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The Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons June 17 - 22 led by RMI Guide Hannah Smith made the difficult decision to turn around today at 13,500'.  Hannah reported difficult snow conditions and a lack of established trail due to the new snow accumulations over the last few days. The climbers have returned to Camp Schurman where they will spend their final night on the mountain.  Tomorrow the team will do some crevasse rescue training before descending to the trailhead and returning to Rainier BaseCamp later in the day.

Hello from the Carstensz Pyramid team, What a way to start an expedition. Mountain climbers surf Bali! Fresh red snapper for lunch and solid 3 foot swell for dessert. I love my job! We head to the airport at midnight tonight for a 2 am flight to the town of Timika on the Island of New Guinea. The whole team and all bags are here and ready. Everyone is looking forward to the rest of this adventure. RMI Guide Mark Tucker

On The Map

Five days ago we tried getting up through the Khumbu Icefall but instead dropped down to Basecamp again to wait a day. We weren't firing on all cylinders and it was clear that the jet stream was. The wind made a cardboard tearing sound as it scraped across the high peaks. Four days ago we got up without a great deal of difficulty, reaching Camp I in about five hours from basecamp. The climbers we talked to told stories of big winds at Camps I and II doing all sorts of tent damage and rubbing a bunch of nerves raw. We hoped we'd missed the big wind event as we crawled into our tents for afternoon naps... but we could still hear it howling above and as the hours went by it got a little noisier right down in our own neighborhood. Spirits were high though as the four of us piled into one tent for dinner and climbing stories. That first night was not a good one for relaxing, as it turned out. We guessed that the tents were getting rocked by gusts in the 50 to 70 mph range throughout the night. Linden and I instinctively put our feet up against the tent walls to brace for the bigger blasts and we hoped that the extra careful anchoring job we'd done was working for Bill and Sara in their tent two feet away. The wind quit on us at four AM precisely and the alarm clock rang at five. That first full day in the Western Cwm was meant to be mostly a rest day with an easy morning hike partway up the valley. That didn't seem restful at five, but Linden and I lit the stoves anyway and started melting ice, figuring a little coffee couldn't hurt the mood. We took our time and ate and drank for hours while gearing up and waiting for the sun to get a little closer to the valley floor. The sun has to work pretty hard at that in the Cwm as the walls rise to 25,000 ft ( not counting Everest and Lhotse) but by eight AM when we started walking in down coats, there was a hint of warmth in all the brightness. We strolled in our crampons up under the ridiculously steep Nuptse Wall and then crossed a series of easy crevasse bridges. We came to a crazy and crooked collection of six or seven ladders tied together, spanning a deep crevasse. There was a perfectly good detour trail which would avoid the high wire acrobatics at the cost of about twenty minutes and we happily went detouring. A bit farther up the valley and we came to the last crevasse... Our goal for the day. We took a short rest at this halfway point to Camp II and then reversed course, heading back for much-needed naps at Camp I. That second night was blissfully quiet and calm and so when the alarm rang at five, once again, we were a bit more ready for action. We set out walking in the shadows at seven AM bound for Advanced Base Camp. Eventually, when we'd passed all the crevasses again, it got hot as the sun got bouncing off a billion tons of ice and snow, but we took a few rest breaks and kept on trudging to CII. When we reached the rocky moraine the angle steepened and things got tough, but my team was tough too. We strolled into the construction site where Lam Babu and Uberaz (our ABC cook) were working hard at the beginnings of a fine camp. It seemed a good occasion for myself, Linden and Sara to sing happy birthday to Bill and to shake his hand. We sat drinking tea for a few minutes and gazing up at the Lhotse Face. It was icy and intimidating, but the good news was that we could see great progress being made by the "fixing team" assigned to string rope and fashion anchors on the face. This was a team made up of strong Sherpas from a number of expeditions. Our team's contribution toward the effort, apart from money, had been Cherring, Kaji and Dawa carrying a few big loads of rope up from base to ABC. At midday we began walking down valley again, keeping an eye out for a ladder-crossing black dog whose tracks we'd seen all day long. Early in the day, I'd spied him trotting through Camp I wagging his tail after completing the Icefall, but we didn't see anything but tracks up at ABC. We did meet plenty of friends out on the trail as we headed down for our Camp I with our mission for Rotation I largely accomplished. Our final night in the Cwm was quiet and a little snowy. It still was snowing lightly as we packed up in the morning and got set for a careful trip down through the Icefall. Down to comfy chairs and showers and the basecamp good life. Mark Tucker was elated to see us again... In fact we all felt a little guilty leaving him alone with the kitchen staff for four days... But he seemed to have muddled through. Best, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

The Kautz Seminar, led by RMI Guide James Bealer, was stopped by route conditions this morning.  They reached 12,500' before making the call to abort their ascent.  The team is currently working their way back to high camp.  They have had a full week of training and will spend one more night on the mountain before concluding their program tomorrow.

RMI Guides Win Whittaker and Dan Windham led the Four Day Summit Climb teams to 13,500' this morning before deciding to turn around due to deteriorating weather conditions and increased winds. The teams checked in from Ingraham Flats around 7:30 a.m. on their descent as the rain continued to fall. They returned to Camp Muir to repack and hopefully dry out a bit. At 10:00 a.m. they began their descent from Camp Muir to Paradise. We look forward to seeing the groups at Rainier BaseCamp in a few hours.

The Four-Day climbing teams led by RMI guides Steve Gately and Christina Dale reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. They reported some light route traffic and a great climbing route.

They will return back to Camp Muir for a quick rest break before descending back to Rainier Basecamp in Ashford this evening to celebrate their success!

Nice work team!

Monday, July 4, 2022 - 1:50 a.m. PDT

Briefly…Because it is 12:38 a.m. at 17,200 ft…we did it! Fabulous climb to the top of North America. The day started out a little more windy than predicted, so we pushed our start back to 10:15 a.m., by which time thinks were looking more promising. We went back and forth all day between a little cool and a little hot. Luckily, when we hit the top at 6:30 p.m., it was calm and easy.  In fact we enjoyed it so much we spent 50 minutes on top! There was only one other team today and we will likely be some of the very last for the season. Beautiful views down into all the fascinating glaciers and valleys surrounding Denali. We picked our way carefully down, leaving the summit at 7:20 p.m. and arriving back at high camp at 11:00 p.m. Late night dinner and then crawling into sleeping bags for well earned rest. 

Best Regards,

RMI Guide Dave Hahn and team

May 27, 2017 A well deserved sleep and sluggish morning let the team regain our feet. Yet, we managed to make the most of it. Our jaunt out of the Condoriri group wasn't quite complete until half the group had jumped into a snow fed reservoir and scrambled back to dry land as fast as our frozen limbs could manage. For all of us, 14,500ft was the highest we had ever swam. A brief stint of skipping stones on clear glassy ponds, and passing the time with our new matted canine friend had the group back into the van and on our way to the city. Today happens to be mothers day down here in Bolivia, (Hi Mom!) and we were greeted with street parties, colorful attire, traffic zebras and a box of empanadas once we passed within city limits. To close out the night, we celebrated our first summit success with a feast of unrealistically large and delicious slabs of meat. And now we go to bed early amid the 'thick' 12,000ft city air, ready to skip right back into the mountains come sunrise. Posted above are a few teaser photos from our ascent of pequeno Alpamayo. RMI Guides Caleb Ladue, Eric Frank and Team Bolivia

Hello again Everyone,

It’s been a bit cloudy the last few days, but the team awoke to beautifully clear skies and views of Kilimanjaro looming above us.

We started our day with fresh fruits, eggs, porridge, and plenty of coffee, before setting off on our second day. The trail out of camp slowly ascends through the last remaining trees and makes its way along a rocky ridge that climbs up onto the Shira Plateau. We hiked a little more that 4 hours to reach our next camp arriving shortly before the clouds returned.

Everyone enjoyed the warmth of the sun and the views of the valleys below as we climbed steadily up Kilimanjaro.

We are currently relaxing in our camp enjoying good conversations and stories from team members.

RMI Guide Casey Grom and the Kili crew!

RMI Guides Dustin Wittmier & Joe Hoch led their Four Day Climb June 26 - 20 teams to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Dustin reported windy conditions with a lenticular cloud above them for most of the climb.  However, the cloud had dissipated as they reached the crater rim and they were enjoying the sunshine as they crossing the crater to Columbia Crest. After celebrating on the summit, they will descend to Camp Muir, repack and continue down to Paradise.  We look forward to meeting the teams at Rainier BaseCamp later today.

Congratulations to today's climbers!