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Come on baby! A couple more nice weather days for us and it can storm all it wants up here in the high country of Tanzania. It all boils down to needing a bit of luck when climbing big peaks like Kilimanjaro; when the mountain says no you need to listen. Even on climbs when you do not get to the top of are filled with events and memories that stick with you. I have great confidence that this entire team will stand on the roof of Africa, with safety leading the way. It is such a unique thing we do up high, to be allowed to stand on the summit is really icing on the cake. We take away an immense feeling of satisfaction on all climbs. The team has checked off all the prerequisite to get this done. When we leave Karanga Camp tomorrow morning, our summit push begins. We'll take a bit of a break at Barafu, the high camp, then up up and away! Man, this is exciting. All the prep work that has gone into this, the great support by all involved back home, is all making this last bunch of hours a reality. We promise to make you proud of what we do, impressed on how we did it, and thank for this beautiful mountain in supplying us this adventure. All is well at 13,000' on Kilimanjaro. We will check in with you tomorrow! RMI Guide Mark Tucker

On The Map

We woke not so early today (this mountaineering gig is rough) had a nice breakfast from the kind folks at Casa Sol and jumped in the bus for the famous Otavalo open air market. We spent a few hours cruising the stalls with food, jewelry, meats, produce, grains, spices, and of course handicrafts for sale. There's even a livestock market which is quite a sight (and smell). Clark and Garrett wanted to go looking for a live monkey to bring home but there was no such luck. I wonder what kind of papers a monkey needs to come back to the states. Anyway, we skipped Otavalo and finally headed for Cayambe where we are settling in up at the hut over 15,000'. The air is thin but everyone's doing great so far. I'll let y'all know how that notorious first night at really high altitude goes... RMI Guide Billy Nugent

Buenas noches from Hacienda Chilcabamba. We just moved into our rooms after enjoying a stunning sunset on the drive out into the campo [wilderness]. The hacienda sits right on the edge of Cotopaxi National Park, and with any luck we will get a view of where we hope to stand in a few days. Today was the big market day in Otavalo, so we braved the crowds and headed into the thick of it. The theme of the day was bargaining, and everybody had a chance to practice their Spanish in order to come away with some authentic souvenirs. The team is well rested and excited for another climb. We'll check in tomorrow from the Cotopaxi hut. RMI Guides Casey Grom & Maile Wade with the Ecuador Team.

Hello from high camp! The clear skies that formed yesterday held throughout the night and we woke to a perfectly bluebird day. Eager to take advantage of the weather, we wolfed down breakfast, broke down camp, packed our backpacks and headed out onto the glacier. Despite spending yesterday off of our feet in camp waiting out the winds we quickly found our climbing rhythm again and made great time as we ascended. By noon we reached our previous high point where we cached on Friday. There we found our gear, covered in a thin layer of ice from yesterday's winds, still lashed down amongst the rocks. A falcon, doubtlessly lured by our treats saved for summit day, was curiously snooping about when we arrived but took off after catching site of our band of Gore-Tex clad climbers. Thankfully the duffel bag that held everything kept the raptor at bay and we loaded the last of our gear into our packs for the final hour's climb into high camp. As we reached camp the low valley clouds, fueled by the midday heat, swirled up about us, at times blanketing us in a calm fog, other times parting to reveal the rest of the mountain looming above us. High camp sits at 15,200' perched amongst a band of black volcanic rocks running down from the east summit known as Lenz Rocks. Camp is quite exposed to Elbrus' infamous winds so we devoted a good amount of energy to establishing camp. As the clouds danced around us we went to work, chopping the ice out of the tent platforms, bolstering rock walls, and securely anchoring the tents. By mid-afternoon we were comfortably settled in our tents, sipping on water and doing our best to enjoy the rarified air of 15,200' and we had a couple of hours to rest and recover before dinner. As the evening shadows grew long off of the rock pinnacles standing guard above our tents we shared a hearty meal of vegetable lasagna before retiring to the sleeping bags for the night. Tomorrow we are planning to make our summit bid for Elbrus, leaving camp around first light. We will traverse below the east summit to the saddle at over 17,500' and then climb to the west summit. We are hoping to be standing on the highest point in Russia and all of Europe by around noon local time, about 1 am (Pacific) Monday morning. The team is feeling strong and excited about tomorrow's endeavor. Keep your fingers crossed that our perfect weather holds!

The Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guides JJ Justman and Christina Dale reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. The team reported clear skies, light winds of about 10 mph, and great climbing conditions due to a fantastic route. The team has started their descent an are en route to Camp Muir. Congratulations to today's team!

Well, it's a cloudy day on the trail but the group is hanging tough. We're having lunch at the Lava Tower (15'000'). That means we are setting new altitude records for just about every one. Tonight we will camp at Barranco where some of the giant plants that are unique to Kilimanjaro are concentrated. RMI Guide Seth Waterfall

On The Map

Hi all, Had a great first day on the Mt. Shuksan 6-day Denali Prep course. Jim and Joy showed up prepared and ready to go. After a gear check, and another cup of coffee, we headed out of town to the Shannon Ridge trail head. We started up the trail with sun on our shoulders, laughing about the 30% chance of rain. After a couple hours hiking we left the trees behind and enjoyed great views of Mt. Baker. With these views, however, also came the end of our laughter as we noticed dark clouds approaching. Though we did get a light rain in the last 1/2 hour before getting to the low bivy camp site, we had a great day. Jim and Joy are in good spirits and staying dry in there tent, currently discussing dinner options. We'll see what the weather gods have in store for us tomorrow. RMI Guide Geoff Schellens

Our weather changed a bit for the worse today, but not before we were able to get our work (and play) accomplished up on the West Buttress. As we started stoves a little before 8 AM, there was already an upper cloud layer above the mountain and a fairly thick blanket below. But there was no sign of wind on the upper ridges so we felt pretty comfortable in gearing up to climb after breakfast. Two hours of steady uphill trudging got us to the slightly more interesting terrain of the bergschrund and the headwall above. We latched onto the fixed ropes and made our way up the 45 degree slopes. Conditions were excellent as there were staircase-quality footsteps in the steep snow. We topped the ropes in good time and it was obvious that everyone was game for going higher, but as we rested at 16,200' it began to snow and so we buried the supplies we were carrying (to protect the food from greedy ravens) and we beat feet back down to 14,200'. We weren't away more than six hours for the round trip but even so it was a significant effort and we were proud of our accomplishments. Three or four of the team broke personal altitude records. We rested away the remainder of the day as snow showers came and went. Tomorrow is a rest day for our team anyway, so we don't mind if a little unsettled weather plays through... but just a little. We are already getting excited for a move up to high camp. RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Billy Nugent and team reached the summit of Mt. McKinley today - May 27th! Billy called in at 7:15 p.m. PT from the Football Field, they were en route back to High Camp at 17,000’. Everyone was doing well. Congratulations to Billy, Solveig and the team!

Hello again everyone 

The team had a really nice day here on Kili today, waking to clear skies and a beautiful view of Kilimanjaro looming in the distance. We had a light cloudy layer which helped keep us cool while on the trail, which was nice as the sun can be quite intense here near the equator.

We started the day waking at 6:30 to start packing up before moving into our dinning tent for a nice breakfast with porridge, fried eggs, toast, avocado and even some fresh fruit, and most importantly plenty of hot coffee. 

We hit the trail shortly after 8am and slowly made our way up the rocky trail with occasional views of Kili above. The trail climbed up a blunted ridge and eventually out of the trees and allowed for some truly spectacular views of the valley below. The team hiked for a little more than 4 hours before reaching our next camp that sits on the Shira plateau, which is the remnant of an ancient lava flow. 

Everyone is doing very well and we are currently relaxing in camp. 

RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew