Most Popular Entries

Good morning from the top of Ixtaccihuatl! We are standing on the summit with the RMI Mexico’s Volcanoes team. We had a fantastic climb this morning, a huge moon and unbelievable cramponing conditions. The climb was smooth and we are up in great time. So we are just checking out the views of Puebla, Amecameca and Mexico City with the lights down below. Everyone did great. We want to wish Fernando a very Happy Birthday and thank him for spending his birthday with us on the summit. We’ll be checking in when we get down low. RMI Guide Jake Beren

On The Map

Saturday June 4, 2022 6:22pm PT

Today we have our first birthday of the trip! Happy Birthday Cris! To celebrate we woke up early to a speedy breakfast of Honey Nut Cheerios. We planned to walk at 8:30 am, but with such cold temperatures this morning we pushed that back and hour and stayed warm in our tents. Once the sun finally hit 14,000’ camp around 9:30 am we began our journey towards the fixed lines. Running through all the gambit of temperatures we made it to the top of the fixed lines, at 16,200', where we decided to cache our personal and group food for the day. After taking a snack, and water break we made our way back downhill. We rolled back into 14,000’ camp, where it is now lightly snowing, and crawled into our tents.

Tonight, will be a mellow evening of Ramen, and prepping for a few much needed days of rest at 14 camp. The team did great, and we are set up well!

RMI Guides Nikki, Taylor, Emma, and Team!

The Mt. Rainier Summit Climb teams, led by Taylor Bickford and Joe Hoch, reached the summit!  They reported nice route conditions but windy and cold temps this morning.  The teams are currently on their descent back to Camp Muir and we look forward to congratulating them this afternoon.

This morning we awoke to our first views of the Alaska Range. After sitting out the storm in Talkeetna and flying on with clouds still in the area, we were pleasantly surprised with a beautiful sunny day. Our first big hill of the trip greeted us right out of camp, but even with this challenge we moved well up to camp at 9,500'. The Kahiltna Glacier is in great shape which made our travels nice and fluid. Base camp received 3 feet of snow while we sat in Talkeetna, but this just made for great navigating and smooth sailing for us. As we moved into the steeps of Ski Hill, there was a perfect trough to keep our sleds in line and upright. With our first challenges behind us, we rolled into camp around 5:00 and made a yummy birthday dinner for Carl...61 today!! Now, we're resting up for another big push tomorrow to 11,000' camp. Happy Mother's Day to all of our moms! Goodnight. RMI Guides Mike Walter, Pete Van Deventer & Maile Wade

On The Map

We woke up to nearly perfect weather. Cool temperatures, clear skies and close to no breeze.

After a quick breakfast of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, we loaded up our packs and sleds with group meals, personal food, and some technical gear we wouldn't need over the next few days and embarked on our first carry. Yesterday was a long hard slog, but luckily the only time we move all our food and gear uphill, from here on our we will be carrying food and gear uphill, caching it, climbing past it to our next camp, and then doing a back carry to go get it. So that's exactly what we did today. We carried our gear from the base of ski hill, up towards our next camp and cached it near 10,000'.

Tomorrow we will hopefully move to 11 camp and go get the cache the following day. For now, we are all back at camp, resting in the shade, eating snacks, and prepping for our move tomorrow!

