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The
Mount Rainier Four and Five Day Summit Climbs, led by
Kel Rossiter and
Ben Liken, reached about 12,300 feet before thunder and lightning forced the team to turn. The team is safely back at Camp Muir and began their descent to Paradise at 9:00 a.m. The skies are currently hazy with a fair amount of smoke in the skies from various wildfires in eastern part of Washington.
Geoff Schellens and the Expedition Skills Seminar - Kautz turned from their summit attempt yesterday at 13,300 feet. They will finish their day of training and be back at RMI Basecamp later this afternoon. The RMI Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons, led by
Eric Frank, checked in from camp this morning. Their team is doing well, training today, and preparing for their summit bid in the morning.
Today we took the place of the mules and shouldered our first heavy packs of the trip. Our goal was to get as much of our food, fuel, and equipment uphill as possible, so that when we move to
Aconcagua's Camp 1, our loads are reasonable. We succeeded at that goal in fine form, and now everything is ready for us to make the next step uphill to 16,000' the day after tomorrow.
We woke up to the helicopter over our heads, shuttling propane tanks, building materials, and the full toilet cans in and out of camp. A pretty expensive alarm clock! We ate breakfast, and then quickly got ready to depart so that we could minimize the amount of time that we were in the true heat of the day. The group moved really well today, even on the final 600-foot scree slope, where the uphill track disappeared and every step sent you sliding backwards. We left our gear at camp and then turned to descend. The same slope that was so heinous on the way up, had people hooting and yelling as we skied back down. We were back in time for an afternoon siesta, and to feel safe from the rain clouds that had started to build and were threatening. Though we heard some rumbles of thunder this afternoon, the clouds stayed away and we stayed dry. On the schedule for tomorrow is another rest day, one last chance to enjoy the comforts of base camp before we head up to higher elevations.
Thanks for reading,
RMI Guides
Pete Van Deventer,
Alex Barber, Juampi, and team
On The Map
The Four Day
Summit Climb August 23 - 26, 2014 Teams led by
RMI Guides JJ Justman and Zeb Blais reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The teams reported sunny skies with some strong wind gusts and a possible cloud cap trying to form above the mountain. Both teams were able to enjoy some time on the summit before starting their descent. The teams will return to Camp Muir and then continue their descent to Paradise. We look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp in Ashford later this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb teams!
Monday, November 24, 2025 - 4:07 pm PT
Tim and I spent an easy day getting packed and fine tuning gear for Antarctica. This is something of an “extra” day, but it sure wouldn’t have been if either of us had missed a flight or lost a bag on the way to Punta Arenas. We walked the downtown streets, checking out the climbing stores. We walked in the wind along the shores of Magellan’s Straight. Ultimately we walked over to our outfitter’s office for a briefing on the flight and operations in Antarctica. It was good to connect with a few old friends while enjoying a cocktail and a PowerPoint. Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions -ALE has quite the program down here and we’re excited to see the bases deep within the Antarctic interior. Tomorrow is one more “slack” day of fiddling with gear and taking it easy.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
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Vinson Massif Expedition, November 22, 2025
After packing our packs, organizing our tents, and eating lunch, we were ready to head uphill. Unfortunately though, we have been stalled at Base Camp. Our team members at High Camp radioed down that they need more time and rope to fix the route. They said the route is a bit icy and not great snow, but they seem optimistic that we will be able to give it a whirl in a few days. Till then we will continuing hanging out at Base Camp, practicing more with the girls and going on hikes. It's a good thing it's so pretty here and one can easily occupy themselves.
Happy Halloween!
RMI Guide Hannah Smith
We did another alpine start and another climb up the side of a volcano. But this time we got up to a fine pre-dawn breakfast in a comfy dining room with a roaring fire and rode up the side of a collapsed volcano in Toyota Landcruisers. That was all under heavy cloud and a little rain. By the time we’d ridden around the crater rim and dropped down in, we were out of the clouds and into a world of wildlife and wonders. Before very long we were looking at a pride of nine lions up close and personal (before the day was out, we’d seen around 26 different lions). We saw herd after herd after herd of wildebeest, zebra and Cape buffalo. Gazelles bounded and abounded. There were just a few solitary elephants here and there. In the morning we spied a rhinoceros off in the distance. In the afternoon we went on a wild rhino rumor race... chasing across the crater along with half the other Toyotas in Tanzania to see a supposed rhino who apparently dropped down and went to sleep out of sight. As consolation, we had high times with hippos in a number of places. Many of the team said their favorite part of the day was encountering two lionesses simply walking past the cars on their way to who-knows-where. We had an excellent and very relaxing picnic lunch while watching hippos, birds, buffalo and zebras. At about 4 PM, Ibrahim and Edson steered the Landcruisers up a crazily switchbacking exit road and we left the
conservation zone and got back to our garden of a hotel to take things a little easy before dinner.
Tarangire is tomorrow.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Wednesday, July 4, 2018 - 11:09 PM PT
The sun hit at seven. There were high clouds and some of the signs of the storm forecast to move in at the end of the day. We hoped to get lucky by sneaking the summit in before that storm. With that in mind we breakfasted and geared up... but not too quickly as we were still watching the weather. At 10:15 we made the move and left camp... at precisely the moment that three other guided teams left their own camps. The resulting traffic jam as the teams hit the steep and tricky first pitches of the “autobahn” combined with rapidly deteriorating weather had us turning back to camp before noon. We set to building walls around the tents and catching up on rest and hydration. The storm did hit... there were a few nervy hours in the evening trying to account for the teams that had gone onward and upward. All turned out ok in the end and we are secure in our fortress at
17,000' Camp. We’ll climb when the weather improves.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
RMI Guides Mike King, Jenny Konway, Jessie Poquerusse and Ben Ammon are leading the
Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons June 11 - 16, 2017. The team met on Sunday and spent the day discussing logistics of the trip including an equipment check and some technical training. Their second day was spent on the slopes above Paradise practicing rope travel, ice axe arrest and cramponing techniques. On Tuesday morning they loaded up in the shuttle and drove to the White River Campground where they met the trail head and started their climb. Yesterday they moved to Camp Schurman at 9,440' and have continued their training. This morning they made their summit attempt but due to low visibility and tough walking the team made the tough decision to turn around 11,400'. They have returned to Camp Schurman where they will do some additional training. They will spend their last night on the mountain tonight and start their descent tomorrow. We look forward to seeing them back at Rainier BaseCamp tomorrow afternoon.
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
Glad to hear all is going well! Enjoy your rest day! Thinking of you and really love this blog! Suzette
Posted by: Suzette Stitely on 1/26/2015 at 3:28 am
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