Most Popular Entries

Two inches of sparkling white snow fell on Deboche last night. By morning whatever clouds had deposited the snow were long gone and blue skies prevailed. We ate breakfast while staring out the windows at massive plumes ripping off the summits of Everest and Lhotse. The team hit the trail by a few minutes after 8 AM and made easy progress through the snow coated rhododendron forest. In a short time, we crossed the river to the sunny side of the valley and made our way up to Pangboche and the home of Lama Geishi. He'd graciously consented to bestowing a blessing on the team. Revered by all in the Khumbu region, 80 year old Lama Geishi greets one and all with a smile and a special head butt while tying a sacred knotted string around each visitor's neck. He let us know that he was asking Chomolungma -the mother goddess of the earth- also known as Mt. Everest, to allow our climb to her summit. We thanked Lama Geishi and resumed our hike, stopping in Shomare for a lunch while gazing up at Ama Dablam's impossibly steep flanks. Then it was just a short and quiet thousand vertical feet of climbing and we were walking into Pheriche and our tea house for the next two nights. The lodge is packed to capacity tonight with about six or seven teams of trekkers and climbers. In the evening we were happy to meet up with Mark Tucker bringing his team down valley. After he goes for Island Peak we will eagerly await his arrival in Basecamp as our teammate on the Everest Climb. Tuck will once again be basecamp manager and Khumbu Glacier mayor. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

Saturday, May 29, 2021 - 11:35 pm PT

Sleeping in was mandatory this morning as we waited for the sun to hit camp.  Rest was the name of the game today as a storm laid siege on the mountain.  Wind battered the tents with occasional snow as we all practiced the art of not getting bored.   We had a delicious and grand dinner which devolved into (surprisingly well informed) debates on which Disney characters were best.  The weather will hopefully improve tomorrow and we’ll be able to get up and stretch our legs. 

RMI Guide Eric Frank

Led by RMI Guides Mike Walter and Matias Francis the Mt. Baker - North Ridge team reached the summit of Mt. Baker yesterday. The team enjoyed a variety of weather on the climb, including rain once they got back to Hogsback Camp after their summit attempt.

Back safe and sound in Kathmandu!

Managed to get the team out of Lukla with the help of helicopters. It was too cloudy for the planes to fly, but the helicopters are able to fly out following the rivers and avoiding the mountains. It was a first for a few of us.

Everyone is back enjoying the comforts at the Yak & Yeti hotel, hot showers, good food, and the warm temps.

It's been one amazing adventure with a great team and it will be sad to say goodbye, but we are all looking forward to getting back home to our loved ones.

Thanks for following.

RMI Guide Casey Grom and a happy crew

RMI Guide Mike Walter called from the top of Mt. Shuksan this morning. The team enjoyed a beautiful, hazy morning at 9,000' ft. The team made it back to camp and will enjoy a night's rest before they head back to the trailhead tomorrow.

On May 8-10th RMI Guides Zeb Blais and Tyler Jones took advantage of the good weather in the Pacific Northwest to do a multi-day ski mountaineering tour on Mt. Rainier. The duo spent three days on the mountain and skied an incredible total of 21,000 vertical feet! We caught up with Zeb and Tyler before their next mountaineering adventure. RMI: On the first day of your trip you left from Paradise and skinned to Camp Muir. What were the conditions like? Zeb Blais: The conditions getting to [Camp] Muir were ideal with fast-gliding and supportable corn snow that made for quick travel. Tyler Jones: The warm afternoon snow conditions gave us a chance to get in a nice ski run in on the Cowlitz Glacier after we reached Camp Muir. At the same time, it provided us with a good trail for the morning to climb the Gibraltar Ledges Route to the summit. From there, our plan was to traverse to Liberty Cap to get a view of the big runs! RMI: That night you left Camp Muir with the intention of skiing Liberty Ridge. Were you able to ski that line? Zeb Blais: The key to skiing big exposed lines is always the snow conditions. When you're looking at skiing a line like Liberty [Ridge] you can only know what the conditions are like when you get there. We were hoping that the north and northeast facing snow would be chalky, smooth, and wind packed, but when we looked at the entrance to Liberty it was clear that it wasn't going to be skiable. The Liberty Ridge Route looked like mid-summer, maybe good for ice climbing, but certainly not skiable. The Liberty Cap Glacier was down to blue ice with lumps of rime glued to it, which I imagine is fairly common since it is so steep, but the skiing below looked the same. Rappelling the Liberty Cap Glacier and skiing the rest of the line did not look like an inviting option. RMI: What did you end up skiing instead? Zeb Blais: After realizing that Liberty was not suitable, we turned our focus to the Mowich Face - an amazing, steep face on the northwest side of the mountain. This looked tempting at first, but it was heavily rimed with blobs of water ice. It was not a place to be on skis! We retreated back to the ridge above and decided we needed to focus on warmer, spring like-snow. We decided on the Sickle, a west-facing chute on the Tahoma Glacier. The snow in the Sickle was prime for skiing! Tyler Jones: On our ski we had nice soft spring snow down to 8,500 feet. From there we were able traverse to our objective for the next day: Success Ridge between the South Tahoma Glacier and the Success Glacier. We spent the night on the ridge, getting some well-deserved sleep, with the magnificent 4,000-foot Success Glacier Couloir above us waiting to be skied. The conditions on the Success Glacier were superb. The snow was firm for climbing and soft for skiing. After the amazing fall line decent, we continued traversing to [the trailhead at] Paradise. As we hit the Nisqually Glacier we added more vertical to our trip and finished at the Nisqually Bridge. In total Zeb and I traveled 24 miles, gaining 19,000 feet and skiing 21,000 feet in 3 days. RMI: How does being a Guide help prepare you for trips like this? Tyler Jones: Being a guide helps to develop your intuitive mountain sense, which is very important for making good decisions in the mountains. It is that gut feeling that can make all the difference. Zeb Blais: Guiding also gives me a good base-line fitness for doing long days in the mountains. Mountaineering is a unique sport that requires specific techniques and fitness to be efficient. The more you do it the better you get! RMI: What was your favorite part of this ski trip? Tyler Jones: My favorite part of this trip was seeing a few new places, skiing a new run, and enjoying the views of the Tahoma Glacier from Sunset Ridge. Zeb Blais: A huge part of the trip was sharing it with Tyler. Moving in the mountains with a partner who you enjoy and trust makes all the difference. There are thousands of big and small decisions to be made when doing a trip like this, from what gear to bring to what line to ski to 'do we go left here or right?' Making these choices and learning from other experienced climbers or guides is always something I enjoy. Can't forget skiing! Maybe I should have said this first, but the skiing was awesome! Steep, exposed skiing with great snow is one of the most exhilarating things a person can do. RMI: What adventures do you have planned next? Zeb Blais: I am guiding a mountaineering trip on Shasta at the end of the month, and then I'll be back on Rainier for the climbing season with a Denali West Buttress trip at the end of June. Tyler Jones: I am guiding a Denali trip in June. After that I am planning on flying back onto the mountain for a ski trip with my fiancé Laura. After that I will return to guiding on Rainier and the Grand Teton. Then, I am getting married in September!

