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Hello, this is Jake Beren with the RMI McKinley Expedition. We would like to wish everybody a Happy Father's Day from 14,000 feet on Denali. Today we rested at camp and used the opportunity to practice our fixed line and running belay techniques to get ready for the upper mountain. With the weather system kind of sitting over the mountain right now it looks like we might have another day or two here at our 14,000’ camp. But our fingers are crossed that will be heading up to 17,000’ and then getting our chance at a summit attempt in the not too distance future. So wish us well from down low. Again, Happy Father's Day to all the proud papas out there. We'll be checking in from either here or higher up. Thanks everybody, and will be talking to you soon.

Hey everybody, This is Billy. I’m back at Base Camp with the whole crew. We are all a little bit bummed out but happy to be back down at least with the thicker air here and looking forward to a home cooked meal tonight from the Grajales staff. It was a tough day up there yesterday and we spent most of the day today with heavy, heavy walk down. But everybody’s in good spirits for the most part and we’ll check in again later on as we walk out from Aconcagua. RMI Guide Billy Nugent

On The Map

Today we visited the famous Ngorongoro Crater, believed by many to be the 8th wonder of the world. It is a two million year old collapsed caldera that is home to more than 25,000 large mammals, and has a dense population of lions. We spent nearly the entire day driving around looking at all the animals and waiting at times for either the wildebeest, or zebras to get out of our way. We saw about a dozen lions, a far off black rhino, thousands of pink flamingos and many others. I'm pretty sure everyone had a great day. We finished off the day with a quick visit to a working Maasai Village to see how this semi-nomadic group of people still live the way they have for thousands of years. Hopefully tomorrow we'll catch a glimpse of a cheetah and leopard to round out the safari. RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

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.

Sunday, June 1, 2025 12:25am PDT

Everyone’s weather dance must have worked, because we finally made it onto the mountain. After two and a half days of waiting, the stars aligned, and we got the call to load up around 1 PM. Everyone put on their mountain boots, threw their duffles into the conex for the next 20 days, took one final team picture, and boarded the planes.

After a flight above the clouds, we quickly descended to basecamp and unloaded into a pocket of sunshine. We went through group gear, repacked our duffles, and rigged the sleds to set out on our journey. Around 3 PM, we were finally walking and beginning the long-awaited climb.

We inched our way across the lower Kahiltna until we made it to Camp One, with the sun still above the mountains. This was our first chance to practice the craft of camp building—everyone set up their tents, crawled in, and waited for a late-night dinner of pesto tortellini. Finally, close to midnight, we wrapped up our day and prepped for tomorrow, when we hope to cache somewhere above 9,500 feet.

We’re excited to finally be climbing!

RMI Guide Nikki Champion & Team

We woke up this morning, packed our bags and said goodbye to our home on the glacier. One last delicious breakfast to fuel some of us for our climb and some of us for our descent.

With big hugs and big thank yous to our base camp staff we took off. The Lobuche climbers headed downhill back through Gorekshep, to Lobuche village and then broke off the trail and headed up to Lobuche High Camp where we’re ready to make a run for the summit tomorrow.

We said goodbye to Sam and the trekking team as they continued downhill to Pheriche. Sam reports everyone is doing well and enjoying the thicker air.

 We’re excited to climb Lobuche but boy are we missing being together as a team.

RMI Guides Jess, Sam and crew

Eight days ago eleven mountaineers drawn from around the globe to climb Mexican volcanoes gathered in a circle to introduce themselves. The group of two guides and nine climbers was comprised of friends from home, acquaintances from prior climbs, and  some who were strangers to all.

Dominic, Ben, Catherine, Eric, Erica, Jean-Paul, Kat, Rich, Rossi, Thinus, and Woody came to Mexico with widely varied backgrounds, climbing resumes, and individual expectations. However, the group shared the common objectives of summiting La Malinche, Ixta, and Orizaba.

Frustration on La Malinche.

