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Our team made it to Camp Muir! It was a long, arduous day but everyone put their heads down, gritted their teeth and made it to 10,000 feet in great style. The action continues! Despite a little bit of weather to keep us cool we are having a lot of fun training in the snow. RMI Guide JJ Justman

Hello from the village of Mweka! The group is all doing great. We started the day at our last camp, elevation 10,000 feet, with a great breakfast followed by a closing ceremony with our whole team. After that we hit the trail for a 3.5 hour hike down to the park gate. After signing out we had lunch and now we are riding in the truck back to the Dik Dik hotel. Everyone is psyched to hit the showers and start the celebration party. After tonight our trip will shift gears as we start our four days of Safari! That's all for now. RMI Guide Seth Waterfall

On The Map

We had a great hike down to Pampa de Las Leñas. A little rain on the way but has changed to blue skies. The team is doing well and is excited to celebrate our last night in the mountains with an Argentine-style barbecue. We'll check in tomorrow from Mendoza! RMI Guide Gabriel Barral & the Aconcagua team

What do you do in Antarctica when you want to kill time? you eat, sleep, read, play games, write in your journal and.... do first ascents. Not a bad program, isn't it? After a great breakfast of french toasts and beautiful lunch, I headed out with Nick, Victor's client, to do one more line on the north face of Mount Russman. It takes about 30mins down the now well travelled ski track to the base of the face. There, we trade skis for crampons and poles for ice aces. Victor followed behind with the Union Glacier camp head chef, Gavin. Today's line was a mix of steep snow and steeper ice with wild mushroom formations stacked on top of each other. The climbing was smooth and we moved quickly through this untouched terrain. As we neared the top, huge cornices were towering overhead and the terrain was steeper than what it had seemed like from the bottom. We topped out 2hours after leaving our skis. We radioed in to camp to notify them of our success on the route and to let them know that we were headed straight back to camp. It's requirement and we need to communicate with camp on a regular basis while out in the field. This was Gavin's first first ascent, just like it had been for Richard Parks a few days ago. So, he got to name the route. He offered a few names, but the one that stuck with "Route du Jour". It was a perfect fit for a chef and also because this is realy what it is like: we wake up in the morning and wonder which route is going to get plummed that day, much like a chef decides on what menu he is going to prepare. We just got news that we are likely not flying tomorrow night. So, there might be more "Route du Jour" to come!

Namaste everyone,

The team is hanging tough here in Khumbu. Today we departed Namche and hiked for about 6 hours today up and down, dropping all the way down to a river, which is a stunning turquoise, then climbed slowing up the hill before the famous Tengboche Monastery. Unfortunately, the weather was not in our favor, normally we get to see might Everest off in the distance as well as many other Himalayan giants, but not today. 

I’m grateful the team didn’t seem to mind, and everyone chatted happily, except on those uphill sections. 

Traditionally we have gotten a blessing from a famous lama in Pangboche, but sadly that lama has moved on to a higher calling. So today we were able to request a private Puja with another lama at Tengboche and each receive a blessing. The Puja is a Buddhist ceremony where the lama chants a Buddhist prayer and gives us a blessing to protect us from harm and grant us health and a long life. 

We've settled in to a nice and warm tea house called Rivendale that's incredibly clean and nice. I shouldn’t mention the heated blankets everyone is enjoying, since we want you all to think we’re roughing it! 

RMI Guide Casey Grom and The Warm and Newly Blessed Crew. 

Tuesday, June 22, 2021 - 4:45 pm PT

We "slept in" to a normal hour today; being up at 11,200' we no longer have to be on an alpine start schedule, traveling at night when the glaciers are frozen. The sky was clear above us as I fired the stoves at 6am, and clouds filled the glacial valleys below. After coffee and a Pop Tart, we headed back downhill to retrieve the cache of supplies we buried a couple of days ago. A quick jaunt downhill and forty minutes of climbing back up hill, and we were back at camp with all of ours supplies. We enjoyed a big leisurely brunch of eggs, hash browns, bacon, and, of course, more coffee. Meanwhile the clouds that had been below us earlier had risen up to our level and it began to lightly snow. That was fine by us, as the rest of the day we lounged in our tents, resting, napping, and reading.

If the weather cooperates, we plan to put in a cache up above Windy Corner tomorrow, somewhere above ~13,600'.

We'll be in touch tomorrow and let you you know how it goes.

RMI Guide Mike Walter

We got an early start this morning due to the two passes and 10,000 stone steps we needed to ascend. The first couple of hours took us to Warmi Huanusca Pass at 13,760’ where we got some great pictures of the mountain with fresh snow and receding pocket glaciers. From there the Team got their fill of Incan stone steps as we descended 2000’ to our lunch site. Enjoying the most sunshine we have had all trip, the group took some cat naps and enjoyed the lush forest that fills the Pacaymayo Valley. Once we got up and over Runkurakay Pass at 13,022’ we got more randomly spaced stone steps and the scenery kept getting better. Our day wrapped up with a tour of Sayacmarca, the most elaborate of ruins we have seen yet. From getting snow, rain and chilly days we have walked into the cloud forest where birds are singing, noseeums are biting and the air is humid. The blooming flowers have been a pleasant surprise since it’s technically winter here. The group spotted a few Andean condors soaring above today. The trekking traffic has increased today as we draw closer to Machu Picchu and that’s ok, we got four days of solitude. Everyone is doing well and looking forward to tomorrow’s shorter hike and spectacular ruins. RMI Guide Mike King

We experienced some thin air on our first acclimatization hike today, as we climbed Rucu Pichincha, a volcano that sits just to the west of Quito. At 15,413', it was certainly a new altitude record for some climbers on our team. Everyone did well on the climb. Tomorrow we will leave Quito and head south for our next acclimatization hike going up to the climbers' hut on the Illiniza mountains. We'll be in touch with our progress... RMI Guide Mike Walter

On The Map

The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guides Robby Young and Leon Davis were standing on the summit of Mt. Rainier at 7 AM PT today. Robby reported a beautiful warm day of climbing with a light breeze. The team will spend some time on the Summit before starting their descent. Congratulations to today's teams!

The storm may be coming to an end. We hope. It was still snowing yesterday, and predictions had it continuing today, but despite a great deal of cloud and moisture in the air... we've got sunshine on Everest Base Camp. There is no climbing activity in the Icefall today out of respect for the Nepali men who -one year ago- lost their lives in the avalanche off Everest's West Shoulder. This somewhat grim anniversary has been made a little worse by our recent inability to get through the glacier. The reasons... bad weather and shifting glacial ice, are perfectly normal in this game, but against the backdrop of last year's season-ending tragedy, the barrier to the Western Cwm seems more formidable than ever. Early yesterday morning I accompanied our Sherpa team into the start of the difficult sections, but we along with perhaps 70 Sherpas from other teams had to turn around when a combination of vertical ladders was discovered to have been destroyed by shifting ice. We were back in camp before the normal wakeup and breakfast time... and it must be admitted that sitting in a chair sipping coffee beat balancing over treacherous and tedious crevasse crossings, but... as I say, it would have been a major boost to morale and to the team's progress to have made Camp One. That will now have to wait until the route is repaired and the storm has exited. It will happen. In the mean time, our team is simply in the same situation as a couple dozen others... maintain mental and physical readiness. We did it yesterday afternoon by going on a brisk hike toward Pumori Camp One. Today, it seemed best to give the team their freedom... some chose a hike down to the tea houses of Gorak Shep, some chose showers and good books in basecamp. Realistically, there will be more waiting to endure. The Icefall Doctors need to do a fair bit of work to make the route passible tomorrow and the climbing teams have decided not to crowd them in their labors. So we'll wait. And we'll be ready when our chance for climbing comes. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map