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RMI Guides Solveig Waterfall, Leon Davis and team reached the Mount Shuksan summit! The summit was a nice reward after weathering a storm that dumped 4" of rain on them at the beginning of their climb. Today, no precipitation as they made their way to the top. The team is currently on the descent back to camp and will hike the rest of the way out tomorrow morning. Congratulations!

Hello from Mt. Elbrus! Our team awoke from a good nights sleep to a beautiful, clear sunny day. After a great Russian breakfast with great American Starbucks coffee we threw our spikes on and went for a walk. The higher you get the slower things become. As our team approached 15,000 feet many of us began to feel the air getting just a bit thinner. However, we accomplished the goal and the high altitude was a great welcome for us to become stronger for summit day. Everyone did a great job and even though towards the end it got a little tougher, everyone is having fun and in good spirits. However, no one is still laughing at any of my jokes! RMI Guide JJ Justman

On The Map

Well...I've always said, "the hardest part of any expedition is just getting to the mountain". And that certainly is the case for my second team here on Aconcagua. We have everything from missing bags to missing half of the team. Well, they're not missing just really late due to Tormento de Estados Unidos 2014! However, all the team members are in Argentina. Half the team is in Penitentes and the other half is in Mendoza. We will all join up tomorrow and begin the journey. We want to congratulate the recent team under Garrett Stevens on their recent summit. We are at 100% expedition success. I feel a trend coming on. Stay tuned for another exciting adventure with me, Mike "the lion" King and Steve "fresh outta da" Gately. RMI Guides JJ Justman, Mike King & Steve Gately

Jambo! RAIN, rain, rain. Then we began to get ready in our nice dry tents, and emerged to a cool cloudy beautiful day. If you didn't have ear plugs in you may have missed a little shut eye but the whole team had a great night and a wonderful hike up here to the Shira Camp. Not often can you enjoy the awesome waterfalls that only run during storm time. We were fortunate to enjoy perfect conditions into camp and arrive to a great hot lunch and sunshine. We are looking at the white, white, summit of Kilimanjaro above so plenty of excitement ahead. We are planning to have the team throw an extra layer in our kit based upon current conditions. So many trips in the past with team members having some challenges at this point and some calling this their high point but no issues with this team of mountaineers so far. Such a pleasure for a guide to have a team that has done their home work. Mid term tomorrow, final exam just around the corner. Here I go to study up, dispatch ya later. Cheers RMI Guide Mark Tucker

On The Map

Saturday, June 8, 2024 - 8:55 pm PT

Greetings readers!

Today we had a casual morning eating breakfast burritos and sipping coffee. By 9:50am we were packed and roped uo for our back carry to our 9300' cache. A light wind kept the temps down and the team made fast work getting to the cache. After a bit of digging we retrieved all our things, packed it all up and headed back uphill. Up, down, up, down, sleep, eat, and repeat is the the name of the game out here. If you ain't walking you are sleeping or eating. After a bit of rest in the afternoon we reviewed walking in our crampons and packed for our carry to 13,600'. If the winds don't turn up which they are forecasted to, we will carry our gear and get in position to move to 14,000' Camp. The team is very eager to get up there. But we have to take our time and properly allow our bodies to compensate to the decrease in oxygen molecules up here. As I write the winds are picking up but maybe they will get it out of its system during the night.  So goodnight all and send those good weather vibes.

RMI Guide Hannah Smith and Team

We slept in this morning... to the decadent hour of 7:00 AM. The idea was to let the majority of porter traffic get out ahead of us so as to reduce traffic jams on the route up the "Great Barranco Wall". It was easy to go for the slow start in such a beautiful place. The morning light show as the sun found its way into our deep valley and the surface of the cloud sea below us was magical. We left camp at 9:30 and promptly found the traffic jam we’d hoped to avoid. The route begins with a system of rock ledges and small but steep scrambles so there are a number of natural "choke points". Generally we try to let porters have the right of way since they are balancing heavy loads on their heads and moving much faster than we will go. But it is high season and there were hundreds of porters and climbers tackling the wall at once. We waited on a few of the more spacious ledges and eventually made it to the more open middle sections of the wall (where the climbing is really just steady uphill hiking). It was a thrill to top out the wall and have the big views of Kibo and the hanging ice fields and glaciers above us. Then the hiking became routine and beautiful as we traversed under the mountain’s south side and came to the steep-sided Karanga Valley. It didn’t take us very long to go down one side and up the other to get to Karanga Camp at 2:00 PM. This camp is on a broad and open slope with unobstructed views of both the mountain above and the world around us. Mt. Meru, our 15,000 ft volcanic neighbor is prominent out to the West. Our afternoon followed a now familiar pattern, meals and naps interspersed. Coming out of the dining tent after dinner, we were all mesmerized by the stars above and the lights of Tanzania below. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

May 5, 2015 11:27 pm PT Hi everyone. Another beautiful sunny day on the glacier! Perfect to go out for a bit of climbing and training. We left this morning in the cold shadow of Mt. Hunter and made our way up into a small basin on the north side of Horiskey's Hump. Stopping periodically to study the glacier and identify some key features that make this frozen river so interesting. The team made great time and we were able to stand on top while getting some good practice on fixed line travel. By late afternoon the team was back at camp building a few more walls and celebrating Cinco de Mayo courtesy of John and his guacamole. Good night. RMI Guide Leon Davis

