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Seth Waterfall and the Expedition Skills Seminar – Muir were on the summit early this morning. After a week of hard work they were awarded with clear views and light winds. The teams are back at Camp Muir and packing up for their descent to Paradise.

The Five Day Climb led by RMI Guides Dominic Cifelli and Daniel May completed their Orientation and Climbing School days and then ascended to Camp Muir on Saturday.  Today they were able to do some training at Camp Muir, then packed up their gear and descended to Paradise.  The team will conclude their program this afternoon at Rainier BaseCamp. 

Tuesday, June 6, 2023 - 9:53 am PT

The weather is cooperating and we're taking off to the Alaska Range and landing on the Kahiltna glacier! Our next update will be via satellite messenger and the climb will have started! 

Bon voyage!

RMI Guides  Andy Bond, Jack Delaney and Joey Manship

The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guide Robby Young reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Robby reported a beautiful chilly day of climbing. The current route taking his team 6 hours to ascend. Congratulations to today's team.

Thursday, June 20, 2019 - 11:09 PM PT Well, we did it and several entities tried to tell us it wouldn’t happen! Last night the weather forecast failed to mention the building high pressure and instead called for mostly cloudy skies, snow and light wind. We got up at 5 am and there were clouds over the summit and blowing snow. At 7 am the upper mountain was blue bird with a few clouds out to the North. We got the Team going and then the 17 Camp traffic jam merging onto the Autobahn formed right in front of our eyes. It’s like driving down the highway and you're thinking, “damn I am making great time” then 30-car pile up in the blink of an eye. We pumped the brakes and saw an opening, waited about 15 minutes in the sun and 15 in the shadow of Denali. A guided group had an issue and there were three ropes pulled over so we swooped into the HOV lane only to experience an average commute to Denali Pass. From the pass we ascended towards Zebra Rocks, a steep rocky ridge that is comprised of white granite and a black rock, it’s name escapes me due to altitude, sun, exertion and a little CO from the stoves. After topping out in the mellower terrain above Zebra we meandered towards the Football Field with views of the Farthing Horn and Arch Deacon’s Tower formations. The group had put in a big effort and there were a few who thought they had reached their high point, only problem was that it was more mental then physical. We rolled through the small hills into the Football Field for a warm break just below Pig Hill. Once up Pig Hill we were in the cold wind on the Southside of the summit ridge as we rounded the Denali Horn. A short stint brought to the Northside of the corniced ridge and we were in calm air and warm. We topped out at 4:15pm and enjoyed amazing views of the lower glaciers and really all of North America cause there was nothing on terra firma higher than us. It’s been a great expedition and the summit on a great day is just icing on a 20,320’ cake. Tomorrow we descend to 14 Camp and from there the weather and fatigued legs will dictate when we hit the airstrip. There’s still a lot of terrain to cover and we have to collect all our cached gear, food, trash and human waste. The full packs and sleds to the airstrip will be a rite of passage for the Team, they don’t know yet but their hearts are going to break on the last hill into the airstrip but beers and burgers heal all of Denali’s aches and pains. Thanks for following along, this isn’t the last post but we might not get to another one until we hit Kahiltna Glacier Regional airport...no fake prestige airline clubs just some buried treats in the snow for an amazing group of climbers who have been an absolute pleasure to spend the last 16 days with. RMI Guide Mike King & Team

Monday, May 27, 2019 - 6:30 PM PT Today the team awoke to slightly calmer weather, finally allowing everyone to venture out of their tents. Camp received a good bit of new snow, and the wind organized the snow into orderly piles, just not necessarily in the most convenient locations. After everyone soaked up some morning sun, the team returned to their tents to rest for our upcoming move. If the weather cooperates, we will be pushing to 17,000' Camp tomorrow hoping for good summit conditions the following day. RMI Guide Steve Gately

