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Yesterday all members of the RMI Mexico team arrived  safely in Mexico City. With a quick team meeting to cap off the night, we were off to bed to sleep off the long day of travel.

La Malinche is the first objective of the trip, an acclimatization hike that takes us up to 14,501 ft. We couldn’t have picked a better day for it. Warm, nearly windless weather greeted us at the base and followed us all the way to the summit of the peak. For many of us it was our high point! We spent a good 30 minutes up high taking in the views, petting the dogs that would mosey our way, and eating our favorite snacks (maybe that’s why the dogs came over). Before long it was time to head down, we had carne asada to get to. A safe and uneventful descent followed, just the way we like it, and the team enjoyed some relaxation before our delicious dinner. Now it’s time to rest up for the next leg of the journey. We head to Ixta Basecamp tomorrow!

RMI Guide Dominic Cifelli

RMI Guides Matias Franics and Seth Burns led their Four Day Climb August 16 - 19 teams to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The teams reported good conditions with a bit of increased wind and some light precipitation on their descent.  Once back at Camp Muir they will have a short break before continuing the final 4,500' down to Paradise to complete their climb.  They will conclude their program at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon with a celebration ceremony.

Congratulations to today's climbers!

Sara McGahan, Linden Mallory and myself set out from Base Camp just after 5 AM on a final mission through the Khumbu Ice fall. It was meant to be our summit bid. When we reached the first series of ladders over crevasses, we took a break. Linden and I were pleased that we'd reached this point relatively quickly, but it was clear that Sara's mind was not entirely on the day's climbing. She spoke up to say that she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to go through with the planned week-long summit push. We suggested retreating to Base Camp in order to reassess and Sara agreed that would be the best course of action. During the morning at base, Sara bravely grappled with a heavy choice. She wasn't alone, of course, having the counsel of her Dad there in person and her Mom on the phone, but ultimately, the choice was hers to make. In some ways, despite the danger and brutally hard physical work of a summit push, choosing to go on would have been the easier option. Sara made the more difficult choice. She ended her bid to get up Mount Everest at age 16 and she did it with a smile. Bill and Sara discussed things a bit and made clear that they didn't want that decision to end the greater expedition... even though they are the expedition's principal members. After a few more talks, it was decided that Bill and Sara would leave Base Camp by helicopter in the morning, bound for home, while Linden and I, along with Kaji, Tchherring and Dawa, would continue to work toward the summit. Linden and I intend to lighten our packs and to tighten our itinerary some in order to fit in the "weather window" we believe will materialize in a few days. We won't carry nearly as much emergency gear, now that we aren't guiding, but we still want to be responsible Everest citizens... able to help ourselves and our teammates out of a jam and perhaps even to be of use to others in peril. But definitely as we begin this new venture, the packs will be lighter and the pace will be faster. Linden and I will go all the way to Camp 2 tomorrow, we'll rest a day and recheck the forecasts, and then we'll aim to hop directly up to Camp 4 and set out for the summit that same night. There is still the usual amount of mystery in it for us... we don't actually know what the weather will do (our forecasts are good, but the mountain doesn't much care about such things) we don't actually know what our bodies will do. Linden Mallory is a strong and experienced climber and guide, but he will be venturing nearly a vertical mile beyond familiar heights. I've been up top a few times and should enjoy all the benefits of muscle memory and brimming self-confidence, except... my 20 year span of venturing to 28,000 and 29,000 ft has been anything but smooth, easy and predictable. But I want to see that high up world again. I want Linden to see it as well. I would have loved for Bill and Sara to see the sunrise from up there near the top of the world and despite the pride I take in knowing they both came to mature and sensible decisions... I do feel a slight letdown in knowing that "guiding" this time around did not result in standing on top with my clients. On the other hand, my climbers are happy and healthy and excited about seeing their family and their home. They both climbed safely up and down dangerous slopes for weeks on end, reaching ridiculous heights. And they saw a number of spectacular sunrises, sunsets, moonrises and moonsets through gargantuan mountain passes. Sara may write in the coming days about her decision and perhaps it will become clear then as to just how completely we've failed (for now) in our bid to turn her into just another self-absorbed, egotistical, mountain-obsessed, risk-addicted climber. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Another day of waiting and hiking for those of us at Mt. Everest Base Camp, but an important day none-the-less. The "fixing team" made it to the summit today, taking advantage of stable weather in the morning. We heard that things weren't quite so stable in the afternoon, with wind and snow working over the upper mountain, but climbers pushed on to the mountaintop anyway and then descended safely. The word was that several hundred climbers moved up the Lhotse Face today to be in position for summit bids tomorrow. We wish them all fine conditions for those bids, but we are keeping focused on our own window, which the forecasts still predict to be a good one, several days out. Best regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Valdez, Alaska, is an incredible place to be in April. Long hours of daylight make for excellent opportunities to log massive amounts of vertical in the backcountry. When the skiing is good on Thompson Pass, there is no shortage of dramatic peaks and aesthetic lines. Taking my AMGA Ski Mountaineering Guides Exam there this spring, I spent a majority of April in the area training with friends and fellow guides becoming familiar with the Alaskan terrain and snowpack. The days leading up to the exam were filled with anxiety and endless “what-if’s” and “well-maybe’s.” Soon the other exam candidates and I found ourselves in the thick of eight days of late-into-the-night tour planning, strategizing, and pouring over weather forecasts, raw remote data, weather models, avalanche hazard forecasts, and various other slightly cloudy crystal balls. The general idea being to sort through all the data until you find a summary you like. Forecasting for an area as large as Alaska is quite difficult and many times during the week we were reminded that the forecasts were never quite wrong, but that the timing of the forecasts were usually off. Conditions varied from thigh-deep powder in the east facing couloirs of the Iguana Backs zone, to some of the stiffest, carvable wind-board I’ve ever skied on the Berlin Wall and Odyssey. The last few days of the exam we had great weather and flyable conditions. We employed the mechanical advantage of Valdez Heli-Skiing to get a ride into the Hoodoo glacier area for an overnight ski tour. We started with a descent of Acapulco Peak in the sunshine and finished with a long ski out of the Worthington Glacier in whiteout conditions. Going through the process of being examined by your peers, learning from other exam candidates, and dealing with the stress of guiding new terrain and on-the-fly tour planning has been invaluable in helping me excel in all other facets of my guiding and personal endeavors. Passing the exam and becoming one of only a handful of certified women in the U.S. is a huge honor and I am proud to represent RMI Expeditions. - RMI Guide Solveig Waterfall

On a personal fitness level, time sometimes seems elastic to me: if I have plenty of time to train, I'll sit around and lolly-gag; tell me I only have a couple of months to get prepared and I'll be up at 5 a.m. training like a prizefighter.    The question of, "Will I be ready?" will ultimately be answered only on the climb. However, we can stack the odds in our favor by creating a tracking system that gives us a snapshot of where we are in the preparation process.   A simple method is to make a graph depicting where we are today and where we need to be for the climb. For this example, I used a January Expedition to 22,841' Aconcagua in Argentina if I started training in October:   This allows me to see: 1. What I'm capable of today (see my post "Setting A Baseline" if you need help with this). 2. What I need to accomplish on my target date.  3. Where I should be during the process.  My experience is that progress is rarely a straight line on a graph and you may be ahead or behind at any given point; but you can see generally what you've achieved and identify what work remains to be done throughout the training period.    So, what if you're running short on time to prepare? This happens often. If the goal is ambitious, we may need to intensify our focus and really adopt the mindset of an athlete.    Some training recommendations if you are short on time to prepare: • Try to establish a sensible progression and use the entire time you have rather than "front load" your training (which could create setbacks or injury).  • If you do have an aggressive training plan, be sure to focus on rest and recovery as well as quality nutrition.  • Make your training as specific as possible: Mountain climbing and hiking are perfect. Cross country skiing, running, Stairmaster, and cycling are all also good. Focus in on these activities to benefit the most from your training.  • Embrace the adventure and focus on the process more than just the result; it's easy to expend a lot of energy thinking only of the summit. By focusing on enjoying my training and doing the best I can each day, I find I enhance my training experience and my overall experience on the climb. Take some time this week to sit down, pull out a pencil and paper, and graph out the training progression you need for your climb. It will give you a clear picture of not only where you need to be for your climb, but also where you need to be in three months, in one month, and even next week. Keep this graph in a convenient place and pull it out every once in a while to check in on yourself. It can be helpful to establish specific, repeatable benchmarks to revisit during your training to measure your progress. Check out RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer's ideas on using benchmarks.   - John Colver    _________                      John Colver is a longtime climber, former mountain guide, and certified personal trainer with the American Council of Exercise. Colver introduced outdoor fitness classes to athletic clubs throughout the greater Puget Sound region before creating his adventX  brand. Currently, adventX leads training programs in Seattle and Colver presents clinics on outdoor fitness at companies such as Microsoft, Boeing, the American Lung Association, and REI. Colver lives in Seattle. Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts here on the RMI Blog!

