Most Popular Entries

This morning was the first in a while that we weren't getting up early, desperate for conditions to be favorable. We got the stoves started around nine, which sounds late and lazy, except in these parts, the sun doesn't get around the mountain until 9:30. It was socked in and cloudy for our breakfast, and then snowing again, but without any wind. We were set to do our "back carry" -dropping down to pick up our cache from the other day, but we'd also been in touch with Pete VanDeventer and knew his team was descending and would pop out of the clouds any minute. It made sense to greet his gang and to exchange notes at 14,200 before going to get our carry done. It was fun to see their team, flush with success and excited to nearly be done with their climb. In the early afternoon, although it was still snowing, we set off into the murk to find our 13,600 ft cache. The cache was undisturbed, which was a relief. Guess we'd buried it all too deeply for the Ravens. It took just over an hour to make it back up to camp with the cargo. People retreated to their tents for a snooze while a few of us built a new kitchen-dining complex. The clouds began to drop and the sun got shining brightly for dinner and the few remaining hours of the day -it ducks behind the West Buttress at 9 PM and the temperature seems to drop about fifty degrees in a few minutes at that point. But we were treated to great views of Mounts Foraker and Hunter sticking out from the solid base of clouds spread below us. The forecasts still call for snow, but luckily they aren't always right in just how much snow we'll get and at which elevation it will fall. A calm day tomorrow for our carry to 16,200 ft would be greatly appreciated. Best Regards RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

Billy here, checking in from Camp 2 at over 18,000' on Aconcagua! The rumored winds did indeed materialize today but they also came with perfectly clear skies and were thus not enough of a hindrance to keep us stuck at Camp 1. Our team looked awesome on our move today with everybody moving well and climbing strong despite the elevation, big loads, and the gusting breeze. We've set up shop here at Chopper Camp (although nobody seems to call it that since they cleaned up all the wreckage that used to be strewn about camp) and are enjoying a sunny afternoon. Today's move only took 2 hours and 45 minutes, which speaks for this team's strength and bodes well for summit day. More as it develops... Wulpseeya! RMI Guide Billy Nugent

On The Map

Another early morning saw us loading our gear and climbing into the backs of a couple of grey Russian four wheel drive vans and heading south out of Kislovodsk. Within a couple of minutes we left the city's edge and were driving through the rolling expanse of the Caucasus foothills. Intercut by deep valleys and crossed by bands of white limestone cliffs, the vast plateaus that gradually ascend to the mountains themselves are a glimpse back in time from the hustle of Moscow. Small clusterings of buildings can be found at the valley floors, lonely communities of a couple of cinder block homes surrounded by vegetable patches and fruit trees. Above, shepherds wander the plateaus keeping a careful watch over their flock's of sheep. It was another beautiful day and above this landscape, growing ever taller as we approached, stood Elbrus. By late morning we reached the valley where Base Camp sits, alongside a couple of shepherd's huts near the edge of the vegetation. We unloaded our gear and carried all of our supplies the final couple hundred of meters across the creek and into camp. The majority of the day was spent setting up camp and repacking our gear into portable loads for the mountain. In the afternoon we went for a short hike above Base Camp, enjoying the opportunity to stretch our legs after so many days of travel. At ~8,400', the air felt cool and refreshing especially after Moscow's subway stations the other day. Everyone is absolutely jazzed to be here, we are feeling strong and excited about the climb ahead. Tomorrow we will carry a portion of gear to our cache just below Camp 1. We will check in tomorrow after returning to Base Camp.

