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Hello Blog people!

Oh the weather is a changing!

Sadly the clouds and rain have found us. Today we had a a few views of Kilimanjaro and all of the new snow that has fallen on the upper mountain. 

We hit the trail once again around 8 am and hiked for an hour before taking our usual 15 minutes break, then back on the trail for another hour. In total today we hiked for just over 6 hours before reaching camp which is set up and ready for us by our incredibly hardworking and gracious crew of 31. 

Along the way we passed by the famous and beautiful Lava Tower reaching just over 15,000ft, setting new altitude records for some teammates. Weather-wise, it was a bit of everything. Rain, sleet, snow and even a touch of sunshine. Not enough to cause any concern, but enough to have us hiking in our gore-tex and questioning if we were on a trail or riverbed. Good times!

Everyone is doing well and in good spirits. 

RMI Guide Casey Grom and team Kili

Holà de Mexico!

Checking in from the lively Zona Rosa in Mexico City. All of our climbers and bags are accounted for. After a savory dinner of authentic Mexican fare we are retiring to get some rest in preparation for our next leg. Stay tuned for more updates along the way!

RMI Guide Alan Davis

Hello everyone!

Our Aconcagua 2020 season is starting off swimmingly. The entire team has made it to Mendoza with all 19 duffles accounted for. After getting settled in at the Hotel Diplomatic, showering off the days travels, and having a team meeting, we headed over to one of our favorite restaurants, Anna Bistro. The meat and wine are as good as all the hype. With bellies full of delicious food and the air full of pleasant conversation, we made one final stop for gelato, because there is always room for dessert. But the jetlag is starting to settle in so its off to catch some Z's and dream of the days to come. Tomorrow we head to Penitentes, our launching pad for the trail. Before we know it we will be saying goodbye to beds, wifi, and luxury items and hello to sleeping bags, a dusty trail, and the brightest stars blanketing the night sky. 

Good night all,

RMI Guide Hannah Smith and team

Monday, June 17, 2019 - 10:15 PM PT Today was very productive for our team. We woke at 1am, packed up camp, and hit the trail at 3am. By 8:30 am we had made it to the 11,200' Camp, colloquially known as Camp Three. We set our tents up, had breakfast and coffee, and a few hours of rest, and by 1 pm we were back on the trail headed back down to pick up our cache at 10,000'. By 3:30 pm we were back at camp with all of our supplies. But there was still work to do flattening tent platforms, building a kitchen, and fine tuning camp. Dinner by 6 pm and bed by 7:30 seemed appropriate for today. And tomorrow we earned a rest day. Snow is in the forecast for tomorrow, so we won't be missing anything. We'll touch base again tomorrow. RMI Guide Mike Walter

On The Map

We woke to calm conditions and good sunshine around 9 AM today. After breakfast and a powwow among the guide companies regarding route conditions, weather predictions, emergency procedures and communications, we got into some basic review of how we intend to rig up and climb Vinson. At 4 PM, when the sun was getting good and strong, we roped up and set out for an acclimatization hike up the first few hills of the climbing route. Conditions were pleasant -by which I mean that we were warm and comfortable as long as we kept moving. We got a few miles up the Branscomb Glacier to where we could start to see neighboring peaks like Shinn and Epperly, to the north. By 7 PM we were back in camp, just as clouds began to form up and obscure the views. We had a long and leisurely supper in our dining tent, and headed for the sleeping tents at 11 PM. Weather forecasts call for some potential nastiness these next couple of days... we’ll hope they are wrong, but of course basecamp is not a bad place to be if the predictions pan out. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