Hey Jim Whittaker! Happy 48th Anniversary of the first American on the summit of Mount Everest. Nobody from any country is on top May 1st this year. Steady progress is being made in that direction, but I would think even with perfect conditions ahead, it will still be another week before anyone summits. The Whittaker family is a big part of RMI. Jim's twin brother Lou, being the Chief Guide of RMI for years. His son Peter leading the charge at RMI now, and his brother Win involved in the family business as well. Last year I worked with Jim's son Leif on his climb of Everest. On Jim's summit day he had a Sherpa climbing partner named Nawang Gombu. Gombu, as we all called him around Mount Rainier, would work the summers with us on Rainier. He was the youngest member of the 1953 expedition which made the first ascent of Mount Everest. In 1965 he reached the summit again, becoming the first person to climb Mount Everest twice. It was always a pleasure to work with him on the mountain. Just the nicest guy, and anybody who was lucky enough to climb or spend time with him, new they were touched by a very special man. I received the sad news of his passing last week. He will be greatly missed. I had the honor of being part of the 1990 Mount Everest Peace Climb led by Jim Whittaker. Our goal was to summit on April 22, the twenty year anniversary of Earth Day. We did not get our first team to the summit until May 6th. Point being, that without much fixed line, and that early in the season, our hats go off to you Jim, for an amazing accomplishment. We should all be so proud of our team, for the respect they are showing to Jim's mountain and the effort put forth to preserve his legacy. Dave and crew did another climb up to the base of the face and back to Camp 2 for the night, they plan to give a go at the Lhotse Face tomorrow. Rest today for the Sherpa team, but just handed off supplies to be taken to Camp 2 tomorrow. Till next time, RMI Guide Mark Tucker

Hello everybody this is Casey checking in from Cho Oyu. A lot has happened in the last few days. First off, we left our Interim Camp and have safely arrived at Advanced Base Camp where we will be based out of for the remainder of the climb. It was a beautiful hike across the moraine to reach a moderately flat spot which sits at 18,500' and makes it one of the highest Base Camps in the world. The team pulled into camp and immediately began working hard to get camp set up. After most of our yaks arrived, we collected our things and got settled in for the night. It snowed most of the night and we woke up to warm, sunshine this morning which was welcomed by all. Today we had our Puja ceremony which is a Buddhist ceremony where we ask for safe passage and for a safe climb. A Buddhist holy man, called a lama, presided over our ceremony. It was very surreal to hear the lama chanting while we sat looking up at the mountain we hope to climb. We made some small offerings to the mountain mostly food and drink which the local birds happily cleaned up. It snowed during the ceremony which the lama said was a good sign. It continued to snow for the rest of the day and we spent time resting and acclimatizing to this new altitude. Everyone is doing great and we are having fun too.

The Four Day Climb August 5 - 8, 2022 led by RMI Guides Alan Davis and Matias Francis reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning.  The teams reported windy conditions.  They left the crater rim around 5:20 am and as of 7 am were at the top of Disappointment Cleaver on their descent.  Once back at Camp Muir the teams will have a quick break before continuing the remaining 4.5 miles to Paradise.  They will then conclude their program this afternoon at Rainier BaseCamp.

Congratulations to today's climbers!

Update 5:23 pm PST: I received a radio call from the team. They are now on top of the South Summit! Weather continues to be okay for them; a few clouds down here at Basecamp. Sun may have an impact soon in a very positive way. RMI Guide and Everest Basecamp Manager Mark Tucker

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