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The Four Day Summit Climb Teams Led by RMI Guides Brent Okita and Walter Hailes called as they reached the Summit of Mt. Rainier at 6:59am this morning. The teams have clear weather with light winds, but cold temperatures. They spent some time on the summit before starting their descent back to Camp Muir. Congratulations to today's teams! RMI Guide JJ Justman's team was awarded with a beautiful day of climbing up to Camp Muir. The team is keeping their fingers crossed for good weather tomorrow morning!

We're on a well-deserved rest day today at Basecamp. Yesterday we did our last turn up in the Khumbu Icefall before we push on to Camp 1. The cool and cloudy weather we've been having is supposed to clear with light winds so that should work in our favor. Dave went up to Camp 1 this morning with our Sherpa crew to get our camp location dialed in. Once we pick a day, we'll head on up for our first rotation. Here's a photo I snapped in the 'popcorn' section of the Icefall yesterday. RMI Guide Seth Waterfall

Hello everybody. This is Jake, JJ, Fernando, Mike, Mav, Bob, Jim, Peter, April, Cyrus, Christopher and Matt. We are all on the summit of Orizaba! Everybody did super well. We got 100% of our team up. Everyone climbed super strong. Light winds, beautiful day. We can see all the mountains in Mexico that we've been around and everyone is doing super great. Wish us luck on the descent and we'll call in later. Nice job everybody. Thanks a lot! RMI Guide Jake Beren

On The Map

Mike Walter's team reached the summit of Mt. McKinley (20,320') on Wednesday, May 25th. Everyone was happy and healthy upon returning to 17,000' camp for some much needed rest. The entire party reached the summit after moving to high camp at 17,000' on Tuesday. The team spent several days at 14,000' waiting for better weather to move to high camp and their patience paid off. They will begin their descent today and hope to be back at the Kahiltna Glacier on Friday. Congratulations to Kenneth, Jeff, David, Tomasz, Mike & Geoff!

The Mt. Rainier Climb, led by RMI Guides Mike King and Taylor Bickford, were on the summit at 4:20 am!  The team had good weather with winds at about 10 – 15 mph and blue skies. They are currently descending back to Camp Muir.

Congratulations to today's summit teams!

And the heavy winds kept us bounded at Camp 1 today, folks. We woke up to clear skies that soon turned cloudy, but the if we had some hopes to move up early on, the everlasting winds killed it for today. We did what what we had to, and was rest, re-hydrate, eat, and fortify the wall we made around camp. Our forecast gives us hopes to move to Camp 2 tomorrow, so we're ultra motivated for that. In the meantime, we know that the extra night here will be beneficial for overcoming the thin air that awaits above. We're armed with plenty of food and desire to continue this fight, so stay toned for more. Everyone is healthy and eager to climb! RMI Guide Elías de Martos and team.

The RMI 2013 Everest Expedition has now officially started! Dave arrived late last night along with the last of our baggage. We are now set to head out from Kathmandu. We had our first full team meal this morning at breakfast and after that we had an interview with Elizabeth Hawley. Miss Hawley is a fixture for Everest climbers. She has maintained a very thorough database of all ascents of the mountain ever since the first ascent of the mountain in 1953. It was a treat hearing her stories of climbers past and present. Now in her 90s she is still sharp as a tack and is absolutely interested in all of the expeditions on the mountain. After that we spent the rest of the day packing for the trek into base camp. If all goes well we will fly into Lukla tomorrow and trek to the village of Phakding. We're all fired up to get that started. RMI Guide Seth Waterfall

On The Map

RMI Guide Peter Whittaker and his entire climbing team stood on the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Peter reported an excellent climbing route and great conditions on the mountain. The team has started their descent and will be celebrating here at Ashford Basecamp this afternoon. Congratulations Team!

3:21 am (Nepal time) arrive at Balcony. No direct radio talk to climbers but Dawa at South Col relays that the team is all together and all doing well. Breeze down here at Base Camp and looking up, I see some high thin clouds, a few clouds setting in on some surrounding peaks but word from above is weather is OK, not too windy. During this stop they will change to a fresh bottle of oxygen and store their partially used ones in a certain spot to pick up, and possibly use on the descent. They will be working with some metal parts on the regulators during the exchange process so it's don't touch any part with bare skin or congratulations, you now have some form of frostbite on your hand. Next up, the climb to the South Summit (28,750 feet). Start up from the Balcony along the ridge to some very steep climbing, that on a dry year would be a number of rocky steps. This year conditions are very nice in that they are mostly snow covered making it a little easier and less chance of rock fall hazard. Right on schedule. Right on track. Right on Dudes upstairs. Another few hours till radio traffic but should have direct radio contact from South Summit. Drop you all a note soon. RMI Guide Mark Tucker

Yesterday we left off with the group of Dave, Linden and Sara "hunkerin' down" at Camp I for the night, and, given what happened last night, we are sure glad that they did. Our climbing team was hit by huge winds last night at Camp I. In fact, the entire mountain (all the camps) was blasted with extremely high winds and frigid cold. Many tents were lost in the upper camps. Our team survived the night by 1) checking and re-checking the tents to make sure they were secure, 2) eating a big freezed-dried meal for dinner, and then 3) diving into their extremely warm sleeping bags. Sara, who was sleeping in her own tent, radioed me this morning after the winds subsided and said that she sure missed me last night because a couple of times she thought that the tent was going to blow away, and my extra weight would have been helpful. So, to be clear, my daughter missed me for my weight. So touching. After the sun came up the winds died down considerably and the team was able to move from Camp I to Camp II by noon today. Before leaving Camp I they took down the two tents and stuffed them in duffel bags and stored them away (just in case another big "blow" comes along). The entire team is healthy and happy resting at Camp 2 for a big day tomorrow. Assuming the weather cooperates, the team is going to move up to Camp 3 to sleep. Their sleep at Camp 3 will be assisted by bottled oxygen. Then on Tuesday (the 10th) they are going to wake up and walk up toward Camp IV using oxygen, and then return all the way down to Camp 2. The goal is for the team to be back at Base Camp on the 11th, and to beready for a summit bid starting May 18th. Bill M