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Buenos Dias from the Cayambe hut. Today was the first "real" day spent training on our first "real" mountain. It always amazes me how a simple acclimatizing hike ten minutes from our hotel in Quito puts us well over 15,000 feet in a matter of hours accomplished in simple hiking boots and a day pack. So when I say "real" it must refer to something big. Our first mountain, Cayambe seems to fill those shoes. Sitting at 18,997', even the shortest climbers on the team will have the privilege of saying their throbbing noggins broke the respectable altitude of 19,000 feet. Breaking this psychological barrier should make climbing Cotopaxi, a whopping 400 feet higher, a walk in the park. This morning the group woke slowly having slept surprisingly well for the large jump in altitude. Our luxurious hut sits at 15,200', a casual one hour hike below the tongue of the glacier. Regardless of our groups strong résumé, we began hiking from the hut revisiting breathing techniques, rest stepping and minor drooling. After an hour hiking upward, we chose our high camp location and cached some tents, stoves and climbing headwear. After a brief rest we moved to the start of the glacier where we revisited self arrest, cramponing and rope travel. This three-hour exercise proved more taxing than expected so upon our return to the hut, eyes were closing sitting at the table so our next training skill was napping at altitude. So far the groups favorite skill to practice. We then practiced knots and hitches before sitting down for dinner. The altitude and full day caught up with all of us so we are looking forward to hitting the sack early. Tomorrow we move to high camp. RMI Guides Adam Knoff and Casey Grom

On The Map

Hello everyone, this is J.J. Justman with the Mt. Elbrus Northside team. We are happily at high camp, getting our tents up. Seth and I have our kitchen set up and we're making water and hots for the team. It is is a beautiful day! Again, guides are a little superstitious bunch so I'm gonna knock on wood, and cross my fingers and toes, but we just have a marvelous day moving up here to high camp at 15,300'. We're just gonna settle in, relax, make a bunch of hots, some soup, a little bit of dinner, drink a little more water and then we're gonna get ready for a summit attempt tomorrow. So wish us luck, wish us good weather here on Mount Elbrus for tomorrow and hopefully will be calling you from the top with some good news. Thanks for following along and we will talk with you again soon, bye. RMI Guide JJ Justman

On The Map

Hello from Mt. McKinley, Awakening to perfect skies and no wind provided a great start to our carry to 13,500' today. The team rose to the challenge of the steeper terrain and climbed well. With that done, we just need another reasonable day to move camp to 14,200' from which the summit is tantalizingly close. But of course, there is still so much yet to do before we can be thinking of that. For now, an afternoon of rest after getting back and a hearty meal of mac and cheese with loads of bacon should get us fueled up for our big move in the morning. I think everyone is feeling good about the day to come. I know I am. Until next time, at 14,200', with any luck. RMI Guide Brent Okita

After an excellent rest day in Puebla where we explored the cobblestone streets, museums and pyramids we packed up and hit the road. In Tlachichuca we finalized our mountain equipment and enjoyed a great lunch at the climbers' compound run by our friend Dr. Reyes. Loading the truck and piling in saved us a long approach to the mountain. Once at the hut we had a big dinner and hit the sack. Tonight we will try our luck on Pico de Orizaba.

100% Team Summit of Ixta!

Fresh off our successful summit of Malinche dodging thunder storms, our Mexico Volcanoes team pulled into La Joya, our basecamp for Volcan Iztaccihautl, to find dime-sized hail falling and lightening cracking just overhead. 

We overheard a trip report from some nice climbers who had camped at 15,500'. “Our hair was buzzing. We threw everything metal out of the tent, then the lightening struck! I still can’t feel my thumbs!”

This pretty well made our decision for us to not walk out into the storm to our high camp on a ridge. Easy decision, but it meant that summiting Ixta the next day would be anything but easy, and could only be done in a single push from La Joya. 

We discussed with the team that this would be a very long and demanding day, and they were all excited for the challenge. 

And they crushed it! We left camp at 1am and walked the normal three miles and 2,000 feet to high camp, then turned to the upper mountain, and no one flinched. Eight and a half total hours of climbing later we all stood in the sun on the 17,169' summit of Ixta. 

Our total time on the climb was a little over 14 hours, with somewhere around 5,500 vertical feet. Half of which we normally do in a big day the day before. Strong work by our whole team!

As we pulled into Puebla around 6pm for our much needed rest day, there wasn't an open eye in the van. 

