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The Team enjoyed a calm night at Lenas. When the moon is new to half-full the shooting stars are so plentiful that one person said, “it is as if the sky can’t hold all of them”. The Milky Way runs right down the valley skyline, the southern cross is unmistakable and the flashes of heat lightning over the horizon makes this night absolutely spectacular to sleep out of the tent. We walked a little over 9 miles today and enjoyed a consistent breeze that kept us cool. From a casual glance the scenery doesn’t change to much and when taking a closer look one has never seen so many shades of brown, red and orange. The Team is doing well, acclimating to these higher altitudes and slowly adjusting to the dry desert air. Tonight we’ll dine on the second best chicken on the plant along with grilled vegetables and a bow tie pasta salad. You might be asking yourself where the best chicken is located at? For that you will have to head to Mexico with RMI to climb the Volcanoes and find out. Thanks for following along, we’ll check in from Plaza de Argentina tomorrow. RMI Guide Mike King and Team

The storm settled out late last night and we woke to clear cold skies this morning. The forecast was calling for improving weather and decreasing winds down to 15mph throughout the day. I was a bit skeptical of this forecast as I was seeing signs of approaching weather to the West over Chile. We opted to have a slow morning to allow the weather time to deteriorate if it was going to. After getting an updated forecast speaking yet again of calm weather we opted to start packing and head up to high camp. Of course a few minutes into taking down our tents a large lenticular cloud, often indicative of high winds, formed over the mountains rocky summit. By the time we were finished packing, clouds were rolling over camp and a gentle snow had begun to fall. Not more then 10 minutes out of camp the weather turned into a genuine blizzard! We turned around, made the 5-minute walk back and started to reestablish camp. Tomorrow is our last opportunity to go for the summit before high winds plague the area again. With the forecast still showing clear skies and light winds we'll opt to try for the summit from Camp II tomorrow morning assuming the forecast is correct. This makes an already big day that much bigger but the team is up to the challenge. Pray to the Weather Gods for us! RMI Guide Steve Gately

The Four Day Summit Climb July 24 - 27, 2014 led by RMI Guide Mike Haugen reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning around 7:30 am with 100% of their team. The team reported great weather and good climbing. Today's team consists of climbers raising funds for Big City Mountaineers and their Summit For Someone program. The team will complete their descent today, returning to Paradise later this afternoon. Congratulations to today's Big City Mountaineer Team Members!

We had a little snow overnight and the winds on the upper mountain have picked up. We were hoping to make our carry today to cache some gear, we still might get it in if things change this afternoon, but for now we are going to sit tight at 14,000'. We might take a walk to the "Edge of the World" this afternoon. We will plan to carry tomorrow if the weather improves. Everyone is doing well. We will check in again soon.

Hello again everyone, 

The team had a good nights rest last night and today was just a short 3 hour hike up to 15,000' to our high camp. Everyone is excited and maybe just a touch nervous, which is very normal! 

The team has just wrapped up lunch and discussed in great detail the plan for tomorrow’s climb. Everyone knows what we’ll be wearing, what will be in the pack, as well as the schedule. 

Our game plan will be to wake at 10:30pm and have a quick breakfast at 11, then hopefully hit the trail around 11:30pm. It’s looking a little busy, so will hit the trail a little early to hopefully avoid any traffic jams and allow us to cruise at our own steady pace. 

The team has been doing great thus far and I’m expecting us to reach the summit in 7 to 8 hours if things go according to plan. 

We had trivia challenge, and one lucky winner will get a phone call from the summit. 

So everyone back home please keep your phones handy and if you receive a call from a strange number please answer. We are 7hrs ahead of the east coast time zone. 

RMI Guide Casey Grom and the RMI summit bound team!

Hello again everyone: Things are good here on Kilimanjaro and the team is doing great! Today started like the last few, beautiful and clear and then slowly clouded up as the day went on. We left camp a little later today to allow the many porters to hit the trail before us as we had our only major obstacle right out of camp. This obstacle is the great Barranco Wall, which rises about 1,000 feet and looks as intimidating as it sounds. Thankfully there is a nice narrow trail that weaves its way up and through the wall and all the way to the top. Most of it feels more like steep hiking, but there are a few places that require our hands to help us climb up. The team did great and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. After reaching the top we took a nice break but were unable to enjoy the amazing views due to the gathering clouds. Nonetheless we continued our hike for a few more hours before reaching camp. We spent the remainder of the day relaxing in our tents and playing a few games of cribbage! RMI Guide Casey Grom and the Kili crew

On The Map

The Kautz Seminar, led by Steve Gately, was on top of Mt. Rainier at 9:45 a.m. The team is working their way back to their camp where they will stay another night and descend from the mountain tomorrow. Congratulations to our Seminar team!

Today we continued to descend the Gokyo Valley towards Khumjung, "The Green Village", which, with its twin city, Kunde, hosts the largest population of Sherpa people in the Khumbu. Sightings of the smaller, yet impresive Ama Dablam, Tamserku and Kantega peaks reminded us we were back to the proximity of the lower lands where we started ten days ago. Upon arrival to Khumjung, we visited its monastery, which believe it or not, conserves a scalp of the Yeti!!! We saw it ourselves. We continued to circumnavigate the perimeter of the two villages following long mani stone walls (fence like dwellings made with flat slate stones engraved with prayers and mantras) which, along with the mist and the domesticated yet majestic yaks, delivered a great deal of Himalayan mysticism. We're now in bed, and bound to Lukla to finish the trek. RMI Guide Elías de Andres Martos and team

May 15, 2017 This morning, the team arose bright and early with the sun to enjoy a nice, hot breakfast before packing up camp for the move to Camp two, at roughly 7,600 feet. After rigging our sleds and burying our cache, we started our long walk up the Kahiltna Glacier. The team did great and after only five short hours, we pulled into camp, tired but excited. Another hour or so later and camp was built. The team took a well deserved rest before joining the guides in the cook tent for dinner and dessert. Everyone's all tucked into their tents for the night now, resting up for tomorrow's carry to cache supplies up higher on the mountain. Hopefully we'll get to enjoy more sunshine tomorrow! Thanks for following along, RMI Guides Jenny, Jess, Pete and the team

On The Map

Hello again everyone! It was another beautiful day here in Africa with clear skies and a gentle breeze that kept the temperature perfect for climbing. We have left Karanga Camp and moved up to our high camp that's called Barafu. This camp sits on a ridge line around 1,000 ft, which eventually leads to the summit of Kilimanjaro. It's a relatively large camp spread up and down the ridge and we are sharing it with all the other climbers using this route, I'd guess that there's around 70 other climbers here with us. Everyone is doing very well and we are excited to start our climb early in the morning. The team will have a early dinner and If all goes according to plan we hope to have breakfast and be hitting the trail right around midnight. We'll have a nice slow pace that should take us around eight hours to reach the summit. So keep your phones handy as I said one lucky climber will get to call home from the "Roof of Africa". That will be around midnight for those on the east coast. Wish us luck! RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

On The Map