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RMI Guides James Bealer and Ellison Boord met their team for the Mt. Baker Leave No Trace Master Educator Course and Climb on Friday, August 26th for their first day of a six day training course and climb. After their Orientation day the team set up mountain camps, practiced Leave No Trace skills and travel as well as learned glacier travel skills.  Yesterday the team made their summit attempt of Mt. Baker via the Easton Glacier route. They returned to camp for their final night in the mountains.  Their program will conclude today with a celebration in Sedro-Woolley.

Nice work team!

Valdez, Alaska, is an incredible place to be in April. Long hours of daylight make for excellent opportunities to log massive amounts of vertical in the backcountry. When the skiing is good on Thompson Pass, there is no shortage of dramatic peaks and aesthetic lines. Taking my AMGA Ski Mountaineering Guides Exam there this spring, I spent a majority of April in the area training with friends and fellow guides becoming familiar with the Alaskan terrain and snowpack. The days leading up to the exam were filled with anxiety and endless “what-if’s” and “well-maybe’s.” Soon the other exam candidates and I found ourselves in the thick of eight days of late-into-the-night tour planning, strategizing, and pouring over weather forecasts, raw remote data, weather models, avalanche hazard forecasts, and various other slightly cloudy crystal balls. The general idea being to sort through all the data until you find a summary you like. Forecasting for an area as large as Alaska is quite difficult and many times during the week we were reminded that the forecasts were never quite wrong, but that the timing of the forecasts were usually off. Conditions varied from thigh-deep powder in the east facing couloirs of the Iguana Backs zone, to some of the stiffest, carvable wind-board I’ve ever skied on the Berlin Wall and Odyssey. The last few days of the exam we had great weather and flyable conditions. We employed the mechanical advantage of Valdez Heli-Skiing to get a ride into the Hoodoo glacier area for an overnight ski tour. We started with a descent of Acapulco Peak in the sunshine and finished with a long ski out of the Worthington Glacier in whiteout conditions. Going through the process of being examined by your peers, learning from other exam candidates, and dealing with the stress of guiding new terrain and on-the-fly tour planning has been invaluable in helping me excel in all other facets of my guiding and personal endeavors. Passing the exam and becoming one of only a handful of certified women in the U.S. is a huge honor and I am proud to represent RMI Expeditions. - RMI Guide Solveig Waterfall

The Five Day Climb June 3 - 7, 2021 is completing their climb today.  The teams did training at Paradise on Friday with instruction on cramponing, rope travel and ice axe arrest.  On Saturday they made the ascent from Paradise to Camp Muir.  Yesterday, they enjoyed some additional time walking in crampons and working as a rope team by walking to Ingraham Flats at 11,200'.  This allowed them to see abit of the route in the day light hours.  They planned their summit attempt for today but unfortuaty the team was unable to make a summit attempt due to high winds.  According to the Camp Muir Telemetry wind averages were 34 - 53 mph with gusts up to 68 mph.

The teams will descend from Camp Muir to Paradise and make the drive back to Ashford. We look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp later today.

Still at Everest Base. Still a very difficult situation for all involved. JJ and Billy led the climbing team on a hike to Pumori Camp One today, where they enjoyed awesome views of Mount Everest (during our hike to the same point last week we had no views due to an ill-timed and swirling snowstorm). Mark Tucker and I attended a series of somewhat tense and serious meetings between team leaders, Sherpas, and the few government representatives present in camp. It is very difficult to say what will happen going forward but one cannot under emphasize the enormity of the tragedy to the Sherpa community. Each team, if it has not suffered death and loss directly, has lost relatives, close friends and neighbors to the icefall avalanche of April 18. In too many cases, survivors saw the friends perish before their eyes or else they dealt with the difficult aftermath of body recovery personally. Our Sherpa partners love their jobs and love to climb, but nobody is climbing now and all are struggling to come to terms with how to proceed in a way that honors those lost and protects those left alive. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Jambo! The Safari Team is back at the Dik Dik! We've had a great couple of weeks but our trip is just about over. Last night we stayed at Kikoti Camp, an amazing safari camp that has tons of wildlife literally right in the middle of it. We went on a great little hike to a rock outcropping where we had drinks delivered while we enjoyed the sunset. It made for a great finish to an outstanding trip. Now everyone is busy getting ready for their respective flights home. Thanks for a great trip guys! RMI Guide Seth Waterfall

RMI Guide Joe Hoch reported beautiful views from their climb of Mt. Shuksan yesterday. Joe reported the following message from the summit: "Despite ominous smoke plumes all around us, we had a spectacular summit with a clear sky, warm temps, and views of so many mountains!"

