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The Expedition Skills Seminar Muir led by RMI Guides Dave Hahn and Joe Hoch spent a week honing their mountaineering skills in preparation for future big mountain objectives. This starts with ice axe use and cramponing techniques, and moves on to more advanced skills such as anchor placements, various self and team crevasse rescue techniques, steep technical ice climbing, belays, rappelling, knots, route finding, avalanche forecasting and fixed rope travel. Evening discussions included such topics as mountain weather, medicine for mountaineering, altitude wellness and equipment. The team climbed to Ingraham Flats, but were unable to travel higher on the mountain due to unstable snow conditions. 

Congratulations Team! 

The Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guides Elias deAndres Martos and JM Gorum reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. Elias reported a beautiful and almost smoke free morning. The teams were spending some time on the summit enjoying the views before starting their descent. Congratulations to today's team!

RMI Guide Casey Grom and the Four Day Summit Climb July 6 - 9 made it to the summit of Mt. Rainier today. Casey reported windy conditions as they began their descent from the crater rim at 7:30 AM PT. The team will descend to Camp Muir and then continue down to Paradise this afternoon. Congratulations to today's Summit Climb team!

Sunday, July 1, 2018 - 11:14 PM PT This was the day we were looking for. Even so, it looked a little gusty up high at first, so we dragged our feet a little and lingered over breakfast. The sun hit at 9:30 and we got walking at 10:30. Our goal, of course, was to carry food and supplies up onto the West Buttress and to establish a cache that will help us when we commit to moving up to 17,000 ft. But our goal was also to get familiar with the steep part of this climb -the fixed ropes- and to build on our acclimatization by getting a good workout in at altitude. We did all of that today. Things were slightly on the crowded side, but that didn’t give us much trouble in the end. It is close to the end of the Denali climbing season, now that we are in July, but the last 100 or so climbers all flew on at once due to the five day storm that preceded our arrival. And we’ve mostly been on the same travel schedules since those 100 folks are all in various guided parties. But we know and like many of the people so it hasn’t -to this point- seemed so crowded. But all those folks needing to get on the same ropes to reach the crest of the West Buttress means that some patience will be required. We turned out to be patient today, waiting our turn, but it wasn’t so hard to be that way in sunny, pleasant weather and with fantastic scenery all around. The upside for us was that the teams ahead of us kicked a perfect staircase in the snow up the steep headwall. We topped out at 16,200 in surprisingly fine conditions -the exposed ridge crest can often be cold and windy. As it was 3 PM we declared victory and established a cache -burying it all to keep our supplies from the ravens. Our descent was smooth and easy since we now had the whole place to ourselves. We were back down to camp by 5 PM and relaxing over dinner a couple of hours later. Rest day tomorrow and then up for good. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

Hello everybody, Casey Grom checking in. Just wanted to let everyone know that those of you who didn't receive a phone call from the summit of Kilimanjaro, we had 100% success today! Like I said last night, we left pretty early to beat some of the traffic, but unfortunately I think many of those people have the same idea as well. It was a busy day on the trail for us which wasn't too much of an inconvenience, but it definitely made things a little more challenging with breaks and trying to keep a nice steady pace. But the team did fantastic and as they know that goal number 1 is to take care of yourself, and they did a fantastic job today of taking care of themselves. A little after about 7 hours of climbing, we were able to reach the summit of Kilimanjaro along with most of those other people that started the night with us. So there was I'm guessing close to 100 people on the summit, some before us, and a handful after us. Up there all the same time, it was a little bit of a struggle to try to get people in to get their photos at the actual sign. It's pretty painless on Kilimanjaro, but we managed to get quite a few. Unfortunately still no cell service, so I haven't been able to get any pictures out. And that's going to happen tomorrow for sure, as we have descended all the way back to the Mweka Camp tonight. We're at about 10,000'. Tomorrow we get to the park gate...our hotel and freshly showered, at about 3-4 in the afternoon. Anyway, all is well; team's doing great. Everyone's very tired after a very long day, but again 100% success and looking forward to sharing some of those pictures with you guys alright.

On The Map

Jake Beren & Team checking in. We moved to 14.000' Camp on Denali yesterday. Today we are busy building walls and fortifying our camp and getting settled in. We will spend tomorrow training and are enjoying the thinner air. All is well!

May 17, 2016 - 6:02 p.m. PDT We declared a snow day today. We woke to what could be described as a heavy fall of snow, and our hopes of heading uphill diminished. An hour later as we ate breakfast, the sky cleared, the sun came out, and our hopes rose. Just as quickly, the clouds, snow, and blustery gusts returned, and convinced us that today was a day to remain indoors. And so we have, napping, snacking, reading, and watching movies. The weather hasn't relented either, reinforcing our decision. The low pressure that seems to be moving over us is hinting at moving out over the next few days, so we hope that tomorrow gives us a better opportunity to head up to Windy Corner and cache. In the meantime, we'll take the opportunity to rest up and get ready for another round of big days. All for now from snowy 11 Camp. Thanks for following! RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Robby Young, and Jess Matthes, and team

On The Map

Well folks...I had my best weather day on Ixta. And yesterday and today, I had my worst weather day on Orizaba. The team is great but we were unable to summit Orizaba. High winds and a constant rain prevented us from going higher. However, that is not preventing us from having a great experience. As for me, this was a phenomenal team and we had I think, too much fun. Mike and I hope to climb with everyone again. We are now back at Sr. Reyes and are drying all our soggy gear. This is the last blog for Team Mexico. Thank you all for following along. RMI Guides JJ Justman and Mike King

Friday June 19th 11:15 pm PT After a much needed full night of sleep, we woke up to sunny, perfect weather. The Uchal-Dee power duo made us some delicious pancakes for breakfast. We did some training for our next adventure on the fixed lines that we will find on the steep slopes that lead us up to our next camp. The rest of the day was spent enjoying the great weather. We are going to bed with a light snow showering down on our tent. Our plan is to try to carry some gear up towards 17k camp...if it clears that is. RMI Guide Mike Haugen

June 7, 2015, 9:45 pm PT After surviving our first chilly night at 14K Camp, everyone walked into the posh this morning to the sweet smell of blueberry pancakes. Cooking at 14,000ft is quite difficult on any day but Tyler made pancakes that would have made Grandpa Jerry proud. Post breakfast we took advantage of the nice weather and prepared our camp for a nuclear winter. Hopefully the weather will stay nice but if not we are prepared for the worst. After our wall building session we did some more training for the upper mountain. The guides set up a fixed-line obstacle course that everyone marched around in like a group of trained gorillas. Tomorrow we hope to carry to the top of the fixed lines, but as always, we will see what Mother Nature brings. RMI Guide Tyler Jones