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.
July 4, 2017
Greetings all!
Happy 4th of July from the Ishinca Valley at 14,000'! We had great weather for our walk up the Quebrada (Valley) this morning, with outstanding views of the snow and ice covered pyramid of Tocllaraju. And here we are, having built home for the week, ready to start training and climbing in the high peaks around us. And as we thought the day couldn't get any better, we were provided an incredible dinner of TROUT! Our cook, Coronel and Pablo really pulled off an incredible feat. What a treat for us! We're looking forward to an acclimatization day tomorrow. We'll spend some time training in the grass here at Base Camp, as well as go for a short hike to take in the views. Until then, happy 4th, and we'll keep you all in the loop.
RMI Guides Robby, Steve, William and your ESS-Peru team
I climbed Tocllaraju in 1965 from base camp in Ishinka Valley. Fabulous glacier climb. But in those days we were all sick from drinking bad water. Hope your water is better now!!
Berg Heil!
Posted by: Keith Gunnar on 7/5/2017 at 11:03 am
Are you guys climbing Tocllaraju? It is one of the most beautiful mountains to climb. I will
never forget it. Be safe.
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
The drive into the mountains starts by passing through many of Mendoza's Bodega's until the landscape changes to rolling hills peppered with bushy green shrubs. Soon there after we gain elevation and follow the Rio de Mendoza up to the Uspallata Valley where the topography changes yet again to tall jagged peaks colored red,orange, tan and grey. Another hour down the valley takes us to Los Penitentes where we will be calling home tonight. The team spent the afternoon packing and repacking there duffel bags for the trek into the Vacas Valley tomorrow. At the moment we are all probably much to full from dinner and excited to get to bed and finally leave the creature comforts behind for a sleeping bag and tent tomorrow. Everyone is doing fantastic and eager too start our adventure! Tune in tomorrow for more!
RMI Guide Steve Gately
Hey, everyone, this is JJ and Mike and Team Mexico. I'm going to give everyