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Monday, October 7, 2024 - 6:18 am PT

We put in nearly seven miles of walking on our rest day.  But it was restful.  Lungdhen sits on the edge of a big broad valley with steep peaks on either side.  It was another blue sky morning and we set out up valley.  There were just a handful of yak corrals and not many buildings in our valley.  We came across zero trekkers.  The valley is pretty quiet since the nearby Tibet border is closed to any passage.  We went to about 14,900 ft.  A bit farther than intended, but we kept seeing new and beautiful peaks.  Even so, we were back at our tea house by 12:30PM, just in time for lunch, some naps and some packing and preparing for the Renjo La tomorrow.  It will be a big day in terms of distance, altitude, cold and most especially views.  We are planning an early morning start, so the team is already in bed at 7 PM.

Best Regards

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

PC: Dave Hahn

Land of elephants. Tarangire National Park has one of the largest concentrations of elephants in the world. And we saw plenty, along with most every other animal to be seen on safari. It was a great day of wildlife viewing in a park very different from the Ngorongoro Crater. This park is huge. A vast savanna broken up by a few river systems that provide much need water in this very parched environment.

Eric's big objective was to see a leopard, and our guides Chacha and Jacob didn't let us down. High in a leafy tree, camouflaged so incredibly well, was the cat! How our safari guides can pick these critters out of beyond me. We can only see it with binoculars, but there it is, with part of a carcass it had been feeding on. 

The animal sightings continue regularly as we make our way to our luxury tent camp in the park. We celebrate our final night together with another wonderful dinner and a few glasses of nice South African wine. 

We're off to get in a few more hours of wildlife viewing before having to get back to Arusha where we'll enjoy our day rooms for a few hours before our evening flight home. 

Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky and get into the big cats again on our way out. 

RMI Guide Brent Okita and Team

Aug 7, 2023 1:55PM PT

A sound sleep and much needed recovery was had by the team after our descent to Mweka Gate and the thin air of 6,000'. Negotiating a slick, slippery path down the 4000' to our waiting bus and celebratory lunch proved tricky, but no casualties were had.

We said our goodbyes to our new friends who supported us this week on Kilimanjaro. We all welcomed the showers, dancing, and comfort at our hotel - plus the ability to connect with friends and family.

 

Tomorrow our safari begins the second half of our adventure. Catch you then!

Brent

Sunday, May 21, 2023 - 9:59 pm PDT

It was a wonderful morning to wake up at 14k Camp. A classic 14k Camp morning includes sunshine and stunning views of Hunter and Foraker -- make this trip so special. We waited for the sun to warm the tents, and rolled into coffee with eggs, hashbrowns, and bacon for breakfast/brunch. We readied to run back towards Windy Corner to grab our cache. We made quick work of the back carry, 1.5 hours round trip, largely due to the sudden snow squalls and wind that rolled in hard on us. It motivated us to get back to tents. With all of our stuff now at 14k Camp, we are psyched. The weather looks to remain sporty tomorrow, so we will likely rest, but we are in place and ready to make our first tour up the fixed lines when the mountain says we may pass, and that will set us up to start looking for our summit window. Cheers from 14,000' on Denali!

RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer and team

We had a warm and clear night at high camp that would turn into sustained 20 mph wind along the seemingly endless summit ridge that makes up the main route on Ixta. We summited in the dark but with a near full moon the views of the surrounding area were spectacular. We caught the sunrise and Orizaba on our return.

The team is headed to Puebla for the evening and our day off tomorrow.

Thanks for following along. 

RMI Guides Mike King, Henry Coppolillo and Team

Thursday, June 24, 2021 - 12:48 pm PT

It's been windy and snowy today at the 11,200' Denali Camp, although we caught glimpses of blue sky above us occasionally this morning. We're all cozied up in our tents after a big breakfast. We're content to rest and relax, enjoying some reading and some napping. We're at a great altitude for acclimatization, so we're (hopefully) getting stronger for our next mission, which will be to move up to Genet Basin at 14,200'. That will happen on the next good weather day, perhaps tomorrow but more likely Saturday or Sunday. We'll keep you apprised of our status. But for now we're happy, hydrated, and comfortable in our current camp.

RMI Guide Mike Walter

The Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guides Eric Frank and Lindsay Mann reached the summit of Mt. Rainier around 6:30 a.m. The teams spent about an hour on top enjoying what Eric describes as the "best morning all summer:" sunny and warm with light winds. The teams will make their descent back to Camp Muir and will return to Ashford this afternoon. Congratulations to today's teams!

Friday, May 31, 2013 at 1:30 pm PT We have made our first move up the mountain to the base of Ski Hill at 7,800' on the main Kahiltna Glacier. Since our arrival yesterday we enjoyed a great first feast of totally loaded quesadillas and snoozed up just a few hours of rest before the 2am wake up. We organized our literal mountain of equipment and food in to individual group loads for what will hopefully be our only single carry. This mean we won't have to carry all our equipment at once but rather double carry, stashing equipment high and gaining fitness through mileage with manageable packs. Mileage is what we will need as the days grow harder and longer the higher we climb. The arduous loads were all near 100 pounds each. Every climber on our team did a fabulous job getting the heaviest day of the trip over with. We are now truly underway and five miles closer to our goal of reaching "The High One" Denali. We hope to carry equipment to around 10,000' tomorrow and return to recently renovated camp at 7,800'. We are going to catch some midday ZZZs and hide from the sun! Will check in tomorrow, RMI Guide Tyler Jones

On The Map

We were up at 4 AM in the Yak and Yeti Hotel and we were packing. By 5:30 the team was at the Kathmandu airport and ready for some "hurry up and wait". The wait wasn't so long though, on this morning, before we were riding a little shuttle to our plane while watching the sunrise. We boarded the twin prop Dornier and took off in cloudless but smoky skies. Once through the thick smog layer it was possible to see a row of giant and jagged peaks out the port side windows. After a quick 30 minutes, the plane was in a steep descent toward the tilted Tarmac of Lukla airstrip. The landing was fast, flawless and loud as the pitch of the props was reversed to brake the plane. Within just a few moments we were out of the hectic 9,200-feet airport and in the quiet comfort of a tea house. The 2013 RMI Everest Expedition took its first steps at around 8:30 as we set off in perfect weather. The team only needed one rest along the way as we traveled through small farms and villages. The rock walls of our valley soared above and we could see a handful of glacier covered sharp summits floating over everything. "Traffic" was light on the trails - we leap-frogged a couple of teams we happened to know for a while, but for the last hour or so we had things pretty much to ourselves and could enjoy the quiet of the forest and the turbulence of the river. Shortly after noon Dan, James, Mark, Seth and myself, along with our Sirdar Lam Babu, pulled into Jo's Garden in the northern suburbs of Phakding. We lunched, we napped, we ate again and now we are retiring to the rooms for the night, ready to complete the transition from airports and jet lagged city life to mountains and rivers and valleys and walking. Best, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

The time spent relaxing at Chilcabamba was wonderful but like all good things came to an end. Fortunately for us, there will be more excitement to come as our adventure continues. We are about to make our move up to the Jose Ribas Refugio on Cotopaxi (over 16,000') where we hope to get a little nap in before launching for the summit very early tomorrow morning. The weather pattern has been promising and with a little luck we will all be taking hero pics and exchanging high fives on the summit! But we're not counting our chickens before the eggs hatch, Cotopaxi is a big mountain and deserves respect. Wish us luck! More on the alpine escapades of this intrepid group as our program continues... Stay with us! RMI Guide Billy Nugent

On The Map