Entries By nikki champion

The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guides Nikki Champion and Alan Davis walked to Ingraham Flats and enjoyed a beautiful sunrise. The weather on the mountain is warm and calm. Due to hazardous route conditions the team was unable to climb higher on the route. The team has started their descent and will be back at Paradise in the early afternoon. 

Congratulations Team! 

The Four Day Climb August 17 - 20 led by RMI Guides Mike Walter and Nikki Champion reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning.  Mike reported moderate winds and a busy route.  Camp Muir sandwiched between two layers of clouds, dense clouds above Camp Muir and a light marine layer above Paradise currently.  The climbers will take a short break at Camp Muir to repack and re-hydrate before starting down to Paradise.  Once at Paradise the shuttle will return the climbers to Rainier BaseCamp where they will conclude their program with a short ceremony.

Nice work today everyone!

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 Five-Day Climb led by Nikki Champion and Steve Gately reached the summit at 6 am this morning. After a warm walk uphill to Camp Muir on Saturday, teams enjoyed a good night's rest and a beautiful day of training before their ascent this morning.

The teams are currently on their descent and will return to Basecamp this afternoon for a celebration of their accomplishments! Congratulations team!  

The Five Day Climb July 21 - 25 reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning led by RMI Guides Nikki Champion & Joe Hoch. The teams reached the summit early this morning and were well on their descent around 7 am. RMI Guide Trevor Katz provided the photos from the teams descent from the crater rim.  Once back at Camp Muir everyone will repack and continue another 4.5 miles to Paradise.  They will then transfer to Rainier BaseCamp for a celebration and conclusion of their program.

Nice work everyone!

The Four Day Climb July 16 - 19 led by RMI Guides Nikki Champion, Michael Murray and Bo Torrey reached the crater rim around 7 am today.  They took six hours to climb from Camp Muir to the summit and reported calm winds and clear skies.  As of 8 am they were on their descent returning to Camp Muir and then continuing the remaining 4,500' to Paradise.  They will conclude their program this afternoon with a celebration at Rainier BaseCamp.

Congratulations to today's climbers!

The American Lung Association Climb for Clean Air team led by RMI Guides Dominic Cifelli and Nikki Champion reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. The team climbed the Disappointment Cleaver Route and had a beautiful day of climbing.

The climbers on these teams raise funds for the American Lung Association’s Climb for Clean Air Campaign. As of today the teams have raised $335,690.06!!

Congratulations Teams!

The Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons July 3 - 8 led by RMI Guide Nikki Champion spent two days training at Rainier BaseCamp and at Paradise, prior to starting their climb.  On Tuesday, they left Ashford for the White River Ranger Station.  They donned heavy packs and started up the mountain to their first camp.  Yesterday, they ascended to Camp Schurman and continued their training.  With an alpine start this morning, they made their summit attempt but were turned back due to high winds, low visibility and challenging walking.  The team returned safely to Camp Schurman around 1 pm where they will spend their last night on the mountain.  Tomorrow the group will descend to the trailhead and return to Rainier BaseCamp.

Saturday June 11th, 2022 – 9:04pm PT

After making our way from 17 camp to 14 camp, we crawled back into our tents and took a nap. Around 10pm, we woke up for either a late dinner or early breakfast of Ramen noodles and began packing up camp for what we thought would be the very last time. While we had walked into 14 camp in a whiteout, during our nap the clouds had settled below us and it had become a beautiful brisk night.

With camp packed up, we headed towards Basecamp and the airstrip. While we arrived in decent weather, we got word that clouds kept the planes from flying all day. We've now crawled back into our tents and await a weather window that allows us to fly back to Talkeetna.

Think good weather thoughts!

RMI Guide Nikki Champion and Team

Saturday June 11 - 11:59am PT

The last few days have been a blur.

Yesterday we had a hard but a rewarding summit day. The autobahn was mild, but the summit ridge greeted us with high winds, and blowing snow. Despite the mountains best efforts, our entire team made it to the summit and safely back to 17k camp for a late dinner.

Even though we all wanted to sleep in following the summit - we woke up around 9:30am, had a quick hot breakfast, and tore down camp to begin the long process of descending back to the airstrip.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion and Team