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Saturday, March 22, 2025 - 9:15 pm PT

Namaste everyone!

We are back from Everest Base Camp! All is well and the team is doing great. We had an amazing time and adventure the last few days on the Khumbu Glacier.

Our hike into BC was clear, beautiful and there was big wind high in the mountains that made it a touch chilly. The wind high on Everest was so strong we could hear it ripping across the mountain from several thousand feet below. Once in camp we had a nice hot lunch and then most of the team took naps in the warmth of the tents. We had a big dinner and then it was off to bed after the long trek. Camp is directly on the glacier, although it’s covered in rock and doesn’t seem like we are on ice. However, the constant cracking, popping, and pinging that the glacier makes at night reminds us of where we are.

Our second day at camp we had hot showers, explored camp and then went for a walk to see where the start of the route up the icefall starts. We even managed to see the icefall doctors making their way slowly as they pioneered their way up the endless maze of blocks of ice.

Today the team is headed downhill and we are all looking forward to warmer temps and the thicker air!!!

RMI Guide Casey Grom and the Base Camp crew.

The Five Day Climb June 20 - 24 led by RMI Guides Ben Luedtke and Jess Wedel reached the summit of Mt. Rainier at 6:45 am.  The team enjoyed clear, sunny skies but a good bit of wind. There were able to spend an hour on the summit and started their descent from the crater rim around 8 am.  Once back at Camp Muir the teams will take a short break, pack up their gear and descend the remaining 4.5 miles Paradise.

Congratulations to today's climbers!

A La Malinche summit!

Yesterday team Mexico Volcanos got up early and left Mexico City, hoping for an early departure from the trailhead for our first volcano, 14500 foot La Malinche. 

Recently, the Policía de Montaña, some of whom carry inappropriately large machine guns(tough to argue with), have been quite strict about turning all climbers around at 2pm, no matter your location or fancy technical outerwear. They mean well, as many folks attempt this very large mountain in jeans and street shoes, and seemingly no water or food. With our drive from Mexico City, it would be a push to make it, but the team was willing.

We left the park entrance with 4,500 feet to cover at around 11:30am. The team understood that it would be a little faster pace than normal to make it happen and evade la Policía, but they were up for it. 

At 3 pm, 3.5 hours and 4,500 feet later, we scrambled to the rocky summit of La Malinche with a beautiful view and not a cloud in the sky. There stood a single Policía de Montaña, who said simply, “Bajo por favor, ahora! (Down please, now!).”

We negotiated quickly for, “Solo una foto?(Just one photo?).” He was grumpy but willing, and as we took one picture of the team on the summit, the views were incredible of Volcan Iztaccihautl and Orizaba, our next two volcanos. 

Once we left the strict gaze of our friendly Policía on the summit, we were able to take some well earned relaxing breaks on our descent and enjoy the company of our new mountain dog friends, who showed us a thing or two about negotiating the loose boulder fields. 

A customary feast of barbecued steak and cactus tacos awaited us at our cabins in the forest below La Malinche, and it was an early bedtime!

The crew is super excited for our successful summit, and ready to hit the road and head to our next adventure, 17,159' Volcan Iztaccihautl!

RMI Guide Joe Hoch

June 24, 2023 10:19pm PT

Good morning from 14k camp!

After a hard-earned, good night’s rest, we woke up to frosty air, clear skies, and no wind. We began our descent past windy corner to retrieve our cache and were reminded once again of its namesake. The team, feeling strong, made quick work of our retrieval, and arrived back at camp in good style.

The day was far from over.

Anticipating a storm, we got to work fortifying our camp with the deepest posh this world has seen and some snow walls that would make the Great Wall proud. We let the rivalry of our two challenging snow block quarries bring out the best in us. Mother Nature is hard to beat but we might as well try. Now we wait and see what Denali and the weather will let us do. Passing the time by enjoying each other’s company and eating some tasty snacks.

