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The Five Day Climb teams led by RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer and Dan Windham reached the summit of Mt. Rainier last night.  Pete reported great route conditions and a beautiful day on the mountain.  The teams are now back to Camp Muir and will be descending to Paradise later this morning.

Congratulations to today's climbers!

Hi from Everest Basecamp. Five days ago our expedition arrived at Basecamp. Many days before we arrived, our team of Sherpas were up here preparing our campsite, setting up tents, and putting up the Puja altar. Once the Puja altar was constructed, the next order of business was to pick the day on which the Puja ceremony would be performed. The actual day the Puja is performed on is just as important as the Puja, and April 9th was the day that was selected for our team. The actual Puja ceremony takes about two hours. Two Buddhist monks sit in front of the altar, and chant and sing religious poems and songs, while the rest of the team gathers around listening. We place our climbing gear and food around the altar so that it can be blessed by the Buddhist monks, and since we are on a glacier, mats were also laid out so that everyone could sit comfortably. Tea and coffee were served to everyone throughout the ceremony. Towards the end of the Puja, Buddhist prayer flags are draped from the top of the Puja altar to every corner of our camp (which is quite large.) An American flag was raised from the top along with a RMI flag, and a Taos, New Mexico flag (which is the home of Dave Hahn). My dad even put a Baltustrol golf club patch on the altar, which is probably the first time that has ever been displayed at Everest Basecamp. The end of the ceremony was marked when tsampa is thrown into the air and spread on everyone's faces and hair for good luck. Although I still can see some of the tsampa on my clothing, we hope this means we will have a lot of luck when we are higher up on the mountain. Food and drinks were passed around to all, and then it became a party where Sherpas, porters, and even the medical doctors from the clinic next door began to show up. Cans of Everest beer, coke, and sprite were shared and snickers bars, mars bars, cakes, and pastries were served. There were about 30+ birds flying around trying to eat some of the delicious food. The Puja ceremony really meant a lot to our Sherpas. It is performed every time an expedition attempts to climb a large mountain in the Himalaya, and the beautiful Puja alter remains standing throughout the whole expedition. As I sit here on the morning of April 11th in our communications tent looking out onto Nuptse, two of our climbing Sherpas and Dave have just reached Camp One. Two more of our Sherpa Team have also reached Camp 2 this morning. In the days that follow, we will continue to focus on our acclimatization and training to make sure we are ready to go up to Camp 1. Sara McGahan

On The Map

Hey this is Seth Waterfall checking in from the South Col, Camp 4. We just woke up a little while ago and are getting set to have breakfast, which is kind of strange for this hour. But the winds have died down - what little wind we had. It looks to be a nice night for climbing so we are going to give it a shot. In the next half hour to hour we will put our packs on and head up towards the Triangular Face, then of course to The Balcony, South Summit, and, hopefully, for us the summit of Mt. Everest. A few teams have already started and a few more are getting ready to go. But it doesn't appear to be a very crowded night. That all works in our favor. So if everything works out for us we'll check in again from the top of Mount Everest - High Point on planet Earth. Wish us luck. Ciao

On The Map

The Five-Day Climb led by Nikki Champion and Steve Gately reached the summit at 6 am this morning. After a warm walk uphill to Camp Muir on Saturday, teams enjoyed a good night's rest and a beautiful day of training before their ascent this morning.

The teams are currently on their descent and will return to Basecamp this afternoon for a celebration of their accomplishments! Congratulations team!  

