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Hello from the "Himalayan Hotel" at Pheriche! Another incredible day in the Himalayas, dear friends... And we can certainly say now we are going to spend the first night at high altitude, having hiked above the 4,000m benchmark. After a rather cold night in Pangboche, we were greeted by another cloudless sky, whose sun made us ditch our layers just a few minutes after the start. Headed towards Pheriche Pass, we enjoyed astonishing views of Kantega, Tamserku (two of the most radical 6,000m peaks in the Khumbu,) and of course Ama Dablam. Like on the previous days, the mystique of the landscape is only disturbed by the heavy downhill traffic that we encounter from time to time. While we await our dinner and as I write this post, we're also getting ready to set up for another session of nocturnal time lapse pictures before the evasive crescent moon we have vanishes. The plan tomorrow is to rest here, to continue to acclimate taking a short hike, to visit the Himalayan Rescue Hospital next door, and, of course, stay well nourished with the momos and tea that (among other things) make us look forward to every meal. On a side note, we celebrated on the trails a rendezvous with fellow guide Lakpa Gelu and RMI office staff Bridget Schletty. Regards to everyone, RMI Guide Elías de Andres Martos

On The Map

Jambo to all. Well we did it, all the “Tucklings” to the top. We tried to give a call from the summit but I’ll tell you, it was cold and breezy, and a half battery wasn’t enough, the charge wasn’t there. But I’m back down here as well as the rest of the team at our high camp, Barafu at 15,000’. We are going to toute suite out of here. I’m going to have to start poking a few of them with my ski pole, to keep them moving. But we’ll get another 5,000’ to descend to the Mweka Camp. Pretty easy to crawl into the bag and here and take a nap. But, the old machine may seize up so I'm going keep pushing them along. Everybody did just fantastic. Of course there were a few issues here and there and people were challenged. Half of them said it was probably the hardest thing they’ve ever done in their life physically. And the other half, you know they were lying. So, all is well. I'll try and get this iPAQ thing working again and do a dispatch once we get down to Mweka Camp. I appreciate you guys all checking in. Cheers from Kilimanjaro, Uhuru Peak!

Monday, June 28, 2021 - 9:02 am PT

With clear skies and light winds we retraced our steps from a few days ago up to Genet Basin. This time, though, we had our whole kit with us and now we've a established a comfortable camp at 14,200'. Today will be a rest day for  us, and we will review the skills necessary to travel on the fixed rope above us on the head wall.

RMI Guide Mike Walter

From the cramped confines of Machame Camp we headed out to our next camp, Shira. Although the rain forest below Machame was cool, the terrain on this stretch was stellar. Going thru the giant heather and moorlands the climbing became more and more interesting. Some rock outcroppings along the way provided wonderful viewpoints and lunch stops, not to mention some interesting scrambling challenges. We have only one complaint. The food is just too darned good. Our cook staff works tirelessly on our behalf, creating prodigious quantities of cuisine that would not be out of place in a fancy restaurant. All made on a couple of two burner stoves. As a climbing guide I'm the first person encouraging my climbers to eat to replace fuel burned on climbs. But our mountain staff take it to a whole new level. We are so spoiled! For example, on getting into camp this afternoon we were served an exquisite potato leek soup, followed by fried chicken, French fries and an avocado, pepper and tomato salad. All prepared fresh and treated to ensure everybody stays healthy. Our friends in the kitchen are magicians. Liz has expressed interest in learning how the magic happens and has been invited back to the cook tent to watch and maybe pick up a few insights. I'll be pressing her hard for insights into their culinary genius. Until then, I guess we'll just suffer through the fact we're probably going to gain weight while climbing a 19,000' mountain. Such are the challenges we face these days. Wish us luck. And tomorrow: climbing to Lava Tower at 15,200' and Barranco Camp. Our team is more than ready for. Until then, RMI Guide Brent Okita

On The Map

Yesterday's long day let everyone find some hard sleep through the night. The sun rises early this far north though, and by 7, we were all out of our tents working on breakfast. When we get to cache loads above throughout trips, our descents often get heavy. We took several meals up high in case of weather days, but with our perfect weather, we didn't use them. That made for some larger loads on the descent, but since we only had to walk downhill for a few hours, everyone doubled down and got the job done. By just after noon, we were in Base Camp, with tents set up, and a fast moving, rapidly darkening cloud approaching. We popped up tents, and then sure of our homes, set about to enjoying the low altitudes and green grass. We started an energetic volley ball game, Russia v. US. in the end we really aren't sure who won, as each team had bright spots, but the approaching rain forced a draw. As we understand it right now, it is high tourist season in the Caucasus, and there are not hotel rooms available tomorrow on short notice, so we will spend one more day at Base Camp, and them make our way to Kislovodsk. It's really not that bad a deal since we are in a beautiful valley with hiking, volley ball, and springs that out forth sparkling water naturally. For now, we are happy to listen to the sheep baa, the shepherds whistle, and enjoy each other's company after a very successful climb. RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Mike Uchal, and team

