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Sunday, May 10 11:19 AM PT

As we woke at 3:30am for our summit day, excited with our mostly sunny forecast, a wet cloud settled into camp and over the Squak glacier. Crowds of skiers passed us up into the white-out, but we decided to have another cup of coffee in our tents. The weather will do what it wants on Mt Baker it seems. 

And lucky for us, an hour later it decided to grant us a little clearing, and by an hour into our tour uphill, not a cloud in the sky. This added a lucky euphoria to the already stunning views of the North Cascades all the way to Mt Rainier. 

It was a solid refreeze overnight, and as we cramponned up a solidly frozen Roman Wall, the question of skiing this steep frozen mogul field weighed on everyone. But we had a wild card up our sleeves. 

After our triumphant photo session on Mt Baker’s summit, we clicked into skis and skied directly into the Barbeque Run, straight off the summit into the smoking crater of the volcano. It has a little more east exposure and a little volcanic activity, and was perfect soft carving! 

A short skin took us to the top of the Squak Glacier, and as we carved perfect shiny corn snow for the next 4000 vertical feet, the only reason to stop was to give the legs a little break. It doesn’t get much better than 20 minutes of perfect carving snow to camp. 

We packed up camp and were treated with a fun session of snow to forest floor to snow patch skiing which had everyone giggling like kids. Doesn’t get much better on Mt Baker!

RMI Guide Joe Hoch & Team

Rain rain 
go away
K2 said not today

Today is not looking like our day. Grey skies and on and off rain is the theme so far. We spent the morning enjoying a slow breakfast and hot cups of coffee.   With our extra time we went over sled set up and rigging as well as fixed line climbing. We hope things change for us tomorrow. 

Best

RMI Guide Seth Burns and Team

Monday, May 25th 11:30pm PST

Today was a tough day. We woke up to clear skies, and the signs of high winds at upper elevations. We quickly tore down camp and finally started the move to 14 camp. The first stretch was pleasant, but by the top of motorcycle hill we were met by strong winds the winds only persisted up squirrel hill and across the polo fields, but it was at windy corner where we were met by the worst of the weather. A cloud overtook us, winds increased and visibility decreased, but the team pushed through and gained visibility by the cache site. Eventually, we made it to 14 camp and set up our new home. We wrapped the night up with pad thai.
 

RMI Guide Nikki Champion & Team

Wednesday, May 6, 2026

Today started early with breakfast sandwiches and coffee from Conscious Coffee under rainy skies. With an increase in precipitation throughout the day, we focused our attention on a thorough gear check, a refresher on knots and hitches and a weigh in with all our kit at the K2 Aviation hanger. To cap off our skills day, we enjoyed a great meal at Latitude 62. Tomorrow, we hope to fly and are going to bed dreaming of sunny skies and low wind!

Tuesday, May 5, 2026

Today we met the team in Anchorage and drove to Talkeetna, excited for the next ten days of climbing together. After laying out our gear in the K2 Aviation hangar, we had a wonderful dinner at Mountain High Pizza. Glasses were clinked and food was eaten. Tomorrow, we plan to organize, sort and pack our gear in the morning before a "hopefully" quick takeoff out of Talkeetna and onto the Ruth Glacier. 

The whole team stood on top of Pequeño Alpamayo today! We woke up to an almost shockingly warm night, and although it still got a little chilly at 17,000' at 4 am we spent most of the day in just one or two layers and thin gloves. Conditions were vastly better than the last time I climbed Pequeño in 2024, but don't be fooled, this was still a very long, hard day and everyone had to give it their all. To even get to the mountain one first must summit Tarija, itself a glaciated 5000m peak, before descending several hundred feet of 3rd and 4th class rock terrain to the saddle with Paqueño Alpamayo, all before the really steep climbing starts. All told you essentially summit three 5000 meter peaks, since you have to climb back up the rocks to Tarija on the way back, which makes for a pretty challenging "acclimatization" day, but such is the nature of climbing in the Cordillera Real. Hannah and I are both so proud of this team and impressed by everyone's efforts both on the mountain and in the preparation at home. We couldn't be more excited for two more big summit attempts within the next week!

RMI Guide Henry Coppolillo

Wednesday, May 27, 2026 - 10:59 pm PT

Over the last few days the stars have slowing been aligning for us to take a crack at going all the way to the top of Denali. So today was our final rest day. We made the most out of it with an extended pancake-athon for breakfast. Afterwards the team went about organizing for our move to high camp, followed by practicing for the many running belays we are soon to encounter on our climb and finally snacking and napping. The night was finished off with a pizza party that culminated in the devouring of a delicious cheesecake. I know this sounds surreal but sometimes life is magical at 14,000 feet. Early to bed, early to rise - tomorrow we begin our bid for summit, starting with the climb to high camp at 17,000 feet!

Cheers,

RMI Guide Jack Delaney and the Team

Today, we got an early start and walked over to the base of the Root Canal Glacier and climbed a small 800’ gully adjacent to the West Ridge of the Moose’s Tooth. We had expansive views of Denali, Mount Barille, Dickey, Bradley, Wake and Peak 11,300’. Warm temperatures forced us down early and we enjoyed an afternoon of avalanche viewing across the East Faces of Dickey and Bradley.

We are back at camp and enjoying another overcast night with hopes to fly out of the Range tomorrow!

RMI Guide Sam Marjerison

Tuesday, May 26th 11am PST

An early dinner with early bedtime made for an early morning start out of Camp 1. Our team woke up at 5 am and were headed back up ski hill by 7. We got our first glimpse of the top of Denali on our way out of camp.

In our current game of cache or carry - today was a carry day. We set out with sights set on 11 camp. We hauled sleds, did maths in our heads, and considered would you rather have constantly rotating or eternally damp socks. Our bluebird day turned cloudy, eventually giving way to snow and wind at 9500 feet.

We were happy to arrive at camp at 11,200 ft and after a quick group effort our camp was up and functioning again. We tucked ourselves in our cook tent with hot tea out of the wind and snow, and entertained alternative uses for tea bags. Now waiting for our impending delicious dinner from our amazing guides, we look forward to tomorrow and what the weather will have in store for us. I leave you with a quote I often utter as I hoist my body up this cold mountain. As a wise Mexican chihuahua once said “With my bean and my sombrero, the candy is never far away”

-RMI Climber Julia (aka Juls/Jube)
 PS - Shout out to my mom and dad, who are currently watching my dog so I can run around Alaska for 4 weeks, my family/my best friends/my girls at Pennsy following along/my child dog Coco.
 

Wednesday, May 20, 2026 - 4:52 pm PT

Made it up to Condoriri basecamp today with the help of about a dozen mules. After setting up camp and having lunch we kept walking up to the toe of the glacier at around 16,000,' where we spent a few hours reviewing some more advanced mountaineering skills- steep cramponing, ice climbing and lowering and rappelling. We're getting to bed early ahead of an alpine start tomorrow, we'll check in when we're all back in camp tomorrow afternoon!

RMI Guide Henry Coppolillo

5/24 - Today's haiku brought to you by Candice.

Signs of clearing skies

Brings us hope as days count down

May the weather hold.

While we are geared up to move to 14 camp, we sadly woke to another day of poor visibility and light snowfall. We used the down day to prepare camp to move tomorrow, but most of the day was filled with time in the chaos cantina. The favorite Mexican joint around 11 Camp. Where we enjoyed breakfast burritos in the morning, and beef and bean burritos for dinner. We wrapped the evening up to the sweet melody of Gasolina (let's go Daddy Yankee), and some friendly tortilla wars with our neighboring camps. Let's hope for tomorrow.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion & Team