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The goal for today was to take care of ourselves and do what we needed to do to be ready to go higher tomorrow.

We had a couple options for the day but we all chose to take a short hike to the top of Namche to see views of Everest, Lhotse, Nuptse and Ama Dablam! We stood in the sun, talked about the routes and conditions on the mountains (it’s been a very low snow year so they all look a little barren) and then headed into the museum next door to learn more about the Himalayas and the people who live here.

We spent the afternoon exploring the shops and cafes around Namche Bazaar and having lunch at Eat Smart (think yummy sandwiches, fresh juices and warm soups). Some of us got pampered with a $7 hairwash and blowout - who would guess we’d have these amenities over 11,000 feet in the middle of the Himalayas?

With full bellies and clean hair, we headed back to our teahouse just in time for an afternoon snack of tea, yak cheese and crackers.

Ah, the life of a rest day in Namche. We lived it up! And are ready to keep heading uphill tomorrow.

RMI Guide Jess Wedel and the Lobuche team

Monday, June 2, 2025 - 11:07 pm PT

We slept soundly last night despite strong winds and snow thanks to the fortress our team built. After breakfast, we discussed the intense stormy weather we are currently experiencing and the forecast that has no adequate weather windows in site. This lead our team to the tough decision that we need to start heading down the mountain. The team took this in stride as they have taken everything throughout our program. With any luck we will start our journey down the mountain tomorrow picking up caches and shaking hands with other RMI teams along the way. Once back at Basecamp we will wait patiently for our brilliant pilots at K2 to come whisk us away and take us back to Talkeetna!

RMI Guide Jackson Breen

It was a snowy night at 11,000' Camp, followed by a snowy morning and snowy day. We stayed put.  The team ate a slow and leisurely breakfast in the dining tent, followed by a protracted debate and story telling session, followed by naps books, tv and podcasts.

By afternoon and evening we were getting a little sun and blue sky but it was still snowing lightly.   It was a storm day… which worked pretty well as a rest day too.  We hope to be back in action tomorrow.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

RMI Guides Nick Sinapius and Avery Stolte led their team of three climbers to the summit of Mt. Shuksan via the Fisher Chimneys route on July 27th.  From camp, they ascended Winnie's Slide and the Upper Curtis Glacier eventually gaining the south side of the mountain. From the Sulphide Glacier they continued up to the route's final crux, Mt. Shuksan's summit pyramid. The 600 feet of climbing on the summit pyramid constitutes some of the best climbing on the route. Moving up steep snow and making some belay moves on the 4th and 5th class rock. After enjoying time on the summit, they started their descent, which involves rappels and belayed down-climbing to gain the glacier. The team returned to their high camp for overnight. Today they will descend the remaining four miles to the trailhead and conclude their program.

Congratulations team!

PC: Avery Stolte

Wednesday, May 28, 2025 - 7:27 pm PT

We’ve officially made it to Talkeetna! After a long travel day yesterday for most of the team, we all finally met up at the Anchorage airport and started our journey north. A few hours (and some great scenery) later, we rolled into Talkeetna, dropped our gear at K2, and made a beeline for Denali BrewPub. Over burgers and beers, we got to know each other a bit better—swapping stories and sharing what brought each of us to Denali this season.

This morning kicked off our first full day together, and it was a busy one. We started with a deep dive into the packing list, making sure everyone is dialed for the climb ahead. Mid-morning, we took a short walk over to the National Park Service office for our official briefing. We were lucky to have fellow RMI guide Alan Davis—who’s also working for the Park this season—lead our session. Afterward, it was back to the hangar for final packing, sorting group gear, and manifesting everything to get ready for tomorrow’s flight.

The team is looking strong, stoked, and ready to get this expedition rolling. We’re hoping for good weather and an early flight into the Alaska Range tomorrow so we can hit the ground running. Stay tuned!

RMI Guide Nikki Champion

Monday, June 16, 2025 - 7:53 pm PT

Our sled companies:

The Happy Cappy’s Express

Sled Dawg Logistics

Snow B.E.T.S Supply Co.

are here at 11,000 feet, ready to help you will all your needs.  We even offer cache back.   Please note: Trail breaking to retrieve a lost water bottle in the Polo Fields comes at an additional. 

Today we got to visit the top of Motorcycle Hill, Squirrel Hill and the Polo Fields before caching our food and gear for the move to 14,000' Camp.  Unfortunately, the excursion brochure was wrong.  Motorcycles were not included, no squirrels to see on the hill and no Polo was being played.  The trek was worth the views and will still give a 5 star on Google Review. As we venture into new markets and camps, our logistic companies look forward offering our services at 14,000 camp very soon.   Just remember, you call, we haul. 

