RMI Guides Tyler Jones and Mike Uchal lead their Four Day Summit Climb July 4 - 7, 2017 teams to the summit of Mt. Rainier today. They began their descent from the crater rim around 7 am PT. Tyler reported strong winds on the summit but decreasing winds as they were descending. The sky is mostly clear with a few high clouds. The team will descend to Paradise today and return to Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb teams!
Hello, this is RMI Guide Eric Frank calling from the Torment Basin here in the North Cascades. We are on day one of a seven-day custom climbing trip and we have the most beautiful view you can imagine right now. We climbed up out of the wooded valley up into the alpine and tonight we are going to sleep out on the glacier below the beginning of the Torment-Forbidden Traverse. It is beautiful blue skies probably the most stable weather of the summer thus far. So we're actually up here without a tent, just laying out looking at all of the expanses of the North Cascades in front of us. Tomorrow we're hoping to climb the majority of Torment-Forbidden Traverse, and then probably finish up with Forbidden on Saturday. I look forward to updating you a long the way. Take care.
RMI Guide Eric Frank
RMI Guide Eric Frank calls in from the North Cascades.
This is Mike, we had a long descent from the Ixta summit and high camp. Everyone is well and getting cleaned up in Puebla. Tomorrow is a day off to rest, eat tacos and hangout at the beautiful square in historic Puebla. Your loved ones have Internet and cell coverage, hit them up for details on the trip thus far. Friday we are off to Piedra Grande to prep for our Orizaba attempt!
RMI Guide Mike King
Hello -
We have arrived at Plaza Argentina, Aconcagua Base Camp, and are loving it. I am watching the most amazing moon rise as I scratch out this dispatch.
We started the morning off with a mule ride across the Vacas River. Good size and cold seemed to make sense since the option was available. We waited till later in the day to fjord the Relinchos River in the footwear we brought along for that purpose. Named after the valley we ascended five hours and gained close to 4,000', the views of the upper mountain were fantastic.
We established our camp and settled in at Base Camp. A very nice dinner provided by our great outfitter Grajales Expeditions has us well fed and now ready for rest. The team is in good shape and thrilled to be at Base Camp. All is good here.
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Hello Everyone:
This is Casey Grom checking in on RMI's first 2017 Kilimanjaro Climb and Safari.
All is well here in Tanzania. Most of the team arrived late last night after some very long flights and thankfully so did all of our luggage.
It was a short and uneventful ride to our Lodge that is a little oasis tucked in between Arusha and Moshi and not so far from the base of Kilimanjaro.
The team had a quick but wonderful dinner and called it a night.
Check out our accommodations, the Arumeru Lodge!
Today we had a leisurely morning and had our first official meeting at 10am where we did a round of introductions and then discussed the program for the days ahead.
We spent the remainder of the day getting our gear packed up, exploring the grounds of our Lodge, which is incredibly peaceful and has monkeys and Dik Dik running around.
We wrapped up the evening with another delicious meal and plenty of friendly conversations. Everyone is in good spirits and excited about hitting the trail tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and the Kilimanjaro Crew
Great adventure Jeff and Sean! Thank you Maureen for the updates, I will be sure to show Grandma Mac (mom) the photos when I get to the Beach Tomorrow. Truly enjoyable photos all the best Jeff and Sean! Cheers Todd
Posted by: Todd McCroskey on 1/13/2017 at 5:54 pm
Excited for you as we huddle in frigid NYC! Worried that we see no news yet of Tuesday the 10th. Hopefully you are sitting around camp at Machame Camp (9350). Hugs to you all!
Posted by: Sharon Hostler, Fran and Gerry Johnson on 1/10/2017 at 8:14 am
It is safari time!
Starting at about 2:00 a.m., the team went in many directions - Europe, Kenya, the Serengeti, and here to the lovely Plantation Lodge. After a delicious breakfast at the Dik Dik, we traveled to Lake Manyara National Park. What a perfect introduction to the wonderful world of game viewing?! It took a little over an hour from the town of Arusha before we popped the tops on our Land Cruisers and let nature engulf us. We only about 2,000 pictures in our four hours of exploring this magical area. Just before we left the park our mascot, the dik dik (the third smallest of the antelope family), made an appearance and brought us and brought us to our photo quota for the day.
The eighth wonder of the world is top on the list for tomorrow...Ngorongoro Crater. We are positioned just outside of the crater here at Plantation Lodge. I am sure we will have an amazing day of game viewing. It hardly seems that we were standing atop Kilimanjaro a few days go! can't wait!
RMI Guide Mark Tucker
Sometimes the stars just align, and they did for our climbing team on Cayambe this morning. Yesterday we traveled from Otavalo to the town of Cayambe where we transferred from a bus to four-wheel drive vehicles. A beautiful drive up into the Cayambe-Coca National Park soon became a unique cultural experience as the 4x4s were stymied by wildly rutted and muddy roads en route to the climbers’ hut. We got out of the vehicles and began harvesting “paja”, or tall straw-like grass from the roadside to through onto the road for added traction. After about 45 minutes all three of our vehicles made it through the troublesome areas and we continued on to the climbing hut at 4600m. Light rain turned to blue skies and we got some great views of the next day’s objective. We were cautiously optimistic about the changing weather pattern for Cayambe (we had seen Cayambe from various peaks over the previous week, and it always looked windy and stormy).
I woke up this morning (actually last night at 10:30pm) and checked the weather. I was psyched to see a starry night without a single cloud in the sky, and very little wind. We ate a light breakfast, packed up, and left the hut at 12:15am. It took us about an hour to approach the toe of the glacier where we donned crampons and iced axes. We ascended moderate slopes up the Hermosa Glacier, avoiding the heavily crevassed peripheries. After tackling the Bergshrund and ascending a short pitch of steep ice, we found ourselves on the summit eight hours after we set out from the hut. Stunning views of the high peaks of Ecuador greeted us: Cotopaxi, Chimborazo, Antisana, and the Illinizas, all stood tall, unobstructed by clouds. The descent went smoothly and three hours later we were back at the climbers’ hut. The clouds kept threatening to cover up Cayambe on our descent, but they held off until the last 20 minutes before we hit the hut.
After an early wake-up call and a long day in the mountains, we are now settled in to our home for the night, Guachala, the oldest hacienda in Ecuador with history back to the 16th century. Our team will head back to Quito tomorrow for a celebratory dinner and our last night together in Ecuador.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
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
I love it when you talk about holing up to sleep and eat. It means your out of danger’s way. Windy Corner sounds uninviting. Wish there was a way around it. A mother is a mother, no matter the age of the child.
Be safe!!!!
Posted by: leanne fosbre on 5/17/2016 at 3:58 pm
We’ll keep sending those good weather vibes your way, especially for Windy Corner!!! Keep up the great work everyone!
Posted by: Patrice La Vigne on 5/17/2016 at 2:53 pm
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
RMI Guide Casey Grom calls in from Cayambe Climber's Hut.
RMI Guide Jess Wedel and custom climbing team reached the summit of Glacier Peak yesterday evening just in time to watch the sunset from the top.
With the forecast for the next couple of days looking rather grim, the team took advantage of the good weather and made their summit bid on the second night of their trip, after a successful climb the team returned to camp in the early morning for some much needed sleep. They will spend today at Glacier Gap camp and descend to the trailhead for the conclusion of their trip tomorrow morning.
Jess, Thanks for putting up with all my complaining, and keeping me from throwing in the towel with 1000 feet to the summit. What an amazing sunset summit. Truely breathtaking. Best wishes on your next adventures!
Posted by: Brian Dury on 7/23/2025 at 10:08 am
Thanks for an amazing trip Jess!! I’ll never forget that sunset summit!
Hey Daddio,
congratulations on tackling the mountain. We knew you could do it. Have a great rest of the trip. love you
-Cam
Hey Daddio,
nice job on getting to the peak! Hope it was a great experience, can’t wait tohear all about it. love you
-Austie
Congratulations Paul and team! Sending love and hugs!xoxo
-Kim
Posted by: Kim Hexter on 7/7/2017 at 9:31 am
Well done Dad!!!!! Love Harry x (Thomas, Oliver and mum)
Posted by: Harry on 7/7/2017 at 8:16 am
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