Top of Geneva Spur. The whole climbing team is about twenty minutes away from the South Col. Dave reports conditions on the route best ever. Weather still perfect. All members feeling GREAT. Perfect timing for them to get settled in at the Col and start resting for the early start from the Col for the push to the top. They will continue to use oxygen while at the Col. Main goal will be to keep melting water, and drinking, drinking, drinking. It is so important to start this next part of the climb well hydrated. Sleep will be a bonus but not a necessity; calories into the tank a must. They will have to plan on very short and tough breaks on the way to the summit. Best to have as much of these elements in the bank stored up to withdraw from later. Looking Good! RMI Guide Mark Tucker

Mission accomplished.  For today, that is.  We had fine weather today, sunny and calm (but you might be surprised to see how much clothing and gear we still put on for sunny and calm conditions).  We made a carry up the steep and nasty part of Mt Vinson… the fixed ropes, and put a cache of supplies at 11,800 ft. before returning to our 9,300 ft camp.  By intention, we stopped about an hour short of 12,500 ft High Camp.  To go up and back is a lot of work, but we hope it is the kind of work that will help with our acclimatization, making us stronger and safer when we go up there for real.  The fixed rope section is a continuously steep and firm snow slope which definitely gets your attention as a physical challenge.  We normally get up it in three hour long pulls with some dicey rest breaks thrown in on precarious ledges.  The views are otherworldly… with ice stretching to the western horizon and then blending with the sky, and jagged peaks of rock and ice increasingly visible to our north.  We were out a little more than seven hours, returning to Low Camp at 9 PM.  The strong evening sun kept us comfy in our dining tent for a 10:15 supper.  Rumor has it that winds may increase on the upper mountain tomorrow.  We shall see. 

Best Regards,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Hey RMI, this is Linden Mallory calling with the Island Peak team after a successful summit of Island Peak this morning. We reached the summit about 9:30 Nepali time this morning, and just had perfect weather. Today, April 9th, was chosen as an auspicious day for our Everest expedition. As today was the Puja Ceremony, sort of the opening blessing ceremony of the expedition and sure enough it worked pretty well for us as well. We had probably the best weather we’ve seen in the past week up here in the Khumbu for our summit day. Woke up this morning about 2 a.m. and it was actually snowing. We had a couple inches of snow on the tents, but the stars were out and it was clear with some clouds blowing up from below from the lower valley so we set out on our climb and broke free of the clouds within about 30 or 40 minutes. It was chilly but pretty consistent throughout the trip but just beautiful skies. By the time morning broke, not a cloud in the sky and thankfully no winds so we powered to the top, getting on to the summit of Island Peak again about 9:30 and it’s about the size of a pool table so it’s a pretty small, little summit. We stood up there and snapped some photos and descended back down, packed up high camp and just arrived into basecamp, which is our final trip into the valley. So we’re all pretty excited to be dropping the packs and turning into bed. It’s been a healthy day. Everybody is doing well and put in a good effort today. We’ll check in tomorrow, headed back to Namche is the plan. We’ll try to get some photos off to everybody as well. That’s it. Hope everyone is well and we’ll talk to you guys soon. Take care. RMI Guide Linden Mallory

On The Map

We huffed and puffed our way up to Camp 2 today, which sits at 18,300 feet. The team did a great job with the move! Arriving at camp this afternoon, everyone felt a major sense of accomplishment. Ear to ear smiles, and hugs all around! Our hard work today will be rewarded with a much deserved day of rest tomorrow. We have now situated ourselves perfectly for a summit attempt in the coming days.

 

Till next time,

RMI  Guide Luke Wilhelm and team