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Hey there. It's Eric Frank calling from the Northside of Mount Baker. This is our first day of a North Ridge of Baker trip. We're up here at the Hogsback Camp at about 6,000 feet. Things are melting out here and the snow is rapidly disappearing. We're actually able to camp on some beautiful meadows covered in wildflowers. We just got done doing a little training- practiced placing ice screws, practiced pitching out terrain. Tomorrow morning, early in the morning we are going to be up to climb the North Ridge of Baker. Everything's looking good, weather forecast is nice, the team is strong, and we anticipate giving you an excited call from the top sometime mid morning. Thanks for following along. Bye. RMI Guide Eric Frank

We slept in an extra hour this morning for two reasons. Firstly, it gave us some extra rest in preparation for our summit attempt. Secondly, it allowed the rest of the teams at camp to break trail up the great Barranco Wall this morning so we could avoid "rush hour" on the wall.The 800 feet of solid handholds made the ledge scrambling a blast. With the assistance of our local staff, everyone made for a safe ascent of the Barranco Wall. Once atop the wall, we made a long traverse under the dramatic views of the the hanging glaciers and rock buttresses that make up the top of Kilimanjaro on our way to Karanga Camp at 13,160 feet. We are knocking on the door of the summit and the weather continues to be perfect! Yeah! RMI Guide Mark Tucker

On The Map

A good night for sleep with a couple folk still adjusting to time zone change. There were amazing stars last night. Woke up to perfectly clear sky's views of the big top ahead. Sizable chunk of altitude gain in half the distance of yesterday but still gained us 2,500 feet in elevation. As you can imagine fairly steep right out of the gate but every one handled it well. The environment changes dramatically from a lush forest to a more alpine feel. A big finish to the day, traversing out to the west, complete opposite from where we will travel tomorrow across ancient lava flows that have created a broad flatland between Kibo-Kilimanjaros main peak and Shira, its western satellite. Our home for the night. RMI Guide Mark Tucker

On The Map

Update: July 30, 2015 11:31 pm PST Family and friends we are back at camp safe and sound. Again, every one made the summit. Stay tuned for the summit video!! July 30, 2015 8:50 pm PST Hey, everyone. This is JJ Justman with the Elbrus team. I will give you one guess, just one guess as to where not one, not two, not five, but every single team member is right now. That is right! We are on top of Europe! We are on the summit of Mount Elbrus! The team did just a fantastic job today. We are a day early than expected. We have some weather coming in tomorrow and the next day. It is supposed to snow pretty darn good. As a guide I kind of hemmed and hawed and made the decision that the best day to go was today. And I'll tell you what, the team today is just strong as can be. We are on the summit of Elbrus. We are taking some more photos, and then we are going to head downhill. It is a beautiful day right now so we just made a terrific call as a team and I'm really proud of everyone. [Team cheers!] That's right, a big holler. Everyone says hi to family and friends. I will touch base with you guys when we get back down, but boy, we are just doing great. Thanks for following along. We'll talk to you again soon.

On The Map

Another day of nice weather...YEAH! A few hours of hiking and here we are at Barafu Camp at 15,000 ft. The team got busy upon arrival preparing for the early morning departure from here toward the summit, sorting through the stay and go gear since we will come back thru this camp on our way down from the summit. We all pooled together our favorite treats and made up some tasty looking lunches. We took a short hike up to get familiar with the start of the climb that will confront us with our alpine start from High Camp to the summit of Kilimanjaro. It's nap time now before our early dinner then we will take another short rest before starting our summit attempt. The team continues to do well, wish us luck! RMI Guide Mark Tucker & Team

On The Map

We packed our bags and left the hustle and bustle of Quito behind this morning, driving north towards the town of Otavalo for our next acclimatization climb. Along the way we had great views of Cotopaxi and Cayambe, the second and third highest peaks in Ecuador, respectively, and our major climbing objectives on this trip. As for our objective for today, we climbed the ancient volcano Fuya Fuya. The weather couldn't have been nicer as we summited the 14,000' peak in t-shirts. On top we had great views of Cayambe, Cotopaxi, and even the top of the ever elusive Antisana, the fourth highest peak in Ecuador. Our team did great on the climb today, negotiating steep terrain and a little rock scramble. Now we're at our hacienda, Casa Sol, for the night where a shower, dinner, and a cerveza are on our to do list. After a good night's rest tonight we'll head to the famous Otavalo Market in the morning and then up to the climbers hut in the afternoon. I'll check in again mañana. RMI Guide Mike Walter

On The Map

Snug as a bug under a rug, 10 of us slept in a small room. Last night having arrived to the village in the dark with no gear, a tea house took us in. They fed us Dhal Bhat and tea, and gave us their extra room with blankets for us all to sleep. It was a fun little slumber party. We woke casually this morning and fired up the one stove I had to make our coffee. We then ate our breakfast, a bowl of ramen, and did some laundry. After wandering the village for an hour, we could see the rest of our team, and porters arriving with all the gear. We told our story about our night and settled in. The rest of the day we are taking time to ourselves to read and write. Jorge one of the team members, is a doctor is Spain and is setting up a medical tent. He will see the villagers and give them needed medicine, such as vitamins, antibiotics, and pain killers. This will be the first time many of these people have seen a doctor. As for now, We enjoy the last few hours of sun and will get ready for more walking tomorrow. Adios, RMI Guide Hannah Smith

Wednesday, May 30, 2018 - 10:53 PM PT After yesterday's big effort, it took some snow and evidence of wind at Windy Corner to decide to take a full chill day at our 11,000' Camp today. Food, movies, books, and naps filled the time, and left little room for anything else. We are feeling good about a move to 14,000 ft Camp tomorrow, and after today, everyone is excited for a change in scenery. RMI Guides Pete, Jess, Taylor, and team

On The Map

Monday, May 28th - 8:10 pm PST We woke up to more sunshine and the smell of bacon on the Kahiltna. After breakfast burritos browned to perfection by Lucas, we packed up camp and took off down Heart Break Hill. Named for its uphill torture on the way back to the airstrip. Everyone reported feeling "great!" after the descent. But then we started the glacier slog with heavy packs and sleds. The next break the team reported feeling "good." After another two hours the team asked, "So, where is camp?" We pulled into a perfect camp in Farine Basin and got to work excavating the glacier and flattening our sleeping nooks. Now it looks perfect for the night. The team is doing well and showed their strength by building camp in good fashion after a long day. If this good weather holds, we'll attempt to climb Farine Peak tomorrow. RMI Guide Christina Dale

This is Chase and team checking in from the Sulphide Glacier! After three days of almost constant snowfall we finally enjoyed a bit of a break in the weather and even had a few hours of sun. About a foot of snow has fallen since our arrival but the training has continued as planned. Tomorrow we're going to venture higher up towards the pyramid and see if conditions are suitable for a summit attempt. We'll check in tomorrow afternoon! RMI Guide Chase Nelson