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Hello from the Ishinca Valley in the beautiful Cordillera Blanca! Oh boy, what a treat it is to finally be in the mountains after 4 days in and around town. It is a beautiful setting here at Ishinca Base Camp, nestled between massive snow and ice covered giants at 14,400’. The peaks around us soar up to 20,000’ and it’s a sight to behold. It took us about 4 hours to make the move here from the trail head. We donned day packs after leaving the bulk of our weight with the donkeys and arrieros, and enjoyed a light weight walk all the way in under sunny skies. Soon after setting up camp, the afternoon rains reared their ugly heads, but luckily we were already warm and dry in our tents. Tonight, believe it or not, we were treated to a trout dinner with baby potatoes, chicken soup, and jello. We live our best lives here in Peru, and our cook Emilio is a huge part of that. Tomorrow, we’ll take’er easy. A little walking, a little technical training, and maybe even some napping. We’ll fill you in tomorrow. Until then, thanks for following along! RMI Guide Robby Young and Team ‘Trucha’ PS - Spanish word of the day is Sombra (Shade)

The Four Day Summit Climb led by Walter Hailes reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning around 7:40 am. The team spent an hour on the summit with clear skies around them. Walter reported a cloud deck at approximately 8,500’ and decreasing winds. The team began their descent just before 9 a.m. Happy Father's Day!

We were hoping for a break in the weather as today was our last chance for a Mt. Shuksan summit bid, instead we got more rain. It's one of the dice we roll when spending time in the mountains. Whatever our weather, Joy and Jim are still laughing and having fun. The rain has been steady all day today and even breakfast had to be made in the vestibule of the tent. We are hoping to see a weather break or two for our hike out tomorrow. RMI Guide Geoff Schellens

Hello, This is Adam Knoff checking in with the Upper West Rib Team checking in from 14,000' on Mt. McKinley. After making a descent from 17,000' to Genet Basin at 14,200' and regrouping, we are feeling like reaching the summit is a possibility again. We left much of our gear at 17,000' anticipating a return, we’ve just had the most spectacular rest day, and now with the weather improving, we have decided to head back to 17,000' tomorrow on another summit shot. Although descending to 14 and then ascending again represents a lot of hard work, from an acclimatization standpoint, it’s the bomb and we’re psyched! RMI Guide Adam Knoff

This is Seth saying hello from Everest Base Camp! This is the team's second full day at base camp and we're steadily getting our communications gear online. We've got a large solar array and we are able to power all of our communication equipment completely by the sun. As you can imagine, though, getting several computers up and running for email access is not a trivial task at 17,500 feet in the heart of the Himalaya. That said, all of the planning and hard work that my boss, Jeff Martin, and our Basecamp Manager, Mark Tucker, have put in is paying off and we'll all be able to email and call our families and friends shortly. It's not all about the modern conveniences here though. We've also been busy becoming a part of the base camp community. Last night we paid a visit to the Icefall Doctors and the Himalayan Rescue Association. RMI and First Ascent have made generous clothing and gear donations to the Icefall Doctors this season and last. Last night we dropped off new climbing clothes for 'the docs'. Those guys work extremely hard at establishing and maintaining the fixed ropes and ladders through the icefall so that the expeditions can focus on the upper parts of the mountain. It was great to be able to show our appreciation by giving them brand new climbing gear. After visiting the Icefall Doctors we dropped by the HRA to visit the medical doctors at base camp. We had a few clothing items from First Ascent to share with them as well. The HRA is a full medical clinic that is open to anyone here at base camp. This allows expeditions to pool their money to fund the clinic as opposed to each expedition brining their own doctors. The doctors at the clinic usually conduct some kind of research and this year they are working on treatments for the notorious 'Khumbu Cough'. It's nice to know that there is work being done on a treatment for the painful cough; I just hope that no one in our expedition becomes part of the study. We've also started to think about heading up the mountain. Today we had our Puja. This ceremony involves a blessing by a Buddhist Lama and the raising of our Puja Pole. It is also a big party and folks from around base camp dropped by to help us celebrate. Our camp is now laced with prayer flags and we have all been blessed and are now free to move up the mountain. This is most important for our Sherpa team as they do not enter the icefall until after the ceremony. Now that we've had our Puja we will spend several days practicing for the icefall and upping our acclimatization. Then we'll be ready to start our first rotations up into the Western Cwm. Wish us luck!

Thursday, June 17, 2021 - 10:02 pm PT

Howdy all,

The snow continued through the night and into the morning. A layer of frost coated the under side of the fly. Every time you hit the tent to knock the snow off, the frost fell down onto our sleeping bags. As the sun came out and warmed the tents, the ice melted and the frost turned into little water drops. Due to the snowfall and wet tents, we opted for a rest day to allow everything to get dry. Snow fell most of the day, sometimes while sunny others fully cloudy making for a very white scene. But later in the day the clouds cleared and the views were amazing. Having such great views makes being patient worth it. The temps bounced from chilly to very hot in the tents all day. One could swear it was 100 degrees inside. They say its freeze or fry out here and we can all feel why. Tomorrow's weather looks good, so we will be going to our cache at 13,500' to grab our stuff. Its exciting to be reunited with your snacks you parted ways with at 11,000' camp. Sleeping bags are calling our names.

Till tomorrow,

RMI Guide Hannah Smith

Hello everyone. Today we opted to take an additional rest day here in Pheriche. There's a cold going around and everyone could benefit from a little more acclimatization. Most of us went on a hike to stretch our legs and lungs a bit. It was one of the nicest days in the Khumbu yet, with plenty of sunshine and it was relatively warm today. After our hike we relaxed once again in the sunroom and played a bit of cribbage. Currently Travis and Sean are winning, but I think their luck is about to change. Hopefully tomorrow we'll hit the trail and head further towards Everest Base Camp. RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

On The Map

This is Seth checking in from Mexico City. Seven of our nine climbers have arrived safely. The other two have fallen victim to flight cancellations, but we have arranged special transportation for them. They will meet up with us the day after they arrive in Mexico. Everything else is going well. We enjoyed a fantastic dinner at Cafe Tacuba complete with mariachi band. Now we're settling in for the night. Tomorrow we'll have breakfast overlooking the Presidential Palace and then head for La Malinche, the former training site for the Mexican olympic team.

Friday, June 29, 2018 - 5:00 PM PT Good evening! Alpamayo crew reporting from Camp 1, a.k.a. moraine camp. We just had a nice dinner with the most beautiful alpenglow so far on this trip. Gaining elevation today to our camp was an easy task, and everyone did a great job managing the rocky and slabby terrain carved by the glacier that drops from the Alpamayo-Quitaraju Col. We ditched 20 minutes from our carry day... and it's only a 2h journey! That's a big chunk and these climbers are keeping these guides psyched. We're ready to move to high camp tomorrow, should everyone have a good night tonight... So wish us sweet dreams, and stay tuned! RMI Guide Elías de Andres Martos and team.

May 25, 2014 - 11:56 pm PT We took full advantage of our rest day today, eating a big brunch of egg, bacon, and veggie quesadillas (there is a recurring theme here involving our meals). The storm that was forecast for last night and today didn't materialize, so it was a great day for chatting in the posh, catching some sun, and catching up on journals and reading. Everyone's legs appreciated the recovery from yesterday's big effort. The forecasts going forward are pretty scattered, and aren't really painting a clear picture, so at this point we're in standby mode, waiting for our weather window to present itself. We'll see when that happens, but until then, we are living really comfortably at 14 camp. We'll be in touch with more news tomorrow. RMI Guides Pete, Robby, and Josh

On The Map