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Hola from 15,000 feet on the southern flanks of Cayambe. I would first like to apologize to anyone who was expecting a blog post yesterday. We had technical difficulties which we discovered too late in the evening, so today's post will include yesterday and today. I will begin at breakfast yesterday. Casa Sol, our beautiful hacienda high on the the hill overlooking the busy market town of Otavalo, treated all of us very well getting us energized to hit streets for our big shopping extravaganza. After packing the bus we rolled into town ready to negotiate and spend. The textiles and indigenous goods made for great photos as well as gifts. A few of the guys couldn't pass up the sexy alpaca sweaters for themselves so I'm anticipating a strong fashion outing when we get back to Quito. After shopping we drove back south to the actual town of Cayambe where we transferred bags from the bus to the trucks and started up toward the Refugio. If roads got as bad as these in the states, they would be considered more mountain bike tracks than 4x4 roads. Nevertheless, our trucks got us all the way to the front door. The temps up here are cool and the mountain weather sporadic at best but we still managed a good hour hike up hill to scope the route and stretch the legs. We topped out at 15,700' giving a number of climbers a personal high point which likely won't last long. After getting settled we had a nice dinner from the full service kitchen then learned the classic Midwest game of Uker from one of the three Iowans in the group. The sun down here rises at six and sets at six so by 8:30 the entire team was ready for bed. Upon waking the next morning we knew something was different. Even with no beer on the mountain, everyone felt a bit hungover. A product of our first night's sleep at a new altitude. We warded off the headaches with some active breathing, scrambled eggs and good old fashioned Excedrin. After breakfast we retraced our steps going a bit higher to the toe of the Hermoso Glacier, starting at 16,000 feet. From here we reviewed the skills needed to climb the mountain safely. The weather continued its moodiness, first snowing, then scorching, then blowing, then back to snowing. It couldn't make up its mind so by 12:00 we decided to head it down. Now, after a great lunch, some more hot cocoa and a quick debrief, it's time for a nap. Dinner is at five and our wake up call is at 11 pm. We are all psyched to try our hand at Ecuador's third highest peak starting tonight. Stay tuned for a summit post tomorrow. RMI Guide Adam Knoff saying buenas Noches for now

Hey there followers, Our entire team has made it to our first camp at 9500 ft here in Argentina.  After a sturdy breakfast and some quick repacking we were off on a five-hour walk to the Andean high country.  Between the steep rock walls on each side of the valley we saw lizards, the raging Vacas River, and a bunch of mules carrying our gear.  When we got to camp we settled in and enjoyed a traditional Argentinian asado of steak, chicken, potatoes, and peppers.  Now we are headed to bed under the southern sky excited to do it again tomorrow. RMI Guide Ben Liken

Over the past few days our team has been very busy down here on the equator. On Saturday, we departed the comforts of civilization and made our way to the Cayambe Hut at a little over 15,000'. The road to this mountain lodge is riddled with boulders, pot holes, mud pits, and the occasional farm animal, making it mandatory to use a 4x4 vehicle. Once we were settled in and spent a night in the thin air we moved further uphill to do some basic training on the toe of the glacier. The team remembered mostly everything from their previous experience and were ready for a summit attempt. So we packed our gear, ate some dinner, and went to bed for a few hours. At about 11 pm we awoke to clear skies and were able to start uphill by midnight. With perfect climbing conditions and a strong team we found ourselves on top of Cayambe for a 6:30 am sunrise over the equator. After descending the upper steep slopes we cruised back to the hut and packed up. A quick 4x4 ride brought us to our hacienda were we will start to recover from the climb. Everyone is doing well and excited with the success we had! RMI Guide Ben Liken

Our last night at Las Lenas we didn't use tents. After our asado we simply rolled pads out onto the ground and spent the night under the stars as they say. With the moon unable to be seen that night the star show was one of the best I've seen. The next morning we trekked the last four hours out of the Vacas Valley back to Los Penitentes. We meet the second RMI Expedition lead by Mike King and JM Gorum getting their gear prepared for the walk into the Vacas Valley the following day. We stopped at the Estancia de Elias and ordered 40 Empanadas to go for the remainder of our drive back to Mendoza. Once we arrived to the hotel we all split, took the famed first shower after a long expedition and met in the hotel lobby at 8:30 to walk to dinner. We made reservations at a famous Italian restaurant in the city called Francesco's. The owner of the establishment Maria Teresa, pushing into her 90's still works at the restaurant making pasta from scratch. We all enjoyed a magnificent dinner and celebrated a wonderful and safe trip into the heart of the Andes and the roof of South America. This will be the last blog of the trip. Thanks to everyone for following along. We had an amazing group of climbers and I look forward to hopefully climbing with all of them again in the future. Muchas Gracias, hasta luego! RMI Guide Steve Gately

