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The morning of March 8th began like most others do when climbing a big mountain. A 1am wake up call, yummy instant oatmeal and coffee and the persistent interpersonal question of, "Why on earth do I do this?" We lucked out again with the weather. A strong wind was blowing when we arrived at the hut and blew all through dinner. Much like it did on Ixta. By the time we pulled ourselves out of bed, most of us having not slept anyway, the wind was gone. Mommy nature was indeed in a good mood and happy with us, so both mornings on Ixta and Orizaba, were perfect. Also perfect was the teams readiness and psych. We began walking up hill at 2:15 a.m. and everyone was feeling solid and positive. After we got through the cruxy ice section called the labyrinth and onto the Jamapa Glacier, we knew we could make it. This Mexican glacier looks simple but once on it the darn thing seems like the twilight zone. You move but never go anywhere. After putting one foot in front of the other for three hours we did land somewhere, the summit! All eight of us, including Fozzi our local guide and myself, had made the tops of both Ixta and Orizaba. This team battled illnesses, mild AMS, anxiety and the stress of undertaking intimidating mountain climbs like champs. hey all made me proud! We then returned to the comforts of our outfitters compound and prepared for the flights home. We are all thrilled to both have had a successful adventure and to come home today. Thanks to the entire team for a fantastic trip! RMI Guide Adam Knoff

On The Map

Today is another rest day for the team at Plaza Argentina. After our carry to Camp 1 yesterday it serves us well to take advantage and fully acclimatize. The team is doing really well. The agenda for today is resting, eating and taking showers. Everyone on the team says hello to family and friends... RMI Guide JJ Justman

On The Map

Hi! This is Solveig Waterfall checking in from our Cabana at the La Malitzi Resort at the base of La Malinche. We had a great acclimatization hike this afternoon and made it all the way to 13,000ft! Everyone did great and the weather held off nearly long enough. At the first sounds of thunder we began a hasty descent back to relative safety below tree line and then motored all the way back down to our cabins under heavy rainfall. Everyone is in great spirits after a delicious dinner and we are all cozied up drying out clothing and boots next to the fireplace enjoying the sounds of the continued rain and thunder. Quite the first day here in the mountains of Mexico! Tomorrow we will travel to the Altzomoni hut near the base of Ixta and begin preparations for our first big climb. Crossing our fingers for an improvement in the weather!! RMI Guides JJ Justman and Solveig Waterfall

On The Map

RMI Guide JJ Justman and team returned to Ashford today after completing their six-day Emmons Expedition Skills Seminar. JJ captured brilliant views on their summit day. See the video below.

Hi everybody and welcome to the first installation of many dispatches from this summer's Ecuador Volcanoes program! The team finally met each other as a complete group this morning for breakfast after several hectic laps between the airport and hotel late last night. Team members were trickling in gradually through the night and the crowds of Ecuadorians awaiting family members made for quite a scene. Actually, it was more like a zoo with a traffic jam outside. Fortunately, Jaime and Victor (our expert locals) were incredibly helpful in scooping up our climbers and adept at navigating the melee. Anyway, after a decent breakfast and getting to know each other a bit the team headed out for a day cruising around Quito as full-fledged tourists of the sight-seeing variety. With the majority of the city situated at over 9,000' we have actually already begun our acclimatization process. After a long day of travel just to arrive in Ecuador, it was nice to have a day to just cruise around and get comfortable. The city tour hit up lots of old colonial and contemporary sights including religious, governmental, and culturally significant buildings. We climbed the rickety catwalks high in the Basilica and caught tremendous 360 degree views of this huge metropolis of more than 3 million citizens and later went to the exact geographical equator where we played around with the strange forces the earth's rotation creates uniquely on the middle of the planet. The equator museum also had a cool sort of natural history museum with a collection of flora and fauna and anthropological relics from Ecuador's various regions. We're talking giant anaconda and boa skins, real human shrunken heads, and a gnarly, preserved amazon candiru - look it up... The team had fun getting to hang out in a casual atmosphere and we aim to keep the fun going as we begin some of our physical activity tomorrow with a training hike up on Rucu Pichincha, a volcano right above the city where we will hopefully hit nearly 16,000'. That should help jump start the acclimatization followed by a night's rest at relatively lower altitude in Quito. Well, headed off to dinner with the crew, more to come as the situation develops, RMI Guide Billy Nugent

