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Finally with all of our gear, we left Mendoza this morning and headed for the mountains. The tree-lined streets of Mendoza gave away to carefully tended vineyards that produce the famed Malbec wine for which Mendoza is known. The road led into the foothills of the Andes, weaving along the edge of the thick red Mendoza River. The small hills soon grew to tall mountains and the road began passing through tunnels carved through the rock in the mountain sides. By midday we reached the ski outpost of Penitentes, a handful of kilometers from the Chilean border. Penitentes, no more than a few buildings with long slanted tat break the incessant winds, is a ski resort in the winter and a staging ground for Aconcagua climbers in the summer. We spent the afternoon in Penitentes preparing our gear for the mountain. We set up and checked our tents, fired up the stoves, and packed our food and fuel into tight, well protected containers to endure the jostling of the mules on the approach to Base Camp. Once our loads were prepared, we ventured up the valley to Punta del Inca, a famous natural bridge created from geothermal springs that spans the entire river. Decades ago visitors would drive their cars across it. We ventured a bit further up the road to the mouth of the Horocones Valley where we caught our first views of Aconcagua since reaching Mendoza. Capped in clouds and new snow, the mountain's impressive south face loomed over the head of the Horocones Valley. It was an impressive, exciting, and humbling moment. We are settled into our Hosteria now, enjoying the thin cold air, and happy to finally be in the mountains. RMI Guide Linden Mallory

Hello Everyone, We are off to a good start here in Quito! Everyone (and all their bags) has arrived and today we are hitting the streets to check out Ecuador's capital city. We will also take a jaunt to the Equator,the Mitada del Mundo. We'll let you know how the day's adventure unfolds when we get back, but it sure feels good to be off to a good start. RMI Guide Jake Beren & Team

A well deserved rest day yesterday paid dividends today. The team moved efficiently to 11,000 feet where we set up a deluxe camp. The weather greeted us with a nice cold headwind with some fresh snow in the track, but that was not too much of an obstacle for our team. We worked hard to furnish camp after arriving this afternoon. Our cook tent is especially posh and our tent platforms are perfectly flat with a 5-star covered rest area. We plan on enjoying the camp we have crafted for the next few days as we rest and shuttle loads. We look forward to retrieving our cache at 10,000 feet tomorrow, a relatively short day, then rest and indulging on the treats in our currently cashed goodie bags. Eating well means feeling well in the mountains and this is something this crew knows well! Till tomorrow, the whole team says hi to all. RMI Guide Tyler Jones

Oddly enough, we had great weather today, but we couldn't really put it to good use. We stayed in our 14,200' camp. Forecasts called for dire weather and a couple of our gang were under the weather, dealing with minor colds, so we decided to give everything and everyone a day in which to get better. In fact, none of the other teams on the mountain moved either. We know of four, one other guided group at 14 Camp and three teams up at 17,200'. The National Park Service team packed up their camp and flew out of 14 today by helicopter, their season finished. To take advantage of the fine sunshine and to stretch legs, most of our team roped up and took a short walk to the "edge of the world" on the rim of Genet Basin. It offers magnificent views nearly straight down to the Northeast Fork of the Kahiltna Glacier and also a good look at the lower portions of the West Rib climbing route. Obviously, if we have the opportunity tomorrow, we want to get back to work on the West Buttress route. RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

Aconcagua dispatch 2.10.25

After a night of witnessing a spectacular Andean thunderstorm, we awoke this morning to a beautiful cloak of snow on the ground, ~5cm of white magic. We rustled out of our sleeping bags to a warm breakfast, then prepared our packs to carry a load of supplies to Camp 2. Up up and away, we reached our destination at 18,000', in the early afternoon.  We didn't spend long up high -just long enough to cache our supplies - before we flew back downhill to the warmth and comfort of Camp 1. We had a lazy afternoon in the sun filled with eating, sleeping, & hydrating.

