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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!

At 7:50 a.m. RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer radioed from the highest point in Washington, Columbia Crest on Mt. Rainier! It’s a clear day, light winds and a good route. After the the team walked back across the crater, they began their descent at 8:30 a.m.

Congratulations to today's summit climbers!

Our rest day at Casa Ilayaku was just that, restful. For most people, reading was the main source of entertainment. We are also close enough to town that some folks made a trip into town to kill some time and do a little shopping. Avery and I went to a climbing gym and funny enough the only other two people there when we arrived were two of our local guides from Cayambe, Fatima and Fernando.

Casa Ilayaku is a wonderfully relaxing hacienda. It is modern, but built on what used to be the owner's grandfather's farmland. Due to this, much of the food served here is very local, sometimes even from the garden. Fresh avocados, tree tomatoes and a variety of other vegetables are grown right here on the property. The owner, Marco, comes from a family of farmers so even the coffee they serve is grown and roasted by his family, just outside of Cayambe. Mountaineering is hard, but the hacienda life is pretty easy. The contrast between the two activities really makes these trips special.

But hey, we can't just live at Marco's place forever. This morning we will head for Antisana basecamp, which is basically just us setting up tents in the paramo (the Spanish word for a high, treeless plateau). The camp is incredible, looking down there are long-reaching views through the grasslands and an about face reveals a huge, glaciated mountain. Antisana is broad, the glaciers are heavily crevassed and it is truly a wild place. For the last time on this trip, we hold out hope for one more night of good climbing weather!

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

Good things come to those who wait. At 20 minutes to midnight yesterday, with the Southern Cross shining down on Punta Arenas, we left the continent. We were shoehorned into the cavernous cargo compartment of the Ilyushin 76 airplane, along with about fifty other passengers, a pickup truck and a mountain of gear and supplies. The flight took about four and a half hours and was almost completely lacking in any noticeable turbulence. We passed time by reading, listening to music and simply snoozing. With about thirty minutes to go, everybody began layering up, tying boots, and pulling on hats and face masks. With perhaps 15 minutes to go, the flight crew turned on a new feature, a big screen TV with the outside view from the nose of the plane. It was absolutely spectacular, like a clip from "Frozen Planet" or "Planet Earth". Surreal beauty, until we felt the wheels under our seats touching the ice surface in the picture. Then it became real as the engines roared to slow the plane. After the perfect landing, we marched out into the middle of Antarctica. After some photo-ops and handshakes, we shuffled over to a warming hut and then into a modified van for a ride across the glacier on giant tires. It wasn't to be as far as getting straight out to Vinson Basecamp. Weather there wasn't suitable for a Twin-Otter flight, so after an early morning welcome meal, we built our tents and crashed for a few hours. The weather slowly deteriorated during the day, with cloud building up and light snow falling. That didn't stop us from spending a few hours out in late afternoon to review rope techniques. We rounded out the first day with an excellent dinner and an evening spent chatting with various adventurers on exotic missions on ice. Best Regards RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

Lulled to sleep by rock and icefall, what a night at Everest Base Camp. A few comments that it was the best dinner since arriving in country. Short lived this time, we are already back in Pheriche gearing up for Island Peak. Should be deep sleep tonight here in the thick air of 14,000 ft. We'll bid farewell to the Trek team in the morning. As usual a whirlwind tour for the group. Lots of firsts for all. Once again the mountains provided fantastic views with perfect weather. Times like these are what bring you back to challenge the physical and mental. In time the photos will overshadow the tough conditions you are subjected to on trips like these. Maybe Hawaii next time, but I bet down the road another adventure of this type just can't be avoided. RMI Guide Mark Tucker

On The Map

Our Four Day Summit Climb Teams led by JJ Justman and Billy Nugent turned today at the top of Disappointment Cleaver due to difficult conditions. The weather continues to be winter like on the upper mountain and is slowly transitioning into summer. High winds and firm conditions have thwarted attempts and guides are working hard to establish a safe route. We are expecting Mt. Rainier to release its winter hold on the upper mountain any day now.

Hey Mark Tucker here checking in from Island Peak Base Camp. Well, know sooner than us signing off from the dispatch yesterday that it started to snow and pretty much continued throughout the night. Had a pretty good blanket when we woke up. You know.... was enough so that our move up to high camp was probably not the best idea. So we stuck around down here... Now I'm looking down..... So we did a little hike up towards Camp 1 just to kinda get a feel for it and the conditions so we're all ready for that. Now we're packing and adjusting and fidgeting with gear all day today. Resting, eating... a little bit earlier than normal because being down at Base Camp so we are going to start looking at the weather around midnight. Just finished a nice dinner and we're going to crawl in the bag. Start resting and hopefully get a few hours of shuteye. We don't really need to sleep for this event, we just need to rest. We've got a bunch of batteries stored up so we are looking good... We'll check in with you guys progress in the near future. RMI Guide Mark Tucker

On The Map

The Four Day Summit Climb June 12 - 15 led by RMI Guides Win Whittaker and Paul Rachele enjoyed a nice hike to Camp Muir yesterday after completing their Climbing School the day prior. This morning, however, the weather prevented the teams from making a summit attempt on Mt. Rainier. Win reported high winds and precipitation in the form of snow. The teams will descend from Camp Muir and return to Ashford this afternoon.

Hello everyone! After our really long flights (nearly two days) the team arrived yesterday and had a early dinner and then off to bed to catch up on some much needed sleep. Today we had our official team meeting and discussed the adventure ahead. After our meeting we headed out into Kathmandu to explore a little before we head into the mountains. Our first stop was to the Swayambunath, aka the Monkey Temple. It's a beautiful temple that sits above most of the city with views in all directions and is incredibly important to the Buddhist population here in the city. Next we paid a visit to the Pashupatinath Temple which is where the Hindu's bring their dead for cremation, and it was very surreal to be present while this ceremony was taking place. We then made a quick stop at the Boudhanath Stupa which is the second largest Stupa in the world. After our city tour the team made our way back to our hotel and finalized our packing and finished the day off with a nice meal at the Famous Rum Doodle where they have saved autographs from all the climbers and Everest summiteers over the years: Sir Edmund Hillary, Reinhold Messner and many others. It was a pretty full day to say the least. Everyone is doing great and looking forward to getting into the mountains and stretching their legs. RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

On The Map

This is Linden checking in from the Basecamp of Island Peak. We are camped out at the base and had a nice walk in this morning with clear skies. Rolled into Basecamp about mid-afternoon and got settled right in as the weather blew in. Huffed and puffed for a couple of hours and now it’s clearing up. We actually have some clouds lower down in the valley that are snowing and the wind is bringing the snow up. It’s snowing right now but there are stars above us. Optimistic that it will clear out by morning. The team is doing well, definitely excited to be transitioning into the climb portion of the trek. Tomorrow we move to high camp and keeping our fingers crossed that the weather is going to hold so we can make a push for the summit the following day. We will check in tomorrow and let you know how everything goes. Take care. RMI Guide Linden Mallory

On The Map