Drawing will take place Oct. 10, 2013 and valid only for 2013 Summer Climbs. Prize includes cost of climb only and does not include any additional travel, lodging, equipment, or meal expenses incurred with the climb. Winner will be notified via email. One entry per person. To enter visit the RMI Facebook eNewsletter Page to sign up or visit RMI at one of the Seattle Sounders games during the dates mentioned above.

Howdy gang, we are up here at Chopper Camp. We are experiencing 30 mph winds, about 30 feet visibility, sometimes less and plenty of blowing snow to boot. We are starting to feel like we're in the middle of an Alaskan storm here. A little bit worse cause we're so close to our objective. Me and the guides have been jammin’ reggae and blues in the tent to try to channel some southern or tropical vibes and overcome this lousy storm. But the forecast actually calls for the squall to blow itself out tonight and if that's the case we're going, the whole team will head up tomorrow to Cholera Camp tomorrow. And then may take a crack at the summit on Valentine's Day. But right now, Pete says the stoke meter is currently at 1 ½, so please send us your happy, positive, and tropical weather vibes, down here in South America. We miss you all. Wish us luck. Ciao RMI Guide Billy Nugent

The Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir May 16 - 21, 2021 met on Sunday for their first day of training led by RMI Guides Hannah Smith and Nikki Champion.  On Monday, May 17th they loaded their packs and ascended to Camp Muir.  They have spent the last four days and nights at Camp Muir, training and practicing skills needed to climb big mountains.  Today they put that training to test and made their summit attempt on Mt. Rainier.  Unfortunately wind and new snow thwarted their effort.  The team is safely back at Camp Muir and will do some additional training this morning before packing their gear and descending from 10,000'.  We hope they learned a lot and enjoyed their experience even with the uncooperative weather.

Another big day out in East Africa. It was tough to leave the comfortable Plantation Lodge this morning, but we had things to do and places to see. We stopped for some plain old tourism in the morning--shopping for gifts and souvenirs. Next up was a visit to a Maasai village. The Maasai are famous among the many tribes of Tanzania for holding onto their traditional ways. The villagers demonstrated their chanting and singing. They showed how high they could jump and invited our team to join in the competition. They brought us into the central corral, built of thorny branches and trees arranged in a tight circle, where their cattle are protected from predators each night. After demonstrating building a fire without matches, they explained a little of how their families are structured and welcomed us into their well-built but very small homes made of sticks, mud and dung. Our team tried bargaining for some of the handmade craft pieces the Maasai women were offering and then we got on the road for Tarangire National Park. Tarangire is a vast park encompassing three parallel river courses. As soon as we were past the giant baobab trees that mark the park entrance, we began seeing zebra, impala and wildebeest in such numbers that we began taking these animals for granted. We got selective, only wanting to slow down for giraffes and elephants. None of us were casual or blasé about seeing a big sleepy leopard draped over the branches of an acacia tree. He or she (there was some debate) was exceedingly beautiful. We spied a lioness watching the world from a camouflaged clump of brush on a riverbank. And we saw many elephant families of mothers with their young ranging from 6 months to a year or two. We watched them feed and rest in the shade, we saw them using their trunks as straws to pull water from underground. We saw grassy savannas and thickets of trees and palms. Essentially we saw wildlife and wilderness from horizon to horizon. When we were deep within the park, we entered Balloon Camp, our lodging for this, our final evening together. We savored an evening watching sunset, moonrise and “bush television” (a campfire) before dinner. The adventure isn’t finished just yet, we still hope for new discoveries in the morning...but everyone has airplanes to catch at some point tomorrow. Best Regards, Dave Hahn

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