RMI Guide Nikki Champion and Team

Another quiet but interesting day at Basecamp. Everything seems a little different now with the news that climbers made the top yesterday... And indeed, a few more went there today if the radio grapevine is correct. The mountain is not impossible. But we do hope those most recent summit climbers got down fast, since by late afternoon we've experienced a thunderstorm and a few inches of quick new snow. And that roar is back... The one that sounds like Niagara Falls as a ribbon of the jet stream does battle with the parts of these mountains that dare to stand out and in the way. We are all watching weather and weather forecasts now and there is plenty of interest in the calendar. Many climbers are still down-valley taking a vacation, but they are starting to trickle back by helicopter and by foot with summit dates in mind. Some are packing bags and heading up in the next day or two. We are biding our time. Waiting out the cough. Hiking and exploring and playing games in camp. We'll have to pick summit departure days soon enough, but for now it just isn't right for our team. We get a little anxious to know that the route is open, but we also know that it wouldn't be a bad thing to let a few hundred other climbers have their way with it first. Things get a little warmer with each passing day in May and we hold out hope that calmer days materialize. And we cross our fingers that cyclone O1B -spinning menacingly down in the Bay of Bengal- fizzles out and finds a place to go that doesn't interfere with climbers... or with humanity in general. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Huge icefall last night off of the nearby peak called Pumori. Named by Mallory in 1921 it means sister or Daughter peak. This mountain is rarely climbed, at over 7,000 meters, it being very steep and with no way to the top without exposing yourself to loads of hanging hazards. A perfectly clear and calm evening turned into a wild scene as I peaked out of my tent after such a rude awakening by the loud crack, as what I can only imagine were millions of tons of ice being pulverized into powder as it hits the rock and ice surface after its 1,500-foot freefall. Being so bright out with so much moon, it was pretty fun to watch this huge dust cloud come barreling at us. Just as it hit my tent I closed the flap and listened to the rattle and knew why in the morning we had this layer of snow covering our camp. Dave, Sara, Bill and myself just returned from a hike up to Pumori Camp 1, which sits at 18,600'. And no, we were not exposing ourselves to the hazards I just mentioned, those are farther up the mountain. What we did expose ourselves to were some of the best views of Everest you can imagine. I will let Dave's pictures do the talking. Linden, who climbed Island Peak this week, just now arrived at Basecamp, so the team is now all here. Cheers, RMI Guide Mark Tucker

A great day on Safari, according to our Kili climbing team.  We got out early (7:15 AM) on the drive to Ngorongoro Crater.  It takes a bit to drive the rough road up onto the crater rim, to cruise along that rim for miles and miles and then to drop down the steep road into the caldera itself.   Immediately upon hitting the valley floor, we saw two male lions a few hundred feet from the road.  But they might as well have been rocks.  They were sleeping so hard that we never even saw an ear twitch.   We moved on and began to encounter everything from wildebeest to jackals to hippos and Corey bustards.  The abundance of zebra and Cape buffalo and gazelles was stunning.  There were herds beyond herds stretching to the distant crater walls.  We cruised amongst the ostriches and wart hogs for hours, at one point getting great views of a Cerval Cat on the prowl.  Finally we stopped for a picnic lunch and then began our exit of the crater.  We stopped at a Maasai village on the crater rim and spent an hour with the villagers as they danced, sang, made fire, threw spears and generally explained why they choose to hang on to their traditional methods in a modern world.  Then we went back to that modern world, relaxing for the evening at the very comfortable Plantation Lodge. 

Best Regards

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Hello from Khumjung. We did retraced our steps from the mountain and we are back in this guide's favorite Sherpa village of the Khumbu. We're going to earn some good rest before starting our approach to Ama Dablam. The climb of Kyajo Ri remains now as an incredible challenge that we overcame with determination, and we know that while an objective worth a trip to the Himalaya on its own, it has been the best preparation for Ama Dablam. Now it's time to sleep, eat & repeat! RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos

May 28 11:42pm PT

After a hard day fighting the wind up high yesterday, we were able to get back to camp and rest and hydrate. Good thing, because this morning dawned perfect and we rallied for another attempt at pushing to high camp. The weather remained perfect all day and our well-acclimated crew made it to High Camp in five hours flat. We arrived at 2pm and spent a few hours building camp and the focused on resting, hydrating, and eating.

The weather forecast is very favorable and we're optimistic that we'll try for the top tomorrow. Fingers crossed, and if things go well, I'll hopefully be able to send a quick satellite message from the top. Now for some sleep before a big day. Either way, I'll check in and let you know what the weather throws at us.

Cheers,

RMI Guide Mike Walter and RMI Team