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Apologies, but I don't have much exciting information to report... We are enjoying a calm and partly cloudy rest day here at Plaza Argentina and tonight will be our final night in Basecamp before we make our move up to Camp 1 tomorrow. We've been enjoying the good food here as things will change higher up on the mountain. For breakfast we ate deliciously cheesy, ooey gooey, egg, onion, green pepper, and pancetta breakfast burritos courtesy of Hannah's expert level burrito rolling skills and a nice spread of pizzas for lunch. No doubt one last big dinner this evening will cap off the extravagant meals until the climbing is done and we are safely back in basecamp. We are spending the afternoon doing laundry, listening to music, reading, and making our final gear preparations. Tomorrow should be an exciting day. Will check in next time from Camp 1! RMI Guide Billy Nugent

This morning was the best we have had in almost a week. No one set an alarm, our ride to the next mountain didn't arrive at the hacienda until ten and there was no set schedule for breakfast which always feels stress free. Rumor has it that the beautiful, old Spanish style hacienda is haunted with the ghost of an old woman who's lover died there over 150 years ago but she must have thought our group smelled too bad leaving us alone. So by the time we left this morning, we felt rested, clean and ready to head off to the highest mountain in Ecuador. Rising to 20,700+ feet above sea level, this mountain is renowned as both the furthest point from the center of the earth as well as the closest point to the sun. This may be coincidence but it is also considered the hardest peak to climb as well. Our strategy is to break the climb up putting in a High Camp at 17,500 feet which we will be climbing to tomorrow. This makes our summit day much shorter than those climbing from below. Here on Chimborazo there are two Refugios where climbers can stay. We are at the newly refurbished one sitting close to 15,000 feet. I have been here three times in the past and have never seen snow this low but today our bus barely made it here because of two inches of slush and fifty aimless teenagers trying to hitch hike up because their tour bus got stuck a mile down the the road. Staying here should help us acclimate and prepare even more for our big climb to come. The sour taste of turning around so close to the summit of Antisana has us eager for another shot at a major peak. We are looking forward to another long night's rest which should feel better than our first night at this altitude on Cayambe. We will report form high camp tomorrow. Chow Chow for now from Chimborazo. RMI Guide Adam Knoff

RMI Guide Adam Knoff checked in this afternoon from Hacienda La Cienega. The team had a beautiful day on Antisana with a fun climb on challenging terrain but were unable to reach the summit. The team was happy with their effort and accomplishment and are now resting in one of Ecuador's beautiful haciendas. Tomorrow they will move toward their final objective, Chimborazo.

The team is all back at Camp II safe and sound. Today was a very demanding day. I was up at 2am this morning checking the weather and temperature every 30 minutes looking for clear skies and moderate temperatures. I woke the team up at 4:30am. An hour later we were off on our way. Attempting a summit from Camp II is an extremely ambitious endeavor and the pace needed to be kept in order to be successful would daunt even the fittest of athletes. We gave it our best try and despite valiant efforts our pace fell short of what was needed to climb safely. On top of that the recent wind and snow events created steep, firm slopes of wind deposited snow. Imagine a 6,000ft+ snow slide at 45 degrees. We encountered these slopes at roughly 21,500ft and decided the risk was not worth the reward! All in all a tough day, mentally and physically. But that's exactly why we take on adventures like these, to test ourselves mentally and physically. To me, any expedition that returns with climbers safe and sound is a success for me. You get used to days like this the longer your mountaineering career. It's important to remember that the substance of experience lies in the in betweens, not the ends. A lesson that us climbers have to learn quickly! We'll spend one more night here at Camp II then descend to basecamp tomorrow to get organized for our trek out of the Vacas Valley. We'll post a couple more blogs during our descent. As always thanks for following! What a wild ride it's been! RMI Guide Steve Gately

Today was our much deserved rest day, but we'd have been hanging here at 9200 ft even if we weren't deserving.  It was a storm day on Vinson.  Not so bad where we are, but pretty obviously bad up above.  The upside of having all of the cloud cover was that temperatures were moderate this morning.  We had our traditional noon breakfast followed by naps, books, daydreaming, water drinking and snow block stacking.   The forecasts aren't so positive for the next few days, so fortifying our tents is in order.  Otherwise, we're staying positive and enjoying a typical day at altitude in the interior of Antarctica.  Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Sorry we didn't check in last night, I was unable to get any SAT reception from Base Camp. Yesterday we descended from high camp to base camp where we were welcomed by hot lunch, beers, and warm water for a foot bath. We re-sorted gear and relaxed before an outstanding dinner and then went to bed fat and happy. This morning we woke up to coffee in bed and then eggs and bacon before we finished packing. Just after 9 a.m. we began our hike back to civilization, we quickly descended through many ecosystems over the course of the day with dark clouds nipping at our heals. By early afternoon we had made our down the Santa Cruz valley and out to Cashapompa where we met our van. We are all now back in Huaraz having just finished a huge dinner and a couple pisco soures. We are all happy to have showers and some Wifi, but also already talking about the next trip. Thanks for following along on our amazing adventure here in the Cordillera Blanca! RMI Guide Geoff Schellens & Team

Buenas tardes from High Camp of Alpamayo! We arrived one hour ago and are currently resting and making water and dinner. The word out is that we might go for it tonight! Everyone did a terrific job getting to here, and this year is no joke, as the bergschrund to gain the col (to then drop to the northside of the mountain) is as broken and steep as l have ever seen it. Climbing 200 meters of steep, broken glacial ice with heavy packs at 17,000 feet is a task, but now that's behind us. Now we have the joy of straight up 70-degree ice, on one of the most beautiful runnels in the world, with no packs, lays ahead. It is beautiful up here, folks, we just can't get enough. Stay tuned, RMI Guide Elías de Andres Martos and team

June 14, 2016 - 2:13 am PT What a gorgeous day to be resting on Denali! We didn't get out of the tent until the sun warmed our little cocoons. Pancakes fueled us for a walk to the infamous Edge of the World where we enjoyed unobstructed views of this magnificent mountain and the range that hosts us. Warm and windless was our vantage point and looking from the South Buttress to our first camp around to our current home in Genet Basin contributed to our ever evolving sense of scale. The team answered (or tried to) Denali trivia for a turn to look over the Edge down to the Northeast Fork and make a memory. Back to camp for the afternoon for more rest and an eventual sunset with a just over half full moon taking the trip from Denali over Hunter on its way to Foraker, breaking trail for tomorrow's ascent by the Sun. Wind up high may keep us here for an extra day or two, but somehow I think we'll be just fine. RMI Guide Jake Beren

8:04 pm Pacific Time Hey, this is a Seth checking in from Uhuru Peak, the top of Kilimanjaro and the highest point in Africa. Everybody made it to the today, we had a really nice climb, good weather, warm weather I should say, there were some clouds. Everybody hung in and did awesome and everybody did make it all the way to Uhuru Peak, the tippy top. A few parties of started to head down and I'm just up here with the last folks. We're about ready to head on down to our High Camp and then we are going to pack things up and head down at 10,000 feet where plants actually grow right out of the ground, I've heard. And spend one more night on the mountain and then we will be out tomorrow. I'm going to check in when we get down to 10,000, report in and hopefully all will be well, I'm sure it will be. This is Seth checking out. RMI Guide Seth Waterfall

On The Map

The Four Day Summit Climb led by RMI Guides Tyler Jones and Mike Uchal reached the summit of Mt. Rainier around 5:45 this morning. The teams spend about an hour on the summit before beginning their descent. Tyler reported colder temperatures and breezy conditions on the summit. The teams are currently descending through warmer temperatures and clouds that reach down to around 12,000’. We look forward to seeing the teams when they return to Ashford this afternoon. Congratulations Climbers!