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Hello everybody back home. This is Casey checking in. Yesterday we spent some time hiking around Cho Oyu Basecamp. Fair amount also doing some training and getting some of our gear ready to move further up the mountain, which we did today. We left early this morning and hiked for several hours to our interim camp at 17,500'. One more day to reach Advanced Basecamp, which we'll be based out of basically for the rest of the expedition. It'll be our home for the next month. Everybody's doing well. We just finished a Nepalese meal prepared by Kumar. Currently we are settling into our tents, which are surrounded by all of the yaks that have carried all of our group gear, food, and supplies for this trip. Everybody's down for the night. Everything is looking good for us. We got our first snow, just a light dusting but it was nice to see it. We'll check in again tomorrow after we reach Advanced Basecamp. Hope you guys are doing well back home,

Hello from Everest Base Camp -

Frosty tents and a frosty camp greeted us in the morning.Mother nature's sparkles made everything glimmer. Hot drinks and pancakes started our day off as the sun warmed everything around us. Today was a well-deserved leisure day. Naps, reading, and a casual walk on to the glacier wrapped up our time at basecamp. It’s been a memorable experience for all one we will all look back on with smiles. With full bellies from another amazing dinner cooked by the talented cook staff, we have all crawled into our sleeping bags for one last sleep at Base Camp.

Good night, all,

RMI Guides Casey, Hannah, and Team

Thursday, June 3, 2021 - 6:15 pm PT

Good afternoon! This is RMI Guide Eric Frank calling on June 3rd from the summit of Denali, the highest point in North America. We are up here on a beautiful afternoon, in-and-out of the clouds. Sometimes we can see 100 miles; sometimes we can only see our climbing boots. We had an awesome climb today. Started off a little chilly in the shade, but all-in-all it has been a wonderful day of climbing.  We are enjoying 15 minutes on top right now. It is about 5:15 local time. We are going to pack up and head downhill where we should be back between 9 and 10 pm tonight.  Thanks everyone for following along.  Friends and family- I am sure you’ll be happy to hear from your respective individuals in a few days.  Our hope is to move down to a lower elevation, thicker air and catch a plane to the land of burgers and beer within a couple of days.  Thanks for following along. Bye.

RMI Guide Eric Frank

Hey, this is Dave Hahn calling in from the summit of Mount Vinson 16,067 feet above sea level. And I'm up here. It's 5:25 in the evening. I'm with three wonderful climbers: T.A., Mindy and Vlado, and we picked a beautiful day to be up here. It's calm, it's sunny, it's wonderful. This is my 29th time on top- likely a record of some sort and what an enjoyable day. What an enjoyable week's its been. Here's T.A.: Hey, this is T.A. calling from the summit of Mt. Vinson and the view is absolutely... absolutely awesome! Special hello to everyone in Newfoundland and another special hello to Rain and Zander up there in Edmonton. Take care everybody. [Mindy] The view is... I've never dreamed about it. Without Dave and the team I couldn't dream I could make it. Dave you are a lasting reward. I made a good choice with RMI. Without the team I couldn't have made it. Total team work. This is Vlado from Slovakia calling from the highest point in Antarctica. Beautiful time, we are having a great time. Alright, well that's us from the top of the Vinson Massif, highest point in Antarctica. We have gotten very lucky. Very lucky and we appreciate all the help people have given us a long the way. Thanks a lot and we'll keep you informed. I'll send out a dispatch from our high camp tonight because we are going to get down nice and safe. We are all doing strong and well. It's going to be a nice day, a day to remember. RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

My climbing/guiding career on Denali (Mt McKinley) spanned four decades. Some of the most memorable trips were independent ventures with friends in the early 1970’s. I have been witness to innumerable changes over the years, and always find it fun to look back at the way things were. The mountain hasn’t changed, but we have certainly refined and improved our means and methods of climbing it! Dateline 1972

• My friend, Dave Campbell, and I drove a VW bug up the Alaska Highway, which in those days included 1200 miles of unpaved surface (dirt!). His V-dub gave up the ghost in the Yukon, about 100 miles short of the Alaska border, so we hitch-hiked to Anchorage and took the Alaska Railroad to Talkeetna. Two guys in a pick-up, moving to Alaska after time there in the army, went hundreds of miles out of their way to deliver us to Anchorage. That anybody would pick up two straggly dudes along with 1,000 lbs of backpacks, food and gear, left a most favorable impression with me.
• Later in April, my first day in Talkeetna. It was snowing mightily as I stepped from the train and observed a wedding procession passing by the Fairview Inn on Main St. The bride and groom were mushing a sled dog team to the delight of revelers lining the street. Being a ‘Cheechako’ (tenderfoot/greenhorn/newcomer) I couldn’t help but wonder if the couple planned to honeymoon in a nearby igloo.
• Our 4-man team brought 30 days of food: breakfast, lunch and dinner for four, packed inside two dozen 3-gallon metal containers (to thwart cache-raiding birds). As it turned out, we needed every morsel as we were on the mountain a total of 33 days (and didn’t make the summit; must be some kind of record!)
• We had elected to fly with Don Sheldon’s competitor, Cliff Hudson. Cliff headquartered out of his home; a quonset hut, strewn to the absolute brim with various electronics and innumerable airplane parts (plus, his wife Ollie, and four young sons). There was no Talkeetna State Airport that I remember. Rather, we took off and landed from the ‘village strip’ across the street from the Fairview (a wind sock was strategically placed on the roof).
• Climbers did not pay a Special Use fee, but the NPS required each party to have a radio capable of reaching Talkeetna from Base Camp. It was rented from ABC Communications in Anchorage, and required a $500 deposit (a fortune to us at the time). Cliff Hudson provided the necessary 12-volt car battery and jumper cable to power the radio, as well as a dozen 12’ spruce boughs (which he crammed into the fuselage of his Cessna 180, along with our food cans, group and personal equipment, and finally, us!). The small Cessna’s that pilots preferred in those days meant multiple trips to and from the mountain, transporting climbers.
• Base Camp was approximately 7300’ on the SE Fork of Kahiltna Glacier. We dug a snowcave for leaving the radio, battery, spruce boughs, and misc. personal affects. We marked the roof circumference with willow wands and a 15’ section of PVC pipe (it snows a lot there), adorned with a small flag, to denote the cave entrance. Over three weeks later we returned and located the cache (which required extensive digging to excavate). The spruce boughs were lined up in a row on the glacier surface, and radio antennae wire strung from the cave to each, like a telephone pole in the middle of nowhere. Power was connected to the radio, and we commenced trying to reach Cliff in Talkeetna to inform him we were ready to be picked up. If the radio didn’t work (some years it wouldn’t) our backup was the CB radio (Citizens Band), potentially capable of reaching a passing aircraft. In those days, bush pilots were acutely aware of location and progress of ‘their’ groups on the mountain, in order to guesstimate when pick up from Base Camp would be needed (in case the radio didn’t work).
• In 1972 sleds were not in vogue, and the four of us carried back and forth in between camps to fully stock the next, higher, site. That required as many as three days of stockpiling. In retrospect, we wasted a lot of good weather while low on the route, and experienced unsettled conditions during the time we spent at high camp.
• Underway, we observed three people descend from Kahiltna Pass, early-on in the trip. It turned out their fourth member had been evacuated from 14K with suspected pulmonary edema. These were the last human beings we saw for the better part of the next three weeks, until we were descending the ‘infamous’ fixed line between 15,000’ – 16,000’ (we met a party coming up the rope; worst spot on the whole route to pass!).

Dateline 2015

• All nine RMI Denali expeditions reached the summit of Mt McKinley (May, June, and July).
• 87% of our 2015 Denali clients reached the summit.
• The vast majority of guides and climbers jet to Alaska and ride a shuttle to Talkeetna.
• K2 Aviation’s fleet of de Havilland Beavers and Otters can transport an entire team to Base Camp in a single flight.
• Satellite phones and daily dispatches of expedition progress take the guess work out of when to pick up climbing parties.
• RMI expeditions averaged 18.4 days roundtrip this season.
• Guides and climbers alike raved about the new Expedition Sleds.
• There were no accidents or injuries requiring evacuation or hospitalization on any RMI Denali expeditions this season.
_____
Joe Horiskey began guiding for RMI Expeditions in 1968 at the age of seventeen. Since that 1972 expedition, Joe has participated in 23 Mt. McKinley expeditions and has 235 summits of Mt. Rainier along with expeditions to peaks across the globe. Joe is a co-owner of RMI Expeditions and director of our Mt. McKinley expeditions. Have a question or thinking about climbing Mt. McKinley? Call our office and talk to Joe; he loves to talk all things Alaska!

