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This morning RMI Guides Dave Hahn and Alex Halliday led their teams to the top of Mt. Rainier!  The weather is cloudy and smoky from some wildfires up north.  The team began their descent from the crater rim at 9:25 a.m.

Thursday, June 23, 2022 9:41 pm PDT

We made the big move from 8,000 to 11,000 ft today.   This was on mostly familiar terrain for us, of course.  But the unfamiliar parts brought us into a whole new world.  We set out at 5:30 AM from the base of Ski Hill in perfect conditions for mountain climbing.  It was cool, shady and calm and the snow surface was frozen up nicely.  We cruised right on past our food and fuel cache from yesterday and reached the head of the 46-mile long Kahiltna Glacier.  What remained was a little steeper terrain on a feeder glacier, but we managed that hard work without any trouble and pulled into camp at 11 AM.  Things had clouded up a little, which was a good thing, keeping the sun off us as we did the hard pull into camp.  It was nice to be greeted by Andy Bond and his RMI team, enjoying their rest day at 11K.  We set into the hard work of building a new camp at a new elevation.  The clouds began to fade, and we were stunned at the beauty of our surroundings.  Whereas the scenery from within the valleys has been great, now that we are getting up a little, we can start to see out.  The glacial ice surrounding us is endlessly fascinating with giant walls and towers pitched at impossible angles.  We napped away the intense sun that came with the afternoon.  Dinner in a new camp with a new view was excellent. 

Tomorrow we’ll go back down for our supplies. 

Best Regards,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn & Team

The Four Day Summit Climb teams led by JJ Justman and Kel Rossiter reached the Summit of Mt. Rainier today. JJ reported good, but cold weather with calm winds. The teams are enjoying the views from the top and will make their way back to Camp Muir shortly. Congratulations to today's teams.

The Five Day Climb July 11 - 15 was unable to reach the summit today. RMI Guide Pepper Dee and team climbed to 13,400' before turning back due to weather. Once back at Camp Muir they will rest and repack before continuing on to Paradise.

Well, despite Mother Nature's best efforts 100% of our team stood on the summit of Aconcagua, South America's highest point, at approximately 1:00 pm local time. We were accosted by moderate winds and cold temps most of the evening at Camp Colera so we decided to push back our departure to 5:30 a.m. We were hoping to avoid subjecting the team to too much cold. Well, despite our best efforts to mitigate the weather, we were thoroughly brutalized by wind and cold for the entire climb except for the last 2 stretches of the descent. Our climbers all did a terrific job taking care of themselves and preventing cold injuries. They climbed so efficiently that what is normally a 12 hour summit day we accomplished in 10! Maybe it was the short/lack of breaks, maybe they all possess mutant strength... Regardless, we're heading for Aconcagua Basecamp tomorrow! RMI Guide Billy Nugent

On The Map

The Five Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guides Mike Walter and the Four Day – All Women’s Climb led by Melissa Arnot reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Today’s climb marked Melissa’s 100th summit of Mt. Rainier! The teams began their descent from the crater rim just before 7 am. Clear skies and beautiful sunshine. They will return to Camp Muir for a short break and then continue to Paradise this afternoon. Congratulations to today's summit climbers!

This is Dave Hahn calling form Mt. Everest, and again tonight we are at Advance Base Camp. Our Plan had been to move up to the Lhotse Face and we tired we went out this morning with that as the goal, but unfortunately with Dan’s cough has not gone away and it has turned out to be debilitating as far as preventing us from going higher. It is not a danger to him, but going higher with it would be a problem. So, quick change of plans Dan is going to head down to Base Camp in the morning with Lama Babu, and Seth and I are going to try and keep up Tshering, Gyaljen and Kaji and our plan is to go all the way to high camp tomorrow and attempt the summit on the 23rd. The complication is that the weather forecast is kind of breaking down for those days and might be kind of dicey weather – We will have to see. We figure that will be our one chance and so it is up or down for all. Things should be moving around a fair amount for these next couple of days…we will see what happens. We are going to miss Dan as he heads back down to Base Camp, Lama Babu is happy to guide him down and we are expecting they will have a smooth descent and will be in Base Camp about the middle of tomorrow morning. That’s what’s going on here at Everest. We watched a lot of people tired people coming down from the Summit and from the Lhotse Face again today but it has starting to get though crowd a little bit, we have noticed traffic slacking a bit and that works in our favor. That’s all for now, Bye! RMI Guide Dave Hahn

