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Friday, June 18, 2021 - 10:18 pm PT

It is usually a good sign when the easy part goes smooth and easy.  Our team of seven climbers and guides flew in and met up in Alaska without a hitch.  It was cloudy and overcast as we drove up from Anchorage, but not so much that we couldn’t get glimpses of the big mountains up mingling with the cloud tops.  We stopped briefly in Wasilla for a few final provisions from the world of supermarkets, and then cruised on up the Parks Highway to the Talkeetna spur road.  After settling our gear at the airplane hangar and ourselves at the hotel, we braved mosquito hoards and labor shortages to find a fine dinner at the West Rib.  A well-fed climbing team then waddled out to the banks of the great Susitna River to see if the mountains had come out.  Not quite, but we judged it all to be good enough for day one. 

Best Regards,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

RMI Guides Eric Frank and Pepper Dee with their Four Day Climb teams reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning a little before 7 AM. Both guides reported no winds and overall perfect conditions. Congratulations to today's climbers!

Time to climb! We left the Dik Dik hotel early today and headed to Kilimanjaro. We passed many tea, coffee, and banana plantations before we arrived at the southern gate called the Machame gate. Which is also the name of the route we will be climbing. Our team checked in with the local agency that manages the climbs, while our local guides hired porters and split up the 60+ loads that will follow us up the mountain. We hiked through soaring rainforest and giant heather in route to our camp for the night. It took us just over four hours to reach camp, where we were delighted to find camp already waiting on us. The staff provided yet another amazing meal for the team and we were even fortunate enough to glimpse a view of the "Roof of Africa" right after dinner. Everyone is in great spirits and are looking forward to some well earned sleep. RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

On The Map

Greetings everyone, The team has adjusted to our new home and daily routines. Everyone seems to be feeling well and we are all excited about heading higher. There has been plenty of training on the lower glacier and several acclimatization hikes that leave us feeling we are ready for the next step. Our new goal will be to ascend the famous Khumbu Icefall. We have already had a few small forays into the lower glacier and everyone did great. The Icefall starts just a few feet from camp and ascends a little over 2,000 ft to Camp One. Our goal will be to ascend the icefall as quickly, safely, and comfortably as we can. It won't be a race, but more like a slow, steady climb to camp. We are hoping it takes no longer than 6 to 7 hours for our first trip. If all goes well we will spend a few days at Camp One and might even venture up the Western Cwm to Camp Two. George Mallory himself named the Western Cwm (Cwm being a Welsh word meaning valley). The weather has been interesting these last few days and it's beginning to snow as I type. Hopefully a few days of rest, some good weather and we'll be on our way. Hope everyone is doing great back home and we miss you all (well, most of you anyway!).

Hello from Tanzania! 

Everyone and all bags have arrived in Tanzania and the team is doing well and in good spirits after some very long flights. Nearly 20+ hours for many of us. 

It was a short and quiet ride to our Lodge that is nestled in between Arusha and Moshi and not so far from the base of Kilimanjaro. The team had a quick dinner and headed for bed as the time change had us all feeling just a little off and pretty tired after all the traveling. 

Luckily we had an extra day here because of flight options. I say luckily, because the time change is pretty tough being about 12hrs difference for us. The extra day will certainly help us adjust. 

Today we had a leisurely morning and then rolled into our group meeting after breakfast, where we did a round of introductions and then discussed the upcoming program for the days ahead. The team spent the remainder of the day getting our gear packed up, exploring the grounds of our peaceful Lodge and dodging the gaggle of monkeys patrolling the grounds. 

We wrapped up the evening with a delicious meal and plenty of friendly conversations.

Everyone is doing well, excited to be here and looking forward to stretching our legs tomorrow as we head to the mountain. 

RMI Guide Casey Grom and the 2023 Kili crew!

The Kilimanjaro Family Climb arrived in Tanzania and spent the day making final preparations and packing their gear for their departure on to the mountain tomorrow morning. Check out their video dispatch below. RMI Guides Peter Whittaker & Seth Waterfall

There's a great German game show called "Stackenblocken" where contestants arrange objects on a desk at right angles. A judge then comes out with a framing square and a riding crop to punish the contestants who cannot make their desk "Stackenblocken". Well, the weather has been so sunny and warm here at 11 camp that the wall surrounding our camp was indeed no longer "Stackenblocken" and in fact leaned to the point where it comically collapsed... Fortunately for us there was no judge with a jockey's disposition and the blocks remained intact. We were actually able to rebuild it in a few quick minutes; turns out its not so hard on the second go around when all your materials are ready-made. On another note, the team also spent a bit of the day retrieving our cached food and fuel from the 9,600' camp. We made such short work of our back carry that it really felt like a rest day. Good times! More about our intrepid crew as our adventure unfolds... RMI Guide Billy Nugent

Hello everyone at the RMI blog site for Team One here on Aconcagua. Wanted to give you a little bit of an update as far as what we are up to. First of all the team is doing absolutely great. We actually moved our camp to Camp Two at 18,000' and we are nestled in, tents are up. We've already had a round of hot drinks and now we are just resting and relaxing. We always want to be optimistic, but to let you know a little bit of the weather forecast that we have. It is not looking that great. The winds are picking up, there is a big lenticular right now over the summit, and they are calling for incredibly strong winds for the next 4 to 5 days. However, you never know if those forecasts are wrong so we are hunkered down here, our tents are nice and solid. So, the winds are not as strong down here as they are up high. So everyone is doing great, but this is part of big mountain expedition climbing. Little bit of a waiting game and that's what we need to do is just kind of see what Mother Nature gives us, so we've got high hopes. And we'll basically give a call tomorrow and get a little more updates on the weather and see what's happening. But for right now. Everyone's doing great, and we'll check back in tomorrow and let you know what we're up to. Most likely maybe a walk up towards high camp. And a little more resting and recovery. So take care everyone. Will talk again soon. Ciao from Argentina. RMI Guide JJ Justman

On The Map

Hey guys, this is Mike Walter calling from high camp on Denali, 17,200'. We're all doing great. We are all tucked into our sleeping bags. We moved up here yesterday and rested today. We are hoping for good weather to go for the summit tomorrow, which would be Saturday, May 26th. The forecast is for pretty light winds and some clouds so it is looking promising. We'll give you guy a shout either from up top or back at camp hopefully. Alright. We'll see you. RMI Guide Mike Walter

On The Map

Day one of our safari brought us to Lake Manyara, known for its famous pink flamingos and tree climbing lions. It took us about two hours to get there from our hotel. The drive took us through the vast open plains of Africa inhabited mostly by the Maasai people. Once in the park we rolled the tops of our land-cruisers back and drove through while standing up. It's currently the dry season and the lake was mostly gone for now, but we saw many animals- elephants, water bucks, Thompson giselles, impalas, dik diks, zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, and too many birds to name. No big cats today but hopefully tomorrow we'll see plenty. Everyone enjoyed the day and we are currently resting at the fabulous Plantation Lodge. See for yourself. We will be headed out early tomorrow to try and beat the heat and catch the animals at breakfast, so to speak. It's off to bed for now, RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew