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Monday, June 17, 2013 We are on the mountain! After walking up the glacier on our long approach, this camp feels like we are actually starting to make some headway towards the top. We will be at this 11,000' camp for a minimum of three nights, so we are dug in pretty solidly. The plan for tomorrow is to do a back carry. This means we will walk back down to our cache at 10,000', dig it up, and then bring it back up to our new camp at 11,000 ft. It shouldn't be too hard of a day, but it is very important in our acclimatization scheme. Although there are no bad views in this place, we have an amazing view from this camp. From a safe distance, we get to watch some giant ice cliffs calving off some large chunks. The heat of the nice weather days has made for some dynamic snow and ice conditions. Summit Team 6! Led by RMI Guide Mike Haugen

On The Map

Sunday, May 30, 2021 - 9:36 pm PT

I woke to the sound of song birds chirping by our dining tent. That could only mean one thing, that the storm had broken and we’d likely get a nice day to move camp. We woke up at 5 am and we were walking by 8 am. The storm had put 18” of new snow down. Since there were no early risers to break trail, we took that on ourselves. The day was hot and included lots of deep snow. We pulled into 11,200’ Camp at 4 pm. Camp setup, dinner and bed was all the bandwidth we had. Tomorrow we will back carry to 9500’ to retrieve our cache of food and fuel. It’ll feel like a rest day compared the effort put forth today. Goodnight.

RMI Guide Mike King

Moscow is cool and all, but it’s nice to wake up in the mountains. Cheget is a quiet little place, and there isn’t much going on in the morning hours. We had a casual start to our day, with an 8 am breakfast being the first item on the agenda. Breakfast was pretty normal fare. Eggs, toast, oatmeal. I usually can’t stand oatmeal, but here it’s basically soaked in cream and butter, so I can’t really complain about that. The team did a great job fueling up for our late-morning chairlift ride. I believe that everyone left breakfast on the edge of being uncomfortably full, which is really the sweet spot. From the hotel it’s about a five minute walk to the bottom of our chairlift. We hopped on, and skimmed the tops of the trees for about fifteen minutes. It really was quite a stylish ascent. We had butterflies, wildflowers, and chirping birds below us, and nothing but blue skies above us. We unloaded at the midway station, and walked to the top of the next lift. At around 10,000 feet we hung out, took some photos, discussed the climb, and soaked up some sun. I think about 1/3 of the team have earned nicknames at this point. Some not suitable for print. After we were satisfied with our day’s exercise, we rode the chairlift back down, more or less onto the deck of our lunch cafe, ate again, and then spent the rest of the day exploring town or relaxing. Tomorrow we’ll head up onto the mountain and stay there through the weekend. I think we’re all looking forward to it. RMI Guide JM Gorum

This morning we woke up early, broke camp and flew off the Kahiltna Glacier. We are now enjoying a nice meal at the West Rib Pub. The group is doing fantastic and we all looking forward to a warm shower. All and all and incredible time with everyone. Thank you all for the fantastic time!!!! RMI Guide Andres Marin

Morning came early in Phakding. We stayed up later than we should have playing cards. Mark taught Kim and I new game that was a lot of fun. Maybe too much fun, somehow we owe him money now! A lot of money. Seriously, it was a wonderful night's sleep with the lullaby of the Dudh Kosi in the background. The team met for breakfast at 7:30 and Mark surprised us with French press Kona coffee. What a great treat; it made the already great day even better. We hit the trail around 8:30 heading for Namche Bazaar - about 1000 meters higher than Phakding. So this was to by our first day with serious altitude gain. We made good time in the cool of the day with Mark giving us a refresher on pressure breathing, rest stepping and pace. We stopped for lunch in Jorsale. It was nice to linger in the shade watching the zoks and donkeys go by. They certainly weren't in any hurry to be anywhere - unlike some of the trekkers we saw. The afternoon's journey started with a meandering walk along the Dudh Kosi. But it was getting hotter and dustier, too. After crossing the Hillary Bridge the trail began climbing steeply and it was obvious that it wasn't going to let up anytime soon. The temperature seemed to rise along with our altitude; but we settled into a nice rhythm and in no time we rounded a corner and got our first view of Namche Bazaar. It was a big deal for both Kim and me, as it was something we had both wanted to see for a long time. We're settled into the Camp de Base now with the evening in front of us. Tomorrow we'll spend day acclimatizing and hike to some of the surrounding villages. Onward and upward. An update to yesterday's blog from Phakding. We would have included it then, but there was some disagreement among the team. Anyway, we stopped in a little coffee shop in Lukla. While we were there the owner's 3 year old little boy, Tashi, was sitting in one of the chairs playing with the "Flatulence" app on an iPhone. Oddly, I have the same app on my iPod, so I couldn't resist pulling it out. In seconds we had a round of dueling "flatulence" going. When he got bored with that (I was still having fun) he came over and took my iPod and started reviewing my collection of apps. I guess some things transcend culture. John G

On The Map

The Mt. Baker North Ridge team, led by RMI Guide Sam Marjerison, reached the summit of Mt. Baker this morning. The team ascended via the North Ridge route, a classic climb in the North Cascades. Strong work by all, as everyone reached the top — a 100% success rate!

Congratulations, Team!

Wednesday, June 9, 2021 - 9:40 pm PT

We woke up hoping to cache below 14,000 Camp, the mountain had other plans so we spent the day eating, reading, relaxing, and building a snow fort. Hopefully tomorrow the weather complies and we can move supplies up the mountain.

RMI Guide Kiira Antenucci

The team woke up to a foot of fresh snow this morning, which led to our activity of the morning. Shoveling. Once that was out of the way, the team transitioned to game time. A variety of games and a few lucky beginners carried us through the afternoon. Some cheesecake for dessert has the team powered up hoping for better weather tomorrow. We're seeing the winds of change and feel positive about the next couple days!

RMI Guides Matias, Chase, Pete, and team

Waking up early this morning after our celebratory dinner last night could have been harder had we not had our safari to look forward to. Day one had us visiting Lake Manyara National Park, home of the elusive tree climbing lion. Well, no lion was seen ready to pounce upon our Landcruiser, but we enjoyed a spectacular first day. Even before getting off the highway we had giraffes and zebras run across the road right in front of us, miles from the park. Once in the park our drivers, Godson and Fabian, proved to be inexhaustible sources of information on everything from the flora and fauna of the region to the culture of the Maasai. And they have such sharp eyes! We were treated to wildlife sightings around every bend in the road, it seemed. The cute, curious, intelligent baboons were everywhere and some of the first animals encountered, but shortly after that we saw elephants, water buck, wildebeest, zebras, water buffalo, hippopotamus, impala, monkeys, and probably a dozen varieties of birds. Liz jokingly commented that she only climbed the mountain to do the safari, and that she really wanted to see an elephant. Well, her wishes came true as we saw perhaps a dozen elephants, some quite close up! Watching a hippo snap its monstrous jaw down (with a reportedly 6 ton force) was another highlight. But perhaps the ever present baboons provided the most amusement as they seemed to like to hang right by the roadside, so up close and personal sightings were common and way too entertaining. And now we're settled in to the Plantation Lodge, an over the top lodge converted from an old coffee plantation that is luxury and swankiness redefined. At least in my eyes. Dinner can best be described as 'haute cuisine' and a wine cellar and bar lie in a subterranean set of rooms one can peer into from a circular window set in the floor of the dining room above. Crazy! Ok, after our 'kick ass' day summiting Kili, we deserve this! Bon appetite. RMI Guide Brent Okita

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