On The Map

July 17, 2014 - 8:45 pm PT In just under 24 hours, our climbing team went from the 17,200 ft high camp to the 7,200 ft basecamp. It wasn't remotely easy. Luckily, we had a calm start to the day which allowed us to balance carefully down the exposed and spectacular crest of the West Buttress. Things got tougher at the base of the fixed lines when we needed to virtually swim through bottomless powder snow. We reached easier terrain upon which one could walk laboriously in knee deep new snow and this ground got us to 14 camp. We did a fry-up of a few quesadillas while reorganizing gear and then set off in cloud toward Windy Corner. Plenty of snow kept us walking funny and breathing hard as we negotiated the side hills and corners of Squirrel Hill and then Motorcycle. At 11 camp we threw up tents and downed dinner. The team wanted to just sleep for a few hours before resuming the march to BC at 2:30 AM. The early start would give our best chance at catching the lower glacier in a frozen (rather than slushy) state. We pushed on through the night gloom, a few thick fog banks and miles of glacier. It was great to see -as expected from conditions on the way in- that the lower Kahiltna was well put together. Very few crevasse crossings troubled us. Finally we got working, trudging and sweating up Heartbreak Hill. As we progressed, the weather improved to the point that with our arrival at the former site of Basecamp (nothing remains so late in the season) it was good enough to dial up K2 Aviation on the Sat Phone and seek a pickup. The K2 pilots did their normal exceptional job in whisking us out of winter and into the Talkeetna summer. Day 21 of our climb will end with a victory dinner in town. True, we stopped a couple thousand feet short of the summit, but victory is still ours. It feels that good to have endured Denali together. Best Regards and thanks for following, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Saturday, July 6, 2013 It was a beautiful though somewhat blustery summit day yesterday and everyone did great! We woke this morning with the intention of moving downhill, but as we prepared, several other groups returned reporting high winds along the buttress. After assessing, we decided that it would behoove us to rest the day and recover from yesterday, and move down tomorrow in lesser winds. So we'll be in touch tomorrow, hopefully from significantly lower on the mountain! All for now, RMI Guides Pete, Geoff, Robby, and team

On The Map

Hello everyone this is Team #1 on Aconcagua, Today we went from Camp 1 to Camp 2. We carried some of the gear we will need higher on the mountain making a cache of gear. Everyone did a great job getting up to 18,100’ we hung out for a little bit and then we enjoyed a beautiful walk back down here to Camp 1 at 16,500’. Everything is going very well a little bit of a breeze, but that is not too bad. We are just resting and recovering now. We will be taking a full rest day tomorrow which has been well deserved. We have a few surprises for the team tomorrow a smorgasbord of food, but we will get into that tomorrow when we get in touch with the RMI Blog and let you know what we do to hang out at 16,500’ having just a great time. Things are going very well here; it is really nice to be higher in the mountain. Great views! We will talk again very soon. Thanks for following along. RMI Guide JJ Justman & Team

Hi this is Seth checking in from Everest Base Camp. Today the group enjoyed a rest day at camp. We are all engaged in eating, drinking, card-playing, Scrabble-playing and general relaxing. It's fun to have everyone in the same place at the same time. The guides spent the morning hashing out the strategy for the remaining two acclimatization rotations proir to our summit bids. The goal is to have everyone within a day of each other when it comes time for the final push. It's no small task getting everyone on the same page as there are the inevitable minor illnesses that keep people hanging back for a day or two here and there. Our group is now set to start the next acclimatization round all within our prefered window. But for right now it's all about the R & R. The real heroes of our expedition were busy working today. The Sherpa team carried the last of the supplies and most of our oxygen bottles to Camp Two and now we're all set to use that camp on our next rotation. I'm personally looking forward to heading up the mountain the day after tomorrow. I haven't yet been to Camp Two this year and I am looking forward to spending several nights there this coming week. Last year Dave Hahn and I found several old oxygen bottles from the 70's. I will use some of my down time there to explore the Western Cwm and see what artifacts I can turn up. That's all for now. Wish us luck on our upcoming efforts on the mountain.