Most Popular Entries
Posted by: Avery Parrinello, Luke Wilhelm, Stephen Inman
Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades
Elevation: 9,131'
RMI Guide Avery Parrinello and the Mt. Shuksan Sulphide Glacier August 16 - 19 team reached the summit of Mt. Shuksan yesterday. Avery reported they had a beautiful summit day and had safely returned to camp for the evening. Today the team will break camp and continue down to the trail head concluding their program.
Congratulations to all the climbers!
Hey, this is Dave Hahn calling in from the summit of Mount Vinson 16,067 feet above sea level. And I'm up here. It's 5:25 in the evening. I'm with three wonderful climbers: T.A., Mindy and Vlado, and we picked a beautiful day to be up here. It's calm, it's sunny, it's wonderful. This is my 29th time on top- likely a record of some sort and what an enjoyable day. What an enjoyable week's its been. Here's T.A.: Hey, this is T.A. calling from the summit of Mt. Vinson and the view is absolutely... absolutely awesome! Special hello to everyone in Newfoundland and another special hello to Rain and Zander up there in Edmonton. Take care everybody. [Mindy] The view is... I've never dreamed about it. Without Dave and the team I couldn't dream I could make it. Dave you are a lasting reward. I made a good choice with RMI. Without the team I couldn't have made it. Total team work. This is Vlado from Slovakia calling from the highest point in Antarctica. Beautiful time, we are having a great time. Alright, well that's us from the top of the Vinson Massif, highest point in Antarctica. We have gotten very lucky. Very lucky and we appreciate all the help people have given us a long the way. Thanks a lot and we'll keep you informed. I'll send out a dispatch from our high camp tonight because we are going to get down nice and safe. We are all doing strong and well. It's going to be a nice day, a day to remember.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Dave Hahn and Team Members from the Vinson Summit
On The Map
Posted by: Linden Mallory
Categories: Mountaineering Fitness & Training
Coming off of a big climb or expedition often leads to the question, “What’s next?” The first priority is to take time to rest and recover. Any adventure in the mountains is a big physical and mental effort, and recovery time is valuable. Some light activity to stretch the legs can be a good idea but it's not always beneficial to jump back into intense workouts right away. In order to come back stronger, you need to recover first. Recovery time not only helps you physically recuperate but also gives you a mental break. When you do return to your training, you can do so with renewed motivation and excitement.
After a few good nights of sleep, take a moment to reflect on your past training and the climb itself: what worked in your training? What didn’t? What were you surprised about in the climb and how can you prepare better in the future? Take the extra minute to dig into this a bit, identify some key takeaways, and note these down.
For example, a few weeks after coming home with my tail between my legs from my first expedition to a remote peak in the Andes, I realized that while I felt aerobically strong throughout the climb, it took only a slight increase in pace or pack weight to send my exertion level through the roof. Additionally, the loose rocks of the lower mountain, fields of penitentes, and hard ice of the route were challenging to move across in a fluid manner, constantly testing my balance and ultimately wearing me out after a long day. In my training following the expedition, I focused on incorporating more interval training to increase my anaerobic threshold and to give me a larger aerobic capacity. I also incorporated more balance exercises into my gym routines, aimed at improving my ability to climb comfortably and efficiently despite the uncertainties of the terrain. On my next expedition, I was amazed at how much I gained by focusing on my weaknesses in my training.
With these area of focus noted, consider what you want to do next. If you’re eager to get back in the mountains, where do you want to go and what are the appropriate steps to get you there? Maybe it's to climb Mt. Rainier by way of another route? Are your sights set on 18,000’ or 19,000’ peaks like those in Mexico or Ecuador? Perhaps it’s the goal of climbing one of the Seven Summits like Aconcagua or McKinley?
