Most Popular Entries

Today's walk was pleasantly uneventful and brought us from Camp 1 at 7,800' up to Camp 2 on top of Ski Hill at 9,600'. Clouds came in and out along with some intermittent flurries which broke up the heat from the direct sun. Walking temperatures were actually much more comfortable than yesterday's constant, direct sun. The team dined on some delicious cheese quesadillas with grilled onions, peppers, and chicken before retiring to our tents. It pays to be in the sack before the shadow and chilly temperatures descended upon camp. High pressure is supposed to build again for tomorrow and we aim to take advantage by pushing our camp up to 11,000' before crummy weather sets in half way through next week. All for now, RMI Guide Billy Nugent

On The Map

Congratulations to the strong and determined team for reaching the summit of Lobuche this morning at 11:30am (Nepal Standard Time). They earned every step to 20,000 feet in the Himalayas! RMI Guide Christina Dale

Hello, this is RMI Guide Jake Beren checking in from 11,000' on Mt. McKinley. Today we re-traced our steps and went below camp to retrieve our cache. With all of our gear now at 11,000' we are re-organizing and re-packing. Our plan is to move a load of gear tomorrow towards our next camp at 14,000' and place a cache. We are hoping to make our move to 14,000' camp in the next few days if the weather cooperates. All's well here. Our team is strong and doing great, so we'll be checking in from higher up the mountain. RMI Guide Jake Beren

On The Map

The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer reached the summit of Mt. Rainier at 7:15 am today. Pete reported beautiful clear crisp skies, with light winds. Once the team reached the crater rim, they made their way across to Register Rock at Columbia Crest at 14,410' the highest point in Washington State. The team has started their descent and are in route to Camp Muir. 

Congratulations Team! 

Thursday, May 26, 2022 9:53 pm PST

As we suspected, it was blowing snow off the ridges above us this morning. There isn't much snow available to move, so when you see snow plumes you know the wind is ripping. It sounds like the pattern will change tomorrow so we weren't too bothered. We put some energy into organizing for our move to 17,000', took naps, and didn't mind staring up at the snow plumes above with like minded guides and climbers. Pretty standard activities whe you are at 14,000' Camp.

We'll wake up and hope Denali welcomes us higher tomorrow.

RMI Guides Pete, Erika, Leif, and Team

A hot shower... Cotton clothes... Chairs with backs... An appetite... Easy temperatures... Brain temporarily free of Icefall fixation... Must be rest day #1. Still decompressing from the last week on high and not yet laser-focused on the coming week, which will be higher still. I am tempted to call the past week a good one, since we each came down healthy and with some clarity and confidence as to what will be next, but to be honest, it was a tough week in several ways. While things went as planned for Sara, in that she got stronger and more acclimated with each day of the past rotation, that wasn't the case for her Dad. Bill, although strong and fit, was hitting some sort of personal limit in living at Advanced Basecamp and venturing to around 22,000 ft. Ultimately, we chose to get Sara the experience she needed on the Lhotse Face while her Dad stayed below. We knew eventually that we'd need to reformulate a plan for going ahead with the expedition. Sara did climb well and strong with me to 23,000 ft a few days back. She didn't seem particularly fazed by the massive exposure and steep angles. She did a good job dealing with the distraction of other climbers (mostly Sherpas going fast up or fast down) needing to pass on the fixed ropes and a single set of steps chiseled in the ice. She didn't seem any more bothered than I was by the novelty of two helicopters hovering a few hundred meters away on some rumored film project. Sara kept concentrating on clipping her safety gear past anchors and on setting her crampons securely and on breathing steadily with each new step even though she knew a medical emergency had taken a man's life just the day before on these same ropes and in these same footsteps. Many of the Sherpas and guides we met and spoke with had some involvement in trying to mitigate the sad circumstances of the day before and it was impossible to be so high on the world's fourth highest mountain without dealing with some heavy and sad thoughts on mortality. This was balanced by the incredible beauty and expanding horizons we were granted as we climbed higher... Everest, our next door neighbor for now, just kept getting more magnificent... Until it developed a bad case of snowclouds, as did Lhotse. Although we were in view of the first tents of Camp 3, which would have made a fine goal for the day, it seemed best to turn and get a little experience descending the steep face with a little less snowfall and associated sluffs streaming down the face. At our highpoint, I pulled my GPS from a pocket and we established that Sara had just crushed her previous altitude record from her climb of Aconcagua several years back. We "arm rappelled" back down the face and tiptoed on crampon points to get across the steep bergschrund at it's base. Then on easy angled glacier again, we made excellent time down to where Bill and Linden had come out to meet us above ABC. Yesterday morning we dodged a few more snow squalls and dodgy snow bridges and we even spied a spectacular avalanche off the side of Nuptse during our journey from ABC to Everest Base Camp. It all seemed eventful and a little crazy and excessive, to be honest. Lam Babu and Uberaj joined us for the walk to Base Camp and Kaji and Dawa went all the way up to ABC with heavy loads and still caught us before we exited the Khumbu Ice fall on the way down. Tcherring and Tuck were in camp to greet us with smiles and handshakes and... even better, Kumar greeted us with lunch. We were tired but quite happy to be down. Today, we sat together and developed that new game plan for the coming weeks. Bill won't climb up with us on these next rounds... he won't go for the summit and Sara will. It isn't what we wanted going into this expedition, but it seems like the smart plan under the circumstances. Bill will write of his thoughts on the matter in coming days. Best, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