But not too many, we might be here for a while…

RMI Guide Dan May

Alpine climbing requires a lot of different skills.  Alpinists are constantly route finding, assessing hazards, protecting exposed areas, and moving efficiently in the terrain. If you’re climbing with a qualified guide, they’ll take care of the big picture and you’ll just need to focus on the movement skills. Moving efficiently in technical terrain is what makes climbing challenging and fun - there’s always something to learn and ways to improve.  The better you move, the less energy a climb will take and the more you’ll be able to focus on what’s going on around you and enjoy the climb.  On classic alpine climbs, like Forbidden Peak’s West Ridge, Sahale’s Quien Sabe or Shuksan’s Fisher Chimneys, basic rock climbing skills are the key to moving efficiently on summit day. These skills only get better with practice, and adding some balance and rock movement skills to your training regime can give you a big leg up. With a few pointers and some practice, you can develop your rock movement skills so that you stay on your feet, use less energy and are more confident on rock before you arrive in the mountains. Basic rock movement is similar to how you walk already, with a little more attention paid to the physics at your feet. Here are some techniques that you can use to effectively move on rock: Climbing with your eyes I constantly remind my clients to “climb with their eyes.” Look around the terrain, find the easiest path, and plan it out a few steps ahead of time. Finding the easiest way up takes a good deal of focus while you climb, but it’s a great way to stay engaged and it saves a great deal of energy over the course of a long day. As you climb, look for features that resemble stairs – level platforms that you can get your entire boot on. This allows you to use a minimal amount of energy for balance and makes it easy to use a technique called the rest step.  If you can find a natural staircase up the mountain it’s just walking! Edging When you can’t find large stair-like features in the rock, you have to lower your standards. Instead of using a perfect stair, you may be reduced to placing the edge of your boot onto a tiny feature.  This is called edging.  The smaller the features you are edging on, the more effort and balance it takes to keep from slipping off.  Keep climbing with your eyes and look for the biggest features possible! Edging allows you to climb very steep, relatively blank rock faces. It’s tougher physically and much less secure than stepping onto boot-sized platforms.  With some practice you’ll be able to get up steep, technical rock and begin to feel comfortable on it.  The more time you spend practicing on different sized edges and on different types of rock (granite, limestone, sandstone, basalt, etc) the more you’ll recognize how secure you are on those features. Check out this video from Eastern Mountain Sports on edging skills! Smearing  Smearing uses the friction and adhesion between your boot soles and the rock grip surfaces that are too smooth or sloped to edge on. To get maximize your grip you need to do two things: 1. maximize the contact area between your soles and the rock 2. make sure the force you’re exerting is perpendicular to the rock surface. This means putting the rubber to the road, or in this case, the boot sole to the slab.  Articulate your knees and ankles so that the sole of your boot matches the angle of the rock.  By putting as much rubber on the rock as you can, you increase the adhesion of the rubber soles to the rock and can grip some surprisingly steep slopes. Make sure to apply your body weight as close to perpendicular to the rock as you can.  This boils down to keeping your weight directly above your feet by keeping your posture upright.  With your back straight and your head high, your weight will naturally rest directly above your feet.  This keeps the normal force of your bodyweight pushing into the rock, which increases friction.  The more friction, the better the grip and the more you can relax and look around to plan your next moves. This body positioning is counter-intuitive for most people.  Climbers that are unaware of their body position often lean forward, putting their body weight uphill of their boots, changing the direction of the normal force towards parallel with the rock, and reducing friction, resulting in a slip.  It’s very common, especially when terrain gets steeper, to want to lean in toward the rock – resist the urge and climb strong! Here's another EMS video showing smearing skills. With both edging and smearing, the more practice you get the more comfortable you’ll be on challenging rock. You’ll develop a more realistic assessment of how secure your foot placements are and that will make a huge difference in how efficient you are.  Being more confident with your foot placements will allow you to relax on difficult terrain and you will save a ton of energy. You can practice these techniques at home. Get started at your local climbing gym or sniff out small rock outcroppings if you don’t have access to a rock gym.  Keep your practice low on the rocks so that you don’t get stuck on top of something- it’s always easier to climb up rock than it is to down climb! _____ Zeb Blais is a senior guide at RMI Expeditions. Zeb splits his time between the Sierras in California and the North Cascades of Washington. He guides worldwide for RMI, from Aconcagua to Mexico, Rainier to Alaska. A passionate skier, Zeb spends his free time pursuing personal adventures around the world, including an attempted traverse of the Fedchenko Glacier of Tajikistan.  Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts here on the RMI Blog!

