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Safely Back in Quito

June 13, 2010

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Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador

The team is all safely back in Quito now, after returning from or climb of Cayambe. We took advantage of good climbing conditions with an alpine start (midnight) from the climbing hut on Cayambe, and enjoyed a starry night, comfortable climbing temperature, and good cramponing. Everyone climbed very well - the previous week of climbing and hiking at high altitude had obviously paid off; we were all strong and acclimated. The stars turned to clouds as we ascended the Picos Jarrin route on Cayambe, but the climbing conditions remained favorable. We reached an altitude of 18,700', where a bergshcrund separates the summit ice cap from the glacier below. We searched far to the north and south, trying to find a passage that would allow access to the summit. During this excursion, we explored inside the bergshrund and ascend some steep snow ramps that looked like they would connect to the summit. But, in the end, we were thwarted by the enormous bergshcrund; our high point would be just a couple hundred feet below the true summit - just barely out of our grasp. Our climbing team was still pleased with our strong performance today, and certainly had a very enjoyable climb on Cayambe. As we descended, the clouds decided not to take mercy on us, and frozen precipitation turned to rain at lower altitudes. We were pretty wet when we arrived back at the climbing hut, but fortunately it was warm and hot drinks awaited us. After a brief rest to dry out and have a bite of food, we hiked 15 minutes down to our van, and continued on to Quito. Hot showers at the hotel and clean clothes were very welcome. A great meal was enjoyed last night as the group celebrated the past 10 days we spent together enjoying the Ecuadorian culture, people, and mountains, enjoying traveling and adventure, and enjoying spending time with each other. That's it for now. Thanks for following our adventures!

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Team Hahn Accelerates Summit Bid Plan

May 21, 2009

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Categories: Expedition Dispatches Everest

Elevation: Advanced Basecamp

We had something of a celebration dinner in BC last night. As Peter, Ed, Jake and Gerry made it all the way down from the South Col to regale us with summit stories. After all that, it was strange as anything to get up by myself early this morning - and to eat breakfast alone. I have become accustomed to nearly constant companionship in the past few months. I walked out of basecamp and into a cloud at 4am. This didn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling - despite the fact that the cloud had kept overnight temperatures mild, and visibility was fuzzy at best. I like my glaciers frozen solid, and the lower Khumbu icefall was soggy this morning. The high humidity had me dripping sweat and the soggy-ness had me worried that snow bridges would collapse under my crampons. Life got better when daylight began to roll around and found me climbing out of the tops of the clouds. I was delighted to have the whole place to myself. It wasn't until I nearly reached Camp I that I began to meet dozens and dozens of very heavily loaded sherpas coming down along with the foreign climbers they guided to the summit in the preceding days. My work for the day became "congratulations" as I ran into many friends - tired - a little beat up from wind, cold and sun - but obviously content to have just completed their great goal of recent months... years... lifetimes. At Camp I, I made contact via radio with Linden at BC and Seth at ABC. Linden let us know the latest forecast and we all agreed that May 23rd was shaping up as our best summit chance. This meant that Seth, Melissa, Kent and Ang Kaji needed to rally at ABC in order to get on up to Camp III. We'd go ahead with the plan that had us all moving to Camp IV tomorrow. This was fine as all at ABC were sounding strong and ready. A quick check of my own watch showed that I was actually enjoying a day of good strength as well. I got my pack on and walked easily up the Western Cwm to ABC. I didn't reach the camp in time to see my teammates before their Camp II departure, but having made it up from BC in 5 hours, I was satisfied nonetheless. Through the morning - our Sherpa team collected at ABC, and I was able to strategize with Tendi and Lambabu. I also got to hear their stories of the big summit day on the 19th and was quite impressed with the massive amount of work our Sherpa team had contributed. Tendi himself had spent 5 days at or above the South Col and on summit day he'd heroically initiated a rescue for an exhausted climber from another team. He ran out of oxygen himself in the long and arduous process of getting the man safely back to the Col. The rescue ended up involving a number of teams - ultimately Jake Norton and John Griber from our own team geared back up and finished their own marathon day by climbing back up to aid in the rescue effort. I began to understand where a few of the coughs I was hearing at dinner last night had originated. My afternoon at ABC was spent resting - the midday heat was nearly unbearable - and preparing for a few hard days of climbing. My team reported good times on the Lhotse Face today and all were moving into Camp III tents in plenty of time to get their own rest for these next make or break days.