RMI Guide Joe Hoch

Well, 80% of the team and 70% of the bags made it to Kathmandu, but never fear, it looks like we'll be together tomorrow. The airlines and connections just weren't cooperating but every trip has some tough spots and we just wanted to get ours out of the way early on. The rest of us spent the day walking, sightseeing, eating baked goods, and resting. We did go for a great dinner of chicken tikka masala and naan in Thamel this evening where we got to know each other and start wrapping our heads around the adventures ahead and around us. Tomorrow we'll do some sightseeing in Kathmandu, last minute errands, and a good gear check. Everyone is full of good positive energy and looking forward to spending the next two weeks together in the Khumbu. RMI Guide Christina Dale

Monday, June 10, 2013 A windy and cold night was greeted by more wind. For our team this is no issue, as we had planned this second consecutive rest day. This will be just the ticket for a more acclimatized and rested body that we will need for summit success. The menu for this morning was supreme. Round upon round of bagels with cream cheese topped with bacon along with hash browns covered in cheese took us once again well past noon to complete. The places we travel in the mountains can lead one to believe we are Martians, ready to launch onto to another planet - and that is exactly what we are doing. We push ourselves both mentally and physically, taking our personal learning and discovery to a higher level. When we return from these Martian lands, after having come face to face with deep personal truths and surpassing previously held limitations...we bring a richer and more rounded person home, someone who understands more about the nature of teamwork, sacrifice, and awareness. We thank you all for the support and the opportunity to let us dig deep and take on a new understanding of our passions! The afternoon has more smelly tent time spent pounding water, fussing over who is the best celeb of all time and growing hairier by the day! The forecast is looking to set up nicely over the next few days and we hope to move to our high camp tomorrow. Till then keep the vibe high for our push! RMI Guides Tyler Jones, Garrett Stevens and the crew

On The Map

Cotopaxi summit! We woke up at 11pm to a breakfast of coffee, tea, oatmeal and bread. We finished our packing in the dark with the rest of the hut's inhabitants before beginning our 9-hour summit bid. We got off to a bit of a stressful start when we realized that someone from a different climbing group had accidentally taken Adam's climbing helmet, but we weren't going to let that get in the way of our climb. (The helmet was returned later in the afternoon, once we returned to the huts after the climb.) It was windy and snowy as we stepped outside around midnight, and that continued for the first hour during the hike up to the toe of the glacier. But soon after donning our crampons and ice axes, the weather mellowed out and the good luck we've been having with the weather on this trip continued for the rest of our ascent: the clouds cleared, the winds died down, and for the next 5 hours to the summit, the weather could only be described as mild and pleasant. At one point, we could see an active lightening storm beyond the lights of Quito and were grateful that we weren't experiencing the same. The initial climbing on the glacier was steep, but not too difficult. These moderate angles soon gave way to steeper slopes that had us rest-stepping our way up. The dry snow made traction difficult (even with our crampons), so as the terrain became more exposed, we had to kick hard with our feet to really gain purchase. An exhausting endeavor at 19k feet! In 6 hours and 15 minutes, we had made it to the top! The group's previous high altitude climbing on Cayambe and Antisana had definitely gotten us into shape for this climb. We moved well and as a team the entire way up! As we pulled on to the summit, the sun was just beginning to rise and we got a quick look into the summit crater. We didn't stay for long, though, since the winds picked up as we snapped our group photo. After 15 minutes up top, we began our descent. Not only was our group strong on the ascent, but we rocked our descent, too! Despite some rather high winds at times, knocking us around a bit on narrow ridges, we continued to move well and made it back to the hut in just under three hours. Back at the huts, we packed up our gear and descended to the parking lot, where we met up again with Victor and the magic bus. We were whisked away to La Cienega, a hotel that looks more "castle" than "hacienda", and after taking showers, we met up over dinner and a couple of games of Wits and Wagers, reflecting on our trip as a whole. Tomorrow we head back to Quito and begin our journey back home. See you soon! RMI Guide Nick Hunt

Tuesday, June 28, 2023 - 9:28 pm PT

We set out on our quest to get a load of supplies onto the West Buttress but the weather deteriorated steadily as we climbed. At 15,400 ft we decided to turn. We set a few personal altitude records, but it was just short of the fixed rope section we had been hoping to climb today. We returned to camp in light snowfall. The afternoon became a quiet napping contest in the tents. We'll try again when we get a break in the storm.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

January 26, 2023

The wind is a feral creature, lamenting into the void. Our nearly constant companion, shifting mercurial between head and tailwind the moment we accept whatever circumstances fate most recently dealt us. 

We sojourned beyond the impossible luxuries of basecamp, making our way up serpentine paths through scree and scramble, to deposit material ever higher in preparation for climbs to come. 

While the sun shown splendid, the wind conspired with the very rock to threaten barrages of stones upon our heads. Luckily, our benevolent overlords: Don Dom, Toothpick, and Gator, ensured protective gear emplacement, forestalling calamity and facilitating a timely return to basecamp, amid jubilation for our first successful climb of the trip and empanadas without equal, from our generous Grajales hosts. 

Climber Jack R