We are feeling quite lucky today. It was extremely good weather for going to the top of Mount Vinson. And there was no mystery about it. From the time we got out of the tents at high camp this morning, it was obvious that conditions were stable and that we'd be able to simply concentrate on climbing well. The team did exactly that. We left camp at 9:35 and were on the top at 3:45 PM. In fact, we passed most of the teams that had left before us, although that certainly wasn't our goal. We just wanted to move efficiently in this cold environment. On a day when about 30 climbers were going for the top, it was also quite nice for us to have the summit to ourselves for a time. Gary and Bob had the added significance to the occasion in that Vinson was the seventh continental summit for each. We could see up and down nearly the full length of the 200-mile Ellsworth chain, but our eyes were drawn continually to the sharp and lofty summits just north of Vinson, to Shinn, Tyree, Gardner and Epperly. We left the top at 4:20 and arrived back at high camp by 7 PM. Dinner was a comfortable session in our POSH tent and then we headed to bed early. Tomorrow will be another big day as we descend to Basecamp. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Dave Hahn, Seth Waterfall and Billy Nugent leave the US for Punta Arenas, Chile, in a few days! Once in Punta Arenas, the team will meet for their orientation and final preparation before flying to the Union Glacier in Antarctica! If you would like to follow along as the RMI team pushes their way to the highest point in Antarctica, please sign up for alerts below.

RMI Guides Casey Grom and Dominic Cifelli led their Four Day Climb teams for August 15 - 18, 2022 to the summit of Mt. Rainier today.  Climbers reached the summit around 5:30 am.  They reported an excellent climb and overall great day.  The teams are heading back to Camp Muir where they will take a quick break before continuing the remaining 4.5 miles to Paradise.  Their program will conclude this afternoon at Rainier BaseCamp.

Congratulations to today's climbers!

The Soul of a Climber 

 

The mountains hold the soul,

And light fire in the hearts of some men.

It leads them to do things,

Others don't just understand.

 

It's not only the summits,

Though that's what we oft speak of.

It's the journey, the effort,

And so much more that we love.

 

It's trekking the valleys,

That lead to the trailhead.

And the anticipation of adventures,

During the journey ahead.

 

It's the early morning sun,

As if it illuminates the peaks.

All through the day until sunset,

These are the beauties we seek.

 

We realize it will take effort,

That there will be moments of pain.

But the mountain gives more back,

It is much more of a gain.

 

It's the time spent with others,

Telling tales of past climbs.

And of more ventures ahead,

That excite each climber's mind.

 

There is time spent together,

There is tile spent alone.

But mostly it is time in the mountains,

In this place we call home.

 

The time comes to leave, 

It invariably does.

But our hearts and souls have been nourished,

By these sacred mountains we love. 

 

-Tim Cavanagh

"Tah-shi de-leh." Hello everybody. "Tah-shi de-leh" is a Tibetan greeting that is used when greeting people and also when you say "Good-bye." This is Casey checking in from the Cho Oyu Expedition. The team is doing great. We've been relaxing here at ABC for the last two days taking rest days, catching up on sleep, reading, and having lots of social time in our tent because it has been snowing nonstop since we've been here. We get these squawls that come through every day for several hours and then some light breaks. With the weather we are going to take one more day of rest tomorrow down here and then head up to Camp 1 the day after. Currently the upper mountain has a fair amount of new snow and the sherpa teams that are in charge of fixing the route to the summit have not been able to get too far due to the deep snow and avalanche conditions. We are sitting good because we are still about ten days out from our summit bid, which is great. There are several teams here that are itching to go since they have been here at ABC for the last week waiting for the weather to open up so they can go do their summit attempt. We are nice and relaxed here with our schedule. Kumar, our cook, has been taking great care of us and keeping us healthy. One more day of relaxation and we'll check in again probably when we head up to Camp 1 two days from now. Okay everybody, hope you're doing well.