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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

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 Four Day Summit Climb led by Peter Whittaker and Ed Viesturs reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Peter reported a smooth route, clear skies and winds of 10 - 15 mph. The team has started their descent and are en route back to Camp Muir. Congratulations to today's team!

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! 

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

Hello everyone at RMI. This is JJ Justman calling in with the Mexico Volcanoes adventure team. We had a great day today getting out of Mexico City and arriving in La Malinche where we had our first acclimatization day. For those you don't know a little bit about La Malinche, it's an old volcano, it's non-glaciated. It's actually known as the Weeping Woman. La Malinche is one of Cortez's mistresses. It's a beautiful peak here, standing at 14,640'. Today, our team made it up to 14,000'; had a great trail side lunch. And we returned back down to our cabanas, where we are showering up and getting ready for a great dinner down here in camp. Tomorrow the plan is waking up a little bit early and heading out the door and getting to Ixta. But before we do that, we'll have a little bit of shopping to do, some last minute items for our dinners and breakfasts, but everyone is doing really well. The weather here is absolutely beautiful. We had great views of Ixta, Popo, Orizaba, and of course La Malinche. Knock on wood we're hoping the weather stays, because it was nice to get a little bit of a suntan today and hopefully tomorrow we'll get even a little more sun. We'll touch base and let you know how everything is going. Thanks for following along. RMI Guide JJ Justman

On The Map

RMI Guide Jack Delaney led the Expedition Skills Seminar - Paradise July 14 - 19.  The team met last Thursday for their orientation and gear check.  The next morning they went straight to the mountain.  Their first camps were above Paradise and they used the terrain for training, getting everyone up to speed on cramponing, glacier travel and ice axe arrest skills.  Additional training took place as the group slowly ascended over the next few days.  Yesterday the team made the jump to Camp Muir.  After dinner and discussion about the climb ahead they crawled into sleeping bags for a few hours of rest.  With an alpine start the team left Camp Muir, they reached the summit after 6 hours of climbing, approaching the crater rim around 7 am.  After enjoying the views and photo ops from the summit the team is returning to Camp Muir.  Once back at Camp they will pack up and continue the final 4.5 miles back to Paradise.  Their program concludes today with a celebration once they return to Rainier BaseCamp.

Nice work team!  We hope you enjoyed your time on the mountain!

Update: November 11th, 2:00 pm PT Buenas Tardes! Our team has safely returned down to Tlachichuca after our climb of Orizaba this morning. It was a beautiful day and a great climb, made even more so by the fact that we were the only people on the entire mountain! What a treat. Now back in the valley below, we are doing the old duffle shuffle and getting ready to celebrate with a hard earned dinner. Tomorrow we will part ways, but our time in Mexico has been a fantastic adventure. RMI Guide Jake Beren Transcription of call from the Orizaba summit: Hello. This is Jake on top of Pico de Orizaba with the crew. We are doing great. We had a beautiful, could not ask for a better style day, today. The winds are light, the sun is out, and we're going to reverse our path and start heading down soon. It was a great climb, everybody did well, and we'll be in touch from the lowlands. Alright everybody take care.

On The Map

The Four-Day climb led by RMI guides, Mike King and Leif Bergstrom, reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The teams were standing on top at around 5:40am after a quick ascent. 

They will descend to Rainier Basecamp this afternoon to bask in their success and enjoy a bit of rest after their hard work. 

Great job team!

Friday, June 17, 2022 1:47 AM

June 17th 2022 - THE TEAM SUCCESSFULLY SUMMITS!

Well hot diggity dog we did it! We went to bed with several inconclusive weather forecasts stressing us out and a weather check at 4:30 confirmed cloudy skies. Alas our actual wake up of 6:30 gave us the surprise “nowcast” we had been waiting for, clear skies and no sign of winds! Huzzah! We quickly set about rallying the troops and making hot water for breakfast. When it was all said and done we were walking by 8:30 headed up, up, up! We first scaled the imposing and cold “Autobahn”. A large steep traverse that gains us about a 1,000 feet. Next we zig and zagged through “Zebra Rocks” gaining more elevation rapidly. Next we meandered slowly and steadily uphill crossing the Denali summit plateau until we got to the “Football Field” a large flat zone that led to our final two obstacles. “Pig Hill” and the summit ridge proper! Pig Hill is a daunting final push up several switch backs to gain elevation before traversing the true summit ridge. The Summit Ridge gave us incredible views and big exposure before finally giving way to the true summit itself! The highest point in North America! There was much congratulating and picture taking and before you know it, it was time to head down. We retraced our steps safely and efficiently all the way back to camp. The crew was tired, thirsty and hungry but by jove they’d done it! All told 13 hours round trip. After being fed and watered, it was quickly lights out for everyone.

Talk to you tomorrow friends, family and loved ones!

RMI Guides Avery, Jack, Liam and the Team