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Hello Everyone, After a severe spanking on our first climbing objective, expedition skills seminar Ecuador has settled into a well deserved day of rest. Here at Chilcabamba, a beautiful rustic Eco lodge located ten miles north west of Cotopaxi, Ecuador's most famous mountain, we have been treated like royalty. Luckily, whatever crazy wind dance some angry jungle tribe did to irritate the mountain climbers has seemed to run its course. So, by this afternoon many of the dark clouds and biting wind gusts seemed to have subsided which by dinner time treated the team to spectacular views of the mountain we are to attempt next. Because Cayambe was such a struggle, we opened today up to doing anything, within reason, each person wanted to do. Armed with the the Spanish speaking skills of a two year old, I did my best to arrange a car to drive five willing folks to Machachi, the nearest town. When a pickup arrived with seating enough for four, shoulders were shrugged, the back seat was packed sardine style and twenty minutes later Ginger's legs were numb. But so goes travel. After a few hours in town the team returned and a quality debrief of our Cayambe experience hopefully prepared us better for what's to come on Cotopaxi. By 5 p.m. more training ensued and Clark was imitating self arrest in the front yard peppered with llama poop while Albert attempted to mock rescue Ginger out of the imaginary grass crevasse. Who needs a glacier? This segued perfectly into dinned and eventually into Jan and Gary kicking the guide's tails in a heated game of cribbage. The team is growing closer every day and can't wait to attempt another climb. Stay tuned. RMI Guides Adam Knoff & Casey Grom

Sunday, October 30, 2022 - 7:08 pm PT

The members of the team arrived safely in Quito with all our luggage. Today, we ventured out into Quito for a city tour.  At an elevation of over 9,000 ft, this was the perfect acclimatization activity for Day 1. The first (and generally favorite) stop on the tour was at the Mitad del Mundo museum, which means "middle of the world". This museum is located on the equatorial line and the tour guides show us some cool demonstrations along with some interesting history of the region. We balanced an egg on a nail, got our passports stamped and went off to tour Old-Town Quito to see the historic churches and buildings the city had to offer. Tomorrow we are looking forward to a warm-up hike on Rucu Pichincha!

RMI Guide Dominic Cifelli

Hello everybody. This is Jake calling in from Boston Basin up in the North Cascades checking in after a great day of mountain adventure. Eric Frank wanted to let everybody know that they are working well on Torment-Forbidden Traverse and they were on the top of Torment, I think around noon today. Nice work fellas. Thomas Greene and I are out with James, James and Steve up out on Sharkfin Tower today and heading for the West Ridge tomorrow. So cross your fingers for good weather and we will be checking in tomorrow afternoon. That's it from the Basin. RMI Guide Jake Beren

Monday, July 3, 2023 - 12:28 am PT

We battled our way down to 11,000 ft.  A big day of work.  Lots of packing, lots of dicey climbing down the tricky steps of the West Buttress. This day was supposed to be a nice one, but we could see every sign that the storm was coming in early.  We had to fight a little to get around Windy Corner. It snowed on us as we climbed down and as we fought to get a camp up at 11,000'. But we are happy to have made such progress should the storm now come in hard.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

We spent the day at Basecamp. Rest and Acclimatization. 

Walking to Basecamp would be enough of an adventure for most people but not us. The mountain looks down on us; both inviting and intimidating.

Tomorrow, we will carry a good portion of gear, food, and fuel up to Camp 1. Thus, one of our tasks was to organize and reorganize our gear for the move ahead. 

The other task for today was to rest, acclimate and mentally prepare for the challenge ahead. Most of us awoke feeling the altitude to one degree or another but today was a day to recover and prepare.

After our packing was complete, most of the team took naps, read, chatted, or played cards. Dom “yet to be named” Cifelli imparted the sage advice to take care of our ourselves, something so frequently overlooked in our day to day lives. And so, we took care of ourselves and each other. We took a brief stroll in the late afternoon to move our bodies and explore the area around us while enjoying another sunny afternoon.

As we prepare for dinner, a cloud and some light flurries rolls in and we start to plan for our evening. Will Tim remain the reigning Farkle champion, or will Jack “Gator” Delaney get his vengeance and his first victory, or will Jess “Pa-li-llo” Wedel come out of nowhere to earn the crown? Regardless, the night will be filled with laughs and good conversations. 

