Most Popular Entries

Day 13

The team awoke to warm bagels and crackling bacon. That was the warmest part of the day. It was a frigid one. We practiced cramponing while dashing in and out of our sleeping bags. Now is the trickiest part of any expedition. We sit, checking the weather repeatedly, waiting for our weather window to climb. Despite so much time in the tent, we are ready when the time comes.

Till next time,

RMI Guide Luke Wilhelm & Team

Tuesday, July 2, 2019 - 7:49 PM PT We thought today would be our day... Until it wasn't. We woke up to blowing snow and zero visibility. It made our call easy once again. We thought that it would clear up later in the morning and give us a late try, but it has not cleared up all day. Oh well, we will wait! The team is doing well with all of the waiting at high camp, in spite of being in tents most of the day. The weather has not been terrible at high camp, just not good enough to climb. So, more waiting, sport eating, and good weather finger crossing for us! RMI Guide Mike Haugen & Team Siete

On The Map

The Expedition Skills Seminar - Kautz June 11 - 16, 2023 led by RMI Guide Eric Frank reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning via the Kautz Glacier. After two days of training at BaseCamp and Paradise the team began their ascent via Paradise.  They established camp and spent the next two nights on the mountain practice and learning more alpine skills including some crevasse rescue training.  This morning the team made their summit attempt, they checked in around 7:30 from just below the Wapowety Cleaver.  Eric reported a beautiful day with no wind and warm temperatures.  However, when they reached the summit the winds were strong.  The team enjoyed a bit of time on the summit before starting their descent back to camp. They will stay tonight on the mountain and continue their descent tomorrow, perhaps with a bit more training.

Nice climbing team!

Hello, this is the Shishapangma team calling from 17,000’ in the middle of the Tibetan Plateau on the way to Advanced Base Camp (ABC). We have spent three days at Chinese Base Camp at 16,000’. The team is doing really well. We actually went for a nice, leisurely one-hour run, which was a record for everybody, yesterday. And we are really excited and having a good time. We hope to call in the next few days after we have set up camp at Advanced Base Camp. That is all for now. Hello everyone from Tibet. RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos

Wednesday, December 29, 2021 - 7:19 pm PT

We seem to be into a stretch of very fine weather.  Today was nothing but sunny, calm and beautiful.  Our first morning on Vinson was pleasant, but quite full with getting everybody up to speed on glacier travel and packing and prepping for moving up.  Even so, we took a midday break for a sit-down hot lunch of vegetable soup.  We got walking at 1:40 PM.  Four rope teams traveling in formation up the Branscomb Glacier.  Recent snows made the footing a little more insecure for the first few hours out of camp, but conditions improved as we got a little higher.  There was less new snow and easier to walk on packed trail by the time we hit the big turn in the glacier below Vinson’s west face.  We came into 9,200 ft “Low Camp” just after seven in the evening.  A fine time to arrive as the sun hits from a great angle and intensity at low camp during the evening hours.  We built tents and moved in to giant walls of snow bricks constructed against big winds by previous inhabitants.  Our evening was windless.  We ate dinner and talked over possibilities for tomorrow.  Perhaps we’ll move higher in the morning, perhaps we’ll spend the day training around low camp.  It all depends on how folks feel in the morning.  It is wonderful to be up in this wild setting, looking straight up at Vinson and at the jagged peaks just to the North. 

Although it is after midnight now, the sun is still strong on the tents, making them almost warm and comfortable.  The sun won’t go behind the mountain until about 3 AM, at which point things will feel a bit colder until it reappears around 10:15 AM. 

Best Regards,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

We awoke at 11pm at the Cayambe hut to get an alpine start on our climb. Unfortunately, when we took a look outside we encountered sideways rain. We continued to monitor the weather throughout the night with hopes of getting a late start on the climb. Finally, around 5 am the wind and rain subsided enough for us to get out of the hut and do some climbing. By that time our we could not reasonably make it to the summit and back. We climbed up to 17,000 feet and did some training in the morning sun. That was a new high point for most of the team! Resting today in a beautiful hacienda outside Quito. Here we’ll learn crevasse rescue and set out sites on the next volcano, Antisana.

RMI Guide Avery Parrinello

Today we got second chair on the gondola and enjoyed a quiet morning on Rucu Pichincha.  For many this was the second highest altitude they had reached and a good hike to really get the acclimatization going.  Contrary to my previous trips and further proving the unreliability of weather forecasting in the tropics, we did not get rained on and it really did not threaten to rain on us at any point today.  Following the hike we enjoyed a team dinner at a favorite local Lebanese restaurant and tomorrow we are headed north towards Cayambe.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

We wanted to give everyone a quick update from the Shishapangma crew. We have not received any new information directly from the team, but we did learn that the Liaison officer received a note from the team requesting their yaks to arrive at Advanced Basecamp on the 15th and vehicles to arrive at Basecamp the following day. They will spend the night of October 16th either at Nyalam or Zhangmu, depending on what time they get back to Basecamp. We will post again as soon as we hear any additional information.

The group was up early this morning, despite encountering the coldest temperatures of the trip thus far - our water bottles lightly icing up even in the teahouse. However, we quickly shook off the cold within a few minutes of starting off, warming up as we walked out of Lobuche. An hour's walk brought us to the edge of the Khangri Glacier, a tributary flowing into the main Khumbu Glacier just to our side. We climbed up the moraine of the Khangri and began the weaving traverse over its rock strewn surface, climbing up and down over the uneven terrain. Part way through we reached a high point and we're treated to fantastic views further up the valley, even catching glimpses of the tents at Everest BC. By late morning we reached our teahouse at Gorak Shep, the last cluster of buildings before BC. We paused for a cup of tea and after refilling our bottles we set out to climb Kala Patar, a rocky outcropping that sits across the valley from Everest. The team climbed very strongly, the benefits of our acclimatization over the past ten days clearly visible, and within a couple of hours we reached Kala Patar's prayer flag strewn summit. At 18,500' Kala Patar has phenomenal views looking down over Everest BC and the Khumbu Icefall as well as to its summit, the Hillary Step, South Summit, South Col, and part of the Lhotse Face. In addition to Everest, we could see over the Lho La Pass to Changatse in Tibet as well as south down the valley, picking out the peaks of Tamserku, Katenga, and Ama Dablam which we walked past earlier. Despite the clear skies and amazing views the winds were blowing strongly and we were forced to raise our voices to be heard over the fluttering prayer flags. The temperature was quite cold with the wind and before too long we set off back down the trail, returning to Gorak Shep where a late lunch of soup and tea helped rewarm us. We've spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing in Gorak Shep. We had a great day and are thrilled to have had such great weather and views from Kala Patar. Tomorrow we cover the final stretch to Everest Base Camp where we will spend a couple of nights sleeping on the ice in RMI's Everest Expedition camp. We will check in tomorrow from BC. RMI Guide Linden Mallory

Mark Tucker here in Nepal kicking off the RMI 2013 Mount Everest programs. Our first wave of climbers are all here with bags intact. After a nice city tour and final preparations yesterday we have made our way to the Domestic airport. Right now we are at the boarding area and on standby due to a weather delay in Lukla, which is our flight destination. Not unusual for such a delay, so we will wait till weather conditions improve. A cup of tea and a book will hold us over for a while. No hurry. Looking forward to keeping you all up to date as best I can over the next couple of weeks / months / years. RMI Guide Mark Tucker