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The North Cascades continue to deliver! RMI Guide Ben Luedtke and team ventured to the Picket Range in North Cascades National Park over the weekend for a successful climb of West McMillan Spire. They enjoyed great climbing conditions and blue, windless skies.
Posted by: Eric Frank, Tom Skoog, Stella Johnson, Miles Watson
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
Day 1: We left Ashford at 7:30 this morning and enjoyed good views and generally cool weather on our approach to the kautz. We’ve made an excellent camp on the lower castle and are batoning down the hatches for rough weather tonight—an essential expedition skill. - RMI Guide Eric frank
Day 2: Today we practiced a variety of skills including fixed line travel, crevasse rescue and avalanche beacon searches. We even took a little time for yoga before our summit talk! - RMI Guide Tom Skoog
Day 5: SUMMIT! The Kautz Seminar team left camp and ascended the Kautz Ice Chute and reached the top of Wapowety Cleaver before gaining Point Success and then contining across to Columbia Crest. The team enjoyed some time in the crater before starting their descent. The team climbed strong with 100% of the group reaching the summit. They will return to camp and enjoy some rest and a final tent night. Tomorrow they will continue their descent to Paradise and conclude their program.
Nice work team!
Photos: Tom Skoog
Objective #2: Complete!
Jackson and Derek crushed Mt. Baker’s Easton Glacier with confidence and style. From a smooth ascent to a breathtaking sunrise at the summit, they made the climb look easy. Now off the mountain and ready to celebrate a week of wins and unforgettable memories.
Kudos to Derek and Jackson!! I was with you in spirit. Climb every mountain!
Posted by: James Brannon on 8/27/2025 at 4:29 am
Posted by: Eric Frank, Joe Hoch, Ben Ammon, Calvin Jiricko, Tom Skoog, Hannah Billings
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 13,100'
Led by RMI Guides Eric Frank and Joe Hoch, the Four Day Climb May 8 - 11 teams reached an elevation of 13,100 feet today before being turned back due to route conditions. They are currently descending to Camp Muir for a short rest and to repack before continuing down to Paradise later this afternoon.
Posted by: Jess Wedel
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Everest BC Trek and Lobuche
Elevation: 16,950'
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.
New Post Alerts:
Everest Base Camp Trek & Lobuche, March 16, 2024
Posted by: Dave Hahn, Sam Hoffman, Calvin Jiricko, Bailey Servais
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska
Elevation: 14,200'
Wednesday, June 25, 2025 - 10:19 pm PT
Today, life at 14,200 was pretty easy compared to yesterday. We had a slow breakfast and then roped up to retrieve our cache down at 13,500 ft. The day started with a cloud cap on the South Peak. As we went about our business that gradually morphed into cloud everywhere and a snowy day. But our timing was right and we got our work done before the snow. It only took 20 minutes to walk down to the cache, perhaps another 20 to dig it up and a little more than an hour to climb back up to camp. We were home by a little after noon. Then it was a tent afternoon while the snow fell. It was light, but persistent. Still snowing now at 8:40PM but without any wind. Certainly we’ll hope for some clearing in the night or tomorrow morning.
- RMI Guide Dave Hahn
New Post Alerts:
Mt. McKinley Expedition, June 14, 2025
Nice work team…Proud of you all!
Posted by: Wallis on 6/26/2025 at 4:51 pm
Onward. Hope all is well and weather is good. Regards to all.
Posted by: Richard Harmetz on 6/26/2025 at 1:58 pm
Congrats! I hear this was a tough route and you did it!
Posted by: Connie on 6/19/2025 at 6:39 pm
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