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Day 3 – Sunday, May 10, 2026

Hang time in Talkeetna! 

With unflyable weather, the gang spent the whole day on standby. We practiced the critical Denali skill of hurry up and wait, and also practiced our ping pong (table tennis for those who are serious) skills. 

K2 Aviation lost the Talkeetna ping pong tournament to TAT (Talkeetna Air Taxi) last year, so luckily the RMI team was there to train with the K2 pilots. Hopefully, K2 will take a win in 2026!

We also reviewed our sled rigging and had an excellent team dinner at the Lattitude 62.

All eyeballs are looking towards the weather forecast for tomorrow for flyable weather!!

RMI Guide Calvin Jiricko & 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
 

MERVEILLEUX ENFER!

Cet oxymore correspond tellement bien à notre environnement. Lorsque le ciel est dégagé et que le vent cesse, nous avons l'immense privilège de contempler la merveille qu'est le Denali. Des glaciers à perte de vue, that's huge! Les pics rocheux gigantesques jouant avec les nuages, that's so wild ! La glace d'un bleu vif des séracs suspendus, that's so cool man ! Et la neige poudrée scintillante au soleil, for sure ! Ce soleil justement, nous apporte de la chaleur et une luminosité qui ne cesse jamais (masque obligatoire pour dormir !). Mais il est aussi notre première menace invisible ! Whaaat ? Sans protection, votre peau brûle littéralement. Même sous la tente, la crème solaire est indispensable, that's so badass! 

Les autres menaces, elles, sont bien perceptibles... Les crevasses sont béantes mais les plus dangereuses sont celles que l'on ne voit pas, that's so impressive!

Quand le temps se gâte, c'est à dire presque tout le temps..., le froid mordant vous glace jusqu'au os. Couplé aux rafales de vent, les gestes les plus basiques du quotidien deviennent un enfer avec nos équipements (non je ne vous parlerai pas du poop...). Enfin installés dans nos duvets pour quelques heures de repos, après avoir évacué la neige qui s'est infiltrée à notre passage, nous avons le plaisir de prendre sur la tête au réveil toute l'humidité de nos respirations sous forme de glace...

Bienvenue dans ce merveilleux enfer !

Les nouvelles du lundi 18 :

Hey buddy ! Aujourd'hui on s'est équipé et avons préparé nos "stuffs" pour aller les déposer à la 2eme cache, awesome !

Mais... les guides ont finalement décidé d'annuler car une nouvelle tempête arrive...

A des fins d'entraînement nous avons montés la Motorcycle Hill et, we figured it out une fois en haut pourquoi nous n'avions pas intérêt à poursuivre vers Squirrel Hill, Polo Fields et le fameux Windy Corner!

Alors, dans la lignée des derniers jours, we spilled the tea ! Des moments d'échanges joyeux, renforçant la cohésion de cette team maintenant bien soudée et où la bonne humeur et l'entraide règne. Et pour moi c'est cours d'anglais hundred percent!

Le délai s'allonge encore pour espérer rejoindre le sommet, fingers crossed!, mais nous préférons nos vies à la précipitation. La patience fait partie intégrante de l'expédition.

Il n'est pas possible de vaincre le Denali, notre plan est d'attendre qu'il accepte de nous laisser aller to the top, pour admirer de tout en haut ce merveilleux enfer! 

NB: tous les mots en en anglais sont ceux que j'entends des centaines de fois par jours, impossible de les oublier, Yeah Yeah !

Note personnelle : à ma famille, mes amis, mes collègues et tous ceux qui suivent mon projet OXYFIGHT, je veux vous dire que je suis en excellente forme, que je dors particulièrement bien et que les américains sont terriblement attachants et gentils avec moi ! A ma femme et mes enfants, I LOVE YOU

RMI Climber Thomas / OXYFIGHT (le frenchie)

5/17 - On any proper adventure, there comes a time—long after the bags are packed and the body has proven it can endure—when forward progress is no longer the prevailing goal. Instead, adapting to a new environment becomes the focus.

In those early stretches, adaptation is far from obvious. From mummifying one’s feet in athletic tape to hoisting an overstuffed pack onto weary shoulders, every action feels foreign. Eventually, though, progress seems less like a fight and more like the key to a secret world: frozen, strange, and infinitely explorable.

But this new world unfurls in unpredictable ways. Last night, I nodded off to the rustle of tent nylon in the breeze. An hour later, I was yanked from sleep by an intense blast of frigid wind. The gale persisted, an unyielding rhythm that drummed through the night. Snow puddled around us, transforming our cozy cocoons into claustrophobic reminders of who really makes the rules up here.