Namaste! The team got a great night sleep and was up early for time in the gardens and the workout room. No joke, Kim felt the need for some exercise after 35 plus hours on planes over the last few days. After a nice leisurely breakfast we discussed logistics and did a gear check to ensure we would be ready for an early morning departure. It's exciting to think that after all of our training, planning and traveling, we're finally ready to hit the trail. With details all sorted out we headed out to visit some of the World Heritage sites that Kathmandu is home to. The adventure began as soon as we left the hotel. To describe the traffic in Kathmandu as thinly veiled bedlam would be charitable. It's amazing how many cars, truck, motorcycles, bicycles and pedestrians - all vying for the same small piece of road - can manage to avoid catastrophe. But they do. It's makes for an interesting ride as a passenger to say the least. Our first stop was Swayambhunath; also know as the "Monkey Temple" because of the mobs of monkeys that call it home. It occupies the highest ground in Kathmandu and the views of the valley from the top are fantastic - but they aren't free either. For the views and to walk around the stupa we first had to walk up 365 steps to the top. At last, all our training paid off and we made it up with no problem. Though Mark did make sure and remind us to use it as an opportunity to practice the rest step! Next we headed to Pashupatinath. It was quite a contrast to our first stop. Not only is it Nepal's most important Hindu temple, but the banks of the river are lined with open-air cremation ghats. While there were a number of cremations in site the team was sensitive to the occasion and moved through the area quickly and quietly. We wandered through the rest of the complex getting to see a large number of shrines and temples. We headed back into the the city and had lunch in a delightful rooftop restaurant overlooking the Stupa at Bodhnath. The view was awesome and it was nice to be able to relax as a team away from the crowds. Though after lunch we did dive into them and wander around the streets for a while before heading back to the hotel for any last minute preparations and a good night's sleep before our early morning wake up. A special shout out to Katie from Dad and Kim! A good day indeed. John G.

