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Hello from Ixta high camp! We woke up this morning at the Altzomoni Hut to a crisp and clear morning. The moon, out in all its glory, was suspended just above Pico de Orizaba, far in the distance, and Popo was periodically producing puffs of smoke, creating an incredible view for us to begin our day with. Although it was a sight to behold, we had little time to sit and watch, because we had a high camp to get to! Everyone made it up to approximately 15,500 feet in great style! The day proved to have as beautiful weather as the morning provided, and we enjoyed the blue skies the whole way up to high camp. The loads were a bit heavy, and the air a bit thin, but that was no issue for this team. Now we are all relaxing in our tents and in true Mexican style enjoying a little siesta before dinner. In the morning we plan on waking up and climbing to the summit of Ixta! Hasta luego! RMI Guides JT Schmitt & Grayson Swingle

On The Map

Sunday, July 7, 2019 - 8:47 PM PT The fine weather continued, except there was an irritating wind blowing at 17,000 this morning when we got stirring at 7:30 AM. The wind wasn’t particularly strong or cold, but it wouldn’t go away either, so it made breakfast and packing slightly less fun. We were out of 17,000' Camp by 10:30 and walking carefully down the crest of the West Buttress. The wind wasn’t strong enough to make anybody miss a step, but it made communication tricky. Even so, we made good time down the ridge and then down the fixed ropes. Traffic is nonexistent now as the very last three or four teams of the season were all above us and going for the top in the breeze. We reached 14,000 by 1 PM and decided to build camp. Tempting as it would have been to continue on down the mountain, we have to deal now with the downside to all the fabulous weather. The warm temperatures have caused the West Buttress to shed a lot more rock than usual. We’ll try to let it cool a little before venturing around Windy Corner. An Alpine Start is called for, so we’ll keep resting in preparation for a midnight departure. We’ll try to go all the way to the airstrip from here in order to get the lower glacier in cool conditions as well. It MIGHT be our final night on the mountain. Stay tuned. Best Regards RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

May 29, 2017 Another two feet of snow fell on us last night, and it was still snowing when I awoke to check the weather throughout the morning. So, another storm day at 11,200' Camp. With all this snow dreams of skiing the deep 'pow' entered all our skiers' brains, but the only face shots we got was when the wind caught the snow we were shoveling from our tents and blew it back in our face. Oh well. The snowfall intensity was remarkable. Fifteen minutes after clearing your tent it appeared that you had done nothing. Since we had enjoyed a great rest day yesterday, I thought it better that we stretched our legs just a little today. So, we roped up for a short stroll down to 10,100' where we helped out our team behind us and carried some of their cache up to camp for them while they were taking a storm/rest day at 7,800'. Loads were light and in a couple of hours we were back at camp. An afternoon relaxing back in the tents topped off our little walk, leaving the team feeling pretty darned good at dinner. We're all keeping our fingers crossed for tomorrow. Send us positive thoughts for the weather. And thank you for the blog replies. We've gotten one batch sent to us so far and everyone loves hearing them. Good night from 11,200' camp, hopefully for the last time. RMI Guides Brent, Christina Dale and JT Schmitt

On The Map

Update after successful summit: Weather could not have been better. Same with the team. What we learn about ourselves and others up in the outer limits of our atmosphere never ceases to amaze me. Outstanding efforts today by three teens, Aaron , Hunter, and Morgan. Each along with one of their parental units, etching out some family history. A fine example of good parenting to bring out the best in these adolescents under some very demanding conditions. What they did today can put a new perspective on everyday challenges. Put that one in your tool box. The rest of us didn't do too bad either. Making good time to the top and back down safely to our last camp, Mweka, here at 10,000ft. Our total summit day only took about 15 hours. We will be back to creature comforts tomorrow after another three hours of descending. RMI Guide Mark Tucker [Link to summit call audio]

On The Map

Hey everybody! Checking in from Aconcagua Basecamp after a wholesome meal of steak, potatoes, and red berries. Today was spent recovering from our three days of approach and preparing for our carry to Camp 1 tomorrow. These days can often be long but this one seemed to breeze by due to great conversation with great people. We spent hours telling stories and joking around, with the laughter alleviating any sign of an altitude-related headache. Now the sun has set, lighting the clouds to the east in brilliant blues, purples, and pink. As the stars rise we drift to sleep looking forward to climbing high on this beautiful peak tomorrow. Thanks for tuning in! RMI Guide Walter Hailes

On The Map

Hello! Good afternoon! This is Elías and the Alpamayo climbing team. We are calling from Cashapampa, or the trailhead, where we have just arrived. IT is 3 PM local time on Friday, the 25th, and we have successfully finished our expedition. We'd like to apologize for their lack of a call last night from Base Camp following the call we made in the morning after the climb, but the sat. phone wasn't working properly or the cloud cover maybe even lower, but we arrived at Base Camp shortly, 4 hours after we departed High Camp. We had a nice dinner, re-encountering our cook and camp staff, and this morning the donkeys made our journey back to the trailhead very enjoyable. And, like I said, we're now at the trailhead loading our backs into the taxi, the truck that is going to take us back into town. And we'll be over. So thanks to everybody who's been following our progress on the mountain, and we send our regards to everyone, and we will be checking in the next time with some pictures and a final recap from Huaraz within the next 24 hours! Thank you and goodbye.

July 2, 2014 - 12:09 am PT Thank you for all of the blog comments. It is great to hear from everyone back home and it is always reinvigorating. Today we got to sleep in and then scurried down to our cache above Windy Corner. It was nice to be reunited with our food, clean underwear and base layers that we left buried in the snow for a few days. We then spent the afternoon doing some kitchen redesign, fixed line training and more sorting of food. Tomorrow is an exciting day! We will get to see some more challenging and exciting terrain-- carrying to the top of the fixed lines! RMI Guide Adam Knoff and Team

On The Map

June 11, 2014 10:53pm PT We awoke this morning to clear skies and the sound of howling wind thrashing the mountain above us. It was a cold day at 14 camp despite the winds easing a bit in the afternoon. We finished building our snow walls and made some snow statues- a mailbox and planter among them. At 3:00 pm the winds had let up enough that we took a walk to the Edge of the World, a vista point on the 14k bench. The forecast is looking better and we are hopeful that we can get a cache up on the Rib tomorrow. Thanks for following along with us. RMI Guides Eric, Geoff and The UWR Team

The Mt. Baker Easton Glacier Team led by RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier were unable to climb due to thunderstorms in the area. The team is hanging in their tents doing their best to stay dry!  

Congratulations team on a real mountain adventure! 

Llaima is a big mountain, deceivingly big - from beneath it looks like a reasonable couple hours of climbing...not so. I learned this my first time on Llaima four years ago. Yesterday we had an adventurous day on Llaima. Sun, clouds, heat, cold, calm, wind, visibility, low vis...sticky snow, icy snow, sastrugi, soft snow, corn... some horrible skiing, and a lot of amazing skiing. We walked, we skinned, we climbed. There is an old pocket glacier that's usually well covered in snow, but this year there were exposed crevasses, which added to the route finding challenge. At 15:30, standing on a rough, icy slope in strong wind, we decided to call it - about an hour from the summit. This was not safe snow for skiing so we down-climbed about 1,000' before putting on our skis. The rest of the descent was super fun, and went quickly. We didn't get to stand on top, but the group consensus was that this was an even more awesome day than summiting Lonquimay. Today we had a nice drive to the town of Pucon, with perfectly clear skies. We were able to see all four of our volcanoes - Lonquimay, Llaima, Villarica, and Lanin. We stopped in the town of Villarica for a nice lunch and to take some photos of the mountain (Villarica) towering above the lake. Another great couple of days in Araucania. RMI Guide Tyler Reid & the Chile Ski Team