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Mt. Baker: Summit - Easton Glacier!

September 4, 2025

Posted by: Raymond Holt, Annie Chapman

Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades

100% Summit Success on Mt. Baker!

Our climbing team had originally set out to ascend Mt. Rainier, but due to unsafe route conditions above Ingraham Flats, they made the smart decision to pivot with us to Mt. Baker.

Led by RMI Guides Ray Holt and Annie Chapman, the team took on the Easton Glacier route—and it was absolutely worth it!

Every climber stood on the summit, rewarded with stunning views and the satisfaction of perseverance and adaptability. The team is now back at camp, resting, rehydrating, and preparing for tomorrow’s descent to the trailhead.

Huge congratulations to the entire team for their flexibility, determination, and summit success!

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Denali Expedition: Van Deventer & Team Reach 11,000’, Establish New Camp

May 15, 2023

Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Tatum Whatford, Henry Coppolillo

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley

Elevation: 11,000'

Sunday, May 14, 2023 - 9:49 pm PT

The mountain reminded us how strong she is today and have us a good fight. We woke to sun and warm temps in camp and the beginnings of a beautiful day. We packed up camp and started moving uphill again to 11. At first we moved with better vis, views, and a little jump in our step. But as we walked the clouds from yesterday moved back in with a stiff wind and a lot of blowing snow. Quite quickly we had little visibility and following the tracks of previous climbers became quite difficult. But the team was warm, had all the gear we needed to move in the weather, so we marched on with the help of GPS. After a good battle and a longer day than anticipated, we made it to 11,000' Camp. Tents were a welcome sight but the battle wasn't over. We still had a few hours of camp constructing to do before we would be in our shelters. The team worked really well together and rallied it out, and now we are sitting snug In tents and sleeping bags, reminiscing about the day.

RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer

Ecuador Seminar: Knoff and Team Visit Otavalo Market and Arrive at Cayambe Hut

January 12, 2020

Posted by: Adam Knoff, Dustin Wittmier

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador

Elevation: 15,300'

After a relaxing evening enjoying traditionally prepared foods at La Casa Sol, we awoke to a peaceful morning. Most of the team spent some time prior to breakfast drinking coffee and appreciating our perch above Otavalo. Following breakfast we loaded the bus and headed into town to experience one of Ecuador's finest craft markets.

The market in Otavalo is full of traditional goods: alpaca garments, woven bags, various other textiles, chocolate (Ecuador is famous for artisan chocolate) and coffee amongst a variety of other goods. Some team members spent most of their time sipping artisan coffee. Others used a combination of broken Spanish and hand signals to haggle with vendors. Once we all reconvened the bus drove us to our rendezvous with the 4x4 trucks that would take us to the refuge on Cayambe.

We are now moved in and situated for the next two days. Sunday will consist of basic mountaineering skills training review. The plan is to wrap up early and wake up during the night to climb Cayambe. The entire team is getting acclimated and itching to give our first big objective a go!

RMI Guide Adam Knoff

Mt. Rainier: Frank, Young & Teams Reach Summit, Beautiful Day

September 4, 2019

Posted by: Eric Frank, Robby Young

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier

Elevation: 14,410'

RMI Guides Eric Frank & Robby Young and their teams of Four Day Climbers reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. They enjoyed some time in the crater on a beautiful morning and began their descent from the crater rim a little after 8 AM. The teams will return to Camp Muir and then continue down to Paradise. From there an RMI Shuttle will deliver them to Rainier BaseCamp. Their program will conclude with a celebration and cheers to their accomplishments over the last few days. Congratulations to today's climbers!