On The Map

This is JJ calling from the summit! Climbing Kilimanjaro we had a lot of wishes, but one of them was that our entire team would reach the summit of Kilimanjaro together. That is where we are right now. I can't say enough great things about this team. The entire gang did a amazing job today! We did a lot of hero shots by the sign at the summit. Going to spend a little more time on Uhuru Peak before we start our descent. The team all says hi to family and friends. We will touch base with you letting you know we are safe at camp. We had a fantastic day. Take care everyone. Thank you for following a long on our summit day. Ciao, ciao from Kili! Update 1:40 a.m. PST Hi everyone, this post is going to be brief. First, all Kili climbers are back in camp safe and sound. Everyone made the summit on a terrific day. We are now refueling and packing up camp. We will head down to 10,000 feet making tomorrow's exit of Kilimanjaro Park nice and casual. RMI Guide JJ Justman

On The Map

Not a lot to report on our last rest day at Base Camp. The crew has been keeping busy reading, jamming tunes, tanning, etc. RMI Guide Leon Davis lead the guys through a knot and anchor session that everyone found interesting. Other than that we've just been chilling, trying not to be anxious about the big day tomorrow on our move to Camp 1. We'll check in from over 16k tomorrow! All for now, RMI Guide Billy Nugent P.S. William would also like to wish his son John a very happy birthday! He wishes he could be there to share it with you.

On The Map

Waking at the lovely Hacienda San Luis, we soon found ourselves in the midst of the Saturday Otavalo market. Full of local crafts, raw chickens, entire cooked pigs and about anything you could imagine. We wandered around the vibrant market doing a bit of shopping and a lot of looking around. After a fun morning of exploring the market we traveled to the Cayambe hut making it most of the way on wheels before finishing up the approach on foot. Here at the hut we celebrated Brad's birthday and turned in to get some rest before our training day tomorrow. A fun day for sure and great to get to the base of our first big climb. RMI Guide Jake Beren

Tuesday, July 2, 2024 - 8:15 am PT

So the plan was to walk out in the early morning with the glacier surface frozen up nice and firm. Good plan. But it didn’t freeze.  We had a wet snowstorm from 11 PM  until 6 AM at our final camp… mostly it just preserved the slush. And then we were socked in with cloud until midday.  But when the clouds lifted, we broke records taking down camp and stretching out the rope teams. We were moving at 1PM and then stopped at 1:01 PM figuring out the first crevasse crossing. There were a few thousand more to figure out. Our final day took about six hours and included a couple dozen snowshoed feet and legs going into crevasses, but thankfully no bodies.  And magically, as we pulled up the final hill, the weather cleared and two beautiful K2 Otters glided in to the snow strip. We loaded planes and were off deck by 8 PM. There wasn’t much time for gear sorting back in Talkeetna. But there turned out to be time for Mountain High Pizza Pie and the Fairview Inn.  The team still has a couple of high altitude hacks, some tired legs and some sunburned faces, but those faces were smiling last night as we settled into the Swiss Alaska Inn. 

No summit… it is true.  But we tried.

Best Regards

RMI Guides Dave Hahn, Sam Hoffman, Sam Marjerison, Nick Sinapius

PC: Dave Hahn

Friday, May 28, 2021 -  5:09pm PT

We had another stormy night here at the base of ski hill. We woke to clear skies and decided to try and move some food and fuel towards Kahiltna Pass and the turn up to 11,200’ camp. 30 minutes into the day the wind picked up and the loose snow started spinning. With some warm gloves and a few layers we leaned into the very consistent and very cold 15 mph wind and took it an hour at a time. Eventually we got to 9500’ which met the goal for the day. The ravens will dig up shallow caches so we dug a deep hole and buried our food and fuel. We beat feet down to camp and are currently enjoying some sun on the tents while that very consistent 15 mph wind spins snow everywhere.

We’ll see what we get tomorrow and a move to 11,200’ is planned.

RMI Guide Mike King & Team