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We made the all important break from basecamp today.  The day began sunny and calm and we were feeling good, so the decision was easy.  We began stirring at 9 AM and made it a leisurely morning of packing and sorting.  Our rope team of three pulled out of Vinson Base Camp just after 12:30 PM.  At first, the sun was strong and we stripped a few layers so as not to sweat, but as we neared yesterday’s high point, some clouds intervened to make it a little cooler again, but not desperately so.  Our faces weren’t freezing but we couldn’t lounge around at rest breaks.  We took on the sleds full of supplies that we’d stashed yesterday and made the tricky pull up and around the Branscomb Glacier’s big 90 degree corner and made it under the two great ice streams pouring 2,000 meters down Vinson’s West Face.  Walking conditions weren’t the easiest, the surface was alternatively rough or super smooth and firm.  We put on crampons to gain better purchase, which helped but which isn’t exactly the normal way of things below Low Camp.  We made it in to 9,300' Low Camp just after 7 PM and set to work building platforms for the tents, setting up and anchoring tents, and getting moved into them.  That and digging a kitchen and dining area in the super hard packed snow/ice took a good chunk of the evening.  The sun finally pulled out of the clouds to make our 10 pm dinner a bit more pleasant.  This camp gets direct sunshine until 2 or 3 in the morning, making the tents comfy in the evening, but then it gets a seriously cold shadow until 11 AM, making mornings cold and slow.  But since we’re in the comfy phase now, we won’t worry about tomorrow. 

Best Regards,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

The Mt. Baker Coleman Deming team July 23 - 25 reached the summit today around 6:45 am.  RMI Guide Mike King reported a warm night and great views north to Vancouver of the North Cascade peaks.  The team returnted to Camp before noon.  They will continue their descent to the trail head and conclude their program this afternoon.

Nice job team!

Our climb kept pushing us as we descended from our high camp at Barafu (15,200') all the way to Mweka Camp (10,000'). The feet and knees were talking to us and what they were saying would be inappropriate for the ears of young children. 

But we all made it, in part to the fantastic pizza our chef Tosha made us for lunch. Pizza, at 15,200'! On a two burner stove, no less.. Incredible!

At Mweka the gods were smiling down on us, granting a rare sunny day at this place that exists on the edge of the rain forest where clouds always seem to hang. Of course, Tosha beat us to Camp to prepare another wonderful dinner. 

Last night brought everyone a night's sleep they haven't had since they were bouncing about in diapers. 10+ hours of solid sleep was had by all, just the right medicine for our tired bodies. It was amazing to see a bunch of mostly middle aged men bounce back from an intense 13-14 hour day and trot down a slick, slightly muddy trail to the Park gate at 6000'. In fact, they even beat many of our porters down. A first!

At the Mweka gate we were greeted by our outfitter and the busses and enjoyed our last meal 'on the mountain.' This time cold drinks were available, and many bottles of the local brew were consumed. The gift shop was happy to provide some the chance to get something special to bring home. 

The highlight of this time was certainly the singing and dancing our mountain crew did celebrating our week together. The joy and kindness these hard-working individuals shared with us all week was distilled into a few minutes, and really reminded us of how special this trip was. 

Yes, the mountain was fantastic, but it was the people we shared this time with that proved to be the most special part of the climb. These people, who lack so much in material things compared to us Westerners, are so rich in spirit and generosity that we as a team were all moved and reminded of what's really important in life. 

And in the end, there was this team of climbers that came together to climb a mountain and left as friends,  sharing an amazing story that will never be forgotten.

Hope to see you all again! 

RMI Guide Brent Okita

The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer and Alex Halliday reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Alex reported windy conditions on top. The teams will descend and return to Ashford later today.

Congratulations climbers!

On The Map

Sunday, December 5, 2021 - 8:26 pm PT

We were back to high camp at 10:45 PM for a round trip time of just under 13 hours. Pretty normal for Vinson. Great views, fine weather.  We had dinner back in camp and ran stoves forever to melt snow for water. Now 1:30 AM, the end of another long but magnificent day. 

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Back safe and sound in Kathmandu!

Managed to get the team out of Lukla with the help of helicopters. It was too cloudy for the planes to fly, but the helicopters are able to fly out following the rivers and avoiding the mountains. It was a first for a few of us.

Everyone is back enjoying the comforts at the Yak & Yeti hotel, hot showers, good food, and the warm temps.

It's been one amazing adventure with a great team and it will be sad to say goodbye, but we are all looking forward to getting back home to our loved ones.

Thanks for following.

RMI Guide Casey Grom and a happy crew

Thursday, July 30, 2022 10:20 am PDT

I’m going to start with the spoiler-100% of our team made it to the summit! This was very special because of the excellent chemistry we developed on this trip. To get to the summit, we had to travel across the Autobahn-clipping in and out of over 50 pickets, climb past Zebra rocks, take in the views at Denali pass, do the 100 yard dash across the football field, tackle pig hill before finally arriving on the summit ridge all while changing layers of clothing throughout the day. The summit brought tears to many of our eyes.  It took us just under 7 hours to reach the summit from 17,000 camp. At the summit, everyone exchanged hugs and laughter. Some commemorated with flags and special notes for loved ones. We took lots of pictures and celebrated our hard effort before we descended back to camp in 3 hours and were completely exhausted. Our celebration included watching Steve, who carried a hula hoop he found in Talkeetna to the summit, break the world record for completing over 30 seconds of hula hooping at the highest elevation recorded for the activity. We all videoed the event for the record book. 

We were blessed with incredible weather; 1st rate guides-Andy, Grayson and Ben; interesting, accomplished, funny and caring team mates.

I want to also share my own personal story which motivated me to climb Denali- The highest mountain in North America. After hiking the Appalachian trail in 2018, I decided I needed a new challenge which was tackling the highest point in every state. I quickly realized this goal included Denali and Mt Rainier and that i better get working on those two mountains since I wasn’t getting any younger. Having no mountaineering experience, I did some research and decided to climb with RMI since they guided on both mountains and came with high reviews. To get some experience, I decided to take the kahiltna seminar followed by a climb of Rainier. Covid initially delayed my plans by a year but in May 2021, I completed the Kahiltna seminar only to find out a month later that I had stage 1C ovarian cancer. I had surgery in July and started 6 rounds of chemotherapy which ended in December. I wanted to have a goal to focus on during chemo, so I signed up for the June 15th climb of Denali. Knowing this was a daunting task, I went hiking everyday during the four months of chemo no matter how sick I felt. Amazingly, I continued to get stronger and fitter and climbed a 13,000 foot mountain in Colorado in November. I think I had this overwhelming desire to push myself because I didn’t want to let cancer interrupt my goals. Another part of me wanted to do something that was as close to mentally and physically demanding as combating cancer as I could find. I certainly believe climbing Denali fulfilled that objective!  Standing on the summit was thrilling but at the same time I realized the yearlong journey was the meaningful part not the single destination.

Mary-Beth and Team