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On The Map

Wednesday, August 21, 2024 - 4:59 am PT

“Remember this beautiful moment, remember this beautiful time, it’s very special because it is once in a lifetime,” words from Carlos, our Peruvian guide at the top of Salkantay Pass at over 16,200 feet. After climbing for a couple hours this morning, we reached the pass. On one side, we were looking into a valley a thousand feet below us with a patchwork of colors and on the other we were looking toward Salkantay Peak and the glacial moraine we had just climbed. 

Carlos and one of our mule wranglers lead us in a special Quechua ceremony. Offering three coca leaves rubbed with llama fat to Pachamama (Mother Earth) for safe passage. Since ancient times they have always connected their energy with the energy of nature. With rivers. With rocks. With trees. With mountains.  Believing that Pachamama feels every single step, every breath and we are absorbing the mountains energy too as we climb. It’s not just to receive but to give back. Reciprocity. So we offered the three coca leaves which represents the Andean trilogy and llama fat to represent natural energy. And we all received a tiny piece of quartz in return. For the rest of the day every time we saw a bird or special animal or watched the water flow through the 600 year old Inca canal, we were being given a gift by Pachamama.

The views and the trekking are beyond what we could have imagined but the openness with which our guides are sharing their ancestors’ religion and beliefs is humbling us all.

RMI Guide Jess and the team

PC: Jess Wedel

Monday, July 5, 2021 - 9:50 pm PT

Score one for the weathermen.  They weren’t kidding about this storm.  It is real.  Came in during the night and by morning it was snowing and blowing and we couldn’t see much.  There wasn’t any question of moving camp up to 17,000 ft.  In fact, we retreated somewhat.  Just after breakfast, RMI Guides Dominic and Matt geared up for the toughest of missions.  They trudged out into the teeth of the storm to climb up to retrieve our food cache on the West Buttress.  Yes, we were proud to have just placed it there two days ago, but now we can’t afford to be separated from those supplies should avalanche conditions set up in the coming days… which seems likely.  The guys had hard going, breaking trail in rapidly accumulating snow.  At the 16,000 ft ridge crest they were dealing with winds easily in the 50 mph range, the kind that sound like jet engines even from way down here at 14k.  We had plenty strong winds in camp, but of course we were in shelter and comfy, warm and dry.  Dom and Matt grabbed the cache and bolted safely back to camp in a total of four very difficult hours.  But their work significantly eased our ability to meet our new primary goal: riding out the storm. 

Best Regards,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

The Four Day Climb August 3 - 6 led by RMI Guides Steve Gately, George Hedreen and Robert Whyte reached the summit of Mt. Rainier at 5:30 am PT today.  The team enjoyed some time in the crater before starting their descent. They are currenly making their way back to Camp Muir. After a short break, they will pack up and continue another 4.5 miles to Paradise. Their program concludes today with a celebration at Rainier BaseCamp.

Congratulations to today's climbers!

Thursday, May 12, 2022 - 7:10 pm PT

Today was nearly a mirror image of yesterday's weather: mostly sunny, then partly cloudy, then mostly cloudy. It made for great travel as we ascended Ski Hill. As we gained the 9500' plateau, mostly cloudy changed to light snow and moderate winds coming through Kahiltna Pass. We had another good day, and decided to cache at ~9650' rather than press further into deteriorating weather. After leaving our gear deep in the hole we dug, we descended back down Ski Hill to camp in time for a little siesta. We'll hope for good weather tomorrow so we can bump camp up to 11,200'. We'll let you know how it goes. 

RMI Guide Mike Walter

Wednesday, May 26, 2021 - 11:54 pm PT

Another bluebird day here on the Kahiltna Glacier. Today was all about crevasse rescue for us. We found a nice big hole about 20 minutes from camp and practiced our haul systems from about 9 am until the sun got the better of us in the early afternoon. We retreated to our tents for our routine afternoon shade session.

The plan was to cover sled rigging and hauling before dinner, but all these perfect warm weather days caught up with the structural integrity of our camp. Our kitchen tent collapsed on itself as its foundation slowly melted away. Not a big deal. We moved it over twenty feet and built a new and improved version. Like so many home improvement hopefuls before us, once we started we just kept going, and before we knew it we had buffed out our entire camp and it was time for dinner.

We’ve got a bit of a weather system moving in over the next few days. It’s lightly snowing as I write. Weather permitting, tomorrow we’d like to pack up some gear and get out of town for a few days, venturing somewhere down on the main fork of the Kahiltna Glacier. We’ll wake up tomorrow, see how the weather looks and make our decision then. We’ll check in tomorrow, hopefully from our new home.

RMI Guide JM Gorum