, the climb in the clear weather flowed by and in no time we were pulling into our cache site, right around 10,100'. We took a break, shoveled a deep hole, and dumped about 1/2 of our food and fuel in the hole to see at a later date.

We then turned around with empty packs and sleds and made it back to camp 1 for a night of beautiful views, and mac and cheese with bacon. When weather allows we will pack up, and make our way up past our cache all the way to 11 camp.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion & Team
 

5/14 - Day one, done and dusted! We woke up to the call that we could fly, so we got our last fancy coffee drinks for a long while and shuffled over to the hangar to get our soft shells on, and ready to fly. We loaded the planes and by 10AM - planes were in the air!

Once we landed, it was a mad dash to reorganize, leave a cache of goodies for later, and rig up to start to move to Camp One.

A little bit after noon, the teams was tied in and ready to roll. Down Heart Break Hill, and across the Kahiltna Glacier we went. Many hours later we were pulling into Camp One, a welcome home for the night. We quickly began the work of building camp, melting water, and getting a quick dinner of broccoli cheddar soup and chicken sausage rolling. It was a long day, and a late night, but by 11P everyone was tucked into their sleeping bags. Tomorrow we aim to carry somewhere between 9.5-10k, and then make our way back to camp.

Here's to hoping for another day of good weather!

RMI Guide Nikki Champion

Welcome to the May 12th Denali expedition!

After the entire team completed the first leg of the trip by successfully making it to Anchorage, we packed up and shuttled into Talkeetna to share our first team dinner and a few beers before the real madness began.

This morning started with coffee in town, followed by our National Park briefing, before spending the rest of the day doing an in-depth gear check and sorting through personal gear, group gear, and countless snacks. Once things were packed, unpacked, and packed again, the team was finally ready for the final weigh-in.

Now that the gear is weighed, the clothes are laid out, and the team is prepped, we just wait for a weather window to fly in. The goal is first thing tomorrow morning, so keep your fingers crossed.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion & Crew

The first RMI team of the 2026 Mt. Rainier season has reached the summit! 

RMI Guide Ben Luedtke led the first Five Day Climb April 29 - 3 May. The group met Wednesday for their Orientation and Gear check, completed their Mountaineering School on Thursday and asended to Camp Muir on Friday.  Yesterday the team trained near Camp Muir and this morning launched their alpine start.  Ben and a small group of climbers reached the summit around 7 am.  Ben reported sunny conditions with a light breeze and a beautiful day.  The climbers will return to Camp Muir and then continue to Paradise this afternoon.  We look forward to celebrating with them at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.

Congratulations team!

Sunday, January 18, 2026 - 2:17 pm PT

The clouds started to lift last night and by time we were ready to attempt Chimborazo the sky was completely clear for the first time during our adventure.
We woke at 11 p.m. to start our day and it was virtually perfect for a summit attempt; cool temps, no wind, and a sky full of stars.
The route starts with a rocky traverse but quickly changes to a step snow slope. At 18,000+ feet elevation steep slopes really take their toll, but our team was ready for the challenge. Six hours later, just as the sun was rising, we reached the summit. It was quite cold and a little breezy on top so we watched the sun rise, enjoyed our first real views of the many mountains of the Ecuador skyline, and headed down.
Chimborazo was a challenge but everyone on our team met that challenge with smiles.

RMI Guide Walter Hailes

We left Riobamba late this morning for our approach to high camp on Chimborazo. One of the great things about climbing in Ecuador is that we can drive to nearly 16,000 ft. From there, it was a two‑hour hike to our new dome‑tent home at 17,500 ft on Chimborazo.

The weather is looking good, so we’re heading to bed early in anticipation of an early wake‑up to climb our third—and biggest—volcano of the trip.

Wish us luck!

RMI Guide Nick Sinapius & Team

Ecuador continues to deliver beautiful scenery as we travel south of Quito. The long driveway for the hacienda was lined with 100’ tall eucalyptus trees providing a refreshing smell as we drive out this morning. The country side is covered with verdant fields dotted with cows or greenhouses growing red and yellow and pink roses. The roads are lined with vendors selling ice cream and hot snacks and the freshest fruit. And the skyline is dotted by the giant glaciated volcanoes we came here to climb. We’re lucky to enjoy this beautiful country with a group of lovely people.

With a little spare time at our new hotel we enjoyed some more training in the warm sunshine.

Tomorrow we begin our final climb on this trip to Ecuador, the tallest of the Ecuadorian volcanoes: Chimborazo.

RMI Guide Walter Hailes and team

Sorry for a few missed dispatches, service isn't great on Cotopaxi 

We set our alarms for an early wake up this morning and our summit attempt on Cotopaxi. However, when we woke up around 11pm to check the weather we didn’t even need to get out of bed, the noise on the roof of the climbers hut was enough to tell us it was raining. Our team along with around 30 other climbers waited in the hut for the storm to break but it never did.

At around 3am we used a lull in the weather to give it go, but after an hour of climbing uphill through the rain, the rime ice and wind became too much to handle. We descended back to the hut with a high point of around 17,000 ft. Other climbers trickled back into the hut with up to a centimeter of ice built up on their backpacks and similar stories.

We left the Cotopaxi hut this morning and are now at our hotel drying out and prepping to travel to Chimborazo tomorrow. Hopefully we can get some better weather for our last and biggest climb of the trip. 

RMI Guide Nick Sinapius and Team

We all really enjoyed our rest day yesterday in Puembo at our very nice ministry-turned-hotel. After a morning of crevasses rescue training we scattered. Some lounged around the hotel, others went shopping and a few walked to town to see the local sights.

Fully rested, we drove to the trailhead and hiked in the rain to the Cotopaxi hut. Luckily, the hike was short so we didn't get completely soaked. Everyone moved well uphill to the warmth and comfort of the classic high mountain hut.

If the weather improves we will try for the summit of Cotopaxi tomorrow.

RMI Guide Walter Hailes