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Posted by: Leon Davis, Sid Pattison
Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades
Elevation: 8,630'
Posted by: Mike Haugen, Mike Uchal, Pepper Dee
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 9,600'
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On The Map
Doug, glad to hear things are going well up there. Hope the weather holds up. Take lots of pics, b/c we can’t wait to see the views you are seeing.
Posted by: Greg on 6/18/2015 at 3:51 pm
Good to see the daily progress. How cold is it?
Stay warm and safe
Love
Mom and Dad
Posted by: MaryAnn and Arthur on 6/18/2015 at 1:27 pm
Posted by: Nikki Champion, Leif Bergstrom, Hannah Blum
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska
Elevation: 348'
Wednesday, June 17, 2025 - 10:20 am PT
Well, like all good things, this too must come to an end. Sorry we’ve been a bit MIA since summit day—those final days all start to blur together. You don’t get much downtime until you're either sitting at the airstrip waiting out the weather or lucky enough to fly straight to Talkeetna.
Three days ago, on June 14th, we stood on top. The following morning, June 15th, the team packed up camp and began the long, challenging descent. We dropped down the West Buttress around noon, descended the fixed lines, and stopped at 14,000' Camp for a brief six-hour nap.
After our rest, we had a quick dinner at midnight, then loaded up all of our gear from the last two weeks and began the march back to basecamp. We made our way around Windy Corner, down Squirrel and Motorcycle Hill, and finally back to 11,000' Camp. There, we whispered hellos to Dom’s team—who were sound asleep—grabbed our cache, transitioned back to snowshoes, and continued past Camp One to basecamp.
By around 9 a.m. on the morning of June 16th, we arrived at basecamp to good weather and the chance to fly straight off the glacier. By noon, we were back in Talkeetna wearing flip-flops, and by 2 p.m., we were sharing beers and laughter, wrapping up our expedition at the Brew Pub.
It’s all been a bit of a haze—amazing, exhausting, unforgettable. In the moment, it felt like it moved slowly, but now that we’re back on dry land, it’s hard to believe how fast it all went by.
If you've been following me for years, you know I'm a fan of Hiakus...
Fresh socks, frozen boots
Glacier sunburn, summit views
Fly me to a beer
RMI Guide Nikki Champion
New Post Alerts:
Mt. McKinley Expedition May 27, 2025
Posted by: Daniel May, Joey Manship
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska
Tuesday, May 6, 2025
We woke up to a surprising blue bird day. The frosty tents and cold night told us the skies were clear. Taking advantage of the good weather we hiked along the relatively flat Ruth Glacier heading deeper into the gorge eyeing new terrain along the way. We caught a glimpse of the east face of Mount Dickey, basically two El Capitans stacked on top of each other and riddled with snow and ice. After a whole day of exploring we made it back to camp just in time for a dinner of some tasty burgers. The team has decided that to counter the incoming bad weather we keep hearing about, they will work on digging underground tunnels from their tents to our cook tent using only sporks. Results to come in future posts.
RMI Guide Dan May & the Ruth Glacier Team
New Post Alerts:
Ruth Glacier Seminar May 2, 2025
Tuesday, August 22, 2023 - 7:47 am PT
Everything went just like clockwork today for the start of our adventure. We were up early, eating breakfast and shuffling duffels at Rivertrees Inn. We actually drove away to start the climb several minutes before the 8 AM intended launch. Ninety minutes in the bus brought us to the Machame gate of Kilimanjaro National Park. At 6000 ft, this was to be our starting point. Inevitably there was a little time spent getting the team permit paperwork finished, and some time spent getting porter loads sorted. But we were able to start walking through the forest a little after 10:30 AM, not bad at all. Freddy, one of our longtime local guides led today’s charge up the hill. We began with a gradual climb on a road, which eventually turned into a trail upward through the rainforest. We considered ourselves lucky to have a fair bit of blue sky and sunshine for the first day, which is very often spent under or within thick clouds. As well, we seemed to be a few hours ahead of most other teams which meant that the track through the woods was pretty peaceful. We took several breaks to eat snacks and drink tea, but we kept at the hard work of gaining altitude and by 3:30 we’d reached Machame Camp at 10,000 ft. Our amazing staff had our camp built and ready for us to move in when we arrived. We only had to clean up and show up in the dining tent for tea time. Easy. Tosha, our world class chef is serving up dinner at 6:30 and the team is anxious to enjoy a good meal, see some southern hemisphere stars and get a good night’s rest.
Best Regards,
Posted by: Mike Walter, Avery Parrinello, Luke Wilhelm
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Alaska
Elevation: 7,800'
Friday May 14, 2021 6:36 pm PT
Our team had a great day today, waking up to cloudless skies after a good night's rest. We hauled our backpacks and sleds laden with supplies up to 10,000', just shy of "The Corner" below Kahiltna Pass. After digging a deep hole in which to cache our gear, we returned back to our camp at the base of Ski Hill, 7,800'.
We returned to camp in the afternoon after the six hour round trip with time to lounge before firing up the stoves for dinner. The plan for tomorrow is to pack up camp and move up to the 11,200' camp. We'll keep you posted.
RMI Guide Mike Walter & Team
Ben-
Looks cold and beautiful! Checking in on your adventure every day :)
-M
Posted by: Margaret on 5/15/2021 at 7:09 pm
On The Map
Wow. Climbing that rock wall is more like crawling up. Wicked.! Wishing you all the best the rest of the way. Godspeed !!
Posted by: Barbara Sluboski on 1/25/2019 at 8:32 pm
Go team, go! Enjoy the views - the photos are great. Good work getting up the Wall! Safe travels -
Posted by: Rebecca Brown on 1/25/2019 at 3:31 pm
Posted by: Billy Nugent, Mike King, Sean Collon
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 17,200'
On The Map
Doug! We are following your journey. Love from us! Mom n Lar
Posted by: Blythe on 7/3/2015 at 8:25 am
May the odds be ever in your favor team!
Doug - you know the drill…be safe, be great, move with grace.
~Belladonna
Posted by: Belladonna on 7/3/2015 at 3:29 am
How long do you plan for this trip to take?
Posted by: Mary on 4/2/2015 at 1:52 pm
Glad to hear all are safe- hoping your climb, though shortened, was still a great adventure!
Posted by: Nan Slone on 8/3/2016 at 11:31 am
Glad you are safe and sound.
Posted by: Marcie McGuire on 8/3/2016 at 8:29 am
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