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Rain, thunder and lightning continued late into the Lukla night, but we all felt pretty confident that the dawn would bring perfect flying weather... Which it did. We were up at 5 AM and over to the craziness of Lukla International Airport by 6 AM. At around 7 or so, a twin engine prop plane came in with the right letters and numbers on its tail and we pushed our way through the crowd to catch our flight. That flight was blissfully uneventful and by 7:30 we were just another batch of tourists in Kathmandu... Rubbernecking from our van to catch whatever signs of quake damage we could see on the way to our comfortable hotel. A casual observer could easily go unaware of the tragedy unfolding in the country around us... things are quickly returning to "normal" for those with means in the capital. The hotel was jam-packed with correspondents, camera crews, diplomats and a few grubby climbers. We met a number of our guide friends -some of whom had ambitious and worthy plans to go out to remote villages to do what they could to save lives, and some of whom, just like ourselves, intended to get out of the country as soon as possible so as not to require care and feeding from an already over-stressed society. Our team passed the afternoon resting, cleaning up, exploring and reconnecting. I was lucky enough to connect with the legendary Miss Elizabeth Hawley for the team's all important post-climb interview. As expected, there wasn't much to relate in terms of climbing goals achieved... none-the-less, we chatted for a delightful -and perhaps a bit melancholy- hour over the continuing challenges of these contemporary Everest seasons. Back at the hotel, our team assembled for one final evening together, with a couple of toasts and a fine rooftop dinner. We were not even remotely cold or uncomfortable, we weren't in danger and we had a rising and beautiful full moon to entertain us. Tomorrow we'll scatter to ride a number of bigger and faster aircraft toward our own homes. Thank you for following along in this challenging season. We each feel extremely fortunate to have come unscathed through extraordinary circumstances. To this point, we've had the convenience and satisfaction of placing cash directly into the hands of those who've suffered... from this point onward, we'll try to match the generosity of those at home... Making considered contributions to responsible aid organizations benefiting all Nepalis. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On Saturday, May 26th at 9:31 a.m. Nepali time the RMI 2012 Mt. Everest Expedition reached the summit! RMI Guides Dave Hahn and Melissa Arnot led the team of climbers to the summit of Mt. Everest at 29,035'. This marks the 14th summit for Dave Hahn and the 4th for Melissa Arnot. Congratulations to the team!!!

On The Map

Fit to Climb: Week 9 Schedule

DAY	WORKOUT	TOTAL TIME	DIFFICULTY
1	Rainier Dozen / Easy Hiking ( 30 min)	42 min.	Medium
2	Rainier Dozen / High Intensity Stair Interval Training (60 min)	72 min.	Very Hard
3	Rainier Dozen / Rest	12 min.	Recovery
4	Strength Circuit Training x 4	54 min.	Hard
5	Rainier Dozen / Rest	12 min.	Recovery
6	Rainier Dozen / Cross Training	60 min.	Medium
7	Hike (5 hrs, 15lbs of pack weight)	300 min.	Medium
	Total	9 hrs 12 mins

