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The starry skies that covered us when we went to bed gave way to a thick cloud deck and by 5am this morning it was blowing and snowing on our tents in Condoriri Basecamp. Thankfully the team all slept hard from our efforts the day before and by the time we started breakfast at 8am only a thin dusting of snow and partly cloudy skies remained. This set us up perfectly for a relaxed day of travel. After breaking down the tents, we hiked out of the valley and met the transport vehicles. Even though only 20 odd miles separate the Condoriri Valley from Huayna Potosi the terrain requires back tracking through the edge of La Paz, making the trip closer to three hours. We were rewarded with incredible views of the mountain, which grew larger and more stunning as we arrived at our refugio. This evening the team is relaxing and enjoying a reset before our next big push. RMI Guide Eric Frank

The Four Day Summit Climb and the Five Day Summit Climb reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The guides reported moderate winds and cloudy conditions. The teams were departing the summit around 7:30 a.m. and are returning to Camp Muir to refuel before continuing downhill to Paradise. We’ll see them back in Ashford this afternoon. Congratulations to today's teams!

RMI Guides Casey Grom and Adam Knoff are leading our first Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir of the 2013 season. Today they are spending the day at Rainier Basecamp preparing for their next five days on Mt. Rainier. Team introductions, gear organizing, and technical training is on their agenda. While the team was testing out their boots on a hike from Basecamp, they ran into Lou Whittaker, the man who started RMI 44 years ago! Some stories were told and photos were taken, then it was back to training. The team is anxious to head up on the mountain tomorrow!

Today presented our team with it's first real challenge. Early this morning mother nature decide that leaving the weather window wide open was making things a bit to easy for us. She knew we had plans to move to 11,000 feet so early this morning the wind started blowing, the temps dropped and the world resembled the inside of a ping pong ball. For a while we were actually debating staying put. That thought lasted as long as a Luke warm cup of coffee and two hours later we were all heading toward camp 3. Despite the weather this team performed like a well oiled machine. We arrived at 11,000 feet in great style and pounded out a great camp. I am most impressed by everyone's strength and charisma. Talk to you all tomorrow. RMI Guide Adam Knoff

This morning we woke to clear skies and chilly temperatures. After warming our hands with breakfast and hot tea or coffee, we packed up camp and tied into our ropes to leave the basecamp area. The goal for the day was moving to 7,800' camp on the main flow of the Kahiltna Glacier. We enjoyed pleasant temperatures and excellent conditions on the glacier, enabling us to make the trip in just under five hours. As one of the first teams to arrive for the day we were able to move into some pre-dug tent platforms. The peaks surrounding us are shining in the sun and shimmering blue ice is all around. Quite the view from our new home. The weather forecast is great and we are looking forward to our next few days. RMI Guides Eric Frank, Jason Thompson and the AK Seminar team

12:01 a.m. (Nepalese Time) - Team leaving the South Col UP UP AND AWAY ! These guys are my supermen. It's now down to a handful of hours. With all that has happened over the course of this expedition, success shows itself in many ways. Summit or not these guys rock. In a couple of days, when Dave, Linden, Kaji, Dawa, Yubarj and Tsering are back down here at Base Camp feeling good and all equipment removed from the mountain, that will be a huge success. As they leave the South Col they start on kind of rolling terrain with some good-sized crevasses. In the past the fixed line didn't normally start till you got the first steep part, the Triangular face. So some kind of markings like the sticks with flags were great but if it was hard ice everywhere you had a difficult time placing them. GPS is sure an improvement but electronics can have some problems in the cold and one more thing to mess with. The last few years the teams have made it a point to put a rope line to follow in this area for low-to-no visibility occasions. As they start up it's a constant mix of adjusting straps, pace, oxygen masks, gloves, ice axes and more. While you hope you hit the clothing options right, it may be necessary to pull over and make the quick change so as to not sweat bullets or need to move to quick to stay warm. And what about the other teams? Are they in front, going at a pace that does not work for you? Can you unclip from the rope and make a pass safely? Is your oxygen mask clogging up and not allowing freedom of ambient air movement? Is the wind now picking up and I need to put on some form of eye protection to keep from getting the dreaded frozen cornea? Now that I have put on the eye protection is it all fogged up? Better to see the terrain and risk the freezing? How are my toes, what is going on with my hands? Head to toe self survey, constantly observing my every move. What are my thoughts, am I keeping focused? How is my partner? Where is my partner? Are my Sherpa OK? Do they have my next bottle of oxygen? My oxygen! Do I still have enough to get me to the Balcony (27,500 ft), the next location that I will expect to hear radio communication from the team? And first semi-flat place for a short break and a oxygen bottle change. That should take between three and four hours from now. So hang in there, I promise as soon as I hear, you will too. RMI Guide Mark Tucker

On The Map

As comfortable as we were in Namche Bazaar, it was time to go higher.  We got our customary 8 AM start climbing up and out of town.  Initially the trail was quite steep, but then it leveled off as we began following the Bhote Koshi River.  We travelled in a thick pine forest with only occasional views of the great peaks surrounding us.  Following the pattern of the past few days, clouds began moving in by mid-morning.  A few hours walking brought us to Thamo, where we stopped for tea.  Another hour got us to a dramatic cable bridge crossing of the violent river. We pulled into 12,500ft Thame, a garden-like village of neat yak pens and potato fields at 1 PM.  It turns out we are lodged in Apa Sherpa’s tea house… and his home (before Utah).  Apa was the Everest record holder for many years, having climbed the mountain 21 times and he is a hero to many of us still.  The clouds closed in after our lunch and made it easy to nap away the afternoon (since staring up at the mountains was no longer an option).  It is a little colder as we gain altitude, but the dining/sitting room is plenty comfortable with a fire. 

Best Regards

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

It was still cloudy at high camp this morning, despite predictions for clearing. But looking up at the summit of Mt Shinn or the higher ridges of Vinson (the summit is not visible from high camp) it was obvious that no wind was in the mix. We decided to go for the top. We were out of camp by 9:15 AM. The cloud cover actually kept us from overheating in the first few hours. The team made steady progress- everybody was strong and using their best energy saving techniques. We all found the summit ridge to be a magical place. We had no big views, since by that point we were in the cloud tops, but that meant we concentrated our attention on the close in views of rock and snow formations. We hit the top at 4:30 PM and were quite surprised at how comfortable it was to sit up there, with zero wind and strong sun shining on the clouds around us. We enjoyed a half hour on top and then began our careful descent, reaching high camp at 7:25 PM. This allowed us to eat dinner and get to bed at a respectable hour (which has been rare). Good sleep is what we need now to make tomorrow's descent to Basecamp manageable and safe. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

Thursday, July 4, 2013 It has been like a sunny beach vacation...except if it were sunny we would have flown far away from this particular snowy beach days ago. The snow keeps coming a bit harder and the forecast says through Sunday now. Could be worse; we have plenty of food, fuel, and great conversations! RMI Guide Mike Uchal made almost five hours worth of pancakes in a continuous stream for most of the camp. We have a small backlog of climbers around us. There are not many new climbers in basecamp since the weather has prohibited much movement on the mountain from any of the different camps. RMI Mt. McKinley Summit Team 6

On The Map

We are on the trail to Shira Plateau, our second camp on Kilimanjaro. Last night was calm and clear with a full moon and today we've been above the clouds all morning. The trail is busy with climbers from all over the world but our team was ready to go early this morning so we're ahead of the pack. We got our first view of the upper mountain today and we're all suitably impressed. RMI Guide Seth Waterfall

On The Map