Update August 14th at 10:56 am PST: The nights are long in this part of the world... approaching 12 hours. My Kilimanjaro climbing team knows this all too well after today’s climb to the tippy top. We set out from high camp at 12:40 AM and it was nearly six hours before the sun made an appearance. Our first few hours of climbing weren’t so bad... it was pitch dark -with no moon- but it was also nice and calm. When we reached 17,000 ft though, a 20 mph wind found us and stayed with us, dropping temps and making us all crave sunshine. When we got it -at around 18,500 ft- the sunrise itself was gorgeous, and the winds dropped away, but only until we hit Stella Point on the crater rim at 7:15. Our victory lap along the rim to Uhuru was made in winds up to 35 or 40 mph. That certainly made it tough to do much sightseeing. We each just concentrated on walking and breathing. We hit Uhuru, the true summit, at 8:20 and stayed exactly eight minutes. That was long enough for a few high fives, hugs and hero shots... and then we boogied. We got out of the worst of the wind when we left the crater rim and temperatures got reasonable. We skied the scree to get lower fast. The goal was obviously to get off the mountain safely, but it was also to get back down to the altitudes that don’t hurt one’s head and rile one’s stomach. Our great Barking Zebra staff helped us immensely in getting home to Barafu in good time. We were there at 11:30 AM just in time for brunch in the dining tent. Then -although we were all in the mood for naps- we packed up and got walking down for another 3.5 hours. We shed another 5,000 vertical feet to reach Mweka Camp down in the trees at the 10,000 ft level. It turns out that the days are pretty long in these parts too... in any case, we’re all looking forward to a long night’s sleep tonight. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn [audio transcription] Hey, this is Dave Hahn with the Kilimanjaro Climb. We made the summit today. We're back at high camp now at Barafu at 15,000 feet. At 8:20 this morning we were at Uhuru,19341 feet above sea level, highest point in Africa. It was a windy cold morning. It was a hard climb, but we did it and we're safely back at high camp and we're going to head down to Mweka Camp, 10,000 feet to finish the day. All for now. Bye. RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

Hello again from 12,000' in Russia! Things are good here and the team is excited for tonight! Today we had our last acclimatization hike before tonight's climb. Normally we take an extra rest day before climbing, but the forecast doesn't look too good the next few days so we are making our bid tonight. We started early today to maximize our rest today and have been relaxing since noon. Our cook Dasha has done an amazing job of keeping our bellies full with plenty of good home cooked Russian food. This evening we had a thorough discussion about tonight's upcoming climb and everyone is packed and ready. Hopefully the weather continues to hold and we'll be up shortly after 2am and after a quick breakfast hop on the snowcat to give us a bump a little further up the mountain. This will shorten our climb a little and increase our chance of reaching the highest point in Europe. We had a trivia challenge today and one lucky winner will get to make a satellite phone call from the summit. So everyone following along, keep your phones handy, you just might receive a call. I'm expecting us to reach the summit somewhere around 10-11am here, same time zone as Moscow. Keep your fingers crossed for us! RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

On The Map

Sunday June 14th 12:00 a.m. PT The weather has turned and things in the Alaska Range are looking up. All day we lounged under blue skies and made our final gear decisions. It appears from the forecast that tomorrow and Monday will be our best opportunity to climb. We anticipate leaving in the morning and starting a 72-hour cycle of nearly continuous movement, punctuated with some periods of sleep, that will hopefully take us to the top and all the way back to our plane ride to Talkeetna. RMI Guides Geoff Schellens and Eric Frank

At 8:30 am the Expedition Skills Seminar – Muir led by RMI Guides Casey Grom and Walter Hailes crested the summit crater of Mt. Rainier. The team will spend about an hour on the summit enjoying light winds and mild temperatures before beginning their descent to Camp Muir. The team will spend one more night at Camp Muir before returning to Ashford on Friday. We look forward to hearing of their training and climbing adventures.

Hi from 13,000' on Kilimanjaro! Today was a long day on the trail for the team but we did great. It was a little chilly when we woke up at Shira Camp with ice on the ground and some frost. After the sun came up we started to warm up and after the first hour of hiking everyone was in one or two layers of clothing only. We spent about 4 hours getting to our high point at 15,000' and by the time we reached it the skies has clouded over. No rain or anything for us but it was a bit chilly. It's warmer down here at camp but the clouds are still in and out. Everyone is feeling just fine and we are all looking forward to heading out again in the morning. RMI Guide Seth Waterfall & Team

On The Map