Most Popular Entries
Posted by: Adam Knoff, Hannah Smith
Categories:
Saturday, April 2, 2022 - 6:47 am PT
Good evening all from High Camp on Lobuche.
Today we left the town of Lobuche (I know its confusing) to make our way to our camp on Lobuche. The team hiked in in great style to 17,400'. Once at camp we made sure our gear was ready for tomorrows climb. By noon our bellies were full from a very large and delicious lunch. With bellies so full it was time for an afternoon nap. The views from camp are amazing! We could not ask for a better place to spend the evening. Tomorrow is the big day we have been looking forward to. An early wake up has us in bed early, winding down and resting up for the big day. Wish us luck and good thoughts!
RMI Guides Adam, Hannah Smith, and team
Posted by: Brent Okita, James Bealer, Daniel May, Augi Fleer, Nick Sinapius, Jenna Burkey
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Five Day Climb May 19 - 23 led by RMI Guides Brent Okita and James Bealer reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning around 8 am. The team reported windy conditions and don't intend to stay too long on the summit. This is the first RMI Team this season to reach the summit. The group will return to Camp Muir for a short break and to re-pack their gear. Then they will continue their descent to Paradise and return to Rainier BaseCamp later this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
Great effort. Sorry for falling over and dropping my ski pole (to be fair, I feel I corrected both in epic style…). Guides to die for.
Posted by: Simon on 5/25/2022 at 8:14 am
Fantastic! I’m on the 4 day 2nd/3rd next week. Great job!
Posted by: Anthony zuccaro on 5/23/2022 at 9:22 am
Posted by: Walter Hailes, Robert Whyte
Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades
Elevation: 10,781'
The Mt. Baker - Easton Glacier Team with Walt Hailes reached 10,781' summit via the Easton Glacier. The team had perfect weather and route conditions for the climb.
Congratulations Team!
Posted by:
Categories: Mountaineering Fitness & Training
Posted by: Robby Young, Sean Collon, Steve Gately
Categories: Guide News
Sean Collon: Rock climbing and mountaineering have a large number of common skills, techniques and physical requirements. Approaching rock climbs with heavy packs full of gear builds stamina, and the climbing itself requires total body strength; all of which contributes to success in the big mountains. When guiding, or on personal mountaineering trips, I rely heavily on the rope skills I have developed largely in the vertical world of rock climbing. But more than all of this, rock climbing, in and of itself, is fun. Like any type of climbing, it is physically and mentally demanding. It can be pure enjoyment, often scary and painful, but always tremendously rewarding.
Steve Gately: After a busy Rainier season, trips like this provide us with some welcomed vacation time, while also allowing us a great opportunity for continued training. With back-to-back trips to Aconcagua coming up this winter, keeping my skills sharp is important to me. One aspect that goes consistently overlooked is not only the mental capacity but also the situational awareness needed for such long expeditions. For me, rock climbing is a way to keep my assessment skills sharp. There is some inherent risk in rock climbing, similarly to anytime that we step out into the mountains. This requires you to be constantly assessing situations, risk, hazards, terrain etc. This level of awareness is invaluable. You can be as strong as the best climbers out there, but without that ability to constantly assess your surroundings and problem solve when needed, well, you won't last very long in the mountains. For me, as a guide, this is one of the most important contributions I can bring to my trips and rock climbing provides an excellent way to stay strong, keep my skills sharp, and have a ton of fun while doing it!
______
Robby Young is as talented on rock as he is on glaciers and skis. He is spending the winter ski patrolling and teaching several avalanche courses in Utah and planning on a ski trip to Iceland this spring before his Denali expedition. See more of Robby's photography at www.robbyyoungphotography.com.
Sean Collon is an RMI guide, originally from Michigan, spending this winter season in Utah ski instructing at Canyons Resort and training for the AMGA Rock and Ski Instructor Courses. He has climbed rock and alpine routes all around the Pacific Northwest and throughout the country, and guiding with Dave Hahn next summer on Mt. McKinley.
Steve Gately is heading to the southern hemisphere this winter to guide on Aconcagua. Returning to Park City, UT, he will be found skiing, ice climbing and working on another short film about backcountry skiing in Utah's Wasatch Range before heading north to Alaska next summer.
Great clip! I had the honor of attending a fundraiser last night (Golden,CO) for Jeff Lowe’s “Metanoia” movie. One of the items they were auctioning off was a 3 day climb at “The Creek” with Jim Donini! Jim was there and personally offered the trip. As you can imagine, it went for a nice high bid!!
Posted by: Lori Stewart on 12/18/2013 at 7:30 pm
On The Map
Thank you to your team- not only for feeding us, but also for your endless kindness, support & use of resources during and after the avalanche. I’m glad that the team made it home safely. I hope that our paths cross again at some point- you are all always welcome in sunny Australia! .
