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Our Elbrus Northside trip concluded in one of my favorite towns to visit in Europe, St. Petersburg. Finally sleeping in to a leisurely hour, we met our tour guide and bus at 10 am and departed on a circuitous path through the history filled city to see the sites. St. Petersburg is home to some of the more stunning cathedrals in Russia, and those were a primary focus of the tour, passing by the Church of our Savior on the Spilled Blood, St. Nicholas’ Cathedral (a cathedral dedicated to the Saint of travel and maritime navigation, which is of huge significance in a city founded to be the maritime capitol of Russia, and the home of it’s navy), and St. Issac’s Cathedral. The massive scale of St. Issac’s is something to behold, and on one side, its huge columns still bare the scars left from mortar and artillery shells fired at the city during its 600-day siege in World War II. We also passed the warship that fired the symbolic first shot that began the Bolshevik takeover of Russia’s government, and found ourselves finally at the Hermitage. The Hermitage is comprised of the former winter palace of the Romanov dynasty, as well as several buildings that were added on later by different emperors and empresses, and is home to an art collection in excess of 2.7 million pieces. Our guide spent an hour taking us through the buildings, pointing out some highlights, a Michelangelo, two paintings by DaVinci, and several by Rembrandt. After the hour, our tour guide released us to wander through the stunning rooms ourselves at our own pace. That evening we regrouped for a canal boat tour, beginning on the river Nevski, which runs through the heart of St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, the days of recent rain (many of which we had experienced!), had swollen the rivers and canals, so that the boat was unable to make its way through the usual circuit of canals that run through the heart of the city, as the passages under the bridges were too low, but we still were able to see the summer gardens and several more palaces from the unique perspective of the canal. That led us to our final dinner as a group. The Jerome presented the perfect destination, and when the chef came out to show us the special — a beautifully marbled cut of local prime rib weighing almost a kg, everyone was sold. Delicious local beef, and several bottles of Spanish Rioja provided the perfect ending celebration to a really special trip that everyone enjoyed. We were sad to part ways the following morning, some of us very early, for flights back to the US. This was a special group of climbers to work with, and JM and I would like to thank everyone for their hard work and incredible perseverance and positive attitudes. We look forward to running into everyone in the mountains again soon, and thanks to all who followed along on our adventure! Signing off, RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer and JM Gorum

June 17, 2016 - 8:48 pm PT We are climbing! We had a rather early departure from Basecamp this morning, leaving at 3 a.m. while the glacier was still nice and firm. The crew made quick work of the task at hand arriving into our new camp at the base of Ski Hill on the Kahiltna Glacier in 4 hours and 20 minutes. Rock Stars! We spent most of the day "sport eating" in preparation for the high calorie demand that this mountain will require. We had some clouds move in mid day, but the weather turned out to be great. We plan on another early morning rally up to 9,800 camp. We tried to count how many shells smothered in Velveeta we ate tonight to prep for tomorrow. Unfortunately we're not as top notch as Joe Horiskey. Love to the fans! And the Fams! RMI Guide Mike Haugen

On The Map

Hola from Antisana Base Camp, Here at base camp, elevation 14,400 feet, the view of the mountain, stars and surrounding landscape, as declared by the entire team is purely worth the price of admission. The team is feeling great and excited to be spending our first night in tents. The team was also psyched to break in our new base camp tent. An 8 person mini hotel perfect for dinner on cold evenings. We will be training tomorrow. Adios for now! RMI Guide Adam Knoff & Team

It always feels so good to get to Base Camp! This morning the team crossed the cold Vacas River and began the trek to our new home up the Relinchos Valley. We had clear skies and for once little to no wind to combat with which made everyone quite grateful! Upon arriving the cool staff had juice, cheese, cold meats and melon for us to recover with! For now the team will sent up tents, take a siesta and prepare themselves for our always delicious base camp dinner's. Tomorrow's agenda has us taking a rest day, life is rough! Stay tuned! RMI Guide Steve Gately & Team

Thursday, December 4, 2025 - 6:39 pm PT

Today was a no fly day at Vinson Basecamp… too much cloud.  But Tim and I were quite happy to relax with the ALE staff in the comfortable dining tent.  It is still something of a novelty to have WiFi way out this way and we enjoyed catching up and eating and reading.  For being a “weather day” it really wasn’t all that unpleasant. Just a little cooler without direct sunshine.  Now, close to midnight, it is snowing lightly.

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RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Today we descended from Gokyo with the sense of accomplishment of having reached the highlights and high points of our trek. As we descended, only the quiet Turquoise Goddess (Cho Oyu) continued to peer above. The cold temperatures of the late afternoon brought the misty fog to surround us as we made the last turns on the trail into Dhole. The caravans of yaks now substituted those of porters, the tea houses became more hospitable, and the air thicker. We're headed now into the lower Khumbu. RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos

Our Safari and Kilimanjaro adventure came to an end today. But not with a whimper... it went out like a lion. And coincidentally with lions, as it turned out. We were up for an early start with great help from the friendly staff at Balloon Camp. Setting off in our Landcruisers, we hadn't gone more than a few hundred feet before seeing fresh tracks from lions and elephants in the dirt road. When we got to the actual wildlife: Cape buffalo, (barking) zebras, wildebeest, hartebeest, eland... we were interested to see that their behavior was markedly different in early morning than what we'd seen during midday. Our excellent naturalist/drivers Edson Kahangi and Juma Msangi explained that all the critters had been up in the hills hiding from predators in the night but were now a little desperate and nervous to get down to the watering holes and streams again. We eventually saw why... the predators were well represented down there. We saw a big mom cheetah and a cub having fun with each other and making a game of chasing Impalas. We saw a big burly male lion striding proudly over for a drink while all other animals sprinted away. We saw a lioness and her two cubs up in a tree for a snooze... nearby, a hundred vultures were cleaning up whatever the lions had breakfasted on. And then it was time for us to flee all the predators too. We had to get on the highway again, back toward Arusha. We made a final stop at the cultural center to make a few more purchases (Maasai blankets were a big hit) and peruse the great art museum, then it was on to the Arumeru River Lodge. We showered and repacked and had one last team dinner before most of the gang headed for the airport and ultimately home. We seem destined for reunions and future trips together... reliving the wild time we had way out in Tanzania. We made a pretty good team. Thanks for following along. I'm going to snooze for a day and then start it all up again with another group. Our last Kilimanjaro climb of the season. Best Regards RMI Guide Dave Hahn

RMI Guides Kel Rossiter and Solveig Waterfall led their Four Day Summit Climb May 19 - 22, 2017 to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Kel reported mostly clear skies with very lights winds. The teams began their descent from the crater rim around 7:20 am and will return to Camp Muir and then continue to Paradise. They will end their day with a celebration of their accomplishment at Rainier BaseCamp. Congratulations to today's Summit Climb teams!

Our Ecuador Volcanoes expedition is underway! Everyone (and their luggage) arrived yesterday and the team met for breakfast this morning at our hotel’s café. Today’s agenda involved an informational tour of the historic areas of Quito, Ecuador’s capitol. Angel, our local city tour guide, led us through colonial Quito, and taught us about the history of various churches, the presidential palace, independence plaza, and the large statue of the Virgin of Quito, overlooking the city. The weather was beautiful and we even snuck in partial views of some of our climbing objectives, Cayambe and Rucu Pichincha. Cotopaxi (which is closed to climbing due to recent volcanic activity) also came into view. Next we jumped in our van and headed north to the equator, or “mitad del mundo”, where we visited an ethnographic museum and learned about various indigenous cultures of Ecuador. We straddled the equator, with one leg in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern, as we watched some demonstrations of Coriolis Effect and our position on the equator. We’re off now to sample some Ecuadorian cuisine for dinner! RMI Guide Mike Walter

On The Map

Hello from Moscow! It's about seven o'clock in the evening here and we are all about to meet up for dinner. We have had a great day seeing the sights in the city. We met our city tour guide, Svetlana, this morning and she took us out to the Kremlin and Red Square. She indulged all of our questions about life and politics in Russia now versus back in the Communist period. It was all fascinating stuff. After the tour we had lunch in an authentic Georgian restaurant. Tomorrow we are shifting gears with an early morning flight. We'll fly about 900 miles south to the Caucasus Mountains. We will have Mt. Elbrus in sight and begin our acclimatization process. I'll check in again when we reach our destination. RMI Guide Seth Waterfall