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Today we visited the famous Ngorongoro Crater. The crater is roughly 100 square miles and is known for its abundance of animals that call the crater home. We hit the road early with hopes of catching a few of the big cats before the heat of the day. There were many sightings today of hyenas, jackles, ostrich, and countless other birds. We managed to see several lions, including 2 feasting on a fresh kill, thankfully it wasn’t too close though. We also saw one Black Rhino at pretty close range, which have become very rare due to poaching. We wrapped up the day with a visit to a Maasai village not far from the craters rim. The Maasai people are a semi-nomadic tribe that exist almost entirely off of their cattle. The team spent time asking questions and enjoyed being shown around their small and simple village. We have just finished another wonderful meal here at the plantation lodge RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

The July 27 - 30 Four Day Climb reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning led by RMI Guide Andy Bond. Andy reported a beautiful day and a great route. The team enjoyed some time in the summit crater before starting their descent around 6:30 AM PT. Once back at Camp Muir the climbers will repack and continue down to Paradise. Congratulations to today's climbers!

The Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir May 27 - 1 June led by RMI Guides Brent Okita and Jordan Cargill met their team on Sunday for a day of Technical Training at Rainier BaseCamp. They spent their first day reviewing the plan for the week, working on some technical skills and completing a thorough equipment check. With backpacks proficiently packed they ascended to Camp Muir on Monday under blue skies. They will spend the next several days working on mountaineering skills and preparing for their summit attempt later this week.

Our team had a great day today, tackling our first acclimatization climb in good style. We climbed to the summit of Rucu Pichincha, a 15,400' volcano outside of Quito. The views were grand as we ascended in the rare air of high altitude. Everyone did great (we were all breathing hard up there!), and we look forward to moving out of the comfort of the city life tomorrow, heading south, and getting another acclimatization hike under our belts. We'll touch base again tomorrow. Thanks for checking in! RMI Guide Mike Walter

On The Map

High winds kept our teams off of the summit of Mt. Rainier today. The team headed out early and reached an elevation of 11,600' but the winds were just too strong, so they returned safely to the shelter of Camp Muir. They will be leaving Camp Muir early and will be back down to Rainier Basecamp in the early afternoon.

Saturday, January 27, 2024, 7:26 am PST

We've arrived at high camp! Summit push tonight!

It was a short and uneventful move from Karanga camp up to Barafu camp, which is our launching point for the summit. The team did great, and we arrived in just over 3hrs with amazing views most of the way.

We've had our summit talk where we discussed our plan and the teams strategy for tomorrow. Final packing is taking place as I write this and we'll have dinner shortly, then it's off to bed for a little sleep before the climb. Weather permitting, we'll be up at 10:30pm, have breakfast, and hopefully hit the trail around 11:30pm. As per usual, I'm expecting the ascent to take around7-8 hours with breaks to the "Roof of Africa".

Keep your fingers crossed for us, and there's a chance, if time allows some of you back home might receive a satellite phone call from the summit. So keep your phones handy. My best guess is we'll be on the summit around 7-7:30 in the morning, Tanzania time.

RMI Guide Casey Grom and the Kilimanjaro Crew

Saturday, June 8, 2019 - 3:42 PM PT We had our first active rest day today. The weather forecast called for a calm night with increasing clouds and possible precipitation through the day. The air was still when I woke at 5 am to check the weather. After a salmon and cream cheese bagel breakfast we set off down hill with our sleds strapped to our backpacks. The goal was to carry all of our cache from 9300’ to 11,200’. The Team did exceptionally well and we managed to beat the heat of the morning for all but the last hour. The afternoon clouds are coming into camp and creating a greenhouse effect where the UV comes through the clouds and reflects off the snow then gets bounced back by the clouds making for a hot day in camp. People have their sleeping bags clipped on the outside of the tent for a more ideal napping environment. So long as the weather continues this pattern we will wake early and carry food and fuel around Windy Corner in preparation for our camp move to 14,200’ in Genet Basin. Even though we have been moving lots of weight up the glacier for four days, the Team is happy and enjoying the beautiful scenery here on Denali. Thanks for following along. RMI Guide Mike King

On The Map

The Five Day Summit Climb June 7 - 11, 2018 made their summit attempt of Mt. Rainier this morning but were turned back at 11,200ft due to poor weather and route conditions. RMI Guides Jenny Konway and Jordan Cargill reported several inches of new snow at Ingraham Flats. The teams returned safely to Camp Muir and will descend to Paradise later this morning.

Thursday June 18th 10:20 a.m. RMI Guide Billy Nugent just called from Talkeetna. K2 Aviation is ready to fly the team onto Mount McKinley! Once they are settled into their first camp, Billy will check in with us from the glacier.

After a calm night and a good night's sleep at Camp 3, we're packing our backpacks and getting ready to head out to take a cache of gear to 13,500'. The weather is beautiful, sunny with no wind...but the temps are still cold! We'll be in touch tonight or tomorrow and let everyone know how our day went. RMI Guide Mike Walter