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Hey, RMI this is Dave Hahn with the Everest climb. We got to base camp today. The trek is over, the climb begins. We left Lobuche at about 8:30 this morning and reached Everest Base Camp at 17,500 feet by noon. Our base camp team, along with Jeff Martin, has done an incredible job building camp. It was great to catch up with Jeff Martin from RMI. He has been up here working away getting our camp organized before our arrival. A little bit of a reunion today. All is well at Everest Base Camp. RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

Hi everybody and welcome to another series of dispatches from an RMI Expeditions' Ecuador Volcanoes program! The majority of our team arrived scattered throughout the day yesterday with high spirits and great expectations despite being exhausted from a solid day of airline travel. We met up for the first time as a complete team this morning at Spicy, our hotel restaurant, and enjoyed a pretty good spread of food and decent coffee to boot. After breakfast we headed out on a very informative city tour with our veteran city guide Jorge. Jorge showed us around town while explaining much of the complex cultural past that made Ecuador the country it is today. Our crew climbed the towers of the Basilica, enjoyed sweeping views of the city from the top of the Panecillo, and got to experiment with different physical phenomena on the exact geographic equator. All of this while beginning our all-important acclimatization process. Cool! We plan on rounding out our first full day in Ecuador with a brief team meeting followed by a team dinner. More to come as the adventure progresses! RMI Guides Billy Nugent, Katie Bono, and the rest of the gang

On The Map

We left Moscow early this morning, leaving the city's quiet streets behind for the forest of pine that surround Moscow's Domodevo Airport. The calm morning was broken as soon as we arrived at the airport, with travelers packing the main terminal trying to check-in for their flights. With plenty of time to navigate the crowds, we found our check in counter and meandered through the serpentine line to the front, doing our best to keep our towering carts of climbing gear from toppling over on the unsuspecting passerby. Despite the complete language barrier checking in for our flight was smooth and easy and before long we were climbing the steps into our neon green 737 for the flight to Mineralnye Vody. The two and a half hour flight took us from Moscow south across the farmland of central Russia to the foothills of the Caucasus. Thankfully all of our bags appeared on the carousel in Mineralnye Vody and we shouldered our duffel bags and navigated the chaotic parking lot outside to our van (conveniently parked, we all noted, in the farthest possible point from the door of the baggage claim). After cramming all of our duffel bags and 9 passengers into the narrow van, we took off down the highway bound for the mountains. The drive from Mineralnye Vody to the village of Cheget in the Baksan Valley with the base of Mt. Elbrus took about 3.5 hours and brought us from the busy agricultural centers near the airport deep into the heart of the Caucasus. In the small towns on the way to the mountain we passed little markets and stores spilling out onto the streets, dozens of errant cows lounging in the roadway, and a tungsten mine and former factory used in the Soviet Space Program, long since shut down and now in the process of being reclaimed by the forest.The recent rains in the area still left thick clouds hanging throughout the peaks when we reached the little ski town of Cheget. We have yet to catch a view of the high Caucasus or Mt. Elbrus, but the clouds started to thin as we finished dinner and we are hopeful that the views will prove more rewarding tomorrow on our acclimatization hike. We are staying in a small ski lodge at the base of the Cheget ski resort, where we will be until Wednesday. The rooms are comfortable and the food hearty. We are all very pleased to be in the mountains and looking forward to our hike tomorrow. RMI Guide Linden Mallory

On The Map

Mt. McKinley has the gnarly reputation for being one of the hardest mountains in the world to reach the summit of. In circles of armchair mountaineers, horror stories bounce around like cheap cigars. What most people don't realize is how much down time comes with living the dream of climbing north America's highest peak. Yesterday we put in our first "average work day" with an eight hour round trip climb to Washburn's thumb at 16,500 feet. We cached food, fuel and clothing needed for our time on the upper mountain. This was our teams most difficult challenge to date which everyone handled like cagey veterans. Back to the down time. Of course the terrain on this mountain demands one's full concentration, but so does our time of rest. It is unnatural for all of us to try and sleep twelve hours a day with no darkness. The rigors of rest should not be underestimated. Today we woke from thirteen hours of hibernation and had a two hour breakfast demanding great effort to pull away from. Now we are preparing for a stroll to the edge of the world and then home for more sleep. Today is beautiful here at 14,000 feet, much more pleasant than our ten below nights. All is well and we look forward to climbing higher.. RMI Guide Adam Knoff

On The Map

100% of our team stood on the summit of Mount Shuksan this morning! The weather was perfect. We will descend back to camp today and head down the trail tomorrow. It's been a great day in the North Cascades! RMI Guide Mike Walter