Posted by: Meg on 5/20/2015 at 3:00 pm
Amazing 2 doctors. The whole thing is so devastating. Thank you for keeping us informed Dave.
Posted by: Jacqueline Bayless on 5/1/2015 at 1:08 am
Posted by: Billy Nugent, Kel Rossiter
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 20,320'
.jpg)
Billy Nugent calls in from High Camp after successful summit.
On The Map
Finally, boss!! Would you go ahead and come home now?!? - there’s work to be done… Oh yeah, and congrats!
-Dr. Harms’ snarky resident with abandonment issues
Posted by: Emily on 5/31/2013 at 7:52 pm
Congratulations, Craig and team! Absolutely fantastic!
Aloha
Ted
Posted by: Ted on 5/31/2013 at 8:11 am
Sunday, October 10, 2021 - 5:46 pm PT
Greetings from La Malinche! Today the team moved away from the busy streets of Mexico City to the mountains that surround it. We got great views of our future objectives, Ixta and Orizaba on our drive today across the Mexican country side.
Everyone did great hiking up to 13,700ft on La Malinche, a dormant volcano. We had sunny skies today and no wind.
Tonight we are going to feast on some authentic Mexican food and stay in cabanas at 10,000ft. The cabanas we are staying in were once used by the Mexican Olympic team for their training. The stars are out and it is a beautiful night up here.
That’s all for now, tomorrow we move to the base of Ixta.
Sounds like a pretty perfect start to your adventure! Here’s to tomorrow and more great memories!
Posted by: Constance Roth on 10/10/2021 at 8:35 pm
Posted by: Christina Dale, Jess Matthews
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
Congratulations to all!! We are looking forward to seeing you at Paradise!
Posted by: Delene gillespie on 8/1/2019 at 8:39 am
Posted by: Adam Knoff
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Everest BC Trek and Lobuche
Elevation: 8,700'
We made it to the Khumbu! Normally I wouldn’t sound so excited but this was not an average day of travel.
Our day began with a modest 3:45 am wake-up call from our comfortable air conditioned rooms so we could get all of our luggage and bodies to the airport by 5:15. Our flight to Lukla was scheduled to depart at 6 which in theory would put us out of the smoggy Kathmandu valley and into the mountains at 7 am. Everything is good in theory until a human makes a silly mistake or Mother Nature takes the reins. In our case it was the later that began to send our perfectly good plan into a tail spin.
Landing in Lukla, which sits at 9,000 feet literally dug into a mountain side is considered one of the most challenging places in the world to land a plane, so conditions need to be just right. Today they were anything but. By 10 am we actually loaded a bus, got transported to the plane, sat on that hot and sweaty bus for 30 more minutes then got word the conditions deteriorated suddenly so all flights were on then off again sending us back to the terminal. By 1pm, 8 hours after arriving in the terminal we had moved a total of 20 feet. As reports of continuing bad weather reached us, we knew our chances of flying were dwindling.
So enter Plan B. If a fixed wing can’t fly, sometimes a helicopter can. And fly it did! After another hour and half of finagling we rounded up two birds to take the entire group, with luggage to Phakding, our scheduled place of rest for the evening. Wait, wasn’t there bad weather up there? Yes, and because of that we had to make an unplanned landing well below our village to avoid sinking clouds and big scary mountains. So enter Plan C.
The group flew in separate helicopters with one group making it on their second attempt and myself and Eva still stuck below. After much head scratching about how to reconvene the next day, our pilot motioned Eva and I to quickly load up so he could make a last ditch attempt at keeping the group together. By some blessing of karma, the clouds parted just enough to make it happen and we landed literally as the clouds began to close in again. With blades still running we jumped out, threw the luggage off the helicopter and off he went. We were both glad to be on the ground and not heading back into the ensuing white out.
As the bird disappeared we counted our blessings and began our efforts to find the rest of our team. Twenty-five minutes after landing we were all reunited drinking tea at the Sunrise Hotel in Phakding.
A warm fire, big dinner and a couple beers prepared us for a well deserved sleep.
I was impressed how the team kept a positive outlook and rolled with the punches despite an unpredictable outcome.
Tomorrow we begin our actual trek towards Namche. Follow along for hopefully a less intense entry tomorrow.
Cheers,
I’ve read several books about climbing Mt. Everest and love keeping up with your trek!
Posted by: Donna Randolph on 3/27/2022 at 8:39 pm
Best of luck and good weather.
Posted by: Jane on 3/23/2022 at 3:39 pm
Al the Best Hannah & Adam and Team!!!
Posted by: Dave Kestel on 4/2/2022 at 11:16 am
Blessings and great skill to summit.
Posted by: Jane on 4/2/2022 at 8:34 am
View All Comments