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Most Popular Entries


Mountaineering Training | How to Make your Backpack “Feel” Lighter

A "fun" and challenging training session experienced in military training was the "heavy bag". It took the form of a duffle bag full of rocks, gravel, and sand and the goal was to pick up this bag and carry it over a specified distance. The problem was, it weighed about 120 lbs. Just getting it over a shoulder was a challenge sometimes requiring help. I used to think that the purpose of the training was to cause discomfort for the entertainment for instruction staff, but that training was very effective in helping to reframe the concept of what “heavy” actually means. This can be very useful in preparing yourself to carry a pack while mountaineering. To fit this into your training for climbing, try picking a mid-week stair session and carry a pack which is significantly heavier than your mountain pack for an hour during the session. Exactly how much heavier you choose to make your pack is up to you. Remember to be careful not to overdo it and run the risk of hurting yourself (and be careful to not damage your pack when filling it with extra weight). As a suggestion, if your Mt. Rainier pack will weigh 35 - 40 lbs, try a session carrying 50 - 60 lbs. Remember that the goal is not to see how much you can carry but to train with a weight that will make your regular pack lighter in comparison. Try it out! I’d bet that the next time you shoulder your “normal” weight pack, it won’t feel so heavy and you’ll notice a spring in your step! - John Colver John Colver is a longtime climber, former mountain guide, and certified personal trainer with the American Council of Exercise. Colver introduced outdoor fitness classes to athletic clubs throughout the greater Puget Sound region before creating his adventX brand. Currently, adventX leads training programs in Seattle and Colver presents clinics on outdoor fitness at companies such as Microsoft, Boeing, the American Lung Association, and REI. Colver lives in Seattle. _________ Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts here on the RMI Blog!
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Mt. Elbrus: Grom’s Team Refreshes Their Climbing Skills Prior to Summit Day

The team is excited for tonight! Summit time. We had an early morning training session to prep us for tomorrow by reviewing a few climbing techniques with our crampons and ice axe. Dasha has done a great job of keep us healthy and satisfied with plenty of good old home cooked Russian food, which includes borsch and plenty of soups and salads. This afternoon the team had a through discussion about tonight's upcoming climb and everyone is packed up and ready. The game plan is to be up at 1am and after a quick breakfast hop on the snowcat to give us a bump a little further up the mountain. This will shorten our climb a little and increase our chance of reaching the highest point in Europe. The weather continues to be erratic, the forecast looks good for tomorrow. Keep your fingers crossed for us! RMI Guide Casey Grom and team

On The Map

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Mt. Shuksan: Francis & Team Reach Fisher Chimneys Summit

The Fisher Chimneys climb led by RMI Guides Matias Francis and Sam Marjerison had beautiful summit weather yesterday. They reported great route conditions and enjoyed the SE Ridge to the top. The team spent last night on the mountain and will be descending this morning. They expect to be back at the cars in the early afternoon. They will conclude their program with a celebratory meal and wrap up! 

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Mt. Rainier: Five Day Climb Reaches Summit!

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!

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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


Mountaineering Training | Getting Motivated After The Holidays

On an expedition someone once announced to our group, “It’s not the altitude that’s hard, it’s the lassitude”! I’ve also heard it called Lazy-tude and I’ll admit to suffering from this once in a while ... even at sea-level and especially after holidays!    At high altitude, lassitude is a real factor. The work is hard and on a rest-day it’s easy to dig down a little into a minus-20 sleeping bag and remain as motionless as possible, conserving energy and restoring ourselves. And yet, after a while it’s easy to get into a funk, start feeling restless and then begin over-thinking the rest of the climb. At least this is my experience and there’s only one solution; find socks, boots, gloves, hats and any other required gear before suiting up and going for a walk. It’s great because it activates the body, stretches the legs and boosts your overall energy.    The same is true for training. It’s easy to sit inside in during the Holidays and, in much of the country, look outside at the rain or snow. At that moment in time the positive feelings of imagining climbing, being out in beautiful surroundings and experiencing new heights, can all seem distant.    At times like this I find that the simplest workout is all that is needed to feel great and most importantly, to move in the direction of our training goals. In my case, I find that mood follows action - rarely the other way around. So, I have a few ‘go-to’ work outs that are so simple or enjoyable that it only takes me a small effort to start: 1. 10-minute walk, 20-minute run, 10-minute walk.  2. 30 minutes of stairs, elliptical or stair-master machine. 3. The Daily Dozen with a 100-yard run between each exercise.  If you have eaten a few small feasts over the Holidays, it’s raining outside and the couch looks awfully inviting but you know you want to do something because the expedition date is coming up, just do a short and simple workout! Enjoy the feeling of activity, maybe even leave your watch or heart rate monitor behind and listen to some good music as you go.    It doesn’t take much and you will feel great!    It also doesn’t hurt to have a reminder what spectacular views await on the mountain!  - John Colver John Colver is a longtime climber, former mountain guide, and certified personal trainer with the American Council of Exercise. Colver introduced outdoor fitness classes to athletic clubs throughout the greater Puget Sound region before creating his adventX brand. Currently, adventX leads training programs in Seattle and Colver presents clinics on outdoor fitness at companies such as Microsoft, Boeing, the American Lung Association, and REI. Colver lives in Seattle. Questions? Comments? Leave a comment to share your thoughts with John and other readers!
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This post is very well written and informative. I like how the topic is explained step by step in a clear way. The content is practical and useful for readers who want reliable information.

https://legitsparrow92.wixsite.com/sport72/blog

Posted by: https://legitsparrow92.wixsite.com/sport72/blog on 1/10/2026 at 11:13 pm


Special Tribute to Nawang Gombu Sherpa

Special Tribute to Nawang Gombu Sherpa
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I had the previlage of climing with Gombu in 1978
on Mt.McKinley along with Phil Ersler with the RMI
team. I spent several nights in the same tent with
him listening to him tell stories about his Everest
climbs, what an adventure to have meet him. Saw him
over 20years later on the way to the summit of Mt. Rainer and he reconized me!

Posted by: Greg H. Craft on 5/25/2012 at 3:59 pm

August 1984. My first climb of Mt. Rainier. Gombu was a great tutor, using crampons and an ice axe. The crevasse rescues were scary stuff, at first, but experience made them easier to set up and use successfully. After all the years in between, I remember Gombu well. Rest in peace.

Posted by: G. Arnold Hartford on 5/23/2012 at 3:54 pm


Everest Base Camp Trek & Lobuche: Knoff, Smith & Team Arrive at Lobuche High Camp

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

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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


Mt. Triumph: Wittmier and Team Reach Summit

The team led by RMI Guides Dustin Wittmier and Matias Francis reached the summit of Mt. Triumph today! The team climbed Triumph's northeast ridge to the summit where they enjoyed views deep into the North Cascades, including Mt. Baker. The team is making the most of their time in the North Cascades and plan to climb Thornton Peak tomorrow before their program concludes later this week.

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Everest Base Camp Trek & Lobuche: Knoff & Team Take Helicopter to Phakding

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, 

RMI Guide Adam Knoff

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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


Mexico Volcanoes: Swingle and Team Enjoy Acclimatization Hike on La Malinche

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.

RMI Guide Grayson Swingle

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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

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