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The Mt. Baker Expedition Skills Seminar spent the week on the mountian training. The team had tough weather on the mountian. Yesterday they spent the day in the sunshine on Mt Erie to solidify rope skills and dove deeper into a variety of  alpin skills. The team was unable to summit due to the weather but took advantage of the time and were eager to learn and develop new skills.   

Where did all the air go? We kept our momentum and carried gear to high camp today. We sat in a small circle on rocks for chairs as we ate breakfast and watched the ominous looking clouds hug to tops of Aconcagua and Amigino. The summit looked a tad scary but where we sat it was sunny and where we were going looked ok too. High camp sits at 19,600', which is a high point for most of the team. The air is feeling thinner and thinner. Our breathing heavier and louder. Each step we are closer to the summit. Today was a good day. The team performed wonderfully, hitting such a high altitude. At high camp, we are higher than Kilimanjaro. After hanging out for a bit, we said farewell and good luck to IMG's team, who we have been paralleling. They will go to the summit tomorrow. Tomorrow we will rest at Camp 2 and get organized for our move to high camp the following day. With a big day under our belt, the team is sleepy, so its off to bed for all of us.

Sweet dreams all,
RMI Guide Hannah Smith and team

On The Map

We had breakfast at nine today, our latest of the trip. A casual start to a casual day here at 13,800 feet. Pancakes, eggs, and sausage were on the menu, and we ate until they stopped bringing food. After breakfast, we only had two more items on the agenda. The first of those items was organizing for our carry tomorrow. It didn’t take too long to divvy up group gear. Everyone will carry some amount of group food, fuel, or kitchen equipment tomorrow. This crew was surprisingly eager to grab their respective loads and get packed up, so we were done with task number two by early afternoon. Task number three, dinner, wouldn’t be until 7, so we all had some time to kill. Lucky for us, basecamp is full of spectacles. Today’s spectacle was provided by an unfortunate member of another team. This particular person was using the bathroom, a common enough event here at basecamp. The uncommon part was that he dropped his phone into the pit toilet. The even more uncommon part was that he recovered it. Using a variety of garden tools and good old fashioned ingenuity, he was able to lift his device from the deepest, darkest depths that exist within walking distance of basecamp. In doing so, he provided entertainment for everyone nearby, and before we knew it, dinner was upon us. Steak, potatoes, and some wine for good luck capped off the evening. With our final task of the day completed, we are now headed to bed. We’ll get up earlier tomorrow. We’ve got some actual work to do now. RMI Guides JM Gorum, Hannah Smith, Avery Parrinello

Saturday, July 14, 2018 - 4:10 PM PT Hello world! We're back in Huaraz! The team is all safe and sound in the friendly, and bustling, city of Huaraz after a wonderful four days in the Llanganuco Valley. We saw amazing nights skies; we endured unusual Cordillera Blanca weather, and we summited an amazing mountain in Pisco Oeste, at 18,871'. The stars aligned for us during our last climbing objective here in Peru. For a while, it seemed that the weather wouldn't cooperate and would prohibit us from climbing to the highest summit of our trip. But with a bit of improvisation, and a little extra hard work by the team, we achieved our goal, climbed in good style, and snuck in Pisco's summit in the only 12-hour window of good weather the mountains would muster over the past four days. We're counting our lucky stars back here in the city, and we're prepping for our last celebratory dinner to share stories, lessons, and reflect on the past two weeks we've spent together in one of the most beautiful mountain ranges on Earth. Tonight is our team's last night to experience some of Peru's finest cuisine as the recovery stage of our climbing begins. Chances are some folks will indulge in the local favorite, Cuy, a.k.a. Guinea Pig. Don't worry, we won't send pictures. Meanwhile, enjoy some photos of our most recent climb! We're back to sea-level tomorrow as our team begins the long journey home. One more final post tomorrow, before you all see your loved ones once again! Until then, hasta luego! RMI Guides Robby Young, Alan Davis, William, and Peru Team "Pisco"

Thursday, June 14, 2018 - 8:01 PM PT We had a super early start this morning. We were very proud of Super Crew 6 this morning for getting up and packing up with style so we could get on the trail quickly. I gave them a C+ to their face but it was really an A+ effort. I didn't want them getting too cocky right off the bat! We had a great walk up the Kahiltna Glacier through light snow and medium visibility. As we approached camp, the sky started to clear and bit and we have been able to see Denali on and off since then. We are dug in safely and 7,800' and will make an on the fly decision whether to move up to our next camp based on what the weather looks like when we get up at 2 a.m. Keep your fingers crossed for us! RMI Guide Mike Haugen and the Super Crew

On The Map

Thursday, June 14, 2018 - 7:42 PM PT After yesterday's grueling day the team slept in until the sun hit our tents, 9ish. We had a slow start with salmon and cream cheese bagels and coffee. The goal for today was to build walls around our tents and get our kitchen/dining tent dug out and reinforced. The walls are built by digging through the loose snow into the firm layers below. Then we take snow saws and begin to quarry large blocks to be the foundational row. Each successive layer gets smaller so the wall isn't top heavy. The walls help keep wind from destroying our tents. The team rallied through their wall building then helped the guides finish reinforcing the kitchen tent or Posh as we call it. The Posh is a five sided tent without a floor. We dig a hole in the snow and have benches for people to sit and cooking counters for the guides. Out of the wind and sun we enjoy our meals, today's dinner is hand rolled chicken burritos. With the menacing forecast on the horizon we will put the finishing touches on camp and hunker down for the remnants of a tropical cyclone that is headed for Alaska. People are happy for the sunshine and tired from the 'light exercise' of camp craft. This helps us acclimate in preparation for heading to 17,000' Camp, High Camp, for our cache day and ultimately our summit day when the weather and mountain tell us it's time to go up. Until then we will be at 14,000' continuing to get comfortable being uncomfortable and focusing on the tasks that our in our control and leaving the conditions that our out of our control to Denali. Thanks for following along. RMI Guide Mike King

On The Map

Wednesday, June 7, 2018 - 10:59 am PT Nothing is easy about Denali. After two hard days of climbing and finally reaching the summit yesterday, we are currently hunkered down in our tents, avoiding the wind and spindrift that the mountain is throwing at us this morning. It is currently too cold and windy to safely pack up and climb down the exposed West Buttress. So we're on standby, chilling out in our tents waiting for the wind to abate. Hopefully we'll be able to bump camp down to lower altitude and warmer temps soon. RMI Guide Mike Walter Tuesday, June 6, 2018 - 10:50 pm PT Despite a less than ideal weather forecast, we awoke to clear skies and no winds. We fired up the stoves and woke our team. Muscles were weary after climbing for seven hours yesterday, but we couldn't pass up this opportunity. The weather stayed good all day and the route was in great shape. It was a hard day of climbing but we got to stand on the top of North America! We were ten hours round trip (high camp-summit-high camp). And now that we've eaten dinner and crawled in our tents, the temperature has plummeted, winds have increased, and snow is falling. Timing couldn't have been better. We will start our descent tomorrow... RMI Guide Mike Walter

On The Map

Namaste! We made it back to Kathmandu. Our descent from Khumjung went well, and we decided to expedite it, as the weather forecast looked not the most favorable, and wanted to have an extra day to secure flying out of the mountains without issues. Upon arrival to Lukla, the only storm of the entire trip developed, but we were lucky to get wet for only the last 30min of an almost 2 week hike... not bad! But we flew out yesterday, and were able to farewell the Himalaya from the air, as the skies were still relatively sunny by mid morning. Tired but accomplished, we left the Khumbu with incredible images in the memory, miles in the legs and new friends in the hearts. Our Sherpa and porter crew made it possible for a great trip through this fantastic and mystic mountainous area of the world. All is good now in the city as we await for our flights back home tomorrow. RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos

Today we awoke to blue skies above and beautiful views of the mountain, but as we set off on our acclimatization ski tour, the clouds followed us. We spent the majority of the day in minimal visibility - the Elbrus ping pong ball. Strong solar radiation made for uncomfortably warm temps, which combined with the whiteout was a challenge to our motivation. But we persevered, and climbed to the top of Pastukhova Rocks at 15,500'. We "skied by braille" back down the route to our camp and were greeted by Dasha our cook with delicious soup and fried chicken. A very successful acclimatization ski, despite the clouds... RMI Guide Tyler Reid

On The Map

May 12, 2017 - 9:13 pm PT Nice day here at 10,000' on the upper Kahiltna Glacier. The team slept in a bit after the hard day yesterday. We kitted up and waddled through a few feet of snow to the base of the ridge for some fixed line travel and snow science. A few of us kept our snow shoes on and put in a track up the ridge of Kahiltna Dome for an eventual attempt early tomorrow if the weather holds. All is well here in Alaska. Keep your fingers crossed for good weather! RMI Guide Leon Davis

On The Map