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RMI Guide Jake Beren and team of climbers have decided to return to Talkeetna. The group was at 11,000' this morning and making their way to the Kahiltna Glacier where they hope to be flown off the mountain later today.

It's been a long day that started in the wee hours of the morning. The alarm sounded about 2 hours after I sent our last dispatch. 2:00 am was a harsh hour of the day to begin our final walk out the Kahiltna Glacier, but essential to safely navigate and cross the crevasses on our way to the airstrip. At that time the day is about as dark as it gets, which is to say it's about as dark as 1/2 hour after dusk, perhaps. Combined with cloudy, overcast weather, I wasn't entirely psyched for the walk out. But, as the morning developed things began looking brighter. We finally started off at 4:20 am and initially encountered great walking conditions. Unfortunately, as we lost elevation the snow became softer and softer, having not frozen hard overnight because of the cloud cover holding the earth's heat in. This resulted in a few minor crevasse 'falls' where some individuals broke through crevasse bridges up to their waste at most. Of course, by the time you hear their stories, these crevasse falls will have taken on epic proportions. (A night at the bar can have the same effect) Well, we finally arrived at Base Camp with our weather outlook improving and hopes to be flown off in short order high in everyone's mind. Unfortunately, Mother Nature had something else in store for us, as it's now evening and raining out. Although comfy and snug in our tents, and happy we're not enduring a big storm up high, we of course would rather be back in Talkeetna, and a little closer to you. Hope to see you soon! RMI Guides Brent, Leon and Maile

Hey, this is Solveig checking in for Billy, Mike, Tim and Drew from Mt. McKinley. Yesterday we packed up camp at 14,000’ and had a great move to our high camp at 17,300 feet. The first part of the move we enjoyed calm winds and warm sunshine. It was a lot of fun to be climbing in such great conditions. However, about two-thirds of the way up to high camp we were hit by 30 -45 mile per hour winds which persisted all the way into camp. There were a lot of teams camped at 17,000’ when we arrived but we found an area to build our camp and spent the next three hours digging ten platforms and building walls to protect our tents. One particularly strong gust knocked over our completed wall. We began cooking dinner and settling in and the winds subsided. We enjoyed a calm evening inside the protection of our tents and surrounding sturdy walls. Today we are eating and resting and enjoying light winds and good weather. Tim wanted to wish his mom a “Happy Birthday”. RMI Guide Solveig Garhart

We're resting in camp today. It's cloudy and snowing lightly. There's a big lenticular cloud cap up high. Our plan is to practice fixed rope travel in camp today and hopefully put in a cache at high camp tomorrow if the weather allows. We'll keep you posted.

RMI Guide Mike Walter

Sunday, June 27, 2021 - 8:18 pm PT

An easy day for our team with mostly sunny and calm conditions. We only needed a few of us to snowshoe back down to 9,500 ft to retrieve cached food and fuel. The gang sorted gear and got ready for carrying up past Windy Corner. We hope for nice weather in the morning for that mission.

Best Regards,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Greetings from 10,000' Machame Camp on Kilimanjaro! We had a nice departure from the our lodge this morning. We left after a good nights rest and great breakfast. After checking in at the Kilimanjaro National Park Gate, we all put on our rain gear and worked our way up to camp. It was not the nicest of days on the trail with hard rain for the first half and light rain on the second half. We did the best we could but all of the team arrived at Machame Camp pretty wet. Lucky for us, amp was all set up so a quick change, snacks, hot drinks and dinner has us all in good shape. It may be wet out but it hasn't damped or spirits. RMI Guide Mark Tucker

On The Map

A quiet day for us at 16,000 ft in Lobuche. Things are certainly colder up at this end of the valley, but the sun was good and strong this morning and so we ventured out for a short walk along the lateral moraine of the Khumbu Glacier to stretch legs and catch views. Nuptse is front and center and ridiculously steep when viewed from Lobuche (and from any other angle as well, come to think of it) but our eyes kept straying toward Everest Base Camp and the peaks that surround it- Pumori, Lingtren and Khumbutse. It isn't very far away now... We'll be there tomorrow with any luck. But first things first, we made the most of this rest day with a short visit to the Italian research "pyramid" a few minutes away and up a side valley. One of the staff gave us a fine tour of the facilities and described the atmospheric and glacial science being conducted. Then it was back to our tea house as the sky clouded up yet again. Snow started falling after lunch, which made it just that much easier to kick back and rest away the afternoon. We've got cards, chess and scrabble... Books and naps worked pretty good as well. Last night in a tea house... Tent life begins tomorrow. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