After identifying your goal, do a little digging into what that climb looks like and what physical efforts are needed. What are the defining characteristics of the climb in terms of altitude, length, weight of pack, and technical skills? What kind of training do you need to focus on in order to tackle those challenges? Multi-week expeditions like Aconcagua or Denali require different preparation than a climb of several days like the North Cascades, Mexico, or Ecuador.
Take a look at your takeaways from your last climb and compare them with the challenges of your next climb. If it's a long expedition with heavy packs, maybe you need to build your aerobic strength and endurance to handle the extended exertion of the climb. If it's a shorter trip, perhaps it's improving your overall aerobic capacity while also increasing your strength and flexibility to meet the needs of the climb.
Completing these mental exercises helps bring your training path into focus. Continue to be strategic in your training, and it's not a bad idea to build benchmarks along the way to keep track of your progress.
Most of all, keep having fun. As climbers, it’s not just the summit day that generates the passion and excitement for us (although that’s often the most recognizable aspect to others), it’s the entire process of dreaming of a climb, working hard to plan and prepare for it, realizing it as you set foot on the mountain, and relishing in the memories afterwards.
________
Linden Mallory is a senior guide at RMI Expeditions.
Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts here on the RMI Blog!
Hola de Mexico!
The RMI Mexico Volcanoes team has arrived in Mexico City. After negotiating the busy maze of streets from the airport we have arrived in the lively Zona Rosa district. Last night we enjoyed some authentic Mexican food and prepare for our first acclimatization hike at La Malinche today. Stay tuned for more dispatches as we continue our trip around Mexico!
--RMI Guide Grayson Swingle
Posted by:
Categories: Mountaineering Fitness & Training
The use of trekking poles during climbs (in appropriate terrain) can dramatically reduce your expended effort, allow you to move more efficiently, and ultimately let you climb longer and further. Trekking poles help us to balance, taking some of the work away from the small muscles in our feet and ankles responsible for balancing, and involving the core and skeleton instead. They also help enormously when it comes to managing a large and unwieldy backpack. There are ways to use and hold trekking poles that improve their efficiency.
A common question is how long should the poles be? For climbers’ purposes, trekking poles should be significantly shorter than most would think: right around hip height. By setting our poles at hip height, and holding the pole by placing the palm on the top of the grip and draping fingers over the pole, the skeleton can take much of the load from the pole, reducing fatigue and effort. The shorter height allows the bones of the arm to stack over each other, taking the load rather than the muscles. Remember, this is not cross country skiing and having the pole tall and out in front of you only means more, yet less effective, work for your arms.
Another element to think about is how overly active arms can actually create more exertion for your body. Imagine that you were hiking up a set of stairs. Now put a tall pair of poles in your hand, and hike the same stairs while you try to push yourself up with the poles at the same time. Rather than two of your limbs working hard to move your mass uphill (lots of work already!) all four are doing the job; only your arms, working out in front of you, act as levers instead of pistons (like your legs) so they are mechanically much less suited to the task. But, by moving your arms and trying to push on those levers, your heart rate will rise with the extra exertion; the result is a higher heart rate, earlier fatigue, and less efficient use of your system if your poles are out in front of you (like a cross country skier). Even with the poles set to hip height, we see this happen often on steep rolls, when climbers don’t lower their grip on the pole to keep their hands at a comfortable height. Once the hands are above the heart, they have little effect on balance or upward motion, and the heart has to work harder to pump blood uphill to them. Through small steep terrain features it's key to choke up on your poles to avoid this.
These are not absolute principles but suggestions. Play with them during your training to teach yourself to move more comfortably and efficiently with poles. It will pay big dividends on your next climb, and can help to take some of the training stress of hiking up and downhill with heavy packs, off of your joints, helping to prevent injury!
Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts here on the RMI Blog!
Thanks for the tips! Would definitely want to have a trekking pole myself brought on hiking.
Posted by: Marge on 5/25/2016 at 10:57 pm
I’m doing the Ironman Lake Tahoe as a training program for my Mountaineering goals. What are your thoughts? If I do well with the Ironman at 6,000+ feet in elevation will this be more than plenty of training? I have 9 months until the race. After the race I expect to be in the best shape of my life.