On The Map

This was a great day for staying put. That said, it sounded like everything outside our little tents was moving around. The forecast called for snow and wind - the reality was exactly that. I was wide-awake at 5:40 a.m., listening to what sounded like a 20-minute train derailment: an avalanche pouring off Everest's Southwest face. Several times I zipped down the tent door, only to see that we were still in the milky midst of the turbulent powder cloud thrown off by the slide. I knew the actual debris couldn't possibly hit ABC - but it was a reminder to me that it wouldn't be a day for wandering around. The decision had been made the night before that our expedition business would be put on hold. No Sherpas shuttling supplies or camera memory cards-no members going on upper mountain "hikes" in a whiteout. My gang was due for an ABC rest day in any event, but lack of morning sun and abundant frost shaking from tent ceilings kept us all deep in our sleeping bags this morning. Pathetic as it may sound, we were too lazy to even get up and begin resting. Once up and about, we were granted breaks in the cloud that allowed us to dry our gear and view the mayhem up on the heights. Huge ribbons of snow and cloud tore back and forth across the mountain faces and circled us. The Niagara Falls noise of it all eventually became accepted background to our head tunes and reading. Not much thought was given to an Everest summit today. Our radio traffic with BC just confirmed that the rest of the team was wisely pushing back climbing plans. It can be difficult deciding whether marginal weather should dictate climbing plans. Thankfully, that is no longer a problem. Real Himalayan storms don't invite calculation and outfoxing. Rather, it is an obvious time for patience, for rehydration, for resting and recharging,,, and the tying down of loose objects.

After a delicious breakfast prepared by our local staff, we left the Altzomoni Camp for thinner air. With Popocatepetl fuming at our backs, we were graced with no precipitation and some cloud coverage to keep the intense sun off of our backs.
The team arrived to 15,500’ at Campo Alto in good time where we spent the remaining afternoon hours resting in and acclimatizing. We had a humble dinner consisting of noodles and delectable quesadillas from Oaxan cheeses. Settling in early to prepare for our summit bid of Ixta in the cold morning hours to come...

RMI Guide Alan Davis

On The Map

Well it sure has been an action packed few days for our team here in Mexico. After a wonderful rest day (I'll let everyone share their own tales when they return) where the crew scattered about the city causing mayhem and generally having a ball, we launched for Tlachichuca. We'd all been nervously watching the weather after our trouncing on Ixta and the forecast was unclear, on all fronts. We had seen everything from the apocalypse to passable, but there really is never any substitute for the nowcast. Upon arrival at the base of the mountain, in our old friend Dr. Reyes' climbers compound, we learned that no one had summited in days and that getting to the hut would require a few hours of walking. Snow had overtaken the road and trucks couldn't reach the hut. No one had ever seen such a low snow level, let alone heard of a vehicle making through drifts feet thick in spots. We were in for it if we were going to even make it to the hut. We decided to go see how far we could get anyway and started climbing up the steep, muddy road towards the hut. The higher we drove, the more snow there was on the road. Eventually the trucks couldn't climb much higher and it looked like the walk was going to be epically long. But then, an ace up our sleeve saved the day and a teammate who probably doubles as a stunt driver for the winter chase scenes in James Bond movies stepped to the plate. Voila, we took hours off our approach, making it much further. In the end we walked for under an hour before laying claim to a deserted hut. As we walked to the hut, Orizaba loomed over our heads. It sure looked nasty up high, dark clouds whipping over the summit and most of the glacier fully obscured. No one was really mentioning what we all were thinking, but some sure would have to change if we were going to get very high on this one. After a quick review of some climbing techniques, we feasted and turned in for the night. We woke very early and could see a few stars!! Dios mio! As we readied ourselves, the wind came out and it began to lightly snow the higher we climbed. Since we were the only climbers in days, the team broke trail through the night and as the storm built turning back was on everyone's mind. Each break we reached we reassessed the merits of continuing and we kept reaching the same conclusion, "one more stretch." When we reached the top of the Labyrinth (a rocky maze broken by snowy, usually ice, gullies), the wind and snow were peaking. Everyone was dealing so well with the weather that we decided we would climb for a half an hour on the glacier and turn back if it didn't improve. As we kicked steps up the glacier, the skies lightened slightly in the morning sun and the wind lessened a knot or two. "One more stretch?" "Por que no?" we concluded and repeated the question for the next few hours, constantly aware of our conditions and strengths. Continually assessing progress and our teammates, eventually it looked like it was going to be a fight, but that we just might stand on the cumbre! No summit is worth an injury, so the minute things looked like they COULD be sub ideal, we were ready to head back knowing we gave it our best. Orizaba respected the effort and graciously offered our team of intrepid explorers a glimpse of the top and happily we accepted the invitation. What a treat! Standing on top was a real achievement, and as the only crew on the whole mountain we had the whole hill to ourselves. Amazing day in the mountains. The weather cleared a bit for the descent and our team did a great job handling the hardest part of the climb, the descent. A truck was even able to make it to the hut and happily saved us an hour of tired walking through the mud at the end of a long day. When we got back to Tlachichuca, hot showers and a marimba band made dinner even that much better. Quite an adventure down here in Mexico, can't wait to see everyone back home! RMI Guide Jake Beren