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Sunday, June 30th, 2013 Greetings! After spending some time resting and recuperating at 14K Camp, we jumped on the tiger today, aka the fixed lines, and climbed to 16,700' to cache gear and food at Washburn's Thumb. The steep and often exposed climbing was some of first of the expedition, and the team performed exceptionally. The hard work of the day was rewarded with a team favorite meal consisting of Annie's Mac and Cheese with bacon. Tomorrow will be spent resting back in the comfort of 14K Camp while we wait on a favorable weather forecast to begin our final move up to Denali's high camp. Best, RMI Guides Robby, Pete, Geoff and Team

On The Map

Another beautiful day and another strong effort from our crew! We took advantage of more amazing weather and single-carried all of our gear and supplies up Ski Hill to set up shop at Camp 2, which sits at about 9,600' on the upper reaches of the Kahiltna Glacier. Our guys clearly trained hard and the long hours on the stairmaster paid dividends today hauling massive loads. We rolled into camp around 4:30 which made for a leisurely afternoon getting situated and taking in the amazing views. After a hot dinner of tortellini alfredo, we all crawled into the tents and are currently waiting for the bitter cold to set in once the sun dips behind Kahiltna Dome. That's all for now, we'll check in again tomorrow! RMI Guide Billy Nugent

On The Map

Jambo! We are back to where we started, the Dik Dik Hotel. We have just finished a wonderful photo safari in Tanzania visiting Ngorongoro Crater, Lake Manyara and Tarangire National Parks. We spent three nights in the African bush at two different tented camp lodges. This is an incredible way to view the wildlife and experience the excitement of Africa. Check out the photo below from our team mate Steve. Steve took this photo from the Kikoti Camp on our last night in Tanzania. Today, on our way back to the Dik Dik Hotel, we made a visit to a local orphanage to visit with our friends, drop some gifts for the children and check out the progress they are making on all of their projects. Now we are back at the Dik Dik Hotel, repacking our gear and trying to fit all of our new treasures safely into our suitcase for the journey home. We will have dinner and then head to the airport for our evening flights. It has been a great trip and we appreciate you following along on our adventure. I hope to see you on Mt. Rainier in September and if you are in Ashford drop by the Rainier Mountain Festival and say hello. RMI Guide Mark Tucker

The Four Day Climb August 9-12 led by RMI Guides Casey Grom and Sam Hoffman reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today with all of their climbers.  It's a beautiful bluebird day and the teams climbed strong. They started their descent from the crater rim around 7 am.  Once back at Camp Muir they will take a quick break before continuing the remaining 4.5 miles to Paradise.

Congratulations to today's climbers!

Another great day in the Himalayas!

We had another shorter day of trekking so everyone was SHOCKED last night when I told them breakfast would be at 8:00am instead of our usual 7:30am. Really changing things up over here!

We hit the trail around 8:30am to another sunny and clear day. Nuptse was shining on our right and Pumori towering above on our left. We soon made it to the rocky trail on the edge of the Khumbu glacier and got our first views of Everest Base Camp far off in the distance.

We pulled over for what we thought would be a normal yak train (we always move out of the way - one never faces down a yak) but soon realized it was the largest yak train to ever exist. 50 yaks? 100? Sooo many. This was confirmed by all our Sherpa guides who agreed they had never seen anything like it. We took the extra break and enjoyed taking 1484 more yak photos and videos but this time with Everest in the background.

Before we knew it we had made it to Gorek shep, our final stop before base camp and sitting just over 17,000ft. It’s a barren place and oddly sandy. We all noted that it looks like it’s out of Dune.

After lunch, with clear skies still above, we opted to go on a little hike for better views of Everest.  We had so much fun just strolling a little more uphill, taking photos and talking about all the mountains around us.

We are all doing well and so looking forward to base camp tomorrow!

RMI Guide Jess Wedel and the Lobuche team

P.S. yesterday, Jangbu carried Diego but TODAY David carried Dawa so we’re all even. 

P.P.S. We likely won’t have service or wifi at basecamp so don’t be too worried if you don’t hear from your loved one for the next few days.

Hello friends, all is well here in sunny Ecuador! Yesterday we kicked off our adventure with a trip to the Equator to learn some science and balance eggs on a nail (difficult, but not impossible), followed by a cultural tour of the city. After a delicious Ecuadorian dinner and some spa time, the team hit the hay to rest up before our first acclimatization hike.

We awoke to blue skies and after a nice breakfast we headed to the teleférico where we took a ride up to 13,000 feet and were able to stretch our legs on a wonderful hike to the summit of Rucu Pichincha 15,354 feet. We saw some splendid flowers along the way and even some friendly birds at the summit.

Tomorrow we will check out of our hotel and make our way to Cero Fuya Fuya for another acclimatization hike before ending our day at a lovely hacienda in Otavalo (don't worry friends and family we are certainly not roughing it on this trip). Morale is high and at dinner tonight we will be finalizing our new team name so stay tuned.

Hope all is well back at home and hasta mañana.

RMI Guides Dustin Wittmier, Michael Murray & Team

The Four Day Climb Teams led by RMI Guides Dave Hahn and Alex Halliday reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today.  The guides reported light winds and great climbing conditions. They have left the crater and started their descent back to Camp Muir.

Congratulations to Today's Teams! 

The team has arrived at High Camp on Chimborazo, 17,300. It has been a roller coaster of emotion watching the weather.  One minute it looks perfect and the next it is cloudy and windy.  So we are just doing everything we can to be ready for a summit push tonight.  Dinner will be ready at 5:30 pm, with a little charcuterie spread preceding.  We be sleeping in tents on a gritty, windy mountain but we are not barvarians!  We will eat the finiest dried meats, cheese and olives the Mega Maxi grocery store has to offer.  

We will be up climbing under the stars (hopefully) on the switchback deprived trail tonight.  It literally goes straight up.  

Wish us luck!

RMI Guides Adam Knoff and Dustin Wittmier

We woke to beautiful, clear skies today and enjoyed the early morning warmth after a slightly chilly night. First up for the day was an all important breakfast with pancakes, eggs, hashbrowns, cereal and last but not least COFFEE. A special thanks to Jeff Martin for preparing a wonderful travel kit with plenty of it. We hit the trail a little before 9am and slowly made our way passing dozens of tea houses, trekkers, and porters. We crossed several suspension bridges decorated with prayer flags that sit high above the valley floor with amazing views in all directions. After a few hours hiking we arrived at the big hill that leads up to the famous Namche Bazaar, which is the center of the Khumbu Valley. The team did a great job and before too long we all arrived in Namche just in time for a late lunch and before the snowflakes started to fall from the sky. We spent the remainder of the evening exploring this small town and napping as we continue to adjust to the new time zone and altitude. Everyone is in good spirits and looking forward to our rest day tomorrow. RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

On The Map

Everyone is back at the Dik Dik hotel safe and sound! It was a whirlwind past few days on Kilimanjaro as we went from 15,200 feet up to 19,340 and all the way out in just over 24 hours. The team did really well and the weather was good, even though we got rained on a bit after the summit. The weather for our climb was amazing and we all had great conditions on the summit. We started just after midnight under a partly cloudy sky. It was a windless night and that kept the temps from dropping to extreme lows. That said we did climb to over 18,000 feet before the sun came up so staying warm required us to be vigilant with our gear. Everyone kept their focus though and we all made it up. We summitted in a big wave spread out over about 45 min which was really cool for me as I got to spend a lot of time on top. After returning from high camp we resisted the urge to relax too much as we still had a decent hike down to our last camp. As we snacked on french toast the clouds came up and we started to get some light rain. The rain picked up as we hiked down to Mweka camp and that added some challenge to the day but our excellent staff had dry tents and hot tea waiting for us. After dinner we dropped onto our sleeping pads for a well deserved rest. This morning we woke up to more cloud cover. After another excellent meal we had a wrap up celebration with our mountain staff. The guys from the Dik Dik do an amazing job and we all wanted to make sure that they know we greatly appreciate the hard work. Then we hit the trail. A few hours of hiking was nothing for this crew and before we know it we were down at the gate. We will have dinner in a couple of hours and toast to the great times we had on Kilimanjaro! Tomorrow it's safari time!!! RMI Guide Seth Waterfall