Friday, July 8, 2016 - 3:19 a.m. PDT Hey, this is Dave Hahn calling in from 17,000ft on Denali. We summitted today. It was a hard day- 14 hours out there, mostly due to new snow. It was a difficult day to guess what the weather was going to do. We spent a lot of it socked in cloud and light snow, but the good thing was we didn't have much for wind. So it was a hard day, but we're all safe back at high camp. We'll let you know a little bit more about it in these next couple of days. Bye for now. RMI Guide Dave Hahn

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June 9, 2016 - 8:11 pm PT "Nature does not hurry, yet all is accomplished" Lao Tzu Today was a much needed rest day for our squad. While we may have been strong enough to move to 14 Camp, we opted to rest and recover from the effort of yesterday's carry. Sometimes being patient can be tough on a day with good weather, but it pays to be conservative. We had clear weather in the morning, but it quickly turned nasty, making our call to rest even easier. Spending the day napping, feasting and getting ready for the move sets us up for the upward launch whenever Denali lets us go. RMI Guide Jake Beren

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Namaste The team woke to beautifully clear skies and views of Mt. Everest right out our dining room window. We’ve settled into our daily routine of getting up and packing our duffel bags before meeting in the dining room for breakfast and Starbucks coffee thanks to RMI sending it with us. After breakfast we step outside to get a better sense of the temperature before adjusting our layers for the hike. Once on the trail we do our best to maintain a steady pace, with stops every hour or so to stay hydrated and take in the views. There’s plenty of other hikers and yak trains headed in both directions to negotiate as well. Today we hiked for about 5-6 hrs including breaks and a light lunch to get to our next tea house in Pheriche, which sits at about 14’000ft. Everyone did great and enjoyed the stunning views of Ama Dablam, one of the iconic peaks along the route to Everest Base Camp. RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

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Jambo! Mark Tucker checking in from Uhuru Peak, the top of Africa. Under perfect conditions, we have a group of intrepid mountaineers on the summit. A great climb. I couldn't keep up with these guys. Everybody on top. We are doing great, having a gas, looking forward to getting down to the low camp. All is well, everybody sends their best. I don't know how many pictures we can take, but we're doing it, so we'll check in later. RMI Guide Mark Tucker

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Jambo from Shira Camp at around 12,500 feet. We enjoyed a rain-free day from start to finish. Early risers back down at Machame Camp claim to have seen Kilimanjaro's main peak before clouds hid her cliffs and glaciers. We ate breakfast at around 7:30 under partly cloudy skies and got walking at 8:15 under sunny skies. It was a day of serious altitude gain as we covered half of yesterday's distance but still got up 2,500 vertical feet. There were dramatic changes in vegetation as we came out of the forests and through various zones of plant life flourishing in arid conditions. A large part of the day was spent working up along a ridge of old and weathered lava. Eventually we saw our first Senescu and Lobelia plants. The first of what will be many. The climb finished with a traverse out to the west, where ancient lava flows built a broad flatland between Kibo- Kilimanjaro's main peak and Shira, its western satellite. The gang are all climbing well and continue to marvel at just how much dirt and dust will fit under human fingernails in this environment. Temperatures aren't so cold yet, despite our having pushed up to roughly 12,500 feet. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

Sunday July 12th 7:41 pm PT The team woke at midnight to cloud and light snow at 11,000 ft. We got up and rallied anyway, packing and eating a hot breakfast. We set off into the murk at around 2:30 AM and snowshoed for several hours by Braille in the whiteout. Finally we got a little visibility down at 8000 ft, the base of Ski Hill. The glacier surface didn't freeze up last night and so we had some nervous moments crossing soft and saggy crevasse bridges. One of our team went neck-deep in a complicated hole just below Mt. Francis - one of the very last crevasses we had to deal with, actually. We plucked him from the ice, but not without a fair bit of grunting and cursing and straining at the ropes. Then it was a simple but strenuous uphill climb to the old site of basecamp (there is nothing there now -which is normal in late season). Quite literally, we'd just put our packs down, at around 11:40 AM, when two beautiful K2 Aviation ski otters landed and took us to Talkeetna. The afternoon was a busy one, drying and sorting everything around the K2 hangar and connecting to the world again. We'll have a victory dinner tonight at the West Rib, perhaps with a toast or two thrown in. And then we look forward to a comfortable night's sleep at the Talkeetna Motel. Tomorrow we'll leave each other and be out on our own for the first time in three weeks. Thanks very much for keeping track of our climb. Until Next Time, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map