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The Four Day Summit Climb August 14 - 17, 2017 led by RMI Guides Casey Grom & JM Gorum reached the summit of Mt. Rainier around 6:30 am today. The teams enjoyed a bit of time on the crater before starting their descent. They will return to Camp Muir for a short stop before continuing down to Paradise. We look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp later today. Congratulations to today's Summit Climb team!

It was clear and cool last night with temperatures right around freezing. Our team kept warm with hot water bottles and warm sleeping bags. We left Shira Camp and slowly climbed uphill before we started our traverse over to Barranco Valley across the volcanic plateau and just below the remaining glaciers that cling to Kilimanjaro's slopes. As we approached camp we were all amazed to see the giant groundsels and famous senecio trees that look like something out of a Dr Suess book. Once again we pulled into camp and our stellar crew had camp all set up and were ready with hot drinks and snacks after a solid six hour day. The team is in good shape and ready for the Barranco wall which sits just above camp and will be our first objective as we continue up hill tomorrow. RMI Guide Mark Tucker

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The wind finally quit this morning, about 20 minutes before the sun hit to start a much better day.  It still wasn't a climbing day for us though.   There were still winds blowing snow off the ridge we needed to crest.  They were dying down, but not quickly enough for my tastes.  We dug out and dried out down at Vinson's Low Camp... Licking our wounds, so to speak, after the epic storm.  The team up at high camp seemed to have survived the blow and similarly, dug out and rested today.  The teams with us at low camp went for a late afternoon start on moving up,  We'll give it a shot tomorrow.  Finally with a couple of days of semi stable forecast in our favor.  After several days of a constant roar it is great to be back to profound silence... the kind that stretches to the horizons.  Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

We tore ourselves away from the luxurious Plantation Lodge this morning in search of more animals. Tarangire National Park has delivered nicely. We spent the day looking at hundreds of elephants, thousands of Zebra and wildebeest, eagles, vultures, superb starlings and dik diks. Certainly the high point was watching seven lions... Including several generations of cubs, turning a wildebeest into an all-you-can-eat buffet. They were absolutely ruling the waterhole -until a band of thirsty elephants moved in. The lions dragged their carcass a discreet distance into the shrubs and stayed away from the happy elephants. We watched it all. We then went exploring, enjoying the vastness of Tarangire. We scanned every boabab and acacia tree for leopards but haven't yet seen them... Same with the cheetahs. We know they are out there though and we'll hope to see them tomorrow morning. Tonight we are quite comfortable in the tent cabins of Kikoti Lodge out on the beautiful estate boundary of Tarangire. The team enjoyed the end of their last full day in Africa by watching the sun set over a campfire. Tomorrow we'll have that last chance at the cats as we spend the morning going back through the park before hitting the highway for Arusha and Usa River. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

After a brief layover in Huaraz to shower, shave and eat a few meals at low elevation we're back at it. Today we moved up to 15,300' Pisco Oeste Base Camp. While we waited for our burros and arrieros to deliver our gear, we took a short detour to Refugio Peru just above our camp. By the time we had finished off some cappuccino and chocolate cake, our burros had arrived and it was time to set camp. Our camp lies in a beautiful alpine meadow surrounded by the massive peaks of Huandoy, Huascaran, Yanapaccha and our objective, Pisco Oeste. We're primed to pack up tomorrow and move to our high camp before our summit attempt the following day. The team is doing great and we're fired up for our next summit bid. RMI Guides Zeb Blais, Chase Nelson and team

May 16, 2016 - 11:45 p.m. PDT We woke this morning from a deep, deep night of sleep to sunny skies and a thin coat of snow over everything that sparkled brilliantly white. It was a gorgeous morning that energized everyone as they glanced up at Denali, down the Kahiltna, and across at Foraker. We had a leisurely breakfast of hash browns and eggs, listening to teams pack and walk out for carries to Windy Corner or moves to 14. We eventually made our own move, returning to our cache of food and fuel at 10, and hauling it back up the hill to camp. We reviewed some climbing techniques that we'll need above here, then crawled into the tents as the clouds crept up glacier to rest and relax. Tomorrow we hope to make our own carry up to Windy Corner if conditions allow. Until then, we'll eat more food, tell some tall tales, and catch several more hours of deep, deep sleep. Best from 11, RMI Guides Pete, Jess, Robby, and Team

Hey everybody. This is Casey Grom checking in from the Ecuador Volcanoes trip. We have a great day today. We started off with a nice leisurely breakfast at La Casa Sol. We departed there at about 10:30 and made our way, just about 10 minutes down the road, to the big open air market of Otavalo. Otavalo has one of the largest markets in South America. It just so happens that Saturday is the big market there. We spent a little more than an hour doing some shopping, a little bartering and just general sightseeing as we made our way around the the central square in the town of Otavalo. After we had our fill there, we hopped in our van and we go to the town of Cayambe, which sits just at the base of the mountain Cayambe where we had a nice lunch and then we loaded up the vans one more time and had a nice bumpy, but enjoyable, ride up to the hut that is right at the base of the glacier here on Cayambe. We're currently relaxing up here at about 15,000 feet. In fact it is a little after 8:30 for us here, that's east coast time, and the team is outside looking up at a beautiful full moon and a fantastic view of Cayambe. Everyone's doing great. We're going to head to bed here pretty soon and then hopefully head up to the glacier tomorrow to do a little training in preparation for our climb. Other than that everything is going great for us and we'll check in again sometime tomorrow. Alright thank you guys. RMI Guide Casey Grom

Good evening all, the team is doing great. Today we carried up to Moraine Camp, 16,300'. After a leisurely pancake breakfast, we packed our climbing gear under blue skies and started hiking around ten o'clock. Unfortunately high clouds rolled in and by mid morning, though this made for a less-impressive view, we were glad for the cooler temperatures as we made our way up the rocky slopes to Moraine Camp. Everyone did a great job with the moderate loads and the new altitude, 16,300 feet. After caching our gear we made our way back to Base Camp for lunch and a relaxing afternoon. Tomorrow we will sleep in and enjoy a full rest day. Thanks for following along, RMI Guide Geoff Schellens and the Alpamayo team

Hello, this is Elías and the Alpamayo team calling again from High Camp. Today, at the base of the Alpamayo Head Wall, we are taking a rest day, as we'd let you know yesterday. The weather looks really good, we are in good spirits and health, and we're just relaxing and waiting for our summit push tonight. So tomorrow, this time, check in, and hopefully we will have a summit report from you. Otherwise, stay tuned until then, and best regards to everybody back home. Bye. RMI Guide Elías de Andres Martos

More Rest. Today was one of the nicest days since we flew on. We are all feeling the exertion from yesterday so we spent the day eating a drinking and getting ready to move to high camp. Everyone is a bit more relaxed now that we have a cache on the West Buttress. It was quite a show today watching all of the teams that have been here longer than us trying to move up. We’re lucky in that we flew on a few days after some larger groups and they seem to be always trying to do the same things at the same time while we just cruise along a day or so behind. Let’s hope the luck holds. The weather pattern has been pretty similar over the last few days. It has been windy for most of the day with the winds trailing off in the afternoon. We can see up towards the summit from 14 and it seems like the winds are staying pretty high up there. We’ve had reports from some folks coming down from high on the mountain and they basically back up what we’re observing down here. We are planning on trying to move our camp to 17,000’ tomorrow, if the weather is good.

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