BRIEFING This is a big week! This week’s hike will be the longest yet and will mark the end of the foundation phase of your training. After last week's fitness test, Day 6 reverts back to cross training this week. DESCRIPTIONS OF WORKOUTS Day 1: Rainier Dozen + Easy Hiking (30 Minutes) Today’s hike is a recovery workout and you can always substitute it with a different activity, such as running, biking or swimming. The important thing is to move at a moderate pace for 30 to 45 minutes. The pace can be conversational, and you do not need to be dripping with sweat at the end of the workout. Day 2: Rainier Dozen + Stair Interval Training (60 Minutes) After the Rainier Dozen, warm up for about 10 minutes, and then climb up and down a set of stairs, at a consistent pace, for about 40 to 50 minutes. Cool down with some stretching. You don’t need to carry a pack on your stair interval training, the focus in this workout is on speed and intensity. Day 3: Rainier Dozen / Rest Begin your day with the Rainier Dozen. Feel free to take another 30 to 60 minutes of light exercise if you feel like it (a brisk walk is a great option). If you feel tired, today is a good opportunity be good to take a complete rest day instead. Listen to your body. Day 4: Strength Circuit Training x 4 Repeat the strength circuit training workout introduced in Week 3. After warming up, perform four sets of the following exercises: • Steam Engine • Push Up • Three Quarter Squat • Russian Twists • Lunge • Steam Engine Laying down • Mountain Climber • 8 Point Bodybuilder Spend 40 seconds performing the exercises, and take 20 seconds between exercises to rest and rotate. Take a full minute of rest between each set. Take a full minute of rest between each set. Take ten minutes to cool down by stretching after you’re done. Day 5: Rainier Dozen / Rest Begin your day with the Rainier Dozen. Feel free to take another 30 to 60 minutes of light exercise if you feel like it (a brisk walk is a great option). If you feel tired, today is a good opportunity be good to take a complete rest day instead. Listen to your body. Day 6: Rainier Dozen / Cross Training (1 Hour) Warm up with the Rainier Dozen and then spend an hour in some moderately vigorous activity as cross training (find out more about cross training here). Listen to your body, and have fun with it. Day 7: 5 Hour Hike Find a location to hike that is about 9 to 10 miles in distance and takes about 5 hours. Maintain the same weight for your pack as last week. If the weight of your pack has to increase a little bit to account for the additional time you’ll be on the trail, that’s ok too. SUMMARY How do you feel at this point of the program? Compare where you are now to week one; in what ways do you feel different as a result of the endurance, strength and skills that you’ve earned? You are on-track to being a strong member of your rope team. Individual focus, skill, coordination and a multitude of factors make up the basis of split-second judgements in the mountains but physical fitness is the foundation for your climb, and you’ve got it. With the foundation you’ve built over the past nine weeks, and with the seven weeks remaining, you’ll have what it takes to be a strong member of your climbing team. - John Colver Have a question? See the Fit To Climb FAQ for explanations of specific exercises and general pointers to help you through the Fit To Climb Program. 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, and is working on his second book, Fit to Climb - a 16 week Mount Rainier Fitness Program.

May 26th, 4:30 a.m. Nepali time: Our Sirdar Sherpa, Lam Babu, is at the South Col and relaying messages during the climb. Dave Hahn, Melissa Arnot and the team are at the Balcony! The climbing team is changing oxygen bottles, having a snack and a drink. Next stop the South Summit! Here at Everest Basecamp, the top of Pumori is just starting to catch some light. No wind. It's a beautiful morning! RMI Guide and Everest Basecamp Manager Mark Tucker

The Five Day Climb May 4 - 8, 2023 reached the summit of Mt. Rainier yesterday afternoon led by RMI Guides Ben Ammon and Dominic Cifelli. The team had a nice day with the clouds below until they reached about 13,500', then they were enveloped by a cloud cap but were able to push through to the summit.  They did quick high fives, hugs and quickly started their descent. They returned to Camp Muir for a well deserved rest.  The team began their descent from Camp Muir at 9am.  We look forward to their return to BaseCamp this afternoon.

Congratutions to the team!

EXPEDITION PHASE: PULSE CHECK As we discussed in the summary of the last week, you really can’t build any more fitness between now and the climb. The other side of that point is there really is the potential to squander the benefits you’ve worked for by doing too much in the coming weeks and arriving to the climb thoroughly exhausted. You’ll note that there is no crux workout this week. For some people, the crux of the week is managing the reduced amount of effort and intensity. In a very similar way to being stuck on a mountain waiting for a storm to pass, this week may test your patience, but you have to recognize that to overdo it now would be akin to stepping out into the storm. There is just no point. Roughly speaking, the training intensity and volume are reduced by 50%. Some ways to manage the additional downtime can be reviewing your gear, reading about the climb, watching a movie or catching up with friends and family. The last few weeks have been busy and your climb is coming up at the end of next week. It’s time to relax. Given that your climb is coming up very soon, this week’s and next week’s preparation really blend into each other. As you look ahead at your schedule for the next ten days, bear in mind that it’s perfectly fine to juggle around the days to suit your needs. Another important thing to bear in mind is that it’s certainly okay to skip training days. The goal from now onwards is rest and preparation. Week 16 is the week all the training has been leading up to. Most people are going to be a little nervous. If your nerves are getting the best of you, now is a good time to start actively practicing relaxation and anxiety management skills. My frank observation is that no matter what concerns or doubts come up between the start and the end of this week, the right thing to do in almost every case is to relax and focus on the next hour. You will need all of your energy to climb this mountain and you should feel confident that the training you have will afford you the opportunity to reach the summit of Mount Rainier. There are, however, many things that cannot be controlled, weather and snow conditions being the biggest factors. It is easy to worry about both of these things, but I can promise you as a guide I learned not to worry about those things until the time is actually right. The determination of whether to continue or turn back is always a calculated decision made in the moment, and this is one of the fascinations of the challenge. A climbing team can have a hundred percent perfect weather forecast and if there's a slight air pressure change two hours from the summit, this can result in white-out conditions and winds so high that turning around is the only reasonable option. It is also true that many successful climbs start out in poor visibility and inclement weather which dissipates as the team climbs higher. No one knows what the conditions will be like on your summit day and this is why the gear list contains clothing and equipment for all conditions. What you can count on is the knowledge that no matter how many times your guide has walked out of Camp Muir in the middle of the night, she or he does not forget what it was it is like the first time. Try and suspend thinking about what is happening above the clouds; I say this with absolute assurance, you will be supported by a world-class guide team. On this note, many people report that the experience of being part of a team is one of the most memorable aspects of the climb. Being connected by carabiners and a thin nylon rope is certainly a bonding experience. The famous French guide and writer Gaston Rébuffat often spoke of the "Brotherhood of the Rope" to symbolize the connectedness of everyone on the team. It’s an amazing experience to share the mountains with like-minded climbers! If at the end of next week, you stand on the summit of Mount Rainier, it will be because you put one foot in front of the other, over and over again, and met the challenge of climbing 9,000’ from the alpine meadows of Rainier’s foot to the glacier capped summit. Along the way, you will find synchronicity with your teammates. You will boost them when they are tired and they will do the same for you. Fit to Climb: Week 15 Schedule