Posted by: Will Beaubien on 1/26/2014 at 6:44 pm
Posted by: Alex Van Steen, Jake Beren
Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades
Elevation: 9,127'
The final RMI EXPEDITIONS climb of our North Cascade’s season took place under excellent weather & high spirits. The three of us (RMI Guides Jake Beren and Alex Van Steen, with climber Jim Lumberg) enjoyed late season conditions. The chimneys, gullies and summit pyramid didn’t have an ounce of snow in them, making for absolutely fantastic & fun rock scrambling & climbing. On summit morning, we postponed our bid by an hour or two as rain threatened, but by the time we took off the skies were clearing and we enjoyed an improving day and stellar climbing.
RMI Guide Alex Van Steen
Like most good climbing plans, I was told that the idea for the Climb for Five was hatched in a pub a while back. Already involved in the St. Baldrick's Foundation, a volunteer charity that raises money for childhood cancer research, the three climbers came up with the idea of tackling serious mountaineering objectives in an effort to raise money and awareness for St. Baldrick's by using the metaphor of climbing to illustrate the challenges and trials children go through while battling cancer. Hence, on Sunday September 18th, Patrick, Eric, Jon and I gathered under a thick layer of grey and drizzly clouds hanging over Rainier BaseCamp to tackle Mt. Rainier over the course of a 5 day Expedition Skills Seminar - Camp Muir.
The days of near fifty degree temperatures and rain, coming down in sheets at times, did not do much to instill confidence in the conditions above. Yet within a half an hour of leaving the trail head at Paradise the clouds thinned and by the time we reached 7,600' on the Muir Snowfield we were standing in the sun above the low-lying maritime clouds. Above us Mt. Rainier stood proudly with a fresh layer of snow from the recent storm blanketing its' slopes. During the rest of the climb to Muir, Patrick further explained the concept for Climb for Five to me: St. Baldrick's chooses five Ambassador Kids every year, representing that for every 5 children that get childhood cancer only 4 survive. The Climb for Five honors those Ambassadors; each day of the climb is chosen to honor one of the kids and the climbers carried keepsakes from each of the kids with them throughout the climb.
After a full day of training, learning the fundamentals of safe climbing and glacier travel techniques, exploring the Cowlitz Glacier outside of Camp Muir, and preparing ourselves for the climbing above, we set off on our summit bid under a beautifully starry sky early Wednesday morning. The new snow on the mountain smoothed over the rocky sections of the mountain and we made good progress across Cowlitz and Ingraham Glaciers and onto Disappointment Cleaver. Just before sunrise, breathing hard from the exertion at those altitudes, we reached the top of the Cleaver and added more clothes to fight the biting predawn winds. Continuing above the Cleaver the sun finally began to break above the horizon of eastern Washington and gave way to one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen on the mountain. The unsettled layers of clouds filtered the light such that shades of pink, red, yellow, orange, green, and blue were simultaneously covering the mountain's glaciers and the surrounding landscape below. The array of colors around us contrasted sharply with the traditional monotones of high alpine environments of rock, ice, and snow. Unfortunately, those same unsettled clouds soon overtook the sun and by 13,500' we were enveloped in a cloud cap, covering us in a thick layer of rime ice and blowing just enough to add to the challenge of making the final 900' of climbing to the summit.
Standing on top, buffeted by the wind and precipitation, Eric and Patrick unfurled the St. Baldrick's Banner and then pulled out a few keepsakes in memory of Arden, the Ambassador Kid for whom we were climbing that day. We then turned back and set our sights on descending. Like children battling cancer, reaching the summit is only half of the battle - the road to recovery once defeating the cancer is as long and as challenging as retracing one's route back down the mountain. We carefully picked our way back down Mt. Rainier's flanks, weaving our way amongst the seracs and around the gaping late-season crevasses that cover the mountain back to camp.
