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RMI Guide James Bealer and the Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons July 8 - 13 reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning around 8:30 am.  It's a beautiful day on the mountain with a bit of wind.  The team left Camp Schurman with an alpine start and will return their this afternoon.  Climbers have spent the last several days training with cramponing, rope travel and ice axe arrest techniques and additional alpine skills.  They put it all together to reach the top. Once back at Camp Schurman the team will spend a final night on the mountain.  Tomorrow they descend to the trailhead and will return to Rainier BaseCamp in the afternoon.

Nice work team!  

The June 13 - 16 Four Day Climb led by RMI Guides Casey Grom & James Bealer were unable to make a summit attempt due to high winds overnight as well as avalanche conditions.  The Camp Muir telemetry shows winds over 70 mph.  Around 7 am the weather had improved, the team was going to do some avalanche forecast training.  The teams have packed up and started their descent from Camp Muir.  We look forward to greeting them at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.

Photo: James Bealer

Our final day on Kilimanjaro!

Today the team got up at 6:30 a.m. refreshed after a much needed night of sleep. We had breakfast then hit the trail one last time. It took just around three hours to reach the Mweka Gate of Kilimanjaro National Park where the team had lunch and said our final goodbyes to our amazing crew that took such great care of us on the mountain. We finished the little celebration by handing out their well deserved tips and then hopped aboard our awaiting bus for the ride back to the lodge. 

Now we are all safe and sound, cleaner and smelling fresh after an exciting seven day journey up and down Kilimanjaro. 

Stayed tuned, safari starts tomorrow!

RMI Guide Casey Grom and Crew

We are on the final part of our climbing adventure, the summit push. We moved camp a couple hours uphill today to Aconcagua's High Camp and are settling in for a short night. If the weather holds we will wake early to climb and the next time you will hear from us will be a message from the summit!

RMI Guide Walter Hailes

We had a casual start to the day. Our hike took us to 15,400’ on Ixta where we have camp set up for the night. Our plan is to rest a little bit after the hard effort of carrying heavy packs and still adjusting to these higher elevations. This evening we will do some gear and skills refreshers. There are some ravens squawking over head and the sun feels good on the tents. Tonight we will ascend the “knees” of Ixta and gain the long and circuitous ridge line and hopefully be on the summit around sunrise. Spirits are high and everyone is healthy and enjoying having the heavy packs off their backs.

RMI Guide Mike King

RMI Guide Mike King reported clear, calm, and beautiful views from the summit of Mt. Baker this morning. Congrats to the team for their summit of a classic climb of the Cascades!

The team will spend tonight at camp basking in their success before descending back to the trailhead tomorrow.

RMI teams led by guides Will Ambler and Joe Crawford made their summit attempt this morning. As a result of recent snow accumulation and strong winds on the upper mountain, they found evidence of snow instability and decided to turn around at 12,450'. The teams had made their way back to Camp Muir and are doing additional training for the remainder of the morning. 

Nice work team! 

We left the mountains this morning, piling all of our gear into the back of our van and following the small, twisting road out of the Baskan Valley and into the farmlands surrounding Mineralnye Vody. The fields of sunflowers were in full bloom and the day was clear enough that we could see Elbrus off in the distance. Thanks to the upcoming winter Olympics in nearby Sochi they have recently finished renovating the Mineralnye Vody Airport and it was an easy process to get checked in, even with all of the excess baggage and climbing gear. Before long we were airborne, flying north across the country. We arrived in St. Petersburg in the early evening under grey skies, where the temps are far cooler than the planes to the south. We navigated the crowded streets of the city to find our hotel before heading out into the city for a nice dinner at a nearby cafe. It's been a long day of traveling and we are happy to be here. St.Petersburg has a very different feel than Moscow and the Caucasus Mountains and we are looking forward to seeing the city. We are spending tomorrow, the last day of our trip, exploring St. Petersburg. RMI Guide Linden Mallory

Hey RMI this is Linden Mallory checking in with the Everest Base Camp Trek & Island Peak crew. The low pressure system that moved in yesterday and brought all that wind and snow to Everest Base Camp blew out last night and we woke up to crystal clear skies this morning at Everest Base Camp. And it was cold, cold and definitely made packing up quite a chore but we got out of there and said good bye to the Everest Base Camp Staff. We headed back down the mountain. We stopped in Lobuche for lunch and caught up with RMI’s Everest Team. We had a good time catching up with Dave, Bill and Sara, letting them know that Base Camp is looking good. The last part of the day brought us back down the valley to Pheriche where we were a couple of days ago and as we were walking the clouds moved in again bringing some rain, snow and a little bit of hail. The weather has definitely been pretty cold and unstable so we are keeping our fingers crossed that a high pressure system is going to move in as we gear up for Island Peak which we are headed to next. So the plan is to spend the night here in Pheriche and then we’ll head up a little side valley called the Imja Khola Valley to a little town called Chukung where we’ll gear up for Island Peak tomorrow. So we’ll give you a shout tomorrow and let you know how it goes. Everybody is doing well. It definitely feels good to get back down to 14,000’ after so many nights above 16,000’. We hope you are doing well and we wish everyone the best. Take care.

The Four Day Climb July 12 - 15 led by RMI Guides Dustin Wittmier & Abby Westling reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning.  Dustin reported sunny skies and winds from the west at 20 mph, which was less than forecasted.  The teams were leaving the crater rim just after 7 am today for their return to Camp Muir.  Once at Muir they will have a short rest before continuing 4,500' down to Paradise.

Congratulations to today's climbing teams!