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This is Dave Hahn calling down from Advanced Base Camp, 21,300'. A good day for Seth, Dan, and myself and Lam Babu and Yubaraj up here at ABC. Seemed like it was going be a little stormy this morning. There were clouds around, but we ended up with a pretty good sunshine, pretty calm conditions down here in the valley. We went for a late acclimatization walk up to about 21,800', close to the base of the Lhotse Face. That was a right move for us anyway today, a little light activity on our first day at Advanced Base Camp. And then resting until noon. We can’t do too much differently right now, the route up the Lhotse Face is not fully established yet. There has been a few unforeseen delays in getting that route fixed. We’re okay taking it easy. We have hiking plans for tomorrow as well. And working this acclimatization round the best we can. That is all for tonight. Talk to you tomorrow. RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Well, we have finally made it to Penitentes and finished packing up all of our junk that we'll need on the mountain for the next few weeks. The loads are readied for the mules to shuttle into basecamp for us and we are all very excited about hitting the trail tomorrow! After a quick breakfast this morning at our hotel we headed out in Mendoza to pay for and secure the paperwork for our climbing permits. What sounds like an easy task is actually not so simple when you have to run all over town to complete each stage of the permitting process in a different building across town. Luckily for us everything went off without a hitch and after running a few more errands the team was checked out of the hotel and headed out to Penitentes where we have been staging for the rest of this afternoon/evening. Tomorrow we´ll leave the loads for the herrieros (muleteers) and catch a shuttle out to Punta de Vacas which is our trail head at the mouth of the Vacas Valley. The weather thus far has been quite comfortable so we´re hoping that it can hold for a few more days affording us a nice walk in to Aconcagua Basecamp. That´s all for now, we´ll check in via satellite phone tomorrow evening from our first camp along the approach. RMI Guides Billy Nugent, Leon Davis, and the rest of the crew.

We are finally using some of our warmer layers as we pull in to 14,000' here in Pheriche. The day went super smoothly with the team feeling strong, eating well, and chatting along the trail. We made a morning tea stop in Pangboche to visit the oldest Monastery in the valley and see the yeti skull and hand. We can't wait to have a live yeti spotting hopefully high on the glaciers of Lobuche Peak. RMI Guide Christina Dale

Summit! Mt. Rainier received some new snow over the last week filling in the route but today's climb was able to persevere and make tracks to the top. We have had some teams as well as route workers chip away at it when weather and conditions warranted, which helped tremendously. Thank you to all of them and congratulations to today's summit climbers! RMI Guides Brent Okita & Josh McDowell

Things looked pretty perfect this morning, so we loaded up our packs and started climbing. Lenz Rocks is a somewhat exposed camp and there aren't so many tent sites, so we were happy to be some of the first out of camp with full-looking backpacks intending to stay up high tonight. The breeze mainly kept things pleasantly cool as we worked our way up the glacier, intensifying only just as we reached Lenz. It took the whole team working together to keep a handle on tents as we got them set up. Now, we are comfortably moved into our abodes, resting for the summit push tomorrow. The winds are supposed to continue to diminish overnight, so things are shaping up nicely. RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Mike Uchal, and team "can we leave this break yet?"

On The Map

Today the weather continued to improve as we awoke to sunny skies and the lightest winds of the trip thus far.  We headed uphill for our final carry to Camp 1 to set the stage for our time on the upper mountain. The wind wasn’t done with us yet though as we experienced several “drop you to your knees” gusts on our way up. After making it to Camp 1 and successfully caching our gear we headed back to base camp where we relaxed in the group shelter, swapped stories and enjoyed the beautiful evening alpine glow on the mountains.

RMI Guides Walter Hailes & Jack Delaney

When the summer climbing season is in full swing, RMI guides look for every opportunity to get into the mountains. RMI Guide Robby Young took advantage of a few days off from guiding recently to climb the North Ridge of Forbidden Peak in the North Cascades. With the summer climbing season on Mt. Rainier in full swing, it has become a bit more difficult to sneak away and enjoy the classic alpine routes in the North Cascades. My climbing partner, Mike, recently came to town and I wanted him to experience the beauty of the North Cascade Alpine Rock. Given that it was Mike’s first time in the range, we instinctively set our sights on the classic pinnacle summit of Forbidden Peak. The beautifully long and committing North Ridge fit the bill for a true alpine adventure. Unlike its prestigious West Ridge neighbor, the north ridge route involved a more indirect approach, which required climbing up and over the Sharkfin Col and across the remote and broken Boston Glacier. It gave the route a more remote alpine feel. Once on the ridge proper, the climbing soon became uninterrupted and classic as we made “quick” work of the never-ending knife ridge and vertical gendarmes. As anticipated, the summit of Forbidden did not disappoint, gifting us with views of some neighboring North Cascade summits like Eldorado, Torment, Boston, Sahale, and Buckner. Our descent down the West Ridge and back into Boston Basin ended as often long North Cascade routes do, in the dark; leaving us exhausted but eagerly anticipating future adventures in this beautiful range. ________ RMI Guide Robby Young leads climbs in Washington's Cascades and the Alaska Range. Robby is an an accomplished ski mountaineer, ski patroller and photographer.

May 28 10:29pm PT

It was a perfect day to rest and regroup from our foray yesterday. The sun was out, temps were warm, and everything was calm. We also got a forecast that looks really promising for the next several days. We took another trip to the edge of the world - last time heat induced clouds were rising up from the glaciers below and it felt like the edge of the world, past which there was nothing, just a white void. Today we could see who down the Kahiltna and get a sense for the sheer scale of it all.

We are headed towards bed pretty hopeful that we are waking to similar weather tomorrow and good conditions to move up.

RMI Guides Pete, Leif, Erika, and team

With support from the Eddie Bauer - RMI Guide Grant, RMI Guide Lindsay Mann took part in an American Avalanche Institute Level 3 Avalanche Course this winter in Jackson, Wyoming. Afterward, Lindsay sat down to reflect on the course. This past January I participated in an American Avalanche Institute Level 3 Course in Jackson, Wyoming. A Level 3 Avi Course entails a great deal of prep work as participants need to complete snow observations, make numerous snow pit profiles, and spend ample experience traveling and making decisions in avalanche terrain before the course even begins. After several days of classroom and field learning, the course concluded with several testing components. These test involved completing a full data snow pit in under an hour, finding three buried avalanche beacons in less than seven minutes, and completing a written test. The conditions for our course were ideal for learning. Midway through the course a major storm cycle came through the area, resulting in rapidly changing conditions within the snowpack that had a wide array of implications on avalanche risk. While the class focused on the technical aspects of snow crystal identification and anticipating the array of components that contribute to avalanche forecasting, we were also able to enjoy some great skiing between the times we spent observing and forecasting the rapidly changing snowpack. I walked away from the course with a sense of accomplishment, as this is the highest-level avalanche education course available in the U.S., and a greater understanding for mechanics of avalanches and and avalanche forecasting. The complexities of avalanches are remarkable and this course was invaluable in contributing to the toolbox of skills upon which I rely for decision making in the mountains and in avalanche terrain. ________ Lindsay Mann is a Senior Guide at RMI Expeditions and a NCAA D1 Skiing Champion. She has climbed and guided around the world, from Peru to Alaska. Learn more about Lindsay and see her upcoming trips here…

RMI Guides Peter Whittaker and Dave Hahn led their teams to the Mt. Rainier summit this morning. Both teams had left the summit by 8:30 a.m. and reported light winds and a very pleasant day on the mountain. Jake Beren is currently leading the Expedition Skills Seminar - Kautz on their summit bid. He checked in at 8:15 a.m. from the Wapowety Cleaver on the Kautz Route and will radio us when he reaches the summit.