The winds from higher on the mountain descended not long behind us and continued to blow for the next several days while we finished the rest of the Seminar: building snow anchors, practicing the rigging systems needed for crevasse rescue, and ice climbing on the Cowlitz Glacier before descending back to Ashford on Friday. Taking part in the Climb for Five was a special experience for me and I feel fortunate to be involved. Having lost a sister to cancer as a kid, I share the same with the climbers of the Climb for Five and the entire climb struck a chord with me and I look forward to future climbs with this team. Thanks to Patrick, Eric, Jon, and St. Baldrick's for pursuing this endeavor, RMI is proud to be a part of it.
RMI Guide Linden Mallory
Great read Linden, I feel that I was there with you. It was fantastic to meet you and the Climb For Five team. Seeing you guys leave for the climb and to see you come back was special. Thanks for looking after the guys.
cheers,
Holdeen
Posted by: Holdeen Cushing-murray on 9/27/2011 at 7:21 pm
As the team leader and founder of Climb For Five , I would like to thank Linden and all the staff at RMI for a well run course. The weather was taxing at times but the whole crew from RMI kept our spirits up and made sure that we were safe and enjoyed the whole experience.
Our experience while climbing Rainier has provided us with a new skill set that will allow us to move forward with our other planned climbs over the next few years. We will definitely be using RMI and hopefully Linden for our next climbs. So thank you RMI and Linden for all that you have taught us, we look forward to future climbs with you guys.
Patrick and all the kids from Climb For Five.
Posted by: Patrick Mc Carrick on 9/27/2011 at 11:13 am
Posted by: Brent Okita, Matias Francis
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Five Day Climb led by RMI Guides Brent Okita and Matias Francis reached the summit of Mt. Rainier earlier this morning! The team reported a nice day for this 4th of July holiday. The team on their descent and we expect them back in Ashford this afternoon.
Congratulations climbers!
Congratulations Sarah, Nicole, and Jake on reaching the summit. This is a great accomplishment. We are proud of you! Be safe! Felly, Sam, and Kevin.
Posted by: Sam on 7/5/2022 at 6:33 pm
Congrats David & Stephanie! Epic! You two are beasts. Thankfully no 90mph winds this time. Denali is next. Love ya and happy for your success. Mom & Dad
Posted by: Richard on 7/5/2022 at 5:19 pm
Posted by: Alex Van Steen
Categories: Guide News Carstensz Pyramid Responsible Climbing
In February 2013, I spent several weeks in West Papua with the express intention of connecting with villagers who live along the trek followed by our Carstensz Pyramid climbing programs. I traveled with two translators - one a long-time friend who grew up in West Papua and the other a member of the Moni tribe, a man who truly has a good heart for his people.
I visited about ten villages and had numerous trailside chats. I spent many hours chatting (as well as eating, and playing soccer & table tennis!) and had opportunities to share our vision with various folks: government officials, village elders, tribal chiefs, pastors and school teachers.
The constant thread throughout the conversations involved villagers expressing frustration with tourists who came to “take photographs” and “take summits” but who did not (as it was described to me) “give relationship.” It is understandable that folks were upset when they weren’t paid as promised by unscrupulous outfitters or when they felt unsafe being asked to porter into the high country (the tribal peoples have not traditionally traveled above the jungles, see story below), but it truly resonated with me that when they felt most disrespected was when they were treated as if they were nothing more than pack animals. Quite frankly, they explained, why should they leave their tribal community and upset their daily lives only to be mistreated or underpaid?
I knew that in order to eat this elephant, I would need to take it one bite at a time, so I started with small bites of “giving relationship.” I found that when I played soccer (which I am convinced is the lingua franca of relationship) with the local men and boys on village airstrips, that we had laughs to share (mostly at me tripping on the uneven surface!); when I offered to show folks photos of my family, they showed me their village (!); and for all my “otherness” (some folks, I was told, had never seen white-skinned people), I was never denied the hospitality of a meal or a hut as respite from the rain.
