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Hello again everyone,

Today the we had an early start leaving behind our beautiful lodge and have headed to the mountain towards the start of the climb. We left around 8am and drove along the rural country side and small villages for two hours before reaching the park entrance.

Most of the area surrounding Kilimanjaro has been cultivated and primarily used for coffee and banana production, plus a variety of other agriculture needs. There are still a few areas that have been untouched and resemble more of a savannah that Tanzania is known for. Kilimanjaro’s base is mostly forested and resembles more of a jungle, this area is called the cloud forest.

Once we arrived at the park gate we had all of our gear weighed and divided into loads for our porters and other staff to carry before hitting the trail. Once everything was in order we started our climb slowly making our way up the winding trail that ascends continuously through the thick forest. Thankfully the overhead canopy provided a bit of relief from the hot sun overhead.

The team hiked for a little over 5 1/2 hours and reached our camp for the night that sits around 10,000'. After settling into camp and get situated the team was served a nice warm meal for dinner.

Everyone is doing well and looking forward to a good nights rest.

RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

Saturday, August 5, 2023 - 9:38 pm PT

Hey, this is Brent Okita with the RMI Kilimanjaro team. We are on the summit of Kilimanjaro right now. It's, oh, I don't know what time it is, a couple of hours after sunrise.  We have a beautiful day up here. Everyone did great and we are looking forward to coming down and celebrating. Congratulations to the whole team. All right, that's all for now from the summit of Kilimanjaro, 19,340'. We will talk to you later.

After discussing our options over dinner last night we decided that walking up the Kahiltna Glacier from Base Camp to see what starting a West Buttress climb might feel like. So this morning we started our day a little earlier than we have been to try and beat the heat we have been seeing every afternoon. And it did the trick, we took a cool breeze in the teeth all day that meant we had to climb in a couple of jackets. We sitting in camp at the base of ski hill now taking a respite from the sun. 

RMI Guide Alex Halliday

Sunday, May 15, 2022 - 1:10 am PT

It was an auspicious start to our May 12 Denali Expedition today. When we called K2 in the morning to ask how things looked they replied "unlimited visibility and perfect". We rallied a hasty breakfast and headed for the hanger. We had gotten all of our bags set yesterday, so it didn't take much to get the planes loaded and launched. The pilots were taken with how clear and gorgeous the day was too, taking several detours to show us stunning corners of the Alaska Range on the way.

We landed and hit the ground running. Fully loaded sleds and packs were an indication of the magnitude of our undertaking, but the team cruised through the 5.5 miles of mellow glacier travel, and we rolled in to our first camp looking fresh. Everyone is fed and tucked into warm sleeping bags and as we write, a stunning full moon is rising over Mt. Hunter.

We plan to carry a load up towards Kahiltna pass tomorrow and then return to camp. We'll be in touch.

RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Leif Bergstrom, Erika Birkeland, and team

After a late start due to poor weather last night, the team got moving this morning with the promise of a nicer day.  However, conditions deteriorated once they reached the glacier with humidity and worrisome flashes of lightning in the distance.  Those flashes ended up subsiding and the weather turned marginally better making it possible to reach the summit of Cayambe.  Just a few members of the team reached the 18,997' summit, but everyone fought hard with every step.  All team members pushed themselves today and will enjoy a rest day at the Chilcabamba Eco Lodge tomorrow. 

We have our hopes for better weather on Cotopaxi and I know that any of these climbers stand a good chance to reach the summit of one of the highest active volcanoes in the world!

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

"Clear, calm, and reeeeaallly cold!" That was the summary of today's climb. We woke up to a perfectly calm morning, almost even warm (at least for Antarctica). It was shaping up to be a perfect summit day, so we packed our bags and left for the top. We climbed a low-angled glacier, weaving our way through the surface of wind blown ice and sculpted snow, eventually reaching a large amphitheater with Vinson's summit standing at the head. We crossed the basin, navigating a few small crevasses until we reached the slope that leads up to Vinson's summit ridge. Despite the forecast for "extremely cold" we were warm on the climb, climbing comfortably without needing to wear our thickest down layers. The views around us were truly breathtaking (well, nearing 16,000' was also a factor). The higher we climbed the more of the Ellsworth Range came into view - a jagged line of ice capped peaks piercing through Ice Cap spread out below our feet. The size and scale and rawness of the landscape is hard to comprehend, even when standing in the middle of it. By mid-afternoon we reached the final summit ridge, a thin ridge of snow and rocks with a few small rock outcroppings that require delicate balance to navigate around. Just as we reached the ridge, a steady and frigid wind blowing straight from the direction of the South Pole picked up. Despite bundling up our body temperatures instantly began to slip. We navigated the ridge without much trouble, despite having to stop every few minutes to keep the circulation going in our hands. Onward we climbed, trying desperately to hide from the breeze in layers of hoods, until suddenly there was no more ridge to climb. We had reached the top of the bottom of the world - the summit of the Vinson Massif, Antarctica's highest point. It was amazing, beautiful, and really cold. Despite the effort in getting there, we weren't inclined to stay long, we snapped a few pictures, shared a few high fives, and then set our sights on getting back down the ridge and out of the wind. The sub sub sub zero temps made every move that much more challenging but Penn and Jon climbed beautifully, moving through the exposed terrain without difficulty and soon we were dropping back off the ridge into the amphitheater and out of the cold southern wind. We stopped in the sun, our faces covered in rime ice, and started laughing - we were through the thick of it and it was nice to be heading downhill. We retraced our steps back across the glacier and reached High Camp in the early evening. Tired but happy, we and another team of two climbing rangers a few hours ahead of us, were the first climbers to reach the summit of Vinson this season and despite the chilly summit ridge, it was a very spectacular climb. Tomorrow we set our sites for Base Camp and hope to move back downhill in search of some slightly warmer temperatures, thicker air, and hopefully some good ski touring around Base Camp. RMI Guide Linden Mallory & Team

On The Map

Hello from the Kahiltna Glacier! We woke to frigid temperatures on our first morning, with the temperatures reaching negative 25 F. Thankfully the sun came out to play and things quickly warmed up for us. We enjoyed our first day exploring the SE fork of the Kahiltna Glacier. Everyone is doing great. We'll check in soon. RMI Guide Jason Thompson

The July 24 - 27 Four Day Climb teams reached the summit of Mt. Rainier around 6:30 am today led by RMI Guides Hannah Smith and Dustin Wittmier. Hannah reported good route conditions and perfect weather.  The team enjoyed some time on top, crossing the crater to Columbia Crest.  They began their descent from the crater rim just before 8 am.  The teams will return to Camp Muir for a quick stop before continuing down to Paradise later this afternoon.

Nice work team!  Congratulations on reaching the summit!

Hello again everyone,

We had quite the storm roll through last night with lots of rain and a very impressive lightning and thunder show. Thankfully it had mostly tapered by morning before we headed out on another safari in Tarangire National park.

It was pretty quiet initially as I’m sure the storm had most animals tucked away, but soon enough the wildlife was back and ever present. We saw the usual cast of characters with the highlights being a Serval Cat and a beautiful lioness lounging in a tree at close range.

We have just arrived at our new beautiful lodge just outside of Ngorongoro crater. It’s a stunning and extremely peaceful private lodge tucked away in a densely forested hillside.

RMI Guide Casey Grom and the safari crew

Hello everyone,

We spent today touring Tarangire National Park which is home to more elephants per square kilometer than any place on earth, plus and a huge diversity of other animals too.

We saw elephants, giraffes, warthogs, impala, mongoose, baboons, ostrich, and a lot of other animals, and 37 different birds with the highlight being the Pearl-Spotted Owlet!

We ended our day at a remote and off grid camp within the National Park and surrounded by wildlife. The camp has screened in rooms that allow the night sounds of Africa in. Hopefully everyone sleeps well tonight!

RMI Guide Casey Grom and the Safari crew!