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Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
To Clay and your team, I wish you all a safe and spectacular climb and will pray for glorious weather for the summit. Please take plenty of pictures to give us a taste of the view, for those of us who will forever lack the guts and skill to do what you all are doing. And if you get chilled, just think happy thoughts about the Arkansas summertime. It’s been nearly 100 degrees here all week. I look forward to following the blog. Stay strong, stay safe, and soak it up!
Posted by: Jennifer Gunderman on 6/10/2011 at 9:27 am
Jake, good luck to the crew. A special shout out to my climbing partner Clay, “Do Work Son”. It’s about 174 degrees here, wish I were there.
Drake, Little Rock, AR
Posted by: Drake on 6/10/2011 at 9:04 am
Posted by: Nikki Champion, Leif Bergstrom, Hannah Blum
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska
Elevation: 348'
Wednesday, June 17, 2025 - 10:20 am PT
Well, like all good things, this too must come to an end. Sorry we’ve been a bit MIA since summit day—those final days all start to blur together. You don’t get much downtime until you're either sitting at the airstrip waiting out the weather or lucky enough to fly straight to Talkeetna.
Three days ago, on June 14th, we stood on top. The following morning, June 15th, the team packed up camp and began the long, challenging descent. We dropped down the West Buttress around noon, descended the fixed lines, and stopped at 14,000' Camp for a brief six-hour nap.
After our rest, we had a quick dinner at midnight, then loaded up all of our gear from the last two weeks and began the march back to basecamp. We made our way around Windy Corner, down Squirrel and Motorcycle Hill, and finally back to 11,000' Camp. There, we whispered hellos to Dom’s team—who were sound asleep—grabbed our cache, transitioned back to snowshoes, and continued past Camp One to basecamp.
By around 9 a.m. on the morning of June 16th, we arrived at basecamp to good weather and the chance to fly straight off the glacier. By noon, we were back in Talkeetna wearing flip-flops, and by 2 p.m., we were sharing beers and laughter, wrapping up our expedition at the Brew Pub.
It’s all been a bit of a haze—amazing, exhausting, unforgettable. In the moment, it felt like it moved slowly, but now that we’re back on dry land, it’s hard to believe how fast it all went by.
If you've been following me for years, you know I'm a fan of Hiakus...
Fresh socks, frozen boots
Glacier sunburn, summit views
Fly me to a beer
RMI Guide Nikki Champion
New Post Alerts:
Mt. McKinley Expedition May 27, 2025
Hello again everyone,
The team had a good nights rest last night and today was just a short 3 hour hike up to 15,000ft to our high camp. Everyone is excited and maybe just a touch nervous, which is very normal!
The team has just wrapped up lunch and discussed in great detail the plan for tomorrow’s climb. Everyone knows what we’ll be wearing, what will be in the pack, as well as the schedule.
Our game plan will be to wake at 10:30pm and have a quick breakfast at 11, then hopefully hit the trail around 11:30pm. The weather is still being a little fickle and it’s currently sleeting here at camp. Hopefully that will taper off here soon and we’ll have a calm night for climbing.
The team has been doing great thus far and I am expecting us to reach the summit in 7 to 8 hours if things go according to plan.
We had another trivia challenge, and one lucky winner will get a phone call from the summit.
So everyone back home please keep your phones handy and if you receive a call from a strange number please answer. We are 8+hrs ahead of the east coast time zone.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and the RMI summit bound team!
New Post Alerts:
Aconcagua Expedition January 23, 2025
Right on! 15,200. So close. If the special phone call for trivia win was around a chemistry question, I’ll give Ben the win. If the trivia win was around picking high quality girlfriends, I will not be giving Ben the win. Just joshing you man. Push hard to the summit!
Posted by: Ed DaPra on 1/30/2025 at 11:42 am
Posted by: Hannah Smith, Ben Luedtke, Daniel May
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Aconcagua
Elevation: 18,000'
Hola Family and Friends!
What a day it was. After waking up from a night of heavy wind gusts and having breakfast, we took a few extra minutes sipping our (dulce de leche) coffee to allow the winds to calm down and the sun to get higher in the sky. Feeling warmed up, we did some last-minute packing, doublechecked the tie downs on our tents and headed up to Camp 2, AKA Guanacos 3, for our carry day. As we crisscrossed on rocky and snowy terrain, we took in our first amazing views of Cerro Ameghino. Once we passed through the saddle, we began the long traverse below the Polish glacier, and enjoyed more amazing views of the Andes Mountain range to the north.
Arriving at camp, we took the time to take pictures, unload our packs, and headed downhill back to Camp One. With our bellies full of quesadillas, we are currently weathering more winds and looking forward to a well-earned rest day tomorrow.
RMI Guides Hannah, Ben, Dan, and Team
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poO2BsVGdIU
Posted by: Terry Reilly on 1/18/2023 at 9:11 am
Your first night at 15,000ft, you almost never sleep well. The team slept like babies last night. We woke up for five minutes, went to sleep for 15 minutes, tossed and turned for another five, until it was time to get up. Today is a training day, we’ll walk up to the glacier to review some glacier travel, rope, and crampon skills prepare us for our climb tomorrow. Time to make our summit bid!
Posted by: Tyler Jones, Bryan Mazaika, Nick Scott
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 14,200'
On The Map
Jim & Paul and all you Ice Chompers,
Just want you to know that the 2018 Stanley Cup is off bounds! it’s in the hands of first time
winners - The Washington -Caps!! But don’t despair—the Denali Cup for 2018 - is still available!!
So chomp on you mountain rangers! Sending love, prayers, and long distance hugs -
Your momma
Posted by: Myra Welsh on 6/10/2018 at 7:44 pm
Matt Hill, the Sunnyvale gang is behind you all way. Bubbles even named one of his new kitties “Denali”.
Posted by: Paul Downs on 6/10/2018 at 3:20 pm
On The Map
Chambos,
Call when you get there! : )
Posted by: Jordo on 8/25/2013 at 4:18 am
Hello Bruce, Michael, Katie, Jess and Chris…. and congratulations!!! We have been following closely knowing there is a 7 hour difference. You’re not missing anything here. Have a safe trek down. Cant wait to see that view from the summit. Get a small rock from the mountain as a paperweight. Love you all. Mom
Posted by: Joyce on 8/24/2013 at 8:10 pm
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Seth Waterfall
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Elbrus Northside
Way to go all y’all! Frank and all your new best friends. Be warm, be safe.
Fred T
Posted by: Fred T on 2/19/2014 at 7:52 am
Congratulations to all!
Posted by: Marsha on 2/19/2014 at 5:02 am
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