Another small bite was the creation of the protocols (below) to be posted in a church along our route. The pastor in this village of twenty people, a good man named Atan, had initially wanted to run me off. I agreed to keep walking, but in deepening the conversation as to why, I learned that an earlier group of tourists had – in his word – “desecrated” the church by leaving garbage there. I whole-heartedly agreed that such practices were unacceptable, and offered to create protocols to instruct tourists how to behave. Through my translators I was able to build a simple list of what it would take for his village to feel respected. They fully wanted tourists to stop for the night but they also needed tourists to respect that privilege.
As I look forward to my next trip, I hope to take a few more bites of the elephant!
THE SUGAPA ROUTE VISITOR PROTOCOLS
This church serves an important role in the community. Guests are welcomed to find refuge here and are asked respect the following requests. This will help ensure use of the building for future travelers.
• Please stay off of the raised area which surrounds the altar. This area is for local religious personnel only and it is considered offensive if others trespass there.
• Please keep hot water, stoves & cookware out of the building. This helps keep the area clean.
• Please hang a trash bag just outside the building to collect your garbage. Villagers will burn your trash for you.
• Because of the importance of Sunday worship, travelers should not expect access to the building on Saturday evenings or Sundays.
• Please do not use the church grounds or property for toilet needs. Ask the Pastor of the church where it is appropriate to wash and use the bathroom.
• Please offer a donation for your use of the church. This is an appropriate and considerate way of expressing thanks.
Download a multi-lingual copy of the Sugapa Route Visitor Protocols here.
| The Moni name for Carstensz is Mbai Ngela. It means "Forbidden Egg." The story is that in years gone by when the mountain was snow covered, it resembled an egg, and the fore-fathers forbade their people from going there because it was the hunting grounds of evil spirits and those spirits always killed those who ventured there. Even today, villagers have a very difficult time understanding the science of hypothermia and often will point to and tell of places along the way where the spirits have killed a poor wayfarer! |
Hi Alex, Glad to see you are still at it and your spine is still in good enough
shape to climb the big ones! Not sure if you remember me, but I was your
chiropractor in Federal Way, and we ran into each other on Rainier in ‘95.
Hope all is well with you and yours. Drop me an e-mail if you have a chance.
Chris
P.S. gourds on the unit are the custom in Papau!
Posted by: Chris Mallory on 7/28/2013 at 7:59 pm
Posted by: Casey Grom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador
Hello everybody back home, this is Casey Grom checking in from the Cotopaxi Express Ascent. Today we left the busy city of Quito and traded in for a little rustic countryside visit. We did a short acclimatization hike on the Illinizas where we reached just over 15,500’. Everybody did fantastic and we even got to use our gore-tex jackets with fresh snow falling on us today. We have since descended and have retreated to the Hacienda Chilcabamba where we have just finished a delicious meal and great conversation. Everyone seems to be doing really well and everyone's relaxing right now inside. We are looking forward to some clear skies tomorrow and a nice view of Cotopaxi.
That's all for now and we will check in again tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
RMI Guide Casey Grom checks in from Ecuador.
Great job guys! I wish I were there to celebrate with you. It was great to meet all the guys on the climb & Casey & Adam.
Posted by: Rejan on 12/16/2011 at 8:25 am
GO BILLY!!! So proud of you! We will be praying for you and your team that you all may have a SAFE expedition!!!
Posted by: The Terry's on 12/16/2011 at 8:19 am
congratulations Mindy! So proud of your big achievement! You are great. Bill
Posted by: Bill Liu on 12/19/2011 at 1:17 pm
I hope soon I will be able to do what you have done, congratulations on your climb
Posted by: grover rose on 12/15/2011 at 4:13 pm
View All Comments