RMI Guide Ben Ammon and his team were 100% on the Mt. Shuksan summit! The team is currently working their way back to high camp. Congratulations to the Mt. Shuksan team!

And boom. We went to over 14,000' today. To be honest, gondola-assisted, but we still logged a few thousand human-powered vert. Warm sun, mild temps, and a calm, steady breeze from the east kept things comfortable. Clouds slowly built throughout the day as we ascended, but never threatened anything more than the occasional chilly gust. The bright orange Chuquiragua flowers, also known as the “the flower of the climber” that grows at over 9,000 feet, were in bloom along the trail and grew thicker as we ascended. We’ll take it as a good omen! Satisfied with our solid effort, we snacked and took in the panoramic views of Quito over 5,000’ below us from our perch on the flanks of Pichincha before heading back downhill. Our team is strong and deposited valuable funds into the Cotopaxi acclimatization account today. More to come tomorrow as we venture further south through the Avenue of the Volcanoes! RMI Guides Peter Whittaker, Jess Matthews and Team

The storm rages on. When we could catch a glimpse of the Vinson Massif today, it was continually capped in thick wind-sculpted cloud. But it really wasn't bad down here on the Branscomb Glacier. Our basecamp is nicely sheltered... so far. It is rare for big winds to find their way into our valley, but it does happen. This storm isn't finished yet either. Our forecast from ALE suggests it will be with us at least another day. Today we did manage to get a carry of food and gear in to "half camp" about 2.5 hours above Vinson Base Camp. It was great to stretch legs and it will certainly ease our eventual move up to low camp. We took about an hour to scoot back down to base in cold and shadowy conditions. A hot dinner in our dining tent got all feeling good again. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

May 27, 2023 10:29PM PT

Today we woke up to brutal cold, and clear skies. We blasted the stoves and rolled into a late morning of granola.

After watching Mike and Pete's teams roll out of camp, we followed suite and began our way up the steep corridor to the base of the fixed lines. We shortened up the rope internals, set up our ascenders, and made our way up the final 700' vertical feet of blue ice to the saddle on the west buttress. Right around 16,100, we crested the buttress and made our way up to our cache site near 16,300'.

After digging a cache hole in the world’s firmest snow, we turned around and made our way back to 14 camp for a late dinner of ramen.

Everyone worked hard and is looking forward to a well-deserved rest day tomorrow.

Nikki, Leif, Lauren and Team