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We had a busy day here in Kathmandu preparing for Everest Base Camp Trek and Island Peak adventures. We spent the better part of the morning discussing the plan, logistics, and gear needed for the trip, making the final preparations and sort of our gear before loading it all into our duffel bags in anticipation of tomorrow morning's departure. After weeks spent collecting all of the gear we need and thousands of miles of travel to get it here, it is exciting to have everything packed and ready to go. After lunch we plunged into Kathmandu to visit several of the city's renowned UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Stopping first at the Pashputinath Temple, we walked between the small shrines and many temples dotting the banks of the Baghmati River observing the activities of Nepal's most holy Hindu cremation site. Deep in the heart of this city of 4 million, the temple grounds were bustling with families and ceremonies. Moving across town a little ways, we then spent some time exploring the Boudhanath Stupa, the largest Buddhist Stupa (temple) in Nepal and the starting point for any pilgrimage the Nepalese Buddhist undertake. Spanning an area the size of a football field, the sprawling stupa's white washed walls are constantly circled by streams of visitors and worshipers. We then climbed the long set of stairways to Sawayambunath Stupa. Nicknamed the Monkey Temple by Kathmandu's hippie visitors in the '60s, the temple grounds sit atop a hill overlooking the city and true to its name, is home to a large number of monkeys that swing from the strings of prayer flags and scramble across the golden roofs of the shrines, all the while waiting patiently for the misattention of a visitor to grab their snacks or drinks. After the tour we headed into Thamel, the throbbing center of Kathmandu to get dinner. Navigating the narrow streets packed full of shops selling knock-off outdoor gear, taxis, visitors, and street vendors hawking local jewelry, we ate at one of my favorite restaurants in Kathmandu before turning in for the evening. We have an early ride to the airport tomorrow morning for our flight into the mountains to the village of Lukla. We will check in tomorrow from the Khumbu! RMI Guide Linden Mallory

On The Map

Jambo from Karanga Camp, The great weather continues and we woke up to another cloudless day on Kilimanjaro. Barranco Camp can be a little cold in the morning so we decided to sleep in an extra 1/2 hour to make sure that the sun was hitting our camp by breakfast time. We all slept well and were excited to start climbing the Barranco Wall. You would guess from most people's description of the Barranco Wall that it is a vertical climb of almost 800 feet. Fortunately, this is not the case and it definitely proved to be a highlight of the trip for everyone. Bibiana dedicated this section to Gabriel. This is the shortest day of hiking on our trip, and once we reached the top of the Barranco Wall, we continued traversing below the south face of Kilimanjaro. The Heim, Kersten, and Decken glaciers were glistening in the sun above us as we approached Karanga Camp. We had a big pasta lunch waiting for us as we walked into camp. After lunch, we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying our new camp. Tomorrow we make our move to Barafu Camp, our highest camp on the mountain. We will then be in position to make our summit attempt the following day. We will check in tomorrow from 15,200 feet. - The Kili Team (July 25 - 8 August, 2011)

7800' Kahiltna Glacier We had high hopes this morning at 14 Camp. The sky was clear and although we could see signs of wind up high on Denali's South Peak, we believed we could finally get up to 17,200'. At least we felt that enthusiasm until just after breakfast when I used the satellite phone to track down the weather forecast. It called for snow. It actually called for lots of snow... Like 30 inches in the next 24 hours. This was difficult information to reconcile with the sparkling blue sky and brilliant sunshine we were then enjoying. And it was particularly hard to reconcile such a possibility of big snow with our diminished food supplies. I gathered the team and gave them the hard conclusion the four guides had reached: we could not go up with such a prediction on our 17th day of a 22 day trip. If the forecast were even half right, we'd be trapped at 17,000 ft waiting for avalanche conditions to stabilize and by the time we were on our way down the mountain we wouldn't have enough food to deal with any further setbacks to our progress. In mid-July with no Park Service personnel on the mountain and with no well-worn track in the snow and with plentiful crevasse puzzles to solve down low on the glacier, we needed to anticipate further challenges to our descent of the mountain. We could no longer look up the hill. In fact, we couldn't even sit at 14 Camp long enough to see if the dire snow predictions came true since such a snowfall would set up a significant avalanche hazard threatening our route down to 11,000'. It was a tough thing then to let go of our summit ambitions while the sun was shining and while we still had food and fuel and while the remaining teams on the mountain reached seemingly opposite conclusions as to how to deal with the storm. But we packed up anyway and started carefully down the mountain. Ever so slowly, the clouds moved in, but we still had great views from Windy Corner and excellent traveling conditions down through 11 camp. It got a bit murky and mushy as we pushed down onto the main Kahiltna Glacier and we needed to be careful of sagging snow bridges on the crevasses of Ski Hill, but that all worked out fine. In just over six hours we reached 7800' and called a halt to the day's march. Time for dinner and some rest in our tents. The glacier surface is soft, soggy and not terribly supportive and the light is flat... Not ideal conditions for taking on complicated crevasse fields. We ate dinner and got in our tents as the snow began to fall. Our focus is now on completing the final push to the airstrip, but on our terms -when conditions are favorable. RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

