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(Voicemail from Linden) Hey, this is Linden calling. We are checking in from Lobuche. We had a very relaxing rest day today. We took a stroll up valley a little way to the Italian Research facility. We took a tour of their facility and got updated on the climate studies in this area. We had spectacular views of the whole panorama of the upper Khumbu. It was a gorgeous day with light winds. We returned to Lobuche in the afternoon and enjoyed the sunshine, rested, read and got caught up on our journals. Tomorrow we will walk the final stretch to Everest Base Camp. We will check in from the glacier at 17,575'. Hope everyone is doing well and surviving the snow storm there. We will talk to you soon.

Well I am happy to report that our Mexico Volcanoes team all arrived safely as of last night. We met in the lovely lobby of our Hotel Geneve and had a nice chat about what to expect in the next few days. Followed by a classic dinner of local tacos. 

We’re headed this morning to La Malinche to begin acclimating to the elevation. 

Tomorrow we go for our first summit, La Malinche at 14,500’!

RMI Guide Joe Hoch

Monday, June 24, 2019 - 9:56 PM PT Two inches of snow covered our tents in the wee hours this morning at 9,500' on the Kahiltna. It was still falling at 3:30 when the alarms went off so we gave it another 30 minutes to shape up. Sure enough, at 4 AM things were looking better. We rallied and ate breakfast in our dining tent. At 5:40 it was time for moving up. The walking was pretty easy, despite the new snow and it was all very quiet, traveling in muffled cloudy conditions. In an hour’s time we were at Kahiltna Pass at 10,000', the very northernmost start to the 47 mile long glacier. Time to turn right and go up some steeper hill to 11,000', which we did. We reached the camp at around 8 AM, having walked out of the clouds in the process. It was a spectacular and novel setting, up close to some great hanging ice cliffs and towering rock buttresses. We dug a raven-proof cache in the snow and buried the food, fuel, and equipment we’d carried. It was then an easy and pleasant walk down with light packs and empty sleds. Finally it was a relief to come into our already established camp at 9500 ft and relax. There was no digging to be done or tents to put up, which was just as well. It got blazing hot, even with all of the cloud lingering. We napped away another quiet afternoon. Best Regards RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

Tuesday, June 18, 2019 - 9:01 PM PT Today started out much the same as yesterday. We hurried through breakfast and headed to the airstrip to see what the flying conditions were for the morning. We received an optimistic thumbs down due to fog in basecamp. The pilots told us to be on standby because the weather was on an improving trend. After hanging out for a couple of hours we got the word that we could fly. After an amazing flight over the lush green Alaska terrain and into the stark mountians of the Alaska Range, we were delivered to basecamp safe and sound. We spent the day getting everything organized and ready to move to our next camp tonight. We travel at night in the lower glacier because the crevasse bridges are more firm and the sleds drag much easier when things are frozen. Let's hope the weather keeps improving. RMI Guide Mike Haugen

On The Map

Namaste from Phakding, We made it in! But... what a day! The weather on the mountains grounded all airplanes, and after a six-hour wait, with the news that there were people backed up from previous days' weather delays, and with the bad forecast ahead, we decided to make a small sacrifice and hire a private helicopter, which can fly below the cloud deck, and safely fly to Lukla. A little bit of a late start brought us to late lunch rather than breakfast at the 2800-meter high Himalayan village that serves as the start point to arguably the most famous trek on Earth. But, hey... we were in the Himalaya! We then enjoyed a short late afternoon hike through the low villages of the Khumbu until our arrival to our lodge in Phakding. The journey is on, and we're heading upwards! RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos

There are few elite athletes in the world who train alone. They have a community of other athletes and coaches that are there alongside them for much of their training. It’s difficult to quantify the motivational role that that community provides, but needless to say, it is a huge part of athletes’ success. How often after a big event do we hear someone thank their coaches, their partners, and their teammates. Whether it’s a teammate suffering alongside you or a coach challenging you to do one more, we train better when we have a community. Many of us don’t though. Whether a result of where we live, the hours of the day that are available for us to train, not knowing any like-minded athletes that are working towards similar goals, many of us train in a vacuum relying solely on the motivation that we can conjure up. That motivation for most of us is incredible. Year after year, we climb with thousands of climbers who have performed monumental feats of training with only a voice in the back of their head as motivation and that is inspirational. Could it be easier though, could it be more effective? Absolutely. The interconnectedness of our lives with the Internet can be a really strong tool. While we might not have a training partner physically there with us, we can see what they’ve done, look at their stats, maps, and efforts, and use that to motivate and challenge ourselves. When we post that back to the community, our effort can serve as someone else’s motivation, and as a group, we all train harder, smarter, better, and show up fitter and ready to climb.  As an attempt towards creating this sort of community around us as climbers, we’ve created a club on Strava that we invite everyone to join. You can find it at https://www.strava.com/clubs/rmiexpeditions. Post your workouts, peruse those of others to gain inspiration, and have discussions about training plans and ideas. We accomplish some amazing feats, and we also all go through dark days in our training when things don’t seem to be going right. Let’s let this community strengthen us. As such, let’s keep our conversations positive and constructive. For some, it may be intimidating to post their workout in an open environment like this, but realize that inspiration from your workout may be just what someone else needs to take a step up in their training. Get motivated, have some fun, and enjoy some friendly challenges. We’re excited to see what everyone is up to! _____ Questions? Comments? Check out the RMIExpeditions Club on Strava and share your thoughts there or here, on the RMI Blog!

RMI Guide Steve Gately called from the summit of Mt. Shuksan this afternoon. The team delayed their start this morning due to rain and poor visibility. Once the rain dissipated they left camp in hopes the visibility would improve. Their patience was rewarded and they were able to reach the summit via the Fisher's Chimney route. The team will return to camp today for a final night on the mountain. Tomorrow they will descend to the trail head and conclude their program. Congratulations to today's Mt. Shuksan climbers!

Wednesday June 24th 11:45 pm PT We woke up around seven this morning to one of the warmest mornings I have ever experienced at 17,000 feet camp. We got ready slowly and departed for the top just after nine. The weather was perfect for us pretty much the entire climb. There was a little bit of cold, a little bit of hot, but mostly perfect all day. The El Siete crew walked to the summit in style a little after five this afternoon and spent a good deal of time taking pictures from the top. We had a smooth descent and pulled into camp just after 9:00 p.m. Alaska time for a twelve-hour round trip. We are getting the boys fed and put to bed so we can get up early to start our way out to basecamp and eventually back to you! RMI Guide Mike Haugen Audio transcription - Wednesday June 24th 6:30 pm PT Hi, it's Mike Haugen. I am standing with the RMI el Siete on the summit of Denali. Beautiful weather. We topped out about 5:15 in the evening and are miles above the clouds. We are saying our congratulations to the team and head on back to high camp and send the blog from there. Hope all of our families are doing well. Thank you for your support.

On The Map

Hey everybody. It's Billy calling in from Camp Cholera at19,600 feet here on the side of Aconcagua. We're all settled into camp and melting snow, filling water bottles right now. We are looking forward to dinner and early to bed tonight. Hopefully take a crack at the summit tomorrow. Right now the weather is partly cloudy and just a gentle breeze. Things are pretty nice, other than the fact that camp is bone, bone dry. We have to hike almost 20 minutes out of camp to fill garbage bags full of snow and bring them back just to fill water bottles. Other than that nuisance, things are going well, the teams in great spirits and hopefully that weather forecast holds true and we have a perfect day tomorrow. We'll check in again during the day and let you know how it's going. All for now, bye. RMI Guide Billy Nugent

On The Map

RMI Guides Tyler Reid and Geoff Schellens led their teams to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Both teams reported great route conditions and a beautiful day. The teams began their descent from Mt. Rainier's crater rim shortly before 8 am. They will return to Camp Muir and then continue down to Paradise this afternoon. Congratulations to today's Four & Five Day Summit Climb teams!