Shout out to our amazing leaders; Dom, Ben, and Mike.   It’s hard to put in words how much we appreciate all the warm drinks, hot chow, dressed ropes and everything between. 

On a personal note, Happy Birthday to my beautiful wife, Lauren.  Wells and Winn please give her an extra hug and kiss from me.   

Love and miss yall.  

- RMI Climber Andrew

Sunday, June 8, 2025 - 9:55 am PT

Holy cow the team crushed it today. Woke up to lightly cloudy skies, but visibility.  We threw any remaining items to be cached into our packs, ate a quick breakfast of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and just as the sun was hitting camp we began walking up Motorcycle Hill. After a quick break on top of Motorcycle Hill (where the guides applied glitter to celebrate my birthday), we made our way up the steep Squirrel Hill, and across the Polo Fields toward the base of Windy Corner. As we made our way across the Polo Field the snow lightly began to fall and winds were picking up. As we climbed towards Windy Corner, winds were gusting and visibility was decreasing. Teams made a strong push around Windy Corner, through the broke part of the glacier, past 13,500' and all the way to 14 Camp.

At 14,000' Camp we took a nice long break, dug a cache hole, threw on more layers to weather the storm and left all our gear to return to in a few days. Layers on, we made our way back now in moderate snowfall, strong winds, and poor visibility. The team put their head down and made it back to camp in good time. After the long, and impressive day we all shared some Jambalaya and cosmic brownies with candles. It was a great day, and set our team up well to move to 14,000' Camp when weather allows.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion

Today we visited the famous Ngorongoro Crater, and considered by many to be the 8th natural wonder of the world. The crater is what remains of a once massive volcano that erupted and collapsed on itself, leaving behind a giant caldera that's almost exactly 100 square miles. Every time we've visited the crater it's been excitingly different, and today was the same. 

We were able to see several lions up close and two still feasting on last night dinner! As we made our way around the crater we saw tons of other wildlife, zebras, Cape buffalo, wildebeest, jackals, Giselles, countless large birds. It was an incredible day to say the least, and I'm certain one that won't be forgotten by anyone. 

We finished the evening here at the Plantation Lodge and are looking forward to what tomorrow may bring as we head to Tarangire National Park. 

RMI Guide Casey Grom and the Safari crew

Tuesday, May 27, 2025 - 12:02 am PT

Day 10 of eating our way across Denali brought to you by RMIGuides.com…as we all lay in our tents in the frigid cold morning air, waiting with bated breath for the verdict go/no go for the day, are we going for a stroll up to 17,000' Camp or will we chill at camp for another day waiting for our perfect window and eating as many snacks as humanly possible? The more important thing we were all waiting to hear is “breakfast in 5”. Because snacks are definitely not enough calories obviously for this group.  These words drive us all to struggle out of our cozy sleeping bags, and put on our puffy pants and jackets, hats and boots as quickly as possible to see what delicious 5 star Yelp meal awaits us to start our day…this morning, they had me at “bacon”.  This word is special to me as I live with the most incredible vegetarian on the planet, my spouse Dr. Lauralynn Jansen, who is an amazing cook and human being, but there is no way in hell she is ever cooking bacon in our kitchen. Gotta get it when I can! Love ya babe!  We stagger out of our tents making our way to the warm cook tent like we haven’t eaten in days and get settled shoulder to shoulder and all check in on each other and on our sleep for that night, sipping a hot drink as we wait for our gourmet bagels and BACON!!

Jason apparently got a full 7 hours and was bragging just a bit. Said he was amped to get the acclimatization hike and summit attempt all knocked out today and call it good.  He may need to lay off the moxy a bit or the rest of us need to get on board and step up our game! I think the rest of us were not necessarily on the same page….as far as my sleep, the outstanding loaner inflatable mat allowed me about a good solid 15 minutes of comfort as it proceeded to slide right out from under me like it was greased up with Crisco prior to me using it.  I relished that precious 15 minutes however.  I’ll take the short stints of comfort when I can get it. 

