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Monday, July 21, 2025

Hiya everybody!

Welcome to Glacier Peak, follow along at your own risk. Today was day 1, but we kept it simple. The day consisted of wrapping up our travel, arriving in the small town of Darrington, WA and completing our gear check and orientation for the beginning of our grand adventure. For some of us, this will just be the next major volcano in WA, and for others, this will be our 5th and final WA volcano! Woot woot! Tonight, we pack, unpack, and pack again making sure we have all the essentials. Tomorrow, we start our hike to Camp 1 at White Pass. Hold on to your seats as we venture into the deep wilderness of WA to attempt our hand at one of the coolest volcanoes around. 

RMI Guide Ben Luedtke and Team

 

Tuesday July 22, 2025

Camp at White Pass

Our first day on the trail and we hit the ground running. Just kidding; we walked delicately through beautiful, lush forest, over rough, rugged terrain, and pranced among the wildflowers. It's all true, but today was a hot, long, and difficult journey to reach camp at white pass. Donned with heavy packs and all the snacks, we enjoyed a less dusty trail than usual thanks to the peaceful rain from last night. After our long day of friendly conversation, Marmot sightings, the fresh smells of mountain air, and beautiful views of the surrounding area, we enjoyed our first camp dinner huddled around our stoves and were very happy that we packed our head nets for the bugs. As we crawl into our sleeping bags for some well-earned rest, we can't help but glimmer with excitement for what comes next. Tomorrow, we head for high camp and training for the big summit day. Stay tuned in case the marmots attack...or become our cuddle buddies in the night... they're hard to read.

RMI Guide Ben Luedtke and Team 

Saturday, May 18, 2024 - 4:29 pm PT

Mission accomplished. We had sunny weather with a light, but chilly breeze for our back carry. It took us 15 minutes to get back to our Windy Corner cache and an hour to get back up to our camp in Genet Basin. A good leg stretcher. We will likely rest tomorrow and try to carry to high camp on Monday.

RMI Guide Mike Walter

Sunday, May 26, 2019 - 8:16 AM PT Hello from the Ruth Glacier Base Camp. What a great day and climb we had yesterday. Our climb of Mount Dickey went well and while better accomplished over 2 days, we had to single push it in order to nail the weather. Saved by the bell, we pulled back into camp as the rain started, and it's been coming down ever since. Double reason for a well deserved rest day today. We'll enjoy a good steak (and I'm not kidding) meal and revisit our climb that provided arguably the best views of the Alaska Range. Regards, Lucy, Corell and Elías

The team was up before the sun hit camp for breakfast this morning. We filled our bellies with pancakes and eggs, and hoped that our bodies would turn those tasty morsels into uphill momentum. It seems like it worked, because everyone did an excellent job on today’s carry. The carry to Camp One ends up being one of the longest days of the climb, second only to summit day. It is also our first day climbing above basecamp, and our first day with heavy packs. It is our first opportunity to really test ourselves on the mountain. Everyone passed the test with flying colors. We climbed to Camp One at 16,200 ft (that’s 2,400ft above basecamp), cached a bunch of food and gear, and hung out for about 45 minutes. There was not a cloud in the sky. The wind was blowing, but not maliciously. A calm day by Aconcagua standards. What goes up must come down, and eventually we drew ourselves from our sunny perch to descend back to basecamp. The team did well on the ascent, but I am actually more impressed, and more excited, about how well they descended the mountain today. We moved back to basecamp in under two hours, everyone was under control, and everyone had energy left in the tank. People were even laughing, which doesn’t often happen during a descent of any portion of this mountain. Tomorrow we’ve got a rest day. We’re going to eat a lot of food (gotta lock in those gains), probably nap a lot, and maybe eat some more food. Hasta mañana. RMI Guides JM Gorum, Hannah Smith, and Avery Parrinello

On The Map

Friday, June 8, 2018 9:18 PM Hello friends and family from the summit of Denali! This is Walter Hailes and the climbing team with Alden, Chip, Brett and Tyler had a successful summit day today and we are enjoying a beautiful, sunny, almost windless summit. Couldn't get any better. We got to climb with Pete Van Deventer and team and had a good time switching leads with them. We got to enjoy lots of fun summit photos and beautiful blue skies with Pete and Team. We are back at camp now, we're going to have a late dinner. We are probably going to wake up pretty late in the morning and head back to 14,000' Camp. We will keep you informed with our dispatches until we talk to you again. A lot of love and safe travels. We'll talk to you soon. Bye. RMI Guide Walter Hailes & Team!

May 30, 2017 Finally we get a break. After nine days of squirrelly, cold, snowy weather the sun broke out just prior to noon. There was an inkling of better weather coming earlier, but nothing definitive. And when it broke, camp went nuts with folks either moving or carrying loads. We opted to stay put, not liking the idea of fighting all that traffic going up Motorcycle Hill and coming into camp at 14,200' late, needing to build camp as the shadows overtake camp and the temperature drops 30 degrees. A couple of folks are fighting small colds, and this warm, easy day is just what the doctor ordered. When we saw rope teams waiting for 30-40 minutes to just leave camp because of the traffic, we felt pretty good about the decision. We certainly enjoyed the day as it became spectacularly sunny and clear. This is the Denali I love and dream of coming back to every year. With the weather folks are streaming into camp and it's as big as I've seen it. But, with just a little luck, we'll be out of here early and moving into a 14,200' camp that has been vacated by the crowds of climbers amassed there waiting for their opportunity to move to 17,200' camp for a bid for the summit. Everyone's dispositions have brightened with the sunshine, which is amazing considering the good cheer among the team even in the poor weather. We'll be talking to you from 14,200' soon! RMI Guides Brent Okita, Christina Dale and JT Schmitt

On The Map

The Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guide JJ Justman along with the Five Day Summit Climb team led by Lindsay Mann both reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The teams spent some time on top and began their descent around 7:30 am. Both teams will return to Camp Muir to re-pack and then will continue down to Paradise. We look forward to seeing the groups at Rainier BaseCamp later today. Congratualtions to today's Summit Climb teams!

This is Adam Knoff from the Ecuador Skills Seminar. I am happy to announce that we have successfully summitted Cotopaxi this morning on a glorious, calm day. People could say it was in great style. I am very proud of the team for their efforts as it took some fortitude to get up on a cold and windy day. The expedition seminar has concluded its climbing on the mountains and we are happy to be tucked in here at La Cienega and drinking cervezas and very comfortable. Everything is fabulous. We will touch base tomorrow. Gracias. Adios. RMI Guide Adam Knoff

On The Map

It’s one of the toughest decisions a guide team makes, when to call it quits below the summit of a big peak. We had great weather until we didn’t. The Team acclimated well and above 18,000’ life gets harder. With winds increasing and our number of days dwindling, we decided to get out of the wind and start the descent to Base Camp. While our climbers are disappointed, they all got two spectacular weeks in the Andes at high altitude, made some new friends and climbing partners. The Team will spend tomorrow at Plaza Argentina and begin the two day walk to the road on the 29th. A huge thanks to a wonderful group of climbers and those that supported them along the way. RMI Guide Mike King

On The Map

The team is at Casa de Piedra, which in Spanish means... house of...Piedra. It was another gorgeous day of trekking in the Vacas Valley. Everyone is doing great and we are excited to be one step closer to base camp. For me it's always fun to hear and see the expressions on people's faces as they truly appreciate how beautiful it is here. We had a condor sighting, which is rare in the towering mountains. However, the elusive guanaco is nowhere to see. I'm pretty sure if I put on some Old Spice it will attract some for the team. Stay tuned!! RMI Guide JJ Justman