The team has made it back to their cars and are headed home after their successful summit of Mt. Shuksan.

Congrats team!

RMI Four Day Climb August 23 - 26 led by RMI Guides Mike King and Joe Hoch reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this mornnig at 6:30 am.  Mike report a light breeze with a cloud near the summit as they were ascending this morning but once they reached the crater they had good visibility.  The teams were crossing the crater and approaching Columbia Crest just before 7 am.  After enjoying the views and signing the Summit Book, the team will begin their descent from the crater rim.  They will return to Camp Muir for a short break and then continue down to Paradise later today.

Congratulations to today's climbers!

The Four Day Summit Climb led by Andres Marin and the Viesturs/Whittaker Climb led by Ed Viesturs & Peter Whittaker were unable to summit Mt. Rainier today due to high winds and poor visibility. The teams began their descent from Camp Muir around 7:30 a.m. The Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons led by RMI Guide Billy Nugent will be returning to Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon. Weather and route conditions prevented the team from reaching the summit yesterday. Their team spent four days on the mountain expedition style climbing and learning new skills. We look forward to meeting the groups in Ashford later this morning.

The traditional patagonia weather finally arrived today. Wind, sun, rain and clouds arrived in different combinations as we hiked into the French Valley. Once up the steep and narrow trail we got some views of the Cuernos (Horns), Paine Grande and a few of the granite spires. After a windy and cold break some snow began to fall at our lunch spot. Big swing from swimming five days ago. We walked to Cuernos Refugio and got to enjoy the views of Lago Nordenskjöld with all its changing turquoise hues. Tomorrow is our last day in the park and we’ll have finished our eight day and ninty-ish mile trek through Torres de Paine.

Thanks for checking in. 

RMI Guide Mike King

Our hope was to make the summit bid short and sweet. Not so much because going for the top of Mount Everest is an awful and onerous chore, but more because dragging it out can be. Besides, we believed we were shooting for a discreet patch of calm weather and forecasts for such a patch are generally only reliable a few days in advance. It was to our advantage to cover big chunks of the mountain in a relative hurry. Leaving Everest Base Camp and relocating to ABC in one push was our first real test in this effort and that went quite well. Even so, we'd planned a full rest day at ABC in order to get recovered, re-hydrated and ready for the real test... -all of the Lhotse Face in one shot... about a vertical mile which would take us to 26,000 ft. The rest time was dull and frustrating though, to be honest. Most of our friends were already up poised for the summit and in fact, a fair number had already made the top and were coming back down. Hanging a day at ABC required patience and patience two months into an expedition required discipline. I drank absolutely as much water as I could and fretted over whether I'd be strong enough to keep up with my partners. Tshherring, Dawa and Kaji would each be carrying a bit more than me and Linden would be venturing into new terrain, so perhaps I'd eke out advantages here and there. And if all of those advantages failed, I'd rely on an old guide trick... specifying that my pace was the only one that would get us to our goal with strength intact... only fools would go slower or faster. The five of us got out of ABC at 2 AM and as usual, walking on a glacier in the dark cleansed my brain of concerns about competing with my partners. It was a perfect night with the peaks all lit by a giant moon. We all seemed to be climbing strong, making it to the base of the Lhotse Face in about an hour. Then we were across the bergschrund and moving steadily up the ropes with our headlights picking out steps worn into the ice. A few hours labor as the world got lighter and we cruised on into our Camp III site at close to 24,000 ft. We each added a ten-pound oxygen bottle to our load at this point, but the big advantage was that we got to turn those bottles on and start breathing right. Linden and I joked during the next hour on steep ice, heading up toward the Yellow Band, that it was the easiest climbing of the entire trip due to the introduction of the O's. Sunrise on the face helped a little as well, pushing back the cold. We'd begun the Face with only a few other Sherpa teams out and about, but by the time we passed Camp III we were in full traffic as plenty of Western teams were getting out of their camps and heading up. Sure enough, we also began to see folks coming down from the South Col -the day before had been a big one for Everest summiting and this same day (the 20th of May) was going to be even bigger. Eventually, as we climbed through the Yellow Band, we ended up in less-busy space and we were able to stop for a little water, food and photography. It was plain that we were enjoying perfect conditions and this made us pretty optimistic for the climb ahead. The Geneva Spur was to be our final obstacle of the day, guarding access to the South Col, but easy snow conditions and reliable fixed ropes on the Spur made it a cake walk. We were excited to link up with friends and fellow guides at the South Col and to hear their stories. And then we were excited to dive in our tents and get eating and drinking and resting for the evening. Winds actually increased during our afternoon at the Col and clouds and snow moved in, but we were pretty sure things would ease by the time we were ready for climbing. Linden and I shared a tent and kept reminding one another of things we needed to pack or prepare for the climb. We touched base regularly with Mark Tucker down at 17,500 ft and tried to find out if he had any updates about the weather and the whereabouts of other climbers. As it got dark, we pulled sleeping bags over our down suits and tried to shut our eyes, but it was pretty miserable rest. There were plenty of climbers around us on different schedules, coughing, moaning, yelling to one another, and testing their radios... there was our own anxiety and desire to get moving, and there was the cold and the noise of the wind. When Tshherring gave me a yell at about 9:40 PM, I was happy to get out of the tent and look at the weather. There was already a great string of about forty headlights moving up the Triangular Face below Everest's Balcony and I was pleased to see we were the only team shooting for a midnight start. The clouds had blown away and the wind was in the process of quitting. It was another beautiful night and it was time to get after some strong cups of coffee. Just before midnight, we wrestled ourselves into harnesses and crampons out in the cold and wedged Oxygen bottles into our packs. Kaji, Tchherring, Linden and I said goodbye to Dawa, who'd remain at the Col in case of problems, and we checked each other over pretty good before turning toward Everest and the Triangular Face. Kaji took the lead and set an easy but steady pace. In other years, I'd climbed over broken and loose rock on this steep and continuously difficult section of the climb, but this time we found good steps kicked in snow. Eventually we came upon other teams, but passed these without too much trouble since we were only four climbers and we were very capable of unclipping from the fixed ropes and putting things into "four wheel drive" with our crampons and ice axes. We were at the Balcony (27,500 ft) in just about three hours and were by then ahead of all but about a dozen climbers. Now on the SouthEast Ridge, we negotiated a narrow track on a crest of snow bordering the immense Kangshung Face. Winds came up, but not steady or greatly worrying winds... just irritating gusts that blew powder snow all over us for thirty seconds at a time. These quit a little after sunrise when we were coming to grips with the steep and rocky flanks of the South Summit. In the process, we passed a few more climbers and then got onto the South Summit by ourselves. This point allowed clear radio communication with Mark Tucker down in BC and we took advantage, letting him know just how perfect everything was up top. Then we got going on the thrilling traverse to the Hillary Step. The ropes were fixed perfectly, steps were well-kicked in the snow and the winds were non-existent... so when combined with the lack of traffic, it all had me thinking to more difficult and stressful times in these same places. We each felt lucky and happy to swing up and around the boulders of the Hillary Step. We made the top shortly after, at around 6:55 AM. There were a number of climbers there when we arrived, but most had climbed from Tibet (via the NorthEast Ridge). Temperatures were moderate and easy and so we didn't rush our own summit celebration. Eventually we had the top to ourselves and enjoyed the quiet. After months of life in deep valleys or on steep mountain faces, it was a welcome novelty to experience gigantic and open 360 degree views. But not for long. We needed to climb down to safety. This turned out to be a snap with three strong and experienced partners. In fact, we were back shaking Dawa's hand at the South Col in just a couple of hours. We ate, drank and broke down camp, getting ready to complete the last stage of our blitz... if we could get all the way down to ABC on this day, our bodies would be subjected to far less altitude related stress... we'd recover from the climb a good deal faster. But ironically, we'd have to work much harder in the short term. We hoisted big and heavy packs and climbed down the vertical mile... sweating like crazy in our down suits (but now in cloud and new-falling snow) our arms were getting tired from thousands of feet of rappelling, our toes were getting jammed forward in our boots, and our throats were getting parched from altitude and bottled oxygen... but we were getting lower and safer with every step. We rolled into ABC by mid-afternoon, glad to see Uberaj and glad to see our tents. I was exhausted but confident that I was exhausted in the very place I wanted to be. We were safe and the monkey was going to be off our backs for just a little while. Of course, the last trip down through the Khumbu Icefall would be in the morning... but worrying about that could wait until real sleep and real food had a chance to kick in and work their magic. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn