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The  Mexico Volcanoes Team arrived yesterday with all their equipment. Today we left Mexico City for a two and a half hour drive through the scenic country side on our way to La Malinche. Along the way we got great views of Orizaba, Ixta and Popo. In my eight trips I’ve not seen the air quality this clear for such long distances. Which makes having our hike cut short around 12,000’ due to the park police turning hikers around all the more disappointing. This area is known for afternoon thunderstorms and apparently the park is instituting a strict turn around time now. 

We decided to listen to the tactically dressed officer with the gun and not end up in a Mexican jail. The group got a chance to stretch their lungs and legs some, we all would have hoped for a longer hike. The remainder of the day will be spent in the former Olympic training center that now hosts tourists and locals. We will look forward to heading to Ixta tomorrow for a hike and gear check. 

Thanks for following along,

RMI Guide Mike King

RMI Guides James Bealer and Bryan Mazaika led their Five Day Climb teams to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning.  The teams reached the crater rim at 6:15 am.  It's a beautiful day with blue sky and no winds. After taking in the views and getting all the photos the team started their descent.  They will return to Camp Muir, pack their gear and continue the remaining 4.5 miles back to Paradise.  We look forward to greeting them at Rainier BaseCamp later this afternoon where they will celebrate their efforts and good fortune before completing their program.

The Mt. Rainier Climb, led by RMI Guides JM Gorum and Dan Windham, had high winds and new snow at Camp Muir last night.  These conditions kept the team hunkered down at Camp Muir.  Both teams began their descent back to Paradise at 8:00 a.m.

RMI Guides Eric Frank and Mike King led their Four Day Climb June 5 - 8 to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning.  Mike reported good climb and a good route but they climbed in a cloud cap with limited visability.  The teams reached the crater rim around 6:30 am and were starting their descent shortly before 7:30 am.  They will return to Camp Muir for a quick stop before continuing down to Paradise.  We look forward to seeing the groups at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.

Congratulations to today's climbers!

Tuesday, May 30, 2023 - 10:55 pm PT

Yet another weather day, we woke up to snow covered tents and cold temperatures. We had our final bagel meal of the trip, paired with smoked salmon. As we sat in and out of the clouds, and snowfall we waited for the other RMI teams to descend from 17,000' Camp. Tomorrow morning marks a decision point. We need a three day weather window to open up before Thursday for us, otherwise we run out of food at 14,000' Camp, and then have to go retrieve our cache from 16,300' and then eat our summit food. Leaving us out of food if a summit window did open up later. Tomorrow morning we should have clarity if Wednesday, Thursday, Friday will be a viable option. The other tricky component is a very large system seems to be slated to hit the mountain Friday, bringing more snow and more wind. This storm could run it's course as late as next Tuesday or so. Leaving us completely out of food by the time weather improves. All that said, with an updated forecast tomorrow morning we may make the call to either go for it, or to grab the cache and get out so we don't get stuck for the entire storm. We will check in tomorrow with whatever we hear!

RMI Guide Nikki Champion

It was just a little on the cold side this morning at Shira Camp.  Kibo -Kilimanjaro’s main peak- was between us and the sun.  But  we were far above the clouds and it was clear up high, so the views more than made up for the cold temps.  The sun was on us by the time breakfast had finished and so things were comfortable when we got walking at 8:30 AM.  Our path led directly toward Kibo and the terrain was easier than what we’d dealt with yesterday.  We worked up broad, gently angled slopes.  Old lava flows.  Obsidian chunks were easy to find amongst the sagebrush and wildflowers.  By 11 AM we were higher than Mount Rainier and a short while later we were higher than Mt Whitney… thus breaking altitude records for everyone on the team (except Kim who has been to 19,000 ft).  We made it to the Lava Tower -at 15,200 ft- just after noon.  Clouds had formed up again and so it was cool, but not so bad that we couldn’t enjoy some lunch.  We began working downhill at 1 PM.  It felt good to drop altitude and to get back into warmer air.  We took a break just as we got into a garden-like grove of giant senecios and lobelias… the “Dr Suess plants” of Kilimanjaro.  Another careful hour of descent had us walking into 13,000 ft Barranco Camp just after 3 PM.  We settled in at the base of tomorrow’s main objective -the great Barranco Wall. 

We napped and read and sipped tea through the remaining afternoon hours. Dinner finished up by 8 PM and we marveled at the stars on this moonless night.

Best Regards

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

We made progress.  

It was definitely colder in a tent at 7,000 ft on an Antarctic glacier than in a hotel room in Punta Arenas, but we were happy and comfortable enough for the night.  Local conditions (shadows and breezes) dictate a slower start in the mornings, so we didn’t get moving around until after 9 AM.  We ate breakfast and then did a bit of training and review and of course -gear sorting.  We took a last COVID test (our sixth in six days) and then roped up and went walking up glacier.  We carried loads for two and a half hours, to “half camp” our intended cache point.  Most of our journey was in murky glacier fog, but we broke out of clouds near our cache point and could look up on Vinson’s great western wall.  We could see neighboring peaks Shinn and Epperly, but they had a few clouds stuck on and around them as well.  We secured the food and gear we’d carried and then walked back down into the cold and frosty clouds.  Glacier conditions were reasonable and we didn’t sink into the snow too much or slip and slide on ice.  There were some crevasses visible here and there, but we didn’t have any openings to step over. 

Back at camp in the clouds, we ate dinner and turned in for a well deserved rest. 

Best Regards,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Dave Hahn called from Vinson Base Camp early this morning after the team arrived on the mountain. Below is the transcript from his call: Hey, this is Dave Hahn on calling from Vinson Base Camp again. The Illyusion came in today at Union Glacier, it was a spectacular day - actually started a little bit cloudy, still a little bit ice crystals in the air, chance of fog, but the afternoon was just sparkling and beautiful and the airplane came in in the evening and brought in my next group of climbers. So the four of us then clambered...out of the Illyusion and into Twin Otters. But first we had Illyusion Stew there at Union Glacier - the traditional meal there on the ice in the ALE Dining Tent. Then kind of a midnight ride through the Ellsworth mountains, really beautiful, the shadows long. And the Twin Otters on skis, brought us out to Branscomb Glacier. A perfect landing going uphill on the glacier at 7000' and Vinson splendid out in front of us. And now it's 2:30 and we've gathered our tent's up. We're in shadow. So, I'm not gonna stay up too much longer... [Call lost].

The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guides Steve Gately and Ben Luedtke reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. RMI Guide Ben Luedtke captured the team in this photo on the upper mountian as they were ascending under clear blue skies. They are on the descent in route back to Camp Muir. 

Congratulations Team! 

Update 7:21 p.m. PST: Mark Tucker sent a message that the team is descending from Camp 1 to Basecamp. All is well! Voicemail update 7:20 a.m. PST: Hey, this is Dave Hahn calling from Advanced Base Camp once again. We finished our whirlwind tour of the upper mountain. You remember we went from here, 21,300, to nearly 26,000 feet the South Col and went to the summit this morning. And then all the way back down here to Advanced Base Camp. So a long day of climbing and an exciting day of climbing for myself, Seth, Kaji and Tshering. With Gyaljen playing lifeguard back at the South Col looking out for us and having some hot drinks ready when we got back there - which was pretty nice. And we loaded everything up, up there at the Col and came down with the pretty heavy packs down the Lhotse Face. It feels very good to be a little bit lower on the mountain but what a big day! Certainly intended to give a voice dispatch from the summit, had the sat phone up there but there was a little bit of a cold wind blowing from the north, made it hard to do things like work with your fingers with your gloves off and make phone calls and things like that. But we were able to talk to Mark Tucker down a base camp on the radio and Dan as well who was standing down there with Lam Babu and our whole Base Camp staff. So, that was nice to be able to connect with those guys, while we were up there. (broken transmission). Conditions weren't all that bad, ended up a pretty good weather summit day but a little cold. Wind kind of goes with what we consider a good day. Anyway this was a good day. And now it's clearly the season is changed. And it's time to get off the mountain, it's heating up. The anchors we're melting out on our way down the Lhotse Face and we had to be pretty careful of that. So we're taking that as a sign that it is time to be heading down. Alright, bye for now. Thank you. RMI Guide Dave Hahn

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