Today, we found ourselves stuck yet again at 11,000 feet—far from idyllic, but the best option given our forecast and supplies. We squelched back and forth between our group and personal tents, packs and sleds buried beneath reams of spindrift. Some of us read books, some took naps. Some typed long missives to the outside world on our phones.

The upside is that we are not yet working ourselves into paste hauling food and gear further up the hill. Instead, the tasks have been a light blend of the practical and absurd: digging, and then re-digging, our communal toilet out of the snow; downing carb-laden meals with competitive zeal until we are both proud of and embarrassed by our gluttony; shuffling our creaky bodies across a slick, uneven camp with all the grace of baby deer on ice; and generally extricating ourselves from our self-imposed predicament with routine bouts of only somewhat effective shoveling.

Days like today—and, indeed, trips like this—can easily be dismissed as pointless, or even wasteful: so much time and energy spent in pursuit of an ultimately frivolous goal. But in a world increasingly designed to be safe, comfortable, and instantly gratifying, there is something to be said for leaning hard in the opposite direction. What rare thing will we find up there? Or right here?

Getting to the summit is the goal, though today—our sixth on the illustrious flanks of Denali, our second battered by snow and wind—adaptation feels sufficiently ambitious.

—RMI Climber Tina Currin

P.S. Hi to Grayson and Rollie, Mom and Charlie, JK and the Little Gang. I love you all more than than you know.

Sunday, May 10, 2026 - 11:19 am PT

Hello bloggateers!

Today was a busy day. The name of the game in Talkeetna is "Hurry up and Wait" - and hurry up we did. It was flurry of packing and organizing. The key to making sure you have everything for climbing Denali is pulling every item out of your bags, looking at them one by one, making sure you really need the item and then repacking them. After thoroughly examining everything we had and shedding any excess weight, we began weighing our bags. The pilots need the weights of all our gear and persons so they can calculate how to evenly distribute the weight amongst the planes and the gas needed to fly into the Alaska range. Finally we were able to able to call it a day and head to dinner. We enjoyed the fine ales and delicious food of the Denali Brew Pub. It was then off to another early bedtime in the hopes of flying off the next morning. 

Cheers,

RMI Guide Jack Delany and the Team 

Tuesday, May, 26, 2026 - 11:05 pm PT

A perfect first day to our trip!

Everyone was on time and ready to go at the Anchorage airport. After a nice drive from Anchorage to Talkeetna with a short stop in Wasilla for some last minute fresh food purchases we moved into the K2 Aviation hanger and into our hotel rooms at the Swiss Alaska inn. We had a team dinner at Denali Brew Pub and talked about our busy day to follow. With full stomachs and open minds we look forward to everything tomorrow brings as we lay down for bed!

RMI Guide Jackson Breen

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
 

Monday, May 11, 2026 - 10:13 pm PT

Today, we bring you a poem from the team:

Snow always falling

It never stops

Saw the sun for five minutes

We nearly blew our tops

Then yet again,

The snow returned

What will tomorrow bring?

Soon we will learn…

RMI Guide Sam Marjerison

Monday, May 25th 11pm PST

Hey ya'll, it’s Haley!
Coming to ya from 14 camp. It feels like we are in a Katy Perry song because the overwhelming description is “it’s hot then it’s cold.” We have experienced very chilly nights followed by sweaty tent afternoons but we take it all in stride. Something I love about Denali is that it’s anti-alpine start. We woke up around 9:30 to stunning views of Mt Foraker and clear skies all around. Our first order of business is to fill our empty water bottles from the night which includes applauding those who kept them warm in their sleeping bags and publicly chastising those who let them freeze. It’s called efficiency bullying up here! After a lovely breakfast of egg hash, we tromp off to get some much needed fixed line and picket clipping practice. The result is a cacophony of yelling “ANCHOR!” & “CLIMBING!” while each of us is managing the war between our mega mitts, the rope, and a wiregate carabiner. All in all, it bolstered our confidence to take on the challenges that come ahead if we get our summit window. We were hoping to spend an afternoon of clear skies touring other parts of the famous 14 camp such as the Edge of the World Overlook and the Poop Cravasse! But just like the guy at the bar you don’t want to talk to, the clouds sauntered over and blocked our views of all things good. So instead, we traded snacks from our recently recovered cache and relaxed. With three solid days of acclimating at 14 camp, all that’s left is for the mountain to decide if it will let us go up. So fingers crossed for a weather window in our future! Too blessed to be stressed,

RMI Climber Haley

Love you Kevin!! Thanks to everyone sending encouraging notes and support our way!
 

white noise of the night

flapping prison of nylon

sky breaks evening light

- anonymous