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Friday, June 25, 2021 - 6:35 pm PT

This will be our third night hunkered down at 9,500' on the Kahiltna Glacier.  It got snowing around midnight last night and just kept going.  We checked the weather every hour or so to see if we could get a lull for climbing, but no.  Thankfully the winds never got to more than about 20 mph, but they blew steadily throughout the day.  We’d taken the precaution of pulling down the dining/cook tent at 1 AM so it was an easy enough thing to build it again at 8 AM to have a dry and calm space for breakfast.  Bagels and salmon and a few laughs together before we climbed back in the tents to ride out the storm.  By dinner time the snow was falling thick and fast and we were happy to be high enough to be avoiding rain.  With dinner complete we did a round or two of chores to strengthen our camp and then crawled in for the night.  According to the forecast, tomorrow should be partly sunny.  Until then it will be anybody’s guess as to how many hours of noise we’ll endure as the wind and snow pummel the tent fabric. 

Cheers, 

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

June 1, 2017 Hello, this is Eric and Caleb with the team in Bolivia. We were hanging out up at the Condor's Nest at 18,000 feet, tucking ourselves in for the night. Down below us we can see all of La Paz and El Alto stretched out in the distance and even all the way to Lake Titicaca. Today, we meandered our way up a long ridge from our previous Base Camp. We were about fives hours on the ridge, beautiful views in each direction. The team did great and we are psyched for our summit bid tomorrow. We should check in from the summit in less than 12 hours, no less than 24 hours, yeah we'll call it that. Talk to you soon. Bye. RMI Guides Eric Frank & Caleb Ladue

Expedition Skills Seminar: May 20 - 25, 2012 The Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir led by RMI Guides J.J. Justman and Jake Beren have enjoyed several days of training at Camp Muir. The team members received instruction on crevasse rescue, avalanche forecasting, building snow anchors and much more. Weather and snow conditions prevented the team from making a summit attempt. They began their descent from Camp Muir at 10 a.m. Pacific Time. Liberty Ridge Climb: May 20 - 25, 2012 The Liberty Ridge Climb led by RMI Guides Tyler Reid and Elias de Andres Martos began at the White River Trailhead on Tuesday, May 22. Conditions on the mountain prevented them from attempting the Liberty Ridge climb. They did make a summit attempt via the Little Tahoma route but were turned by deteriorating weather. The team will return to Ashford this afternoon.

RMI’s Denali climbing season is kicking off. Out team spent yesterday in Talkeetna packing and prepping for our expedition. Spreading our gear out in one of K2 Aviation’s hangars, we went through all of our clothing, food, and climbing equipment to fine-tune everything and be sure our checklists were complete. Everything was weighed and labeled for the airplanes. This morning we’ll touch base with K2 to see what the flying conditions are like. Our hope is to fly in to Kahiltna Basecamp today. Located on the Southeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier, this glacier runway will be our approach to the West Buttress of Denali.

Our team looks well prepared, and everyone is eager to embark on this multi-week expedition. We’ll keep you up to date along the way as we slowly progress higher on Denali’s slopes. I’ll be in touch with flying conditions and our status.

RMI Guide Mike Walter

Hello all,

Today the team enjoyed a rare extra day here in Tanzania. Normally we are off to the mountain pretty quickly, but new international flight dates gave us all one additional day here on the front end of our trip. The team ventured out to do some light and distant sightseeing not too far from the lodge. A little city tour that could be called an urban safari, with a brief stop at the local museum/culture center and a small art studio/gallery.

We’re all packed up and ready to hit the road early tomorrow and start our climb up Kilimanjaro. 
Everyone is in good spirits and excited for a little exercise.

RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

We woke to the steady patter of rain falling on the village of Cheget this morning. The clouds hung low in the valley, all of the mountains above still obscured. But to the west the clouds were thinning and the rain let up as soon as we finished breakfast. We left the hotel and walked over to the base of the ski lifts to catch a ride higher into the mountains. We hopped onto the lift, each chair painted a different color, and slowly rose into the clouds. At one point the lift stretched across a high point and all we could see was the little yellow and red chairs bouncing along into a sea of grey. By the time we passed the switched lifts at the mid station the clouds began to part and soon the views were improving. Near 10,000' we unloaded from the lifts and began hiking above the resort towards the summit of Peak Cheget. We navigated the narrow climbers' trail, scrambling across the big rock slabs and over boulders, quickly gaining altitude on the narrow ridge. The weather continued to improve and we were soon shedding our rain jackets in favor of sunglasses. Close to 11,500' the skies briefly parted and we caught our first views of Mt. Elbrus across the valley. The view was fleeting, as the window in the clouds quickly closed, but we were able to see our entire route to the summit. By midday we reached the summit of Peak Cheget near 12,000'. The change in altitude from Moscow (~500') was noticeable, but everyone on the team felt strong. We stayed on the summit for a few minutes before descending back down the trail to the lifts and returning to town for the afternoon. We spent the rest of the day sorting and organizing our gear in anticipation of moving onto the mountain. Tomorrow we head up to our hut along the edges of Mt. Elbrus' glaciers where we will spend the next four nights. We are excited about getting on the mountain and looking forward to trading our hiking shoes for climbing boots and crampons. We will check in tomorrow from the Garabashi Hut. RMI Guide Linden Mallory

On The Map

Yesterday, we woke at 7am just before our welcomed friend, the sun, hit our trailhead camp. After finishing the last of our packing that was put on hold from the thunder and hail the previous night, we had a warm breakfast and donned our climbing packs for the first time on the trip. Conditions were mostly snowy and cloudy on the trail to Campo Alto, but the team managed to make good time nonetheless. In 4.5 hours we arrived, ready to set up tents before the afternoon hail storm set in. Taking shelter to cook in the Refugio, we had the camp to ourselves and enjoyed warm ramen and quesadillas. The team then got their climbing kits ready and took to the tents early to maximize rest for the upcoming summit push tomorrow.

RMI Guide Alan Davis

The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guides Dave Hahn and Nikki Champion climbed into a cloud cap with rain and wind, this forced the team turned at 13,200' on Mt. Rainier. Despite turning before the summit due to weather, the sunrise at the top of the cleaver was very rewarding!

The team is back at Camp Muir and will be descending soon. 

Congratulations Team!

RMI Guides Jake Beren and Ty Reid and their summit climb teams tagged the Mt. Rainier summit this morning! The summit was enveloped by a cloud cap, which created only moderate winds and saturated (not precipitating) air. Both teams had began their descent from the crater rim at 7:30 a.m. Congratulations to today's summit climbers!

Hello everyone! We are back at basecamp after a very successful carry to, and cache at Camp 1! The group did very well today, and now all of our upper mountain gear and food is staged for us. The next step: REST. Today was the first day of the trip with heavy packs, and for many of the group a new personal altitude record. Tomorrow we will spend the day at base, eating food, napping, and recovering tired muscles. If all goes according to plan, we will move our camp to 16,000 feet the day after tomorrow, and continue the process of acclimating and moving our gear up the mountain. Everyone is excited to have completed our first big day, and sends their best! All for now. Cheers, RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Gilbert Chase, Gabriel Barral, and team