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Hello everyone and welcome to the first blog post from the best trip RMI offers, the Ruth Glacier Seminar!

Yesterday the team flew into Anchorage accompanied by beautiful skies and amazing views of five different mountain ranges! After gathering up at the airport we hopped in the shuttle and drove to Talkeetna, got some food and called it an early night since we were all travel weary. 

Today was spent organizing and double checking all our gear so that the next nine days in the Great Gorge would go as smoothly as possible. What didn't go smoothly was the weather, we were informed midday that there was a persistent cloud layer down low on the Ruth Glacier. Our chance of flying in was unlikely and as late afternoon turned to evening, we sadly had to postpone our flying in. We are hoping to wake up tomorrow with better weather and fly on to the glacier early in the morning! 

Cheers, 

RMI Guides Jack Delaney, Avery Parinello and the team.

After an impressive showing on our Carry Day we decided to let the group rest their weary muscles at before we begin our progression up the mountain. Lots of eating and sleeping are being done today at Basecamp before the meal quality decreases and the altitude does it’s best to rob you of valuable shut eye. I can definitely feel the excitement in the group as all of us are eager to move higher and test our mettle against the mountain. Send good vibes out to the weather gods for us. We are hoping for sunny skies and light winds from here on out. Two things Aconcagua does not provide often.

RMI Guide Nick Scott

The Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir teams led by RMI Guides Dustin Wittmier and Avery Parrinello ascended to Camp Muir on Monday under beautiful blue skies.  The good weather continued for their training at Camp Muir the following day.  Wednesday morning, with an alpine start, the team left Camp Muir en route to the summit.  The team enjoyed nice weather and clear skies, allowing them to spend some time in the crater.  After their time on top, the teams returned to Camp Muir.  They will continue their training today and tomorrow morning.  Tomorrow afternoon they will re-pack their gear and descend to Paradise.

Congratulations to the climbers on reaching the summit of Mt. Rainier and being the first RMI Team to do so this season!

A hearty hello to everyone out there following along as RMI's February 1st Aconcagua Expedition gets started. Most of the team trickled in to Mendoza yesterday afternoon and hit the ground running despite being weary from long stretches of airline travel. We held a team meeting followed by a fantastic dinner at one of the local restaurants. I can assure you that large quantities of beef and wine were consumed as we made our last efforts to pack on a couple pounds before heading onto the mountain. The guides packed group gear late into the night and after a brief nap we rose early to finish up our permitting process and run a few last minute errands. We're headed for Penitentes this afternoon where we'll finalize our packing and help ready the mule loads before spending one last night in a bed for a long time. Busy busy! More to share as our program continues... Stay with us! RMI Guides Billy Nugent, Garrett Stevens and the rest of the gang.

Hello again from Ecuador. Today we are greeted with a beautifully, clear sky and amazing views of Cayambe looming far above us. We packed up all of our climbing gear, and loaded up the vehicles and headed into the town of Otavalo. Otavalo is home to one of the largest open-air markets in all of South America. The team spent about 2 hours shopping and trying out our bargaining skills with the locals. From the sounds of it, some of us did better than others. After town we started our two-hour drive through the beautiful countryside of Cayambe. The road slowly climbs up the ridge line that allows us access to this massive mountain. Due to the tough conditions of the road, we hiked the last little bit, which helped out with our acclimatization process. We are currently relaxing in the Cayambe's climbers hut at about 15,300' that overlooks a lot of the many glaciers here. The team is doing great and everyone's ready to go to bed after an enjoyable dinner of pasta, vegetables and chicken. To top it all off, we were treated to an amazing sunset tonight that reminded me of the sunsets in central Oregon. Buenes noches and we look forward to checking in with you guys tomorrow. Have a good night. RMI Guide Casey Grom

On The Map

Hey, this is the Ecuador trip checking in. Today we had a much deserved and much needed rest day here at the Chilcabamba Lodge. We woke up this morning to glorious views of Cotopaxi and a magnificent breakfast. We ate wonderful food and drank lots of coffee. We spent the majority of the day resting, relaxing and drying out and organizing our gear for tomorrow’s departure to Cotopaxi. This afternoon we enjoyed more coffee and continued reviews of Cotopaxi and finished the day off with a wonderful dinner this evening. Everyone is doing well here in Ecuador and we are all looking forward to tomorrow’s adventures. We'll check in later. RMI Guide Jason Thompson

Today we left the hustle of Mexico City and drove to the high altitude training facility of La Malintzi for our first taste of the thin air. We hiked through the forest, climbing until we broke above treeline and gained our high point on the ridge of La Malinche at around 13,000 feet. We were strong today and after a little siesta and dinner are bedding down to rest up for tomorrows journey to the Altzimoni hut, our jump off for Ixta. Buenas Noches and happy birthday to Christian and a big Valentine's Day hug to all the sweeties up North.

Sunday, June 12, 2022 - 8:59 pm

Good evening readers,

After sending the dispatch last night we listened to the weather from Kahiltna Basecamp. With the weather, basecamp also reads a trivia question. And guess what? We won it! What is a group of ravens called? An unkindness. And what an unkindness they will do if you don't bury your cache deep enough. So today when we arrived to our cache spot at 10,000', we made sure there would be no unkindness done to our belongings. Once again it was an early start to our day. A few snoozes to the alarm to let the weather clear up a bit led to some oatmeal and packing up half our gear. Carrying half our gear will allow our move tomorrow to be a little more enjoyable. The team cruised up ski hill, stepping over several crevasses, and making easy work of the first major uphill of our journey. Clouds took away most of our views but every once in awhile parts of the mountain showed its beauty. It was a good day and we also got our first taste of moving downhill. Sitting at camp looking up, it's amazing how much more terrain we need to cover. In due time we will get there. Tomorrow we will repeat what we did today plus a little to bring us to 11k camp. Getting to 11k is a great feeling because it will be our first camp we truly get to nest into and enjoy a rest day. For now, we have four minutes till the weather comes on, so we will end it here.

Happy reading,

RMI Guide Hannah Smith and Team

The Four Day Summit Climb teams lead by RMI Guides Elias de Andres Martos and Nick Hunt reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning under clear skies and nice conditions. The teams began their descent from the crater rim shortly after 9 am en route to Camp Muir. The teams will rest and re-pack then start their descent to Paradise. We look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp later today. Congratulations to today's Summit Climb teams!

Happy Father's Day! See the video of Peter Whittaker's climb of Kilimanjaro, Africa's tallest mountain, with his daughter Gabriella and on sharing the experience of the mountains, presented by Eddie Bauer/First Ascent.

Whittaker Father-Daughter Kilimanjaro Climb from Eddie Bauer on Vimeo.