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Tuesday, June 17, 2025 - 9:12 pm PT

Rest day, what a glorious phrase, after 6 days of moving ourselves and our supplies up and down this mountain, we were able to sleep in. We awoke at the late hour of 9:30 am to a leisurely breakfast of bagels, cream cheese, and salmon. After that per our leader Dom’s insistence, we all took laps around the 11,000' Camp or up to Motorcycle Hill to get our blood pumping and make sure our “gears didn’t rust up”. The afternoon was a mix of reading, chatting, napping, grazing on our heaviest snacks, and playing games, the hottest dice den on the mountain is right here at 11,000' Camp.  Tonight we prepare for tomorrow for our move to 14k and to the next stage of our journey up this mountain. 

Today is also extra special for this blogger, I want to wish a happy anniversary to my wife Sophia here on the mountain with me. It’s been an amazing 8 years of marriage with my adventure partner for life. I’m so lucky to be here with you tackling this challenge together. I’ve loved spending every day of the last year with you through all the training, debating every ounce, gram, and calorie in our packs, and supporting each other at home and on the mountain.

I love you dearly Sophia, and am thankful for every moment we get to adventure together.

- RMI Climber Tait

The Four Day climb led by RMI guides Dave Hahn and Mike Bennett reached the summit of Mt Rainier this morning! They reported a beautiful morning, and were starting their descent from the crater at 7am on their way back to Camp Muir. They will return to Ashford this afternoon. 

Great work up there, everyone!

Wed 6/10/2026 11:09 PM PST

Hot, heavy, and beautiful describes our day today. We awoke with the sun, broke down camp, and began our journey to move our home to 14k camp. The team arrived in style and had a full dinner of burritos. We are going to bed, happy, full and ready to enjoy some beach days in this beautiful place!

- RMI Guide Dan May & Team
 

Monday, March 30, 2026 - 3:30 am PT

The RMI Lobuche team reached the summit of Lobuche peak at 20,075' today with seven climbers and four Sherpa.  RMI Guide Jess Wedel reported a great summit day and by far the most sun they have had this trip. Everyone is tired after a hard effort, but doing well.

They have returned to High Camp to spend another night. Tomorrow they will descend to Pangboche.

Nice work team!

Photos courtesy: Guide Lopsang - High Altitude Dreams

The Four Day Climb led by Jack Delaney and Jackson Breen reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning under spectacular conditions. With clear skies above a thick marine layer and light winds of 10–15 mph, the team stood atop the 14,410’ peak, greeted by breathtaking views.

Congratulations to today’s team for a safe and successful ascent!

Hello again everyone,

The team had a good night's rest last night and today was just a short 2.5hr hike up to 15’000ft to our high camp. Everyone is excited and maybe just a touch nervous, which is very normal! 

The team has just wrapped up lunch and discussed in great detail the plan for tomorrow’s climb. Everyone knows what we’ll be wearing, what will be in the pack, as well as the schedule. 

Our game plan will be to wake at 10:30pm and have a quick breakfast at 11, then hopefully hit the trail around 11:30pm. It’s a bit busier, hence the slightly early departure tonight. Hopefully that will get us out in front of the majority of the other climbers. 

The team has been doing great thus far and I’m expecting us to reach the summit in 7 to 8hrs if things go according to plan. 

We had a trivia challenge, as per usual, and one lucky winner will get a phone call from the summit. (maybe everyone)

So friends and family back home please keep your phones handy and if you receive a call from a strange number please answer. We hope to be on top around 7. 

Which is 10pm east coast time Thursday evening. 

Casey and the RMI summit bound team!

Sunday, June 28 - 9:15PM PST

Sleep came easily for most of us last night. What had been a few hours at 17 was closer to 10 at 14, and we rolled like cats in the sun when Ben called us to breakfast at a leisurely 9am.

Rations have run low, and breakfast burritos are a distant memory. Faced with the choice between granola, oatmeal, and mountain house meals we swore to never eat again we chose freeze-dried, splitting biscuits and gravy and a breakfast scramble.

Kitchens are gathering places the world round, and here is no different. We lingered around the warm stoves and laughed about memories from the summit.

Soon it was noon and we gathered all of our remaining rations for a picnic lunch. Some were down to shredded pop tarts, others *cough Jimmy* still had ten pounds of food to spare. We traded, tasted, and Mike hoarded pounds of candy for the hopeful hike out.

Then games, music, movies and laughs as the snow gently drifted through the tent door. Ben told us the hope is to hike out through the night, but we’ll have to see about the weather.