After breakfast we decided to take a walk around the camp to stretch out the legs and do some meet and greet with other climbers which ended up being bartering for toilet paper and kielbasas (shocker) as we certainly need to make sure we do not run out of food or TP at this stage of the game. That kielbasa could potentially save our lives for sure in the long run and you know, that TP speaks for itself.  We also had a nice visit with the Park Rangers and we made our way back to camp to some yoga, stretching, pushups, 7-min abs, and some squats to get the blood pumping. Oh how I miss going for a run, but this will do for now as the energy expenditure and effort is about to go up exponentially in the next few days much to our chagrin. Welcome to the reality of why we are here. 

Some home renovations also took place today for our three musketeers tent that needed some leveling work for sure. Team effort, supervised by Task Master Juan (much less critical than previous Project Manager Ethan for sure) provided a much needed leveling upgrade to our snow flooring which will hopefully keep me from unintentionally violating tent space as I roll off my mat. We were also super pumped to see our RMI Team come in from their summit that gave us hope for our team and the effort it will take to reach the top.

Meanwhile, the cook tent was transformed into Casino Royale with Ocean’s 15 blowing up (minus Brad Pitt and George Clooney- sorry guys) as Farkle die were flying and high stakes betting was taking place for Snickers, gorp, sausage, Oreos and other high value items that we certainly don’t have enough of already.  If memory serves me correctly, Senior Juan put the smackdown on the other players and holds bragging rights until the next game fired up.  In addition, Christmas came early as Seth showed up later in the day with an additional inflatable mat for us to use so we will be living large in Musketeer Central.  A special thanks to Grace for burning the incense as it’s getting a bit ripe in these parts let’s be honest and it was lovely to the smell…We have really enjoyed this down time to enjoy each other’s company and continue to rest, hydrate and of course eat… speaking of eating, we hear the hot water brewing as our Master Chef Seth once again prepare the evening meal of Jambalaya and Oreo Cheesecake deliciousness. Shut the front door!  Thank you again to our fearless leaders Seth, Jackson and Ray.  Especially for taking care of my feet. I continue to embrace and appreciate each and every moment of this journey and look forward to what tomorrow brings to this team. 

Thanks for all of your support! It is greatly appreciated!

-RMI Climber Shannon

Wednesday, June 4, 2025 - 10:14 pm PT

When we think of Sisyphus, we think of a man cursed to repeat the same arduous task each day with no end in sight. Each day he must think this is it - he has rolled this massive boulder to the top of the mountain, and surely his quest must be complete, right? Yet he awakes each day to the boulder back at the foot of the mountain, only to start again. How tragic! How crushing!

Or is it? In his essay, “The Myth of Sisyphus”, Albert Camus posits that perhaps Sisyphus is not doomed to a life of despair, but is actually a deeply satisfied individual. (Mind you, I have never read this essay and have only a surface-level knowledge of French existential literature let alone Greek mythology, so take this with a Denali sized grain of salt). But consider: this man wakes up each day with a clear task. It’s tough work rolling that boulder but he has some sweet views along the way. Every day he completes his task and must feel satisfied with a day of hard work. He goes to sleep feeling accomplished each night. How many of us can say that we have a clear task each day with no other distractions, a sense of satisfaction at the end of the day, and the delicious feeling of going to bed bone-tired which always produces the best sleep?

Our team made it back to Kahiltna Base Camp today, the last leg of an epic three week expedition. We now wait for skies to clear enough for a flight back to Talkeetna. Although the mountain’s infamous weather system ultimately prevented our team from making a summit bid, we are deeply satisfied with the gifts that The Great One has provided us. We were awed by the austere beauty of the Kahiltna and and vastness of the surrounding peaks and ridges. We were pushed to our limits and learned to dig deeper than ever before; whether it be cramponing on blue ice, being blown around on Windy Corner, struggling with all things altitude, or keeping our extremities warm in -40F windchill. We - a group of strangers prior to May 13 - became not only friends but teammates, encouraging each other in our hardest times, cheering each others’ successes, and cracking the most ridiculous and obscene jokes all day and late into the night.

Climbing Denali/Mt. McKinley has been physically and mentally the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Yet each night I went to sleep in the tent feeling a deep sense of gratitude and accomplishment.

Thank you to our incredible guides (Seth, Jackson, and Ray) for showing us the way, and more - from whipping up breakfast and dinner each day, to performing minor foot surgery, to digging Sisyphusian amounts of snow on the daily, to dealing with all of our client shenanigans. You each have unique gifts that helped me get farther than I thought possible.

Thank you to the rest of the team - the  Dont-nalis :) Shannon, David, Ethan, Will, Juan, and of course my other half Jason. I am deeply grateful to have met and befriended each of you. I look forward to our paths crossing again on this great expedition of life.

Love,

RMI Climber Grace