The storm got real last night around 11 or midnight, and sneaky -blowing hard from the previously unprotected side of our tents.  Most of the camp population was dressed up and out stumbling around in the storm, laboring to cut and carry more snow blocks to reinforce and extend walls. When the bigger gusts would power on through, people would tend to just stop whatever they were attempting and turn their backs to the assault of wind and ice pellets.  It was definitely enough of a storm to break tents, but there was only so much you could do outside to protect them.  That done, the other strategy was to get back in them and put a shoulder to the walls to help aluminum poles stand up to the blasts.  Whenever there was the perception that things had eased, one could try sleep, but that was a little like trying to nap next to a machine gun in a fire fight.  The wind howls and screams through mountains, but when it hits tent fabric, it drums. Hard and loud.  It continued well into the morning and finally eased by around 10 AM, making it a little easier to get out at 10:45 when the sun came around the mountain to hit us through clouds.  Breakfast was calm enough, but then the winds came in again and the game of snow blocks resumed for a few more hours.  By about 2:30 PM, there was a cease fire at Low Camp.  The storm was still everywhere else, with fog below and multiple cloud layers on the mountain and wind trailing big streamers of snow off the heights up by High Camp… but it got quiet and calm at Low Camp and we were able to get enough sun through the tent walls to be comfortable through the afternoon and evening.  Predictions are that tomorrow (Friday) could be a nice day and if so, we’ll be on the move.  We’ll take it step by step though.  For the moment we’re happy not to spend the night building snow forts. 

Best Regards

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

The Expedition Skills Seminar - Kautz team led by RMI Guide Mike Haugen reached the summit via the Kautz Glacier, a remote and technical climb on Mt. Rainier. The team had clear skies and 30 mph winds. 

This team participated in a week long training course designed to educate them to the mountaineering skills needed to tackle the world's greatest peaks. Successful completion of the Expedition Skill Seminar - Kautz makes these climbers eligible for many of our expeditions around the world, including Denali, and provides the team with a foundation for other major glaciated mountains. 

Congratulations Team! 

Day 15

Our team is so resilient. This storm continues to pound the mountain, but our positivity is overwhelming it! It was another really windy and cold one. Despite the bad weather, we were able to get out and stretch our legs a bit. It felt great to move around! The team kept themselves busy this afternoon sorting and preparing gear. If the weather allows, we plan to move to Camp 3 tomorrow.

Till next time,

RMI Guides Luke, David & Team

Hello again,

We awoke to another beautiful sunny day here in the Khumbu. We started early to beat the traffic to Lukla. The team made good time on the trail and made sure to enjoy this peaceful and majestic place.

There were still dozens of loads headed for basecamp, as always, because much of the needed supplies that arrive via plane or by mules.

With a little luck, we hope to be back in Kathmandu tomorrow morning!

Keep your fingers crossed for us.

Casey and Crew

Friday, July 4, 2025 - 1:33 AM PT

After we got in the tents at 11k last night, there was a violent thunderstorm passing over with inches of hailstones. We awoke at 2:00 AM to fire the stoves, choke down some oatmeal and get ready for a big day. It was party cloudy but mostly clear, which led to easy  walking conditions. We were walking by 4:00 AM and and fairly soon, we’d reached the upper regions of Ski Hill and then our old camp at 8k. It only took us a further three hours to reach base camp. For late season, conditions were amazing. We never had to cross an open crevasse. We stayed busy at base camp sorting our own gear and helping others to load planes. Our flights came in around 1:00 PM and then we were headed to Talkeetna. Our team had donated pizzas in their mouths within 5 minutes of landing in Talkeetna. K2 Aviation did an excellent job bringing us home. In checking out with the National Park Service, we learned that we had been the absolute last team on the mountain and that the success rate for the season had only been 36%.

We sorted gear for the afternoon and then celebrated with a dinner at the brew pub. We celebrated a safe and enjoyable climb that didn’t reach the summit. That seemed appropriate given how much we enjoyed the effort of simply trying to get up the mountain.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn and Team   

 

PC: Dave Hahn

Up at high camp this morning, things were blessedly calm.  So much easier, after a long summit day, to have breakfast and pack up in windless and sunny conditions.  We set out at noon and took on the hardest part first, getting big packs and tired legs down the fixed lines.  It felt good to get that all behind us as we rolled into low camp and repacked for sled hauling down the lower glacier.  We pulled in to basecamp at around 7 PM with a Twin Otter waiting.  Some hurried packing, sorting and organizing followed and the Twin got off deck at 8 PM.  They held dinner for us tired but excited Vinson folk.  We stuffed ourselves and caught up with all the expedition folk we’d been sharing the mountain with.  Our tents went up for a final night in Antarctica.  It looks good for flying tomorrow so we may make it all the way to Punta Arenas on this whirlwind finish to the trip. 

Best Regards,
RMI Guie Dave Hahn