With little to do today besides organize our gear for the next leg of our adventure, we might have wondered how we would occupy ourselves for a day in Base Camp. The Cunninghams took care of that worry, organizing a barn raising of sorts to build a hut that our outfitter has been meaning to put together. With furring strips, floor boards, and siding located, we went to work, only slightly hampered by dodgy extension cords that didn't always provide enough power from the generator to run a drill. The activity kept everyone occupied, and just as we put up the last siding on the walls and were considering the roof, the clouds moved over and the rain started falling. We've been resting in tents, staying dry since. Chances are this storm quits soon, as each one has throughout our expedition, and we'll enjoy a last night in base camp before returning to Kislovodsk early tomorrow. From there it will be in to St. Petersburg and the finale of our trip. We're looking forwards to showers and Shashlik (the local barbeque) tomorrow. From Russia with love, RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Mike Uchal, and team

Alpine climbing requires a lot of different skills.  Alpinists are constantly route finding, assessing hazards, protecting exposed areas, and moving efficiently in the terrain. If you’re climbing with a qualified guide, they’ll take care of the big picture and you’ll just need to focus on the movement skills. Moving efficiently in technical terrain is what makes climbing challenging and fun - there’s always something to learn and ways to improve.  The better you move, the less energy a climb will take and the more you’ll be able to focus on what’s going on around you and enjoy the climb.  On classic alpine climbs, like Forbidden Peak’s West Ridge, Sahale’s Quien Sabe or Shuksan’s Fisher Chimneys, basic rock climbing skills are the key to moving efficiently on summit day. These skills only get better with practice, and adding some balance and rock movement skills to your training regime can give you a big leg up. With a few pointers and some practice, you can develop your rock movement skills so that you stay on your feet, use less energy and are more confident on rock before you arrive in the mountains. Basic rock movement is similar to how you walk already, with a little more attention paid to the physics at your feet. Here are some techniques that you can use to effectively move on rock: Climbing with your eyes I constantly remind my clients to “climb with their eyes.” Look around the terrain, find the easiest path, and plan it out a few steps ahead of time. Finding the easiest way up takes a good deal of focus while you climb, but it’s a great way to stay engaged and it saves a great deal of energy over the course of a long day. As you climb, look for features that resemble stairs – level platforms that you can get your entire boot on. This allows you to use a minimal amount of energy for balance and makes it easy to use a technique called the rest step.  If you can find a natural staircase up the mountain it’s just walking! Edging When you can’t find large stair-like features in the rock, you have to lower your standards. Instead of using a perfect stair, you may be reduced to placing the edge of your boot onto a tiny feature.  This is called edging.  The smaller the features you are edging on, the more effort and balance it takes to keep from slipping off.  Keep climbing with your eyes and look for the biggest features possible! Edging allows you to climb very steep, relatively blank rock faces. It’s tougher physically and much less secure than stepping onto boot-sized platforms.  With some practice you’ll be able to get up steep, technical rock and begin to feel comfortable on it.  The more time you spend practicing on different sized edges and on different types of rock (granite, limestone, sandstone, basalt, etc) the more you’ll recognize how secure you are on those features. Check out this video from Eastern Mountain Sports on edging skills! Smearing  Smearing uses the friction and adhesion between your boot soles and the rock grip surfaces that are too smooth or sloped to edge on. To get maximize your grip you need to do two things: 1. maximize the contact area between your soles and the rock 2. make sure the force you’re exerting is perpendicular to the rock surface. This means putting the rubber to the road, or in this case, the boot sole to the slab.  Articulate your knees and ankles so that the sole of your boot matches the angle of the rock.  By putting as much rubber on the rock as you can, you increase the adhesion of the rubber soles to the rock and can grip some surprisingly steep slopes. Make sure to apply your body weight as close to perpendicular to the rock as you can.  This boils down to keeping your weight directly above your feet by keeping your posture upright.  With your back straight and your head high, your weight will naturally rest directly above your feet.  This keeps the normal force of your bodyweight pushing into the rock, which increases friction.  The more friction, the better the grip and the more you can relax and look around to plan your next moves. This body positioning is counter-intuitive for most people.  Climbers that are unaware of their body position often lean forward, putting their body weight uphill of their boots, changing the direction of the normal force towards parallel with the rock, and reducing friction, resulting in a slip.  It’s very common, especially when terrain gets steeper, to want to lean in toward the rock – resist the urge and climb strong! Here's another EMS video showing smearing skills. With both edging and smearing, the more practice you get the more comfortable you’ll be on challenging rock. You’ll develop a more realistic assessment of how secure your foot placements are and that will make a huge difference in how efficient you are.  Being more confident with your foot placements will allow you to relax on difficult terrain and you will save a ton of energy. You can practice these techniques at home. Get started at your local climbing gym or sniff out small rock outcroppings if you don’t have access to a rock gym.  Keep your practice low on the rocks so that you don’t get stuck on top of something- it’s always easier to climb up rock than it is to down climb! _____ Zeb Blais is a senior guide at RMI Expeditions. Zeb splits his time between the Sierras in California and the North Cascades of Washington. He guides worldwide for RMI, from Aconcagua to Mexico, Rainier to Alaska. A passionate skier, Zeb spends his free time pursuing personal adventures around the world, including an attempted traverse of the Fedchenko Glacier of Tajikistan.  Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts here on the RMI Blog!