That uncertainty has become the mark of this mountain and our trip.

There were a half dozen times as we pushed to the summit that Ben almost turned around. Avalanche risks were a-plenty, even 150 feet from the summit. If we did turn, that would have been the right decision.

So we could hike out tonight, or tomorrow. There may be more avalanche risk, or there may not. Our bodies could feel strong, or weak. The winds may be calm, or pick up. The glacier could be frozen when we cross overnight, or it may have cracks that add hours to rain at the airfield until the clouds clear.

This could be our last day eating gas station food, or it may be longer than that. As I turn 40 this year that’s the thing I keep thinking about - delays.

Many of us fashion our lives to take the straight line from this to that. We’re at 14 camp and thinking about Talkeetna. I often want to be someplace other than here.

The lesson I’m being invited to learn is that all of life is here in front of me. What’s more, the interruptions and detours are not only the spice but the substance of life.

(Please know - there is also tragedy, suffering, and injustice unequally distributed in the world. Those things aren’t fair and shouldn’t be wished on anyone).

But I do wish bad weather, on me and on you. That’s what refines our character, holds us still while our roots grow deep, and leads us from comfort to greater adventure. It can’t always be sunny out, we equally need the night.

I guess what I’m saying is that, while I need a summit (or airfield) as a heading, I want my heart to be where my feet are, especially when it’s not what I would have chosen.

That's the only way I would have learned that crampons can be trusted on ice. It’s how, as a 100-degree-Texan, I learned that life in the snow isn’t what I feared and that cloud cover keeps us warm. As an only-child and introvert, I learned that I can live in a tent the size of an elevator with two grown men for 20 days.

We should celebrate when life goes well and smoothly (like our first week here). And when our flight’s canceled, business slows, relationship ends, or we feel adrift I hope to remember that the interruptions, storms, and false summits have a gift that I wouldn’t find any other way That’s doubly true when you have a friend, sibling, spouse, climbing partner, or fellow guide to find the mystery in the moment.

I’m excited to get home, and grateful it will take a few more days than we expected.

 - RMI Climber Hudson
 

Why we come to the mountains? I believe we find challenges here that make us feel alive. I feel alive in the mountains. This is my first season on Aconcagua, and I feel very much alive and ready to accept new challenges. Now a new challenge begins for me: try the summit while guiding and speaking English. Speaking English has always been a big challenge for me. The little English I know I learned on the mountain, talking with people from other countries.

This expedition definitely has everything I come to the mountains to find. I'm very happy to share this experience with this team.

I know it's just beginning, but I'm sure that in the worst-case, it will be a beautiful challenge and that's why I'm in the mountains.

Grajales Guide Batti (Tomas Battistin)

Hello dear readers,

As I lay down in my tent after another eventful day on Aconcagua, I can hear what sounds like a freight train. And as I type that, the sides of the tent bend into my face as that freight train reaches camp — in the form of 40+ mph winds.

This has become a fairly normal occurrence for the 2026 Aconcagua season.

Here’s what you need to know. Today we carried loads up and up a traverse we’ve been staring at since the first time we saw Aconcagua nearly a week ago. Near the top, we stopped, pulled on our hard shells, and braced ourselves. We knew we were about to get blasted as we crossed the Ameghino Col.

We were right.

Huge gusts ripping through. A brief moment of calm, then another hit. And another. We kept moving. Sometimes stopping to brace. Short breaks. Then back to it.

Before long, we dropped into Camp 2 — snow spinning off the ridgelines, winds strong enough to knock you off balance if you weren’t paying attention. We dove into the dome tent as fast as possible, grateful for even a small reprieve.

There’s plenty more wind in the forecast, but there’s also still hope. If we keep doing the right things, day after day, we may earn a chance at the top. For now, we stay right here in the moment.

Tomorrow we move to Camp 2. Hopefully with less wind. But either way — we’re ready. We’re ready.

I’m beyond proud of this team for charging hard, staying mentally and physically strong, and still laughing with me along the way.

RMI Guide Jess Wedel

P.S. did you figure out who Lady Whistledown was? That’s a secret I’ll never tell. ��

We have broken free from the city and made our way into the highlands. Today we drove north through the rain to hike around Lake Cuicocha. Fortunately, the last drops of rain fell with our first few steps on the trail, and by the end of the hike we were rewarded with clear, sunny skies. Hopefully, that good weather luck follows us to the big peaks ahead.

We’re becoming fast friends—laughing almost constantly as we trade stories on the trail and around the dinner table.

RMI Guide Walter Hailes