The gym is a staple of many people’s training routine. For many who live in the city, or are simply trying to balance packed work, family and training schedules, the gym is the perfect place to get an efficient and high quality workout in. Really progressing in your training takes a lot of discipline and determination. While the gym provides a great venue to get a lot of work in, it can also be a place full of distractions and a place where routine starts to set in and your progress can begin to feel like it is stagnating. Alternatively, there are those who are almost allergic to gyms and avoid them completely. Regardless, after months of training towards your goal, if you live in a locale that isn’t currently anchored in a deep freeze, taking your strength workout outside is a great way to break your routine and inject some new energy to your training.   Pick your favorite short jogging loop, and rather than just going for a 45 min jog, turn it into a core strength session.  Set out for a good warm-up, jogging at a gentle pace that is still conversational. After 10 or 15 minutes of jogging, set your sights on a comfortable spot (grass or a forest floor are much nicer than concrete!) and pick two exercises to do a set each of (pushups and crunches for instance). This style of workout will build more endurance strength since it utilizes body weight, so try to pick a number of repetitions that you can do several sets of with recovery, but still push you hard in the individual set. 60 full crunches and 40 pushups is a great example. Once you have completed both sets, return to your feet and jog easily for 200 meters. Rather than a standing recovery, the active recovery of jogging easily will still allow you to recover, but will train your body to recover while maintaining at least some level of effort. After the active recovery, pick another comfortable spot and pick two more exercises to do a set of each (dips on a park bench and side planks). After completing the second round of sets, jog again for another 200 meters before doing a third set of exercises. 6 exercises is a great number to start with for your total workout. Continue the process until you have done 3 sets of each (9 total strength stops). Once you are done, finish the loop to cool down and head home!   As you progress, you can vary the workout in the number of repetitions you do during each set, or by varying the total number of sets. Try to mix up the exercises that you use week to week, so that you stress muscles in a different way. This a great workout to do with partners. You can spice it up by having different partners choose the exercises for a given set, which can add variety, an element of surprise, and show you some new exercises to add to your routine. Your local park or parkway is a great place to head to for this workout. If you don’t have a loop that is suitable, try a couple of laps of a small park. While it may take some imagination to get going, getting outside and breaking up your strength routine is a great way to keep the upward progress of your training going! _____ These resources have a number of good core exercises for inspiration: http://www.brianmac.co.uk/exercise.htm#cte https://experiencelife.com/article/core-circuit-workout/ http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/circuit-training-exercises.html

The weather out at Vinson Base remained unsuitable for flying. The fog was in. We ate breakfast and drank coffee at Union Glacier Camp. Without a ray of hope for the Vinson mission, the Twin Otter aircraft were dispatched on long flights that took them close to the South Pole. They dropped off several teams interested in skiing "the Last Degree" (of latitude - 60 nautical miles) to the Pole. Back at Union, our team whiled away a windy morning inside the dining tent. After lunch, things had calmed and so we got out our ropes and rescue gear to run through crevasse rescue systems. There are dozens of other climbers in our same boat... Waiting for a plane. They were out in force today, reviewing their own rope techniques in Russian, German, French, Chinese, and exotic English. We'll hope for a change in the fog out at BBC tomorrow. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Hello from Shira Camp, When we woke up this morning, it was crystal clear and the mountain was completely visible. The group wasted no time packing up camp and we were walking by 8:00. With the early start we completely avoided all the trail traffic and pretty much had it to ourselves for most of the day. We gained about 2,500' total, reaching our high point at 12,500'. Everyone did extremely well today with both the terrain and the altitude. We stopped en route for a nice lunch before traversing up to the west to gain the Shira Plateau. We were in camp by 1:00 and had the whole afternoon to enjoy our new camp. We mostly sat around the dining tent talking about past adventures and tried our best to keep up with the tea and snacks that were being delivered non-stop. We'll head back to the dining tent around 6:00 for dinner and then settle into our tents for the evening. Tomorrow is going to be a big day for us as we are trekking to almost 15,000'. Lava Tower will be the high point for tomorrow, and then we will begin our descent to Barranco Camp. Even though we are gaining almost 2,500' in the morning, we will be back to almost the same altitude that we are right now. And this is exactly what our bodies need and is key for proper acclimatization. We are ready for the challenge! Best regards, RMI Guide Jeff Martin

On The Map