Hello from the Dik Dik, Our mountain adventure ended today with 10 very happy climbers. Even though we had a very long day yesterday, the team wanted to get an early start and hike down to the Mweka Gate. You could tell that everyone wanted showers as we made record time descending the 4,400' to the end of the trail. You can feel it is the last day as porters are ready to get paid, and the climbers are still on the high of summiting yesterday. We had a big lunch spread waiting for us at the gate and then we tipped out our mountain crew for all their hard work over the last seven days. Now we are back at the hotel and sitting down for drinks before our celebration dinner. We are all cleaned up and have packed away all our mountain gear. Tomorrow we are heading out on our safari. The perfect way to recover from the physical effort expended to reach the top of Kilimanjaro. First stop is Lake Manyara! Best regards, RMI Guide Jeff Martin

Siesta time! This morning we slept in a little and worked a bit on our tents. It has become a little windy here and actually presents a good training for time up high. We must be able to push through a little wind in these exposed camps if we want a shot at the top. Earlier today the team went for an acclimatization hike and I must say put forth a solid performance. Climbing up loose scree with great technique really inspires confidence for our move tomorrow. Now if the weather will cooperate, we will be one step closer to the top! Speaking of the top, it was a real treat to see JJ and Leah's team descending after a safe trip. Congrats! RMI Guide Jake Beren & Team

Hey, this is Seth checking in from the top of Kilimanjaro! It's a beautiful day here to be on the Roof of Africa. Zero wind. We got up here right in time for sunrise, and just an awesome day of climbing. The crew did so good. I had to slow them down. They were going too fast so we took some extra breaks just to reel them in. Great crew, great day. It's beautiful up here and now we are going to flip it around and head back to our low camp at 10,000 feet. So, 9,000 feet to go downhill for us, but we should have a great day. That's it from the top of Kili! RMI Guide Seth Waterfall

On The Map

Another casual morning... We ate some breakfast, checked out of the Mercure (our hotel) around 8 am or so, loaded up the van and Jaime's truck, then hit the road. Heading north on the PanAmerican Highway, we left Quito and passed through the town of Otavalo, famous for it's large open air market. Eventually we turned off the highway and headed up into the countryside on our approach to Cerro Fuya Fuya. After many kilometers of driving on a cobblestone road up into the mountains we reached Laguna Mojanda and the base of Fuya Fuya. The lake is actually a giant caldera filled with water (think Crater Lake in OR) and made for a great backdrop to our second training hike. A couple hours of hiking and scrambling brought us to the summit at well over 14,000'. We enjoyed clear and sweeping views from la cumbre of the two valleys below in addition to the big Laguna. After a quick break on top we beat feet for the cars to try and out pace some menacing clouds. Everyone was feeling great. After another short trip in the van we arrived at the beautiful Hosteria San Luis. Talk about traveling in style, there are beautiful gardens, stables, classic colonial architecture, a pool, and a pond. The gang is settling in and enjoying the last bit of luxury before heading up to the climber's refugio on Cayambe. I'll call and check in tomorrow night from the refugio, RMI Guide Billy Nugent

Hello from Mexico City, Tonight the team arrived, all with the same number of bags they left the states with and ready to go. We had a great intro dinner at a classic Centro Historico restaurant and retired to our rooms to get a good night's sleep before leaving the city tomorrow. Off to a good start down here and we'll check in from La Malinche tomorrow. RMI Guide Jake Beren