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Thursday, May 15, 2025 - 9:00 PM PDT

Well, we did not fly today. The clouds around Talkeetna and especially on the Kahiltna kept the planes on the ground. While this is not exactly what we wanted it is not unusual. Our friends at K2 aviation run a professional outfit and do everything they can to get us safely on and off the mountain.  While they kept their eyes on the weather, we spent the day enjoying coffee, going over rope skills, eating plenty of food, and even going on a nice run.

If you're reading this, send us clear sky vibes. 

RMI Guides Seth, Jackson, Ray, and Team

We had a great day of training today. We practiced ice axe arrest, cramponing, glacier travel, rock scrambling, steeper snow climbing techniques and efficiency skills. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed a great day in a spectacular location in the North Cascades. RMI Guide Mike Walter

Greetings everyone, Our team spent the contingency weather day hanging out in Cheget. We spent the day walking around town, enjoying the new coffee shop in town and of course horseback riding Russian style! Right now we're all relaxing before heading out to a celebratory dinner with the team. Hopefully we'll survive the vodka associated with tonight's traditional Russian celebration, hosted by our gracious local tour operator. Everyone is in good spirits and looking forward to heading to beautiful St. Petersburg early tomorrow. Casey and Comrades

We spent the day walking along the Perro's River from Dickson to Perro's Camp. It is named Perros, Spanish for dog, because legend has it that when ranchers used to live here and cross the rivers on horseback, some dogs would get swept away in the river. The story goes that the dogs formed a pack of wild dogs that still roams this land and if you listen closely you can hear barking at night. The river flows through the oldest forests in the park that have large trees because when the glacier move through this valley it churned up the soil leaving it loose and easier for deep root systems to form. It was enjoyable to hike under their lush green canopy as sun was filtered through. Also, great to have a day with no wind. It gave our sun and wind chapped cheeks a rest. But our cheeks are rosy now after some wine and cheese snacks and sitting around laughing at our wildlife biologist's stories of botflys. This group has so much fun learning each other's backgrounds and sharing tales. We even had to come up with a system to determine the exaggeration level. But that's for another blog. Now we are settling in preparing for John Gardner pass tomorrow. A little intimidating with its steep ascent and decent and many miles but I'm sure this group will do well and come out smiling. RMI Guide Christina Dale

Summit! RMI Guide JM Gorum with 100% of his team are standing on top of Mt. Shuksan. The views are beautiful and the weather was great. No wind and blue skies for this crew. They will begin their descent shortly to camp and check in with us later today.

We spent a casual day off in historic Puebla yesterday looking at murals, eating tacos and checking out the local pottery made in the area. There were bands and peaceful protests in the Square, surrounded by beautiful and ornate cathedrals. This morning we woke early to meet our transport and head to Tlachichuca where we outfitted for Orizaba. Senior Reyes runs a climber's hostel that is housed in his family's historic soap factory. The mountain has been covered in clouds and there is some snow flanking the lower slopes. This has been an extremely dry winter for the area and new snow is a welcome sight. For the remainder of the day we'll take a short walk up hill to see the Labyrinth, a scree and rock maze of ledges and chutes that makes up the first two hours on our summit day. The Team is excited to be here and out of the 4x4 trucks that crawl their way up the dusty roads through corn fields and beautiful pine forests. Hopefully we will be calling in from the summit tomorrow morning. Keep your fingers crossed for good weather and clear skies! RMI Guide Mike King

On The Map

The Taos Team crushed it today, hitting all the targeted times for being up and packed and ready to roll out of the comfy Arumeru River Lodge. We hit the road at 8:15 and rolled along in our bus under cloudy skies. We never did catch a glimpse of the well-camouflaged Kilimanjaro, but the cruise through corn fields and villages was interesting none-the-less. As the road climbed higher we seemed to be passing thousands of banana trees mixed with coffee shrubs. Finally, at the 5,900 ft park entrance -the end of the road- we were simply in a thick and foggy rain forest. After a bunch of paperwork, at long last we were properly permitted, in place and ready for walking. We began shortly after 11 AM. The gang, accompanied and coached by an all star cast of local guides, gained altitude steadily. In fact, we came up 4000 feet in six miles, taking just five hours. The clouds were with us all day but that seemed to keep things comfortably cool. The trail was a little greasy and muddy from recent rains, but we got through without a slip. We arrived to find our camp already built by our capable staff. After moving in, we got together in the dining dome tent and had an afternoon tea and then a sumptuous dinner while we chatted and laughed. Philip, our lead guide, gave a thoughtful talk and laid out plans for tomorrow's journey. All agreed that day one was a great success. Tyrone, in particular, wanted his pal, Makaela to know he was thinking of her and that the climb was going forward as planned. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

Well well well, another good day up here on Mt. Elbrus. Most of the team woke with the sunrise, which is around 4am. Breakfast wasn't until 8, so we had some time to kill. Jazzersize (I don't actually know how to spell that) kept a few folks busy, while others took part in more traditional activities, such as taking photos and wandering aimlessly about the ridge. After breakfast we had a race to see who could get ready the fastest. Everyone tied for first place. This is the dream team, no doubt. We set off on our journey to the top of Pastahkov rocks at 9:00am. After an hour, we could hear thunder in the distance, and dragged our feet thinking we were going to retreat. Thunder is no match for this team, however, and after some intense positive energy output the clouds dissipated and we continued upwards. Two hundred feet shy of our target, the clouds started to look ominous again. It is hard work trying to change the weather, and we're going to need that energy for summit day. The best call was to turn around and head back to the hut. We made it to 15,300 feet today, which is perfectly in line with our acclimatization goals. We made it back to the huts ten minutes before it started raining, which is perfectly in line with our goal of not getting wet. Excellent job by everyone today. Rest day coming up tomorrow. The team sends their best to all back at home! RMI Guide JM Gorum

On The Map

Hey, it's Billy checking in from High Camp, Plaza Colera. The whole crew is back down safely, and we are super psyched that we all had the chance to stand on top of Aconcagua today. We're a little beat up, but ultimately no worse for the wear. We'll check in again. We have a long walk down to Base Camp tomorrow, and then the journey continues until we hit the road in Mendoza in several days from now. So a lot of activity coming up, but we'll try to keep you guys posted on our whereabouts. That's all for now. RMI Guide Billy Nugent

Well we had a really nice last day in Russia yesterday. We began the day meeting with our tour guide, Galina, and headed out on a quick tour of St. Petersburg. We stopped off at St. Nicholas Church, stopped by the grand St. Isaac's Cathedral and made our way to the famous Heritage Museum. Not having a ton of time to see the thousands of exhibits so we did and express trip to see the highlights, which included a few paintings and sculptures by Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt, and other great artist. It was pretty amazing to see so much art in one place and everyone enjoyed the brief visit. We took a short break before meeting back up with our tour guide for a evening canal tour via boat of this historical city, which was a great way to wrap up a wonderful trip. That's all for this trip! The team heads home tomorrow. Thanks for following us. RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew