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After a long travel day and an early morning arrival, we took a leisurely morning before heading out on a tour of the city of La Paz. In the last several years Bolivia has invested nearly $800 million into a cable car system, allowing people to move around the city, high above the buildings. It gave us amazing views of the surrounding mountains, some of which we will be climbing later in the trip, as well as adjust to 13,500’ altitude. A highlight was walking through the witches market, where people would burn offerings in the hopes that the smoke would reach the gods in the sky, and there wishes would come true. The night ended with a great dinner and some packing as we head to Lake Titicaca tomorrow for some more acclimatization and sightseeing before we head into the mountains. RMI Guide Eric Frank, Andy Bond & Team

The Four Day Summit Climb August 27 - 30 led by RMI Guides Geoff Schellens and Mike King were unable to reach the summit of Mt. Rainier today. The teams turned around at 12,700' due to high winds. The teams have returned safely to Camp Muir. They plan to start their descent to Paradise around 9:30 am PT.

May 13, 2017 - 8:21 pm PT We woke up this morning when the cold bites the hardest and wasted little time making hot water for cereal and tea. Today we went to venture up the Kahiltna Dome ridge with good weather on our side. The work we did yesterday breaking trail was worth it as we made quick work of the steep slope. Once atop the ridge the sun made its appearance coming from behind the west buttress and warming our bones.  We began walking the ridge crest in deep snow and quickly found the maze of cracks shooting across. Progress was slow climbing with an axe in one hand and a probe in the other. The deep snow and one too many crevasse falls stopped us and so we headed down to camp but not before enjoying the sunrise from our 11,000' perch. Now the snow has started and we plan to make the long walk to base camp in the early Alaska twilight. RMI Guide Leon Davis

7:45 a.m. - The Four Day Summit Climb, led by Leon Davis and Mike Soucy, crested the summit rim of Mt. Rainier. Leon reported a nice day with light winds. Both teams began their descent just after 9:00 a.m.

June 20, 2014 - 8:29 pm PT We woke up to snowing and blowing again this morning. We pushed our wake up/ departure time back a couple of hours and the weather cleared up nicely for us. Although leaving early is a bit colder, it keeps us off the glacier when it heats up and it gets us into camp early. We arrived at 14,200' camp around 11:45 this morning and got the pick of the litter for already dug out camps. Since many of the other teams that were stacked up because of the weather headed up to 17k today, camps with big snow walls were in abundance. With a little bit of prep we got a great camp set up. We just finished some tortellini with salmon...roughing it. Thanks RMI, the food has been great on this trip! RMI Guide Mike Haugen and Team "The Ocho"

On The Map

We woke this morning to pretty robust winds at our 14,000' camp. After breakfast and hot drinks we headed back down to retrieve the cache we left a few days ago at Windy Corner (13,700'). The winds subsided and we had a busy day between the back-carry, building stout walls for our camp, and digging out a kitchen tent. Everyone worked hard today and is doing well with the altitude. The weather forecast is calling for some pretty strong winds for tomorrow, so we're just planning on resting until conditions improve and we can put a cache in up high. Hopefully the winds will subside sooner rather than later. That's it for now. We'll check in again tomorrow. RMI Guide Mike Walter and Team

Today we saw the first real clouds of the trip, accompanied by a dusting of snow. The clouds cleared out in the afternoon and it turned into a beautiful, but breezy evening. We weren't terribly concerned with what the weather did today, as we took a complete rest day in order to have more time to acclimate to the altitude and recover from the past five days of hard work in the mountains. Everyone is doing well and, if the weather lets us, we'll move up to the 14,200' Camp in Genet Basin tomorrow. The weather forecast for tomorrow is calling for clear skies and moderate winds, so we'll just have to see how things play out. We'll keep you posted with our progress. Caio for now, RMI Guide Mike Walter

On The Map

Hola, and thanks for tuning back in.

Today, our team completed our first carry of the trip from Basecamp to Camp 1 at 16,500 feet. None of this would have been possible, however, without an amazing breakfast provided by Grajales and a discussion regarding the crispiness scale of bacon. We traveled amongst waves of glacial ice, towers of penitentes, plains of tiny alpine lakes, and hills of what must be the real rocky horror picture show. It was nothing we couldn't handle with some light encouragement from one another. Alas, we reached Camp 1, cached our gear, and descended back to Basecamp.

A note to Tory, Brian's wife, don't worry, he wore his nose guard today, and he looks fabulous. As the day wore on, we continued discovering new things about one another. Some of us speak American real good, or as some might say, more better than others. Nathan has become Basecamp's shower time police, Ethan likes to whisper sweet nothings, Erica has a farkle mouth, and Brian is already discussing future wine tours while Eric is still nursing a wine hangover from Mendoza, allegedly.

All in all, today was a huge success. Dom and I are very excited for this team.

Tomorrow, we get to rest once more before moving uphill to Camp 1 and beyond. The climb has officially begun, and as the funniest person in this group, I would say this team is UP for the challenge. Yeet, yeet!

RMI Guide Ben Luedtke & Team

Today we visited the famous Ngorongoro Crater, considered by many to be the eighth natural wonder of the world. The crater is roughly 100 square miles of what was once an enormous volcano similar to Kilimanjaro that erupted and collapse on its self. It is known for its abundance of animals that call the crater home with some estimates as high as 30,000 mammals.

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, zebras, wildebeest, Cape buffalo, ostrich, and countless other birds. We managed to see several lions, including one huge male very close.

We also saw a few Black Rhinos far in the distance, which have become very rare due to poaching.  

We have just finished another wonderful meal here at the Plantation Lodge.

RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

Today wasn't a big day, but it was a scenic one. Sunrise down in the cool Barranco Valley was welcome, for sure. We got a leisurely 9AM start at walking, which allowed a couple hundred porters to get onto the narrow ledges of the Barranco Wall before us, just as we'd hoped. Plenty still needed to pass us as we reached for rock handholds and stemmed from precarious stances, but that all worked out fine. We marveled that the tricky moves we were making could be made easily by men carrying loads balanced on their heads. It took us about an hour and a half to get fully up the wall and all agreed it had been the funnest part of the climb, so far. We had weather nearly identical to yesterday's for the first half of things...blue skies above and sea of clouds below. This allowed for uninterrupted views of Kibo's Southern glaciers and ice fields above us as we traversed eastward. Finally we had the abrupt gorge of the Karanga Valley to drop into and climb steeply out of in order to reach camp. We pulled in a little after 1 PM, in time for a hot and wholesome spaghetti lunch and some quality rest as things clouded up for the afternoon. It seems like time has flown by as we are now talking about being at high camp tomorrow and off on a summit bid quite soon afterward. One step at a time though... First we'll make the most of this final night at the civilized altitude of 13,100 ft. Best Regards RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map