Entries By seth burns

RMI’s Five Day Climb took advantage of the first of two potential summit opportunities and successfully reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. A warm morning and light breeze on the upper Disappointment Cleaver had the team descending from the crater at 6:45 a.m. They’re currently making their way back to Camp Muir, where they’ll enjoy one final night on the mountain before returning to Ashford tomorrow.

Nice work team!

RMI's four-day climb led by guides Joe Hoch and Felipe Guarderas reached the summit of Mt Rainier this morning around 6:20am. They reported sunshine with a light breeze and a trace of new snow. They are currently on their descent back to Camp Muir and will return to Ashford this afternoon. 

Great work everyone!

After several days of poor weather and high winds, the Four Day Climb June 27 -30 led by RMI Guides Seth Burns, Ben Thorneycroft and Tom Skoog reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today.  They reported a beautiful day on the mountain with the cloud deck below them around 7,500'.  The teams were walking into the crater shortly after 7 am.  Once they spend a little time there, they will begin their descent to Camp Muir and then continue down to Paradise later today.

Congratulations to today's climbers!

The Four Day Climb teams led by Seth Burns and Jackson Breen reached a high point of 12,300 feet on Disappointment Cleaver before making the decision to turn around. Despite the clear skies above, recent storm snow, challenging route conditions, and difficult travel all contributed to the call to stop their ascent short of the summit.

Well done to the team for their hard work!

The Four Day Climb teams for June 20 - 23 reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning around 6:40 am.  The team reported great conditions and a beautiful day. They will descend to Camp Muir, take a short break and continue down to Paradise later this afternoon.

Congratulations to today's climbers.

Photos: Seth Burns

Saturday, June 6th

Burns & team make it back to Talkeetna.

Congratulations everyone!

Friday, June 5th - 11:30PM PST

Sleep at 17 camp is never glorious nor sound. We woke up our tired and stiff bodies feeling better the more we moved. The sun was hot on the tent, and encouraged us slowly out of our sleeping bags. Once again, the day was splitter, and we broke down camp excited to climb down the buttress.

Spectacular climbing led to one more trip down the fixed lines and back to 14 camp. We made a quick stop at 14, digging up our cache and saying hi to friends. We rigged up the sleds and wrangled them down to 11 camp where we now enjoy dehydrated meals to a short nights sleep.
 

Thursday, June 4, 2026 5:53pm PDT

Summited at 4:20 with 100% . Headed down now.

Thursday June 4, 2026 10:12pm PDT

Everyone is back at 17 Camp. 

Thursday June 5, 2026 12:24am PDT

We will start with the great news, our entire team went to the top of Denali today! We reached the point where we could go no further at approx. 4:30 pm.

Our day started on the colder side with clear skies and a mild but biting wind. We left 17 camp and began our We broke out into the warming sun at Denali pass and continued steadily up, enjoying decreasing winds and sunshine, climb across the autobahn.

By the time we had reached the Football Field, a broad basin below the final climb to the summit, we were down to only one or two layers. With the summit ridge in sight, we climbed up Pig Hill to Kahiltna Horn, breaking 20,000'. Here we were quickly reminded of our location as freezing winds had us scrambling for more clothes.

The final push to the true summit went slowly but smoothly as we topped out on the highest point in North America. Strong and cold winds made our stay on top short, but lifelong goals and aspirations were fulfilled in those fleeting moments.

We are all now back down to 17,000' camp and tucked into our sleeping bags. Our descent continues tomorrow!

Cheers - RMI Guide Seth Burns & Team

Wednesday, June 3, 2026 - 9:40 pm PT

We woke to cold temps around 20 below zero and did our best to stay warm as we emptied our tents, broke them down, and cached anything we wouldn't need for the next few days up high. Over half the route was already familiar as we did our acclimation day two days prior to 16.2k at the top of the fixed lines. Today, we needed to not only get there but an additional 1000 feet of gain while traversing the West Buttress, for which our approach is named.
 
The chilly morning very quickly turned hot as the sun crested the edge of where we set our sights, camp at 17.2k elevation. By the first break we had shed at least a layer and by the second, most of us were in our base layer sun-hoodies for the rest of the hike. We have not seen a clearer day so far on the trip and the bluebird skies made for epic photo ops of not only the Kahiltna Glacier from which we started but the entire valley - about 270 degrees of snowy mountains, rivers, and the snowless flatlands beyond. Once we reached the Buttress we could peer down at the 2000+ foot drop at 14 camp where we had slept the night before.
 
We navigated the fixed lines using our ascenders, sliding up an anchored rope while allowing us to easily not slip back down very steep slopes. We clipped in and out of anchored pickets with caribeners across the snow and the sometimes rocky Buttress spine. We used a mixture of steps - the crossover and duck step to carefully drive our crampons into hard snow and blue ice while balancing with our ice axes. All in all, we did everything needed to safely arrive at our destination.

After chiseling very hard snow and ice to make flat platforms, we pitched tents and settled in to rest our legs, get hydrated, and refuel. The weather tomorrow is forecast to be clear as well with some possibility of moderate winds. If we wake up and the mountain isn't blowing snow we will most likely go, if it's too windy we will rest and go Friday. All of our team is still relatively healthy and in good spirits. We are all super stoked for the great weather forecast and the hard work we have put in to get to this point. Tonight, we settle into freeze dried meals and watch the midnight sun drift across the horizon. Tomorrow, we all hope to summit this great and beautiful mountain.

RMI Climber Treavor 

Tuesday, June 2, 2026 - 7:24 pm PM

Today we rested! Tomorrow we climb!

Send us well wishes and good vibes!

Stoke is high!

RMI Guide Seth Burns