No. I'm afraid there were no royal celebrations of summit success for us today as we began the morning getting up with guarded optimism that the clouds and wind above us would dissipate just enough to allow us to get in a summit bid. But that did not happen, and instead we retreated back to our tents after prolonging our time over breakfast in the Posh. Unfortunately the clouds descended and eventually we were enveloped in wind and snow that just took some of the energy and motivation we needed to work on camp. So, instead we spent a restful morning in our tents, snug and warm from the elements just beyond the thin nylon fabric we rely so vitally on for our comfort and survival. What do we actually do during these times while waiting for the weather to improve? Of course, reading, listening to music, playing games all come to mind, but simply catching up on sleep is huge. With winds buffeting our tents during the night, coupled with the excitement and anxiety that affects us all before a possible summit day, we can all use the downtime. In fact, it's the climber that deals with this forced inactivity well that tends to be the better climber. A capacity for patience is a hallmark of good expedition climbers. But, I never thought that spending an entire day in the old fart sack helped you out much in terms of adjusting to the altitude, so when we got a nice break in the weather we went out and built the nicest bathroom on the mountain, walled and roofed, and ready for whatever the mountain throws at us. At least we'll take comfort knowing that, when that inevitable time comes, we'll be able to answer that call without sheets of wind blown snow covering our clothes and all too vulnerably exposed parts of our anatomy. As for tomorrow, though the forecast calls for high winds what I'm seeing right now makes me think we have a chance. The winds have calmed and it's sunny and beautiful, with simply gorgeous views of the Alaska Range from our perch here just below the summit of the tallest peak in North America. And now, some closing words from the poet laureate of the arctic, our own Lindsay Mann: At 17 we stay Wishing the wind away Cutting blocks and sawing snow People see out camp and say wow! A ceiling for our bathroom was done To give us privacy from everyone Stories over dinner we share cause team morale is still there Hoping to get the summit As soon as these winds plummet But for now we sit tight And wish for a beautiful night Good night from Brent Okita, Leon and Lindsay

On The Map

Everyone arrived with all bags in tow. That is as much of a win as we can ask for on day one.

Today, we ventured out on a tour of Quito and La Mitad del Mundo (literally, The Middle of the World). It was a particularly sunny day, and we spent a little time enjoying the variety of flowers at El Museo de Intiñan, the indigenous equatorial museum.

From there, our tour heads to El Panecillo, a small hill just south of the old town. Panecillo basically translates to "little bread loaf" as it is just a small rise that affords a person a nice view of Quito. If you make an early morning trip here, you can usually see Cayambe, Antisana and/or Cotopaxi from atop the hill. In the afternoon, mounting clouds tend to obscure the view.

We, then, headed down into the old town to have a look around at some statues, historic buildings, and old churches. But perhaps more importantly, there was a quick stop for empanadas and ice cream. Much of culture can be absorbed through food and discovering the taste of fresh guanabana ice cream is certainly a cultural experience.

Today is just the beginning of what we all hope is a safe, successful climbing trip!

Dustin

Around midnight last night the winds began to pick up here at Camp 1. Sweeping down off of the mountain's scoured glaciers, they would come barreling through camp, howling as they relentlessly shook the tents. Needless to say, sleep was intermittent as the tents shook and flapped throughout the night. Although the winds had yet to abate by morning it was clear and the sun soon found us, warming us quickly. Because of the wind we dragged our feet a bit during breakfast before departing, escaping the gusts by retreating to a nearby hut used by our outfitter where we could enjoy our hot drinks with a little more protection. Thankfully, the deterioration in the weather didn't affect us much since we descended back below camp to our cache where the morraine deflected most of the winds coming down off of the mountain. We made a quick descent to our cache carrying only light packs, reloading them with all of the gear we stashed there on Tuesday. Our improving acclimatization and growing comfort with the trail was evidenced by how efficiently we climbed back up to Camp 1 through the loose rock and scree, everyone clearly showing their strength as we made good time through the difficult terrain. Back at camp the winds had lessened but continued to blow as clouds began to settle in. As we traded stories over lunch a wet groppel began to come down, lightly at first and then in sheets, covering the rocks around us in an uneven dusting of white. We retreated back to the tents in the afternoon to relax and rest and escape the weather outside. The groppel has since stopped and the storm seems to be lessening at the moment. As we head off for dinner the occasional sun beam breaks through the clouds and illuminates the tent walls. Our plan tomorrow is to make an acclimatization climb towards Camp 2, hopefully leaving another small cache up there in preparation for our summit bid. We will check in tomorrow and let you know if the weather cooperates.