Good night from Basecamp.

Climber David Scordino 

Thursday, July 1, 2021 - 3:07 pm PT

We enjoyed a long, restful night of sleep at 14,000' Camp, with (relatively) warm temperatures. The agenda for today includes drying out boots in the sun, charging batteries with solar panels, resting, reading, and eating.

It's sunny and warm here in camp, but there's a nasty lenticular cloud on the summit, indicating high winds aloft. The latest weather forecast is calling for a storm affecting the mountain an lasting into Saturday. We're all set to weather the weather. And our hope is to get a good, three day window in which to have a summit bid. We'll be in touch again tomorrow with the latest. Now back to reading...

RMI Guide Mike Walter

The weather changed overnight. It was still perfectly calm and reasonable at Karanga Camp this morning, but the upper mountain was caught in a cloud cap and we could see there’d been a dusting of new snow from about 16,000 ft up. Some of our team reported being aware of a short-lived shower of some sort rattling on the tents in the darkness. We went for the same lazy start as yesterday because today’s expected time on the trail was even less. At 9 AM Naiman led the team upward on gently sloping, wide open terrain. The vegetation didn’t last very long, in fact it was mostly played out by our first rest break at 14,000 ft. We were under cloud for a good chunk of the walk (with the usual solid cloud layer forming a floor below us) but conditions weren’t bad at all for walking. Things steepened some just before we reached camp, but our now seasoned team of ten tough climbers just chugged right on up without much trouble, arriving at 15,200 ft Barafu Camp at 12:15 PM. The altitude didn’t seem to give Tosha, our chef, any problems, he put out a fine lunch at 1:30. In a sign that they are all doing quite well, our team ate every last bit of that fine lunch. The afternoon was spent resting and prepping to climb. We’re headed for an early dinner and an early bedtime, although it might be tough to take our eyes off the sunset. We’ll be getting up early (or more properly -late tonight) There is a mountain to climb! Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn & Team

Namaste everyone. This morning we left our tea house in Phakding and headed up this stunning valley toward Namche Bazaar, which is the largest village in this famous valley. We hit the trail around 8:30 along with quite a few other trekkers. Everyone did really well on the hike, and no one seemed to mind pausing often for the endless mules and Zokes (cross between a Yak and a cow) carrying loads headed up valley and to basecamp as we made our way down, but mostly up, this rocky trail. It was reasonably busy on the route with trekkers and climbers, but the traffic seem to flow pretty smoothly. The team crossed a number of high suspension bridges without a problem, but I did notice no one stopped in the middle to take photos. Overall it was a really enjoyable day as we climbed up to just over 11,200' where Namche sits. It was sunny and beautiful all day and we even managed to spot mighty Everest off in the distance. RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

On The Map

The Mount Rainier Summit Climbs led by Casey Grom and Lindsay Mann are on the summit! They reported clear skies above, cloud deck at 7,000’, and light winds. Since they just crested the crater rim at 7:00 a.m., they are enjoying the views and crossing over to the true summit, Columbia Crest, before beginning their descent.

Another day, another incredible Tanzanian National Park. Today we visited Tarangire... A system of rivers, swamps and savannas that host a mind-blowing number of elephants, zebras, wildebeest, gazelles, giraffes and just about every other East African animal you can think of. We were particularly interested in the big cats today. As luck would have it, we spied a cheetah, a lioness up a tree, and finally a big and beautiful leopard in an Acacia tree at sunset. The elephants of Tarangire were everywhere and their signs of passage were everywhere else. We could see where they'd been scraping bark from the giant baobab trees in search of moisture, and flat out destroying smaller trees in other places. In terms of bird-life, we saw everything from an African Fish Eagle (eerily similar to an American Bald Eagle) to the ubiquitous superb starlings with their incandescent colors. It was just getting dark when Joseph and Clement brought our Landcruisers in to Kikoti, a hotel of screened in cabins with a luxurious and open-planned center dining room and bar just to one side of the national park. This will be our last evening together and our last out in the wild, but we look forward to a final day's journey back through the park and "home" to Arusha. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn