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We left the Dik Dik Hotel this morning to begin our game viewing safari. We stopped in the town of Arusha for a little shopping for locally made gifts and souvenirs. We continued our drive to Lake Manyara National Park and found a remote and peaceful spot for our delicious barbecue lunch. After a short but strong rain we finished the afternoon with a wonderful game drive in cool temperature, no dust and sweet thick air. We are now resting and relaxing here at the Plantation Lodge, really roughing it with a four course deluxe meal. We are off to the Ngorongoro Crater tomorrow looking for the elusive Rhino, to name just one, and then returning here another for another night at the lodge. Life is rough! RMI Guide Mark Tucker

Tom Skoog and his climbing partner David ascended into alpine silence, where the mountain offered complete solitude—no other climbers in sight across two summit days. The crisp September air and clear skies made for ideal conditions.

Checking in with us at 9000 feet, they reported smooth progress along the north ridge, moving strong and steady. Later, above 10,000 feet, they climbed high, light, and free—fully embracing the elevation and the expansive views.

A perfect blend of strength, serenity, and solitude in the high country!

We have arrived at Refugio Grey!! 

Today is one of the hardest days of the trek, certainly the hardest of the “O” portion of the trek. That meant that getting up before the sun, scarfing down our warm breakfast that was mostly coffee, and heading out and up up up. We ascend right out of the gate up a muddy and thin trail as we navigate the last bits of the forest before the tree line. The bitter Patagonian wind woke up before the sun too and was there to greet us as soon as the trees left us. 

Wind, cold, rain, snow, but never too much of any. We persevered up the John Gardner pass and over to the other side of the circuit. And my goodness was a view. People are often asking if the glaciers they are looking at are part of the Patagonian Icefield but one good look at the Grey glacier from the pass and it’s clear to all. As dark as the eye can see right and left is rugged, broken, beautiful glacier. 

7 more hours of a big descent plus the traverse along the glacier brought us to the Refugio we’re at tonight and although there were no games tonight, there will be plenty of good sleeps. 

Tomorrow we continue to Paine Grande, the biggest Refugio in the park and the perfect spot to maybe catch a Super Bowl moment or two! 

RMI Guide Dominic Cifelli

Sunday, June 5, 2022 - 11:08 pm PT

A snowy rest day in the books. We woke up late to clear skies, and a late breakfast of bagels and smoked salmon. Throughout the day the clouds rolled in, and it continued to lightly snow throughout our entire rest day. We shoveled, napped, snacked and prepped for the next weather window to summit. Weather doesn't look ideal for the next few days, but we will continue to rest and hunker down until the weather allows. Check in tomorrow!

RMI Guide Nikki Champion

We woke to sunny skies, and the forecasted winds didn't arrive down low where we were. After bagel, cream cheese, and bacon filled breakfast sandwiches we crashed our camp, loaded our sleds (more and more team members are naming their sleds each day - the better to curse them by), and started the climb up Ski Hill. The steeper terrain with all of the weight of our gear was a big effort, different from yesterday's long miles with little elevation change, but the team handled it really well, and pulled into a cozy camp at 9500' this evening. A big meal of Mac and cheese fortified with bacon put everyone into food comas, and were crawling into the sacks for the night. Tomorrow, we plan to move to 11k to really start the process of acclimating. That's all the news from here. We'll be in touch tomorrow. RMI Guides Pete, Robby, Josh, and team.

We can't complain about the two days of bad weather that prevented us from flying on when it is this beautiful at base camp. The weather here is stellar and watching the sun track across the greater Alaska range has the team in awe. Distant Avalanches off Mt. Hunter and Foraker provide awesome viewing in between skills training. Today we traveled up the SE fork of the Kahiltna for an attempt on Horiskey's Hump (Radio Tower) but poor slope conditions turned us back. Not as much snow sticking to the slopes here this year and firm conditions on steep terrain forced us to make a conservative decision. The team is very thankful for the chance and they learned a great deal about themselves. Tomorrow we train and prepare for an attempt on Kahiltna Dome! RMI Guide Leon Davis and Team

We visited Ngorongoro Crater conservation area today. It's around two million years old and is home to an abundance of wildlife. The big five live there year round and we saw four of them. Rhino, elephant, cape buffalo, and lions but no leopards. We are hoping to see one tomorrow and we're still looking for a cheetah too. It was a long day that started early and thoroughly wore us out riding around in our land cruiser standing up in the intense sun. We have just finished a great meal here at the plantation lodge and everyone is doing well. RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

Hi RMI this is Linden Mallory calling, it’s about 10 AM on Monday morning and we are calling from Denali Base camp. We made it down this morning. We woke up about midnight last night and had the beginnings of a descent freeze, so we decided to pack up and see how the glacier treated us. We fired up the stoves and cooked up some breakfast and then we were walking in the middle of the night. It was a long but relatively uneventful walk down the glacier. We picked our way down and made it to Base camp about an hour ago. Right now we just packed up all our gear and we are waiting on the airplanes to come and pick us up. We have some low hanging clouds but we are fairly optimistic, a few planes have made it in. So hopefully our next call is from Talkeetna. We'll check in and let you know how it goes. RMI Guide Linden Mallory

It was plenty cold at low camp last night. Namgya bravely got out of the tent at 11 AM to fire up the stoves, even though we were still in the cold shadow. The weather held, with little cloud cover getting in our way. We watched a blanket of thick cloud fill the valley below and we could see wind tearing at the mountaintops, but we lucked out with calm and sunny conditions for our five hour and ten minute climb up to high camp. Willie Benegas and Vern Tejas managed to get their teams to the summit deespite the winds and both were back just after we got our tents built and kitchen dug out, around 8:30 PM. Vern is the new world's record holder for Vinson ascents, with 27. I have a chance to tie him tomorrow if the weather cooperates and if my climbers are feeling fine. They seem to be. Leif Whittaker, who turned 25 the day we flew out of Punta Arenas, is cruising along as if he did this sort of thing all the time. One can't help just assuming that it is in his blood, since his Dad is Big Jim Whittaker -the first American up Everest. Sashko Kedev, our cardiologist from Macedonia was thrilled with the day on the ropes today and obviously can't wait for tomorrow. Tim Amos, our producer from New York City, has been strong and steady all along. Brent Huntsman is the team geologist from Ohio and when we slow down enough to permit conversation (not often), he explains the wild "chevron" folds in the rock we are seeing. It is calm now (12:30 AM) at high camp, we want it to stay that way.

Now it gets exciting—we are at 15,200 ft in Barafu (Ice) Camp.

The team had no trouble coming up from Karanga this morning. The clouds and murk of yesterday afternoon and evening were nowhere to be found by this morning. We came up in calm and sunny conditions, with unlimited views of the big volcano we’ve been spiraling in toward. We reached high camp in the late morning and spent our time eating, resting, and preparing to climb. Clouds came over again in the afternoon, but they’ve cleared away again this evening, just as we’ve all tucked in for an early (6:30 PM) bedtime. Before too long, we’ll be going high.

Best Regards,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

PC: Dave Hahn