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Air and automobile travel, shopping, traffic, in-laws, it’s dark, cold and wet outside...the Holidays are here! Does all of this have an impact on physical fitness? It can, and as a result I need a workout I can do anywhere and in a short amount of time. Here is a favorite, I call it the Four Hundred by Two by Ten. Let’s call it the Holiday Workout. Try it two or three times this week. The Holiday Workout goes like this: 1. Run or walk 400 meters. Conveniently, this is the distance around an athletic track (or around a football field). You can also do it on the trail, even if you have to guess the distance (or use a watch and run/walk for 2 minutes). 2. Do two strength exercises. I suggest ten repetitions of Bicycle Crunch and Push Up, or the Russian Twist and 30 seconds of the Plank. You can chose whatever you like and try to make one an upper body and one a mid-core exercise. For an explanation of the strength exercises, and a list of others, see the Daily Dozen. 3. Repeat ten times and that’s it - an all-body workout that trains both strength and cardiovascular fitness! Stay focused and it will only take you about 45 minutes. You can make it a social activity by doing it with friends and family. If someone is more fit, try to double up on the strength exercises. If someone is less fit, give them a head start on the run/walk section. Happy Holidays! - John Colver John Colver is a longtime climber, former mountain guide, and certified personal trainer with the American Council of Exercise. Colver introduced outdoor fitness classes to athletic clubs throughout the greater Puget Sound region before creating his adventX brand. Currently, adventX leads training programs in Seattle and Colver presents clinics on outdoor fitness at companies such as Microsoft, Boeing, the American Lung Association, and REI. Colver lives in Seattle. Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts with John and other readers on the RMI Blog!

After several days of high winds and unstable snow conditions, the RMI Teams were greeted with light winds, clear skies and good route conditions.  RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Dan Windham and their Four Day Climb teams reached the summit of Mt. Rainier shortly after 7 am today.  The teams enjoyed some time in the crater getting all the photo ops before descending from the crater rim.

Congratulations to today's teams!

At the end of this past April, eleven RMI guides came together in Washington to take the AMGA Alpine Skills Course, a prerequisite for the Alpine Guide Course, and a great continuing education opportunity for all of us to remain at the forefront of current guiding techniques. After a winter of far-flung adventures, Dave Hahn, Andy Bond, Mike King, Jenny Konway, Grayson Swingle, Hannah Smith, Gloria Roe, Nick Scott, JT Schmitt, Alan Davis, and myself converged on Ashford. These courses are an important chance for us to refresh our skillset and learn some new tricks from our peers and the instructors from the AMGA. Over the course of 5 days at Paradise in Mt. Rainier National Park, and on Mt. Erie, outside Anacortes, WA, we reviewed snow anchor construction and multi-pitch techniques for snowy environments, belaying and lowering techniques, short roping and short pitching, and anchor station management. Success in our guiding often lies in not only being able to utilize a number of techniques to manage risk, but in being able to maintain efficiency and timeliness at the same time. As we worked through different transitions, techniques, and scenarios with our peers, we all walked away with a few new tools in our bag and I'm convinced will be better guides for it. This was a fantastic event for the eleven of us, and many thanks go out to RMI and the AMGA for putting it on. Congrats to Dave Hahn, Andy Bond, Mike King, Jenny Konway, Grayson Swingle, Hannah Smith, Gloria Roe, Nick Scott, JT Schmitt, and Alan Davis for completing the course! -- Alex Halliday

Friday, June 23, 2023, 8:40 am PDT

Our Team is back at 14,000’ Camp after a long day of waist to chest trail breaking and ultimately avalanche conditions on the West Buttress. We made it to Washburn’s Thumb at 16,800’, all pickets were buried and not found except for the ones near slopes that naturally avalanche. The Autobahn is incredibly loaded with snow, and I am sure you will not find a single one of the 35 pickets across it!

Our plan is to head to the airstrip tonight and hope to fly.  No one has flown since last Sunday and snow is in the forecast all week, so we will see!

RMI Guide Andy Bond and Team

Saturday, July 13th, 2013 2:30 am PST Hey this is Dave Hahn with RMI's Denali team, the last one of the season. I'm on the summit of Denali, 20,320', on one of the more magical days that I can remember up here in 30 expeditions. It's really worked out great. We teamed up with some of our good friends from Alaska Mountaineering School and Alpine Ascents International. Great to be up here with good climbers and, like I say, just the most spectacular day. We stepped onto the top at 6:40 PM, and we'll stay up here for a while. It's very comfortable. There is maybe a one and a half mile an hour breeze and massive sun. Clouds are probably about 10,000' feet under us. We will get back to you when we get back to camp. We wanted to let you know that we got extremely lucky. Bye now. Sunday, July 14th, 2013 8:00 pm PST This is Dave Hahn calling from High Camp. We got back from the summit, no problem. We spent about an hour up there, altogether. I figure it took us about 13 hours and 15 minutes round trip. We left at 10:20 this morning and we got back about 11:35 this evening. Can't do a written dispatch; it's 1:30 now. After doing dinner and filling everybody's water bottles and all the normal chores for getting us in the bed. But we'll catch you up on the story in the next few days. The long days continue. This one was spotless weather but very long day. Tomorrow promises to be one as well going down the month. We'll catch up, and let you know how things are going. Thanks. RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

We woke up to a light blanket of white covering the yaks, high peaks, and trail. Walking to Lobuche was peaceful and quiet with no wind and soft steps in snow. It is nice to trek with one layer on and light gloves. Chilly when we stop but perfect hiking temperatures. We passed over Thok La today where there are carins, rock piles, of memorials for climbers who have passed away in the Himalayas. It is a peaceful spot with colorful prayer flags blowing in the wind. Some of the climbers have plaques with poems or quotes reflecting their love for these mountains. Now we are at Lobuche resting at 16,000 feet and visiting the world's highest bakery. The team is finding their stride well. Packing our duffel bags in the morning for the porters to take then helping themselves to our ample supply of French press Starbucks coffee (thanks RMI). Breakfast typically consists of eggs and toast or porridge. Then we hit the trail and walk with water, layer, and photo breaks mixed in. Lunch is at a tea house where we order soups, pizzas, or rice dishes. Then a few more hours to our village for the evening. It's nice when the rhythms of the days start becoming easy to people and we fall into a relaxed mode of exploring these valleys. RMI Guide Christina Dale

May 30, 2017 Our unseasonal snowfall over the past two days set the team up for a wary summit bid in the wee hours of the morning. Leaving High Camp at 17,000 we found ourselves in boot high fresh snow. Yet, after two hours of uphill, we quickly came upon wind deposits well over a meter deep and made the tough but safe call to walk back to our refugio amongst the clouds. However, our morning wasn't quite over, for as we peeked back down through the cloud ceiling we were just in time to watch the entirety of an absolutely spectacular sunrise. The sun rose behind Huayna's sister to the east and lit three levels of clouds in hues of pink and gold. One rope team simply stopped in the middle of the boot pack and watched for 45 minutes as the valley below us slowly filled with light. Right as the sun finally crested the peak to our east, the valley clouds rose up around camp and engulfed us in a glowing mist. Despite not getting the chance to climb higher, I'm afraid we would have missed the sunrise being stuck in the high clouds and honestly it was all any of us could have asked for. RMI Guide Eric Frank

Fresh snow and deep drifts greeted us this morning as we lay in the tent listening to the wind blow.  Without being able to differentiate up from down, we decided to take a rest day and stay in camp.  Our job became rest and recovery, which our team much appreciated.  We are hoping for better weather and a move to Camp 2 tomorrow. 

RMI Guide Eric Frank & Team

Thrusday 5/25/2023 10:57pm PDT

What a beautiful day for a rest day. We had a leisurely brunch of breakfast burritos before spending the afternoon building our kitchen for the next few days and learning all the skills necessary for the fixed lines. The weather looks a bit gross tomorrow, so we prepped camp by battening down the hatches and building snow block walls. We are hoping to carry to the top of the fixed lines as soon as weather allows. We will wake up tomorrow and see if that is the day.

RMI Guides Nikki, Leif, Lauren & Team

RMI Guides Eric Frank and Hannah Smith led a team of climbers with the Inspiration4 Team to the summit of Mt. Rainier today.  The teams enjoyed nice conditions on the mountain and a direct route via the Ingraham Direct.

Congratulations to the Inspriation4 Team!