One of our group was felled below the tree line by a violent eruption of food poisoning. Half of the remaining climbers passed on attempting the last couple hundred meters to conserve energy for the week of climbing ahead. The remainder were turned back just 100m from the summit by local authorities closing the mountain early to clear the trails of spectators following the Sky Race.

Why do we climb?

Frustration on Ixta.

The team, strengthened by the addition of our local guide Allen, made high camp but our summit attempt was blown away by the violent eruptions of nearby Popo. The group descended to base camp powdered with ash and weighted with disappointment.

Why do we climb?

One last chance on Orizaba.

Setting out on the approach under the nurturing light of la luna and a clear star-speckled sky, the team was full of anticipation. We flowed up the oddly iced Jamapa glacier, traversed a segment of the mountain, climbed a challenging compact chimney, scrambled up seemingly endless scree, and then basked in the sunbeams of el sol, standing tall on the summit of the 3rd highest mountain in North America at 18,491 ft

(5,636m) of elevation. Elation.

Why we climb.

Through a week of hard work and at times harder play, the team have deepened pre-existing friendships and created potential to expand acquaintanceships. Strangers no more. Now we are sitting at breakfast, ready to return home and then continue our climbing journeys together and alone.

Why we climb…

Climber Jean-Paul Rebillard

Today we had a long day out of the Salkantay Valley and into the Inca Trail. We enjoyed our first sunny weather and warmed up as we descended into the archeological site of Paucarcancha. Our horseman left us at Wayllabamba and our porter team loaded up the supplies and took off in a healthy jog to show off how fit they are. We spent the next three hours hiking into a more dense forest and dogging the rain showers that have followed us since day one. We got into some Incan stairs and rocky trail. The Team is doing well and enjoying some rest in their tents. The trip has been amazing and we are all looking forward to the next few days as we get closer to Machu Picchu. RMI Guide Mike King

Saturday, July 6, 2019 - 10:38 PM PT We got it. Only slightly ashamed that it was such a nice day. We didn’t have to worry about frozen faces or fingers or toes. We didn’t have to battle winds. We didn’t have to watch clouds building or encroaching. A lot of the normal stresses just weren’t there today as we cruised to the top of North America and came down to high camp safely. The stoves were burning just after 5 AM this morning and conditions were exactly the same as when we’d gone to bed... clear and calm. We hit the trail at 6:55 and did battle for two hours with the steep and intimidating Autobahn -the route from 17,200' High Camp to 18,3000' Denali Pass. We found the sunshine up at the pass and then worked a series of steep snow rolls to reach Zebra Rocks, the dramatic black and white rocks along the ridge line. Then it was up and over the ridge formed by the Archdeacon’s Tower and into the Football Field at 19,500'. Things got steep again as we worked 600 vertical feet to attain the summit ridge. The views were overwhelming with no real cloud in our gigantic slice of sky. Just a bit of smoke still, but that didn’t prevent our seeing mountain chain after mountain chain and about a thousand glaciers. We cruised out the summit ridge to gain the absolute high point at 2:10 PM for a very respectable 7.25 hour ascent. There wasn’t any wind to speak of at the summit and the temperature was probably 15 or 20 above... balmy. We limited our very pleasant stay of 40 minutes and began working downward at 2:50. Only one other team went for the top today and we high-fived them on our descent to the Football Field as we passed them still going strong for the top. We put together a few hours of careful steps and reached camp at 6:25 PM. We were tired but plenty satisfied as we ate dinner and secured things for the night. Several of our gang shattered their altitude records today. Best Regards RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

June 23, 2014 - 7:31 pm PT We decided that today would be a great day to do some more acclimatization at 14,000' on Mt. McKinley. Instead of carrying our gear higher we decided to rest today and then retrieve our gear on our move to 17,000' tomorrow. The team is feeling strong and we are feeling very positive about a good summit bid once we get into position at seventeen. Keep your fingers crossed for good weather for us for a few days! RMI Guide Mike Haugen and Team "The Ocho"

On The Map