The Four Day Climb May 16 - 19 led by RMI Guides Brent Okita and Hannah Smith climbed halfway up Disappointment Cleaver before conditions required them to turn around.  Hannah's team climbed to Ingraham Flats and worked on some ice climbing. The teams descended to Camp Muir and will be packing up and starting their descent to Paradise later this morning.

RMI Guide Casey Grom & the Four Day Climb June 19 - 22 reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today. The weather is beautiful with blue skies and a few broken clouds.  The team was able to spend about an hour on the summit before starting their descent.  The teams left the crater rim around 8:30 am to return to Camp Muir.  After a brief stop to repack and refuel they will continue to descend the remaining 4,500' to Paradise.  We look forward to their return to Rainier BaseCamp later this afternoon.

Nice work team!

Namaste everyone!

Well we did it! The team has successfully made it to Everest Base Camp on a beautiful day. We had a relaxing start to allow the day temperatures to rise enough so that the hike would be pleasant. The team hiked for almost three hours to reach Base Camp or EBC as we call it, stopping along the way many times to take pictures and just enjoy the stunning views. 

Once here, we were greeted with some of the best food thus far for lunch and then all team members enjoyed a well deserved hot shower while it was still warm and sunny. Although the temperature wasn’t high, the intensity of the sun at this altitude made it feel quite warm to us. 

Everyone is doing great and looking forward to a good nights rest after all the days trekking to get here. We are sleeping on the Khumbu glacier in a campsite chopped out of the ice. Our camp is surrounded by mountains and glaciers in nearly all directions. It’s incredibly breathtaking to say the least.

That’s all for now! 

RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

Friday, May 28, 2021 - 8:05pm PT

Today started out clear but cold and breezy. I’d say we picked up about a meter of snow in the past couple of days, with lots of wind transportation and deeper drifts. The winds abated and it was quite pleasant in camp today, which was nice as it afforded us time to reinforce our snow walls ahead of the storm that is forecasted to move in tonight. We’re anticipating more snow and strong winds tonight and tomorrow. Winds of seventy miles per hour are likely at high camp (17,000'). We’re at 14,000', so we expect lower wind speeds here. We’re dug in and ready for it.

The hope is that we’ll have a few days of good weather in its wake in which we can move to high camp and make a summit bid. We’ll keep you posted as this storm materializes.

RMI Guide Mike Walter & Team

Ed Viesturs details the trip from the Balcony to the South Summit and Linden gives us an update from Basecamp

Namaste everyone!

We did it! Everyone successfully made it to Everest Base Camp on our most beautiful day yet! We started this morning once the sun hit the trail and walked for about three hours - taking in the incredible views, the warmth from the sun and stopping for photos every chance we could get. It’s no secret we haven’t had perfect weather this trip but it’s shifting and today it was extraordinary. Sunshine, no clouds, views for days as we looked up at Everest, Nuptse and Pumori. We weaved in and out on the edge of the Khumbu Glacier and eventually arrived at our incredible base camp.

We had a delicious lunch of warm soup followed by a huge plate of food. We settled into our tents after lunch. The tent platforms are chopped into the ice and rock. It’s a pretty amazing sight. We are SO close to the edge of the lower Khumbu icefall we can touch it. This afternoon, we took in the views, felt the intensity of the sun heat up our tents and just took a few hours to enjoy all the effort it took to get here. Our camp is surrounded by mountains and glaciers everywhere you look and it all feels like a dream. We are about to eat a hearty dinner and everyone is looking forward to some sound sleep before we get to spend tomorrow exploring the area around us a little more.

There’s no wifi or service here at base camp so don’t be worried if you don’t hear from loved ones until we make it back down the valley. Everyone is doing well.

RMI Guides Jess, Sam and the Everest Base Camp crew

Hey gang...all is good here on Shuksan. We're on top at 9:30 am with 100% success! The weather is perfect, with no clouds above us and barely a breath of wind. We have great views of many northwest peaks from Rainier to Canada. We'll be in touch after we return to our camp. Cheers, RMI Guide Mike Walter