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Alaska Seminar: Davis & Team Practice Crevasse Rescue

May 24, 2017

Posted by: Leon Davis, Mike King, Jessie Poquerusse

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska Seminar

May 23, 2017 Woke up to better weather than the forecast said so we took advantage of the fleeting visibility. Most of the day was spent cycling thru crevasse rescue in a nearby crevasse and rigging sleds. We believe one of Sally's sons had a birthday in the last 24 hours so a special shout out to her progeny. More weather is supposed to be on its way so we are taking it one day at a time here in base camp. Still lots of fun being had and learning as well. RMI Guide Leon Davis

Mt. Elbrus: Justman & Team Explore St. Petersburg

July 11, 2013

Posted by: JJ Justman

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Elbrus Southside

Hello everyone from Team Texas in Russia! St Petersburg to be exact. Look... I'm going to be honest with you, we don't want to make you jealous. However, ending the trip in St Pete's is indescribable. So! To give you a tiny idea of how spectacular it is here, take a look at our slide show of today's events. And don't go to far. I will have another slideshow of our canal tour later tonight. Stop dreaming and come to Russia! RMI Guide JJ Justman

Kilimanjaro: Grom & Team Gather in Tanzania

September 4, 2023

Posted by: Casey Grom

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro

Hello from Tanzania!

Everyone and all bags have arrived in Tanzania and the team is doing well and in good spirits after some very long flights. Nearly 20 plus hours for many of us. It was a short and quiet ride to our lodge that is nestled in between Arusha and Moshi and not so far from the base of Kilimanjaro. The team had a quick dinner and headed for bed as the time change had us all feeling just a little off and pretty tired after all the traveling. Luckily we had an extra day here because of flight options. I say luckily, because the time change is pretty tough being about 12 hours difference for us. The extra day will certainly help us adjust.

Today we had a leisurely morning and then rolled into our group meeting after breakfast, where we did a round of introductions and then discussed the upcoming program for the days ahead. The team spent the remainder of the day getting our gear packed up, exploring the grounds of our peaceful Lodge and dodging the gaggle of monkeys patrolling the grounds. We wrapped up the evening with a delicious meal and plenty of friendly conversations.

Everyone is doing well, excited to be here and looking forward to stretching our legs tomorrow as we head to the mountain.

RMI Guide Casey Grom and the Kili crew!

Denali Expedition: Hahn & Team Storming at 9,500’

June 24, 2021

Posted by: Dave Hahn, Dominic Cifelli, Matt McEttrick

Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska Mt. McKinley

Elevation: 9,500'

Thursday, June 24, 2021

It clouded up a bunch in the night, just as the forecast said it would. By 1 AM when we hoped to get up and climb, it was snowing and socked in, just like they said it would be. We kept checking it for a few hours and it kept seeming wet and a little ugly -poor conditions for moving camp. We stayed put and then conditions improved. But we were already a little past what we’d calculated to be the optimal time of day for traversing the sometimes tricky lower glacier. Then conditions improved considerably.,. Where we’d been led to believe that we’d have a snow/rain day to wait out, instead we had a “bluebird” beauty of a day -to rest- when we hadn’t really thought we needed a rest. Oh well. We slept, we read, we ate, we drank. We went through our gear and supplies one more time, thinning out and weeding excess weight wherever possible. We listened to a thousand giant avalanches. We heard so many rocks fall off nearby Mt. Francis, that it was something of a surprise to come out for dinner and see her still standing. We bided our time. That forecast was still calling for cloud and sloppy weather at basecamp tonight… perhaps we’ll see that, but otherwise it looks perfect for moving this time when the cool hours roll around.

Best Regards,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

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