On The Map

Base Camp is a busy place these days as all of the teams have arrived and the route through the icefall is now open. In the daytime climbers and trekkers are constantly milling about camp, checking in with friends and other teams to see what everyone's plans are. It's quite a scene. Since the Icefall Doctors completed the route to Camp 1 teams have been busy staking claims to the prime sites. At least one team has sent climbers to spend the night there thus starting their first acclimatization 'rotation'. The Sherpas in our team went to Camp 1 the day the Icefall Doctors completed the final leg of the route and marked off an area for our camp there. Today our team carried loads of gear to the camp. This accomplished two things. The first and most obvious is to transport some of our gear further up the mountain. The second is to aid our acclimatization by climbing to almost 20,000 feet before returning to Base Camp to recover. This was my first trip through the icefall in it's entirety. Of course I've heard about it, read about it, and have had plenty of time to obsess about it over the last 6 days. But there's no way to really get a feel for it other than climbing through it. I have climbed on plenty of glaciers. In fact I've spent weeks on end living on glaciers. But climbing through an icefall, where the glacier drops off of a steep slope, picks up speed and breaks up into crevasses (you can fall in these) and ice towers called seracs (these can fall on you) is not a normal or common thing, even for a mountain guide. So we got up at 2:15 am this morning and started our climb at 3am. There's two reasons to start this early. One is to get ahead of other people that may slow us down in dangerous sections. The other is to climb in the nice, cool temperatures of the night and avoid the oppressive heat of the day. Well, I must admit the 'cool' night time temps here are really ridiculously cold so getting out of my sleeping bag was the first crux of the day. From our camp it's about 45 minutes to the first big crevasses. The Icefall Doctors use aluminum ladders to bridge crevasses. On Rainier we also use ladders to cross crevasses the only difference is that on Rainier we'll use two to three ladders in a season, here there is about 35 ladders crossing crevasses and climbing up and down seracs. The Doctors do a great job of making things as safe as possible in the icefall. Of course there's the ladders, but they also place tons of rope on the route so you can always be clipped in and safe from a big fall. Once in the icefall itself there are precious few places to safely stop for a break. The glacier is always shifting and moving so you really don't know when a chunk of ice may come crashing down. Your best bet for safety is to move quickly and to climb in control. Fortunately our team was able to stay fairly close together owing to our early departure. There were not many people for us to get caught behind and separated. We did manage to sneak in a couple of rest breaks, though we did make excellent time and we arrived at Camp 1 at the top of the icefall just before 7:00 am. Camp 1 is a tricky place to camp. It is sandwiched in between the steep faces of Everest's West Ridge and the north face of Nuptse. Both sides of the valley are prone to ice and snow avalanches. The trick there is to position your camp so as to mitigate the danger from both sides of the valley. Also the climbing route from Camp 1 to Camp 2 currently avoids the big crevasses in the center of the glacier but passes directly under some avalanche paths on Nuptse. We were discussing the relative merits of two different campsites and where the climbing route will be the safest when a large avalanche came ripping down off of the summit of Nuptse. To our shock there was a large group of people on the climbing route, directly under the avalanche. Fortunately most of the snow and ice from the avalanche landed in the 'moat' between the glacier and the steeper slopes of Nuptse and the folks on the route, including some Sherpas from our team were only blasted with a 'powder cloud' from the avalanche. Still, this was a scary event and a reminder to be ever respectful of the power of the mountains.

Summit day! Waking up at 11:30pm the moon and stars were in full force. Everyone was nervous and excited to start climbing. After breakfast we began. As we ascended the altitude and cold really challenged us.  Finally, the horizon started getting light as sunrise greeted us. As we got to Stella Point fantastic views of the crater showed up, bathed in the early morning sun. The climb to the summit, Uhuru Peak, was beautiful as we traversed past the summit icefields. The climb was tough, but to be expected of a 19,340' mountain.

RMI Guide Brent Okita

Hello Readers,

We woke to a clear frosty day. The team made their way to the dining hall for various hot drinks to warm up the bodies before hitting the frozen trail. Once on the trail it didn't take long for the sun to begin to thaw the grown and us. Shortly I to our hike we came across about 15 Tahr roaming the hillside. You can't beat a wildlife sighting. Halfway to our new Teahouse we stopped in Pangboche to do a puja ceremony where the team got blessed for safe travels. Even though we do not practice their religion or understand all the intricacies in the ceremony, it's a moving experience and makes you want to learn more. A quick stop for tea fueled us to our final location, Pheriche. Here we will spend two nights acclimatizing. The other RMI teamed rolled in in the afternoon. It was fun to see the descending team and know that will be us in about a week. For now we will enjoy the scenery around us and let our bodies adjust to the new altitude. 

Goodnight all,

RMI Guides Hannah, Abby, and Team

Saturday, July 20, 2013 - 9:20 p.m. PT RMI Guide Mark Tucker checking in, I guess they call it Uhuru Peak, the tallest point in Africa. Here we are! Pretty good conditions. The team did fantastic. I am happy to report 100% on top! Yes, everyone is doing well. A few beautiful clouds above Mt. Kilimanjaro and clouds below, a beautiful sunrise. We are having a gas, everyone is doing well. A couple more photos and we are going to start the descent. We are going to head down into the rain forest. That will be the goal. Thanks for everybody’s support back home. We will check in again soon.

On The Map