Downhill from here! The team's descent began five minutes ago. The group had the summit to themselves for a while at the end. We tried to do a phone call to the blog, but tough conditions as you can imagine. Just to make sure you guys hear some of the thoughts that were mentioned by Dave and Linden from the summit: - Bill and Sara hope to see you on top, another time ,and thought of you two the whole climb up today. - RMI Guide Melissa Arnot and Dave Morton over on top of Makalu today (we hope), looking forward to seeing you here on Everest in a few days. - Thanks and couldn't have done it without our local staff: Lam Babu, Tsering, Dawa, Kaji, Yubarji, Kumar, Raju, Gurung, Jeta, Gelzen, our guys in Kathmandu, Kili Sherpa, and Sagar - Rainier Mountaineering, Inc. back in Ashford, Washington. You let us run a top notch program. - First Ascent - the gear to get you there - All the friends and family back home - Linden: Wishing his Mom "Happy birthday", and spoiled old me getting my wishes from the top, for I think about the fifth time, since it being my birthday today as well. - All the other teams on the hill for such a great season and fabulous cooperation. - All you for following our blog. - And Mount Everest, for being so kind to our team. The team should be back to the South Col in a few hours. Weather still perfect, all systems in the green, guys are still having a great time. RMI Guide Mark Tucker

Hi Everyone,

We had a windy eleven miles into Lago Dickson today. The trail takes us through the appropriately named windy pass. The group enjoyed the scenic views of Lago Paine and the glaciated mountains that surround Lago Dickson. We are enjoying the trek and having a lot of laughs along the way. Watching the clouds move quickly over the mountains now.

RMI Guide Mike King & Team

As a skiing and climbing guide, athlete, and yoga instructor, I am continually impressed by the correlation between success in the mountains and a regular yoga or meditation practice. In my personal experience, by taking time each day to completely focus my attention on simple movements in conjunction with controlled breathing, even for a just a short period of time, I have found that I can dramatically increase my ability to handle a higher mental stress load and consciously reign in a respiratory-system-gone-rogue.

The primary intention behind a yoga practice is the alignment of a series of movements with the coordination of the breath. Beyond the poses, aside from the stretching, before the flow, and without regard to the brand of clothing you choose to wear or the space in which you practice, is the synchronization of intentional movements with focused and controlled breathing. That is the essence of yoga.

One of my favorite quotes is by Sharon Gannon: “You cannot do yoga. Yoga is your natural state. What you can do are yoga exercises, which may reveal to you areas where you are resistant in your natural state”. Instead of hand-eye coordination, think body-breath coordination.

This training allows the individual the ability to more easily and calmly focus on a specific task and execute difficult movements with precision—especially, and perhaps most importantly—when pushing towards exhaustion.

The goal of starting a mindful movement practice is in taking this basic principle and applying it to any activity of your choosing.

I understand yoga is not for everyone. Personally, I love the quiet space, the dance of a well-sequenced vinyasa flow, and in the winter months I crave the warmth and full body lymphatic cleanse of a heated studio; they are always significantly cozier than the mid-January temperature of my 1920’s craftsman and warm my core after a day of skiing far better than even the highest, most overworked setting of my Subaru's seat-heating capabilities. That being said, I know plenty of guides and world-class athletes who firmly believe that yoga—of any sort—is not, and never will be, for them.

The secret is that these individuals find other activities with which to strengthen their mental game and incorporate mindful movement. Biking, running, swimming, pilates, even those post-work hikes with a heavy pack, all provide the opportunity to spend a few moments really thinking about and tuning in to your body positioning, your motor patterns, the rate and quality of your breath, all while tuning out the external static of life.

So my challenge for you in writing this blog post, if not to inspire you to rush off and attend the nearest yoga class, is to move through a few minutes of your next workout focused on not just exercising, but moving with intention, breathing in coordination with the efforts of your activity, and turning off the music in an effort to quiet your mind and direct your attention entirely to the task at hand. By practicing mindful movement in your daily tasks and familiar workouts, you will increase and strengthen your ability to use those same techniques to lower your respiratory rate and remain calm, thus allowing you to be more relaxed and move more efficiently when confronted with new and/or difficult tasks in an unfamiliar or uncomfortable environment for a longer period of time: situations much like those found on Mt. Rainier and other alpine objectives around the world.

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Solveig Waterfall is an AMGA Certified Ski Mountaineering Guide and has been working professionally in the mountains for 12 years. She guides in Alaska as well as the continental U.S., Ecuador, Mexico, and Argentina.  She also teaches backcountry skiing programs and ski mountaineering courses for RMI. Outside of guiding, she instructs yoga and fitness classes designed to complement an active life outdoors.

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Hello from Aconcagua Basecamp, Today we are resting and recuperating at Plaza Argentina preparing to move to Camp 1 tomorrow. The winds look a touch rowdy up high, so staying here is a great call. This morning we had a leisurely breakfast and excellent conversation before a short stroll to stretch the legs. Hopefully the winds will cooperate and tomorrow we will be checking in from Camp 1! RMI Guide Jake Beren

Hello everyone. It’s Jake checking in from Camp 3 at 11,000’ on Mt McKinley. Everyone in our party is strong and doing great, the weather is cooperating and we’re thoroughly enjoying expedition life in the Alaska Range. Our plan is to back-carry tomorrow and pick up our cache at 9,500’, then return to camp at 11,000’ for some R&R. The day after tomorrow we’ll climb ‘Motorcycle Hill’ and place a cache in the vicinity of Windy Corner (13,300’), descend, and once again camp at 11,000’. Camp here will be home for the next two nights, then weather permitting we’ll move up to 14,200’ and establish Camp 4. But we don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves. So long for now. RMI Guide Jake Beren