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The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guide Dave Hahn reached a high point of 12,000' when they made the cautious decision to turn due to some tumultuous weather. After making it safely back to Camp Muir, they took some time to rest and refuel before starting the walk back down to Paradise. They will return to Rainier Basecamp this afternoon.

The Expedition Skills Seminar – Paradise, led by RMI Guide Joe Crawford, culminated its week of training with a successful summit of Mt. Rainier this morning at 6:30 a.m.

The team spent four nights and five days training on the lower slopes of Mt. Rainier, developing essential mountaineering skills including glacier travel, crevasse rescue, anchor and belay systems, and establishing and living in a mountain camp. Yesterday, they moved up to Camp Muir to prepare for their summit attempt.

They were rewarded with a beautiful day on the mountain and enjoyed some time in the summit crater before beginning their descent. The team is now making its way back to Camp Muir, where they will take a short break to repack and rest before continuing the final 4.5 miles to Paradise later this afternoon, concluding their program.

Congratulations to the entire team on a fantastic week of training and a successful summit of Mt. Rainier!

The Expedition Skills Seminar - Kautz June 19 - 24 led by RMI Guides Henry Coppolillo, Dylan Anderson, Margo Kerr, and Aidan Whitelaw reached the summit of Mt. Rainier just before 10 am today. Henry reported beautiful weather and great route conditions. The team spent a few minutes in the crater before starting their descent. They will return to their high camp for one more night on the mountain and some additional training.  Tomorrow they will retrace their steps to Paradise and conclude their program at Rainier BaseCamp in the afternoon.

Way to go climbers!

The Fuhrer Finger climb led by RMI guide James Bealer pivoted to climbing the Kautz route due to unstable snow conditions in The Finger. On their summit attempt, they turned around at 12,100' due to extreme winds and unstable snow. They are on their descent from the Wilson Bench this morning and will return to Ashford later this morning.

Nice work team!

The Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons, June 13–18, led by RMI Guide George Hedreen, had planned to make their summit attempt from Camp Schurman last night. However, high winds prevented the team from proceeding as scheduled. The group remained at Camp Schurman as the forecasted winds did indeed materialize.

Today, the team may spend additional time training on the mountain before spending one more night in camp. They will begin their descent to the trailhead tomorrow and are expected to return to Ashford tomorrow afternoon.

We look forward to welcoming them back and hearing about their experience on the mountain.

The Expedition Skills Seminar - Kautz May 29 - 3 June led by RMI Guide George Hedreen reached the summit of Mt. Rainier yesterday.  The team established their High Camp yesterday afternoon and then made their summit attempt and returned to camp. Today the team will descend to Paradise and conclude their program.

Nice work team!

The five-day climb led by RMI guides Joe Hoch and Lacie Smith made a sunset summit attempt. Unfortunately, due to high winds, the team was unable to summit and they turned around at 13,400'. They are currently on their descent from Camp Muir and will be back in Ashford this afternoon. 

Great work team!

Four day teams reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning at 5:40 am. The teams reported good visibility to the north and south and 20 mph winds as forecasted.

They were leaving the high point and starting their decent to Camp Muir at 6:30 am.

We'll see them back in Ashford this evening to celebrate.

Nice work climbers!

Hello from the Sacred Valley! Today felt like someone hit a fast-forward button on wonder.

We started at the Maras salt mines, which are, visually, out of this world. Thousands of small terraced pools cut into the mountainside, all fed by a single underground spring. Salty because this land used to be ocean floor millions of years before it was mountains. The Andes basically pushed the sea up and out and left the salt behind. People have been harvesting it by hand the same way for centuries.

We also met Edgar, our local guide, who’s with us for the rest of the trip. He walked us through the history and the agriculture of it all with this quiet, easy authority. The kind of person you feel lucky to be learning from.

From there, Moray. An old agricultural site built in circular terraces. Each ring its own microclimate which the Incas apparently used to figure out what would grow where. Hot sun, curiosity and a lot of walking and talking.

Lunch was box lunches by a still lake, Urubamba mountains in front of us, two baby alpacas grazing about ten feet away. The cutest little faces you’ve ever seen. Genuinely one of the better lunch spots of my life.

After a little rest, we had dinner in Cusco square: Japanese-Peruvian fusion. Does it seem like we’re only eating the best food ever? Okay good. Because we are…

Big day but we’re all doing well adapting to life at nearly 11,000 feet and looking forward to more tomorrow!

RMI Guide Jess Wedel and the Machu Picchu team

June 19th - 6:20AM PST

After a hard fought summit day 100% of the team made it to the tallest point in North America! The following day we descended all the way from 17,000 ft to our very first camp: ski hill at 7,600 ft. We got a quick nap in and now are beating the heat and walking into the early morning cold to the airstrip  to return back to Talkeetna!

-RMI Guide Team