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Today we moved to 9,300' on Mt. McKinley. We had great weather on the trail. As we reached the top of Ski Hill it started to snow so we set up camp and hunkered in for the evening. We are all settled in and are resting for another great day tomorrow. We will keep you posted on our progress. RMI Guide Seth Waterfall

The clouds cleared last night, and we had a beautiful view of a moonlit Cotopaxi and a starry sky (with views of both the North Star and the Southern Cross) as we went to bed. After a restful night and a great breakfast at the hacienda Chilcabamba, we headed off into Cotopaxi National Park. An hour hike from the end off the road led us to the Cotopaxi climbers' hut--a spacious, clean, and comfortable hut at 16,000'. This afternoon we are resting, drinking hot tea, and getting used to the thin air at this altitude. Tomorrow we will hike to the glacier to review essential climbing skills before our summit attempt, which will begin with an alpine start tomorrow night.

The Four Day Climb Teams led by RMI Guides Casey Grom and Nikki Champion successfully reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning! They started their descent from the crater rim a little after 7:00 am, they will enjoy some breakfast during their short break at Camp Muir before descending to Paradise and arriving back at BaseCamp this afternoon.

They reported some slight winds but, overall, a beautiful morning to be on top of the mountain!

Congratulations on an incredible achievement climbers!

Sunday, June 23, 2024 - 9:33 pm PT

There seemed to be general agreement that last night's sleep was a good one. That could mean that we are getting acclimatized to 14,000'. But it could also mean we were justifiably tired after yesterday's carry. Today was easy, in any case. We ate, took naps and sorted gear for the big move up tomorrow. It was calm and sunny through the morning, but the afternoon clouded up and light snow started falling. It still doesn't count as a storm though.

We just need a couple more good days. 

Best Regards,

RMI Guides Dave Hahn, Sam Hoffman, Sam Marjerison & Nick Sinipius 

Today we left the low elevation sanctuary of Mendoza and began our trip into the mountains. Our first stop? The town of Penitentes where we began the process of packing all of our gear and food for the length of our expedition. Not a small feat by any means. After the bags were packed and weighed for the mules, we enjoyed our last group dinner inside a permanent structure for the next two weeks. Tomorrow our trek to basecamp begins and along with it, our adventure. 

RMI Guide Nick Scott

Wednesday, June 6, 2018 - 4:43 PM PT We were all set to climb to 17,000' Camp this morning but Denali had other plans for us. By 8 am this morning we could see strong winds blowing across our climbing route on the Buttress. We decided to put the move on hold until the winds slowed. Luckily, Mike Walter's team at 17 Camp provided hourly updates on the weather situation and we eventually decided that the weather was too severe to climb into today. Not all was lost though, we took some time to remodel our mountain kitchen and built a new outhouse. Obviously important facilities when waiting out bad weather. We will wake again tomorrow planning to move and see what the weather allows. RMI Guide Walter Hailes

After a delicious breakfast at Dr Reye's historic soap factory bed and breakfast, our team is on our way home. A little more on the Orizaba climb: We arrived at the Piedra Grande Hut on Friday afternoon. After a brief walk to help our bodies get used to the thin air, we settled into camp. Robby and I cooked the best chicken tacos Orizaba has ever seen. Fresh tortillas, guacamole, sautéed onions and peppers, rotisserie chicken and limes made for a great pre-climb feast. After the taco feed, we tucked into our tents for a few hours of sleep. When we woke, the thick cloud that had engulfed camp before bed had cleared. It was a beautiful night without even a breath of wind. We climbed through a maze of rock known as the Labrynth to the Jamapa Glacier. At over 16,000' we donned crampons and ice axes and roped together to work towards Orizaba's stunning summit crater. Rest stepping, crampon technique and pressure breathing were the cornerstones of success as our team made switchbacks across the peaks northeast face. Our entire team climbed well until we were on the summit celebrating a hard fought ascent. We enjoyed perfect, warm weather on top. After we had captured some photos and soaked in the amazing view, it was time to tackle the other half of the climb : the descent. In keeping with the style they showed on the ascent, the team descended with great form and attention to footwork. Without a hitch, our team made it back to Piedra Grande. A few hours of packing and 4x4 riding led us to a tasty meal and celebration at the Reyes soap factory. Sharing stories and jokes with the team was a terrific way to end a great climb and a rewarding trip. Thanks to everyone on the team for their huge efforts and great attitudes! Until the next climb ~ RMI Guides Zeb Blais & Robby Young

The Kautz Expedition Skills Seminar has wrapped things up. We had a fun time in what proved to be challenging weather and we're all happy to be warm and cozy now. Our trip started in clouds and light precip on day one but due to the fact we had a strong team we were able to set up a great camp for our first night. On the second day we had the best weather of the trip and were able to establish a higher camp at 'the castle'. Here we spent that afternoon digging in and building walls to protect our tents from a forecasted storm. The storm hit us overnight and we spent the next day in-the-mix as I like to say. Our walls did the trick though and we were in relative comfort as the storm raged all arounds us. Once the storm broke we hightailed it downhill through over a foot of new snow! After being pinned down for our climbing bid we were all a bit disappointed but we all agreed that it was a truly remarkable experience. It was all smiles as we said 'cheers' at our wrap up celebration back in Ashford. RMI Guide Seth Waterfall

The Four Day Summit Climbs led by Casey Grom and J.J. Justman reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning shortly before 7 am PT. The teams reported nice climbing conditions, light winds and beautiful views this morning. The teams spent an hour on the summit crossing the crater and taking photos before beginning their descent to Camp Muir. After a short rest at Camp Muir to re-pack they will continue down to Paradise. Congratulations to today's Summit Climb!

Antarctica was simply not in the cards today. Too windy down at Patriot Hills, where our big four-engine jet transport has to put down on wheels on an ice runway. The prevailing winds are across the strip and it doesn't take much to make airplane landing attempts unwise. It wasn't a big storm system, just normal katabatics... the gravity driven flow of air off the polar plateau, downward and outward toward Antarctica's coast. The good thing was that ALE could tell us definitively that the day wouldn't work, rather than keeping everybody in their boots and waiting hour to hour for some calmer conditions. People were free to lounge about or to stroll the quiet streets. It being Sunday in South America, there wasn't much at all going on in the streets of Punta Arenas this morning. There were a fair number of people walking about as a massive 2000 plus passenger cruise ship was anchored just out from the city pier. Well into the afternoon, it was a fine summer day, warm and windless, but in the late afternoon it clouded up and got cool and rainy. Typically, Punta gets dynamic weather with big swings on any given day. None of this prevented my climbers from going out to visit Otway Sound for a tour of the Magellenic penguin colony 70 km north of Punta Arenas. Once the gang was back in town, we walked a few blocks from the hotel for another fine and friendly dining experience at La Marmita. Walking home to the hotel, I told everybody to plan on flying, first thing tomorrow... but we'll just see what the katabatics have to say about things.