DAY	WORKOUT	TOTAL TIME	DIFFICULTY
1	Rainier Dozen / Easy Hiking ( 30 min)	42 min.	Medium
2	Rainier Dozen / Stair Interval Training (60 min)	72 min.	Hard
3	Rainier Dozen / Rest	12 min.	Recovery
4	Rainier Dozen / Stair Interval Training (60 min)	72 min.	Hard
5	Rainier Dozen / Rest	12 min.	Recovery
6	Equipment and Food Preparation Day	-	-
7	Hike (4 hrs)	240 min.	Medium
	Total	7 hrs 30 mins.

BRIEFING This week you scale back the volume all of your training sessions and switch back to the easier stair training at a consistent pace. You’ll still do a hike this week, but it will be only 4 hours. After the last week, this should be a walk in the park! Take an extra day of rest from physical exertion on Day 6, but you spend that time in the valuable activity of checking all your gear and making a list of all the food you’ll need for next the climb at the end of the next week. DESCRIPTIONS OF WORKOUTS Day 1: Rainier Dozen + Easy Hiking (30 Minutes) Today’s hike is a recovery workout and you can always substitute it with a different activity, such as running, biking or swimming. The important thing is to move at a moderate pace for 30 to 45 minutes. The pace can be conversational and you do not need to be dripping with sweat at the end of the workout. Day 2: Rainier Dozen + Stair Interval Training (60 Minutes) Warm up for about 10 minutes, and then climb up and down a set of stairs at a consistent pace for about 50 to 60 minutes. Cool down with some stretching. Day 3: Rainier Dozen / Rest Begin your day with the Rainier Dozen. Feel free to take another 30 to 60 minutes of light exercise if you feel like it (a brisk walk is a great option). If you feel tired, today is a good opportunity be good to take a complete rest day instead. Listen to your body. Day 4: Rainier Dozen + Stair Interval Training (60 Minutes) Warm up for about 10 minutes, and then climb up and down a set of stairs at a consistent pace for about 50 to 60 minutes. Cool down with some stretching.. Day 5: Rainier Dozen / Rest Begin your day with the Rainier Dozen. Feel free to take another 30 to 60 minutes of light exercise if you feel like it (a brisk walk is a great option). If you feel tired, today is a good opportunity be good to take a complete rest day instead. Listen to your body. Day 6: Equipment and Food Preparation Day If you already have all your gear ready, just use this as a rest day. Otherwise, using the lists provided by your guiding service, make sure to go through all your gear and to ensure that you have everything that you need and that everything is in clean and proper functional condition. Make sure to practice packing all this gear into your backpack so that you know how to easily get everything to fit correctly. Day 7: Hike (4 Hours) This is your last substantive hike before heading up the mountain. All you’re aiming to do with this hike is to maintain the level of fitness you’ve worked so hard for over the last sixteen weeks. As always, after warming up, hike at an even pace for six to eight miles, or four hours, and bring the proper amount of gear and food to keep you safe and comfortable. SUMMARY By this time a week from now, you’ll be at Camp Muir, just one day shy of your summit climb. For now, get plenty of rest, pay attention to nutrition, and know that you are ready. - John Colver Have a question? See the Fit To Climb FAQ for explanations of specific exercises and general pointers to help you through the Fit To Climb Program. 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, and is working on his second book, Fit to Climb - a 16 week Mount Rainier Fitness Program.

Ice season is almost upon us here in Bozeman, Montana with many other U.S. ice destinations soon to follow. I find it very difficult to train for ice climbing this time of year - you want to get comfortable on your tools again, but there isn’t any ice forming yet. These are a few of my favorite pre-season workouts that can get you stronger before you get to swing those picks into a column of ice. First, I say any climbing is better than no climbing. The rock gym can be a great place to start building upper body strength, balance, and grip strength. I usually warm up by pulling on plastic for an hour or so, mostly easy to moderate routes with two or three that really push me. The goal is to get a little pumped but not so spent that I can’t do a workout after. I take 10-15 minutes to cool down, drink some water, get out of my climbing gear, and transition to the weights. When I am training specifically for ice climbing I focus most of my efforts on forearms and triceps with some shoulder and bicep work to stay balanced. In my opinion, the best exercises mimic the actual motions done in ice climbing. So, my first go-to ice climbing workout is simply to grab a light dumbbell, 6-12lbs, and hold it like you would an ice tool.  If you can watch yourself in the mirror it can help to make sure you maintain good form.  Loosely hold the weight in one hand and cock it back over your shoulder, keep your wrist, elbow, and shoulder all in line, and slowly swing the weight like you would an ice tool. Finish with the wrist flick so the weight is just in front of your body, I like to keep my other hand touching my elbow, which helps to encourage good form.  Dead hangs are another great exercise you can do almost anywhere. If you can use your tools that’s the best; I put the picks of both ice tools over a pull-up bar, grab both tools, and hang with elbows slightly bent for 10 seconds. If you are doing it correctly your shoulders should be engaged. I try to draw my shoulder blades towards each other. Do this for 10 seconds on, 10 seconds off for 10 rounds; that is one set for me, and I try to do 3 sets per workout. Don’t push yourself and tweak a shoulder though, or all this training is for nothing. Start with what makes sense for you and then slowly add repetitions, sets, or increase the time of each dead hang. I often integrate sets into my whole workout so I don’t get too bored. Next: pull-ups. Find out what your max is and then go for 50-80% of that for three sets. If 10 pull-ups is your threshold, do three sets of 5-8. Try to increase this number over time. Again I mix these into the whole workout so that I have some time to recover. There are a number of great exercises for grip strength and forearms; I constantly switch it up. The standing bar – rope - weight workout is a great one. With a small bar, stick, or dowel, tie a 5-foot rope to the center and a weight on the other end of the rope. With your arms straight out in front of you slowly twist the bar in your hands to wrap the rope up and lift the weight then reverse the motion to lower it back to the ground. Maintain good form and keep your arms parallel to the ground.  Another forearm workout that I really like is to grab two dumbbells of moderate weight, 5-15 lbs, and hold one in each hand. Slowly I let the weights roll down my palm and fingers until they are close to falling out of my hands and then bring them back up.  The first few will leave you asking, “what is the point of this?” by rep 20 you will be screaming for mercy.  The plate pinch is both a forearm and grip exercise. Grab two plates, 2.5, 5, or 10lbs, and position them together so the smooth sides face out.  Simply pinch them together with one hand and let them hang by your side.  You are going for time here, see how long you can hold it first and then aim for three sets in each hand.  Gradually add more and more time over a few weeks. Finally, another fantastic grip strength workout is a spring or rubber doughnut trainer. I keep one in my car and try to use it at every red light. These are just a few of the upper body workouts that I use when I am patiently, or not so patiently, waiting for temperatures to drop and ice to start forming. I hope you enjoy these and I look forward to seeing you all out on the ice soon. _____ Geoff Schellens is a certified AMGA Rock Guide, Apprentice Alpine Guide, and an avid ice climber. He lives in Bozeman, MT, and will be leading an expedition to Denali's Upper West Rib this spring. Comments? Questions? Share your thoughts here on the RMI Blog!

April 17th - 11:20 pm Pacific Time RMI Guide and Everest Base Camp Manager Mark Tucker reports that RMI climbers, Sherpa and guides are safe at Everest Base Camp. Around 7 am local time on April 18th an avalanche occured below the West Shoulder continuing down into the Khumbu Ice Fall. Our thoughts and prayers are with the teams on Mt. Everest.