Dinner rolled around just in time to fill our empty bellies, then off to bed we went. Serenaded by the roar of the nearby river, we drifted off to sleep. Much needed rest for the big days ahead.
RMI Guide Hannah Blum & Team

Sunday, August 27, 2023 - 7:56 am PT

Big Day!  And night.  We were awake at 11 PM sharp last night.  Thankfully, it was calm and not too cold at 15,200 ft at that hour.  We geared up, ate a quick “breakfast” and got walking at 12:05 AM.  Everybody else at Barafu Camp did so too.  It was a great parade of headlights converging on the steep start to the route.  Naiman led our team nice and steady through various teams that were stopping and starting to deal with difficulties.  Once we were through the rocky start to the route, the walking got a little easier and one could pay a little attention to the stars and the lights of Moshi and other towns and cities.  The moon was about half full and threw back some useful light for us.  As expected, it got cold as we got a few hours into the climb.  By the halfway point we pretty much had every scrap of clothing on.  Water bottles within our packs were freezing up.  Our main strategy for dealing with the cold was to keep moving.  We hit Stella Point at the crater rim at 6AM.  The walking got easier then… and absolutely beautiful as the light came up.  Sunrise came as we were halfway to Uhuru -the highest point.  We got to Uhuru at 7 AM.  It was a little cold and breezy at 19,341 ft above sea level and so we didn’t stay long.  Long enough for some victorious pics with the big sign board up there.  The breeze/wind motivated us to move down the mountain at a pretty good clip, boot skiing in the scree.  We were back to Barafu at 10:10 AM.  Tosha presented us with a pizza brunch and we had some time for taking care of ourselves and packing up.  Nobody was all that psyched at the prospect of four more hours on our feet to descend 5,000 ft but we got after it anyway.  We made it down to a 10,000 ft camp in the woods by 3:35 PM.  The team is safe and relieved to be back on flat ground (everything at high camp is tilted) and so happy to be breathing oxygen rich air with actual humidity again. 

Best Regards,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Tuesday, June 15, 2021 - 4:50 pm PT

We are enjoying a nice sunny rest day at 14,000’ camp today after our carry to 17,000’ yesterday. We are waiting to see what the weather has in store before we make our next move. All is well here at camp!

RMI Guides JT, Kiira, Alan and the RMI team

We had a great first day in Moscow. It started with a short walk to the heart of Russia - Red Square and the Kremlin. First up was Lenin's Tomb. It is sort of an eerie experience seeing an embalmed man who has been dead for so many years, but definitely worth it. The trick is to move just slow enough through the viewing room that you do not get the guards' attention and be told to move ahead. After exiting the tomb, we met up with our tour guide who lead us on a grand tour through Saint Basil's Cathedral, the GUM, Red Square, and finally the Kremlin. The day was certainly a mini history lesson of the czars and rulers of Russia, and of wars and power struggles, and Moscow has been around for almost a 1000 years so it gets a little complicated. After the tour of the Kremlin and feeling like we were close to information overload, we started our walk back to the hotel for a little down time. We are back from dinner now and heading to bed so that we can leave early in the morning for our flight to our next town - Kislovodsk. We'll check in once we get settled there. Best, RMI Guides Jeff Martin and Pete Van Deventer

At 7:57 a.m. RMI Guides JJ Justman and Jake Beren were standing on Columbia Crest, the highest point on Mt. Rainier, enjoying the views. There was a gentle 5 mph breeze on the “prettiest day in May that [JJ and Jake] have ever seen.” The teams began their descent about 8:30 and we look forward to seeing them at Rainier Basecamp this afternoon. Congratulations Summit Climbers!

Buenos dias from the top of Cayambe! We had an absolutely stunning day for our climb today, first clear day up here in weeks and perfect cramponing conditions all the way up. So we will give you guys a shout on the way down and super proud effort by the team today. Everybody did a fantastic job and we'll give you shout when we're down safe and sound. Alright, thanks. RMI Guide Jake Beren

On The Map