Last night we arrived at Chilcabamba Eco Lodge situated ten miles to the north of Cotopaxi, our final mountain object for this adventure.  This morning we had a crystal clear view of this beautiful peak and of the actual climbing route visible with binoculars.  After yesterday, we are all chomping at the bit to get a second shot at going high.  I’m just hoping the mountain gods quit goofing around and make our climbing and our decision making a bit less strenuous.

During the last three weeks, Dustin and I have attempted four big peaks with only one of them giving us a clear green light.  The three previous attempts, two on Cayambe and one on Chimborazo, could best be described as a devious poker game where you are constantly dealt a low grade two pair and going all in on that isn’t the risk you want to take.  But it isn’t outright horrible either.  Just one more card, one more bet, maybe the odds will turn.  We have folded in the name of safety but the questions still linger.  Could we have gone higher?  Yesterday I wasn’t ready to fold but the next bet came at a cost.  Through pure determination and a bit of luck we squeaked it out but those aren’t the hands you want to have to bet on day in and day out.  Let’s hope tomorrow that Cotopaxi deals us the hand as it did last time.  

Gambling aside, this day was a well needed reprieve from the continuous ride we have been on the last week.  Fifteen minutes ago one of our faithful staff stalled into my room, lit a fire and asked if I needed anything.  “Not at the moment,“ I replied, things for now are pretty much perfect.

Tonight we will pack for our climb ahead and enjoy one more night's rest before heading up hill again.  We will touch base tomorrow.

Please enjoy some photos from our Cayambe summit day.

RMI Guide Adam Knoff

Climbing is a long and demanding endeavor, with a typical summit day on Rainier or Denali stretching for twelve to fifteen hours. Every time you take a step, your muscles require energy in the form of ATP to be able to fire. ATP is created within the muscle cells by mitochondria from two main nutrients: carbohydrates and fat.

For many years, athletes have focused on their carbohydrate intake as the key to performance. Carbohydrates provide a readily accessible and easily digestible energy source for your body, which is the reason that they are the main content in most sports foods; just look at the labels of shot blocks, Gu’s, bars, energy drinks, and the like, and you will see a heavy focus on sugar. There is a good reason for this: your body has a limited ability to digest food while exercising (digestion requires energy of its own), and carbohydrates and sugars are the easiest to digest, requiring little to be done to the glucose components before they enter the bloodstream and are carried to the cells.

The main issue with a reliance on carbohydrates is that your body has the ability to store a finite supply of glucose in the muscle cells and the liver in the form of glycogen. For trained athletes that are efficient with their energy usage, that store still only lasts for about 2 hours of sustained hard effort. If you aren’t familiar with the term “bonking,” it’s that feeling when your performance drops off a cliff; you don’t feel like you are working that hard aerobically, but you can’t possibly go any faster or harder. You’ve run through those glycogen stores and your muscles are out of fuel. Eating while you exercise can help to delay bonking, but your body can only process about 250 Kcal of sugar per hour, far less than you expend over the same period. Even though we are replenishing our sugar fuel, we dip further and further into those reserves as summit day goes on. At the same time, even the leanest among us carries over 24 hours of energy in the form of fat stores. Wouldn’t it be nice to recruit those stores while you are climbing?

Fatty acids are the most energy dense nutrients in our diet and our body stores them readily. They create more ATP per unit than sugars, and our body’s ability to store them can leave us with a huge reserve energy supply. The problem is that when fatty acids and sugars are both present, our metabolisms preference burning the sugars for energy. Julia Goedecke is a sports scientist who has been examining the influence of fat oxidation (metabolism) in endurance athletes. In examining rates of fat oxidation in athletes at different intensity levels, she found a vast difference in overall rates of fat oxidation. Some burned nearly no fat at rest, while others metabolized nearly 100% fat at rest, but while there were differences in overall rates of fat metabolism, those who metabolized more fat at rest derived more of their energy from fat at all intensity levels too. This would suggest that if we can train our metabolism to derive a greater percentage of our energy from fat, it will continue to do that as we up our intensity climbing, and we will use our sugar reserves more slowly, and hopefully avoid the dreaded “bonk!”

Now that we’ve introduced the idea of developing your fat metabolism, stay tuned next week as we get into the details about how to accomplish it.

_____

For more reading Alan Couzens has a number of interesting blogs on the subject. A good one to start with is Improving Fat Oxidation.

Questions? Comments? Do you have experience applying LCHF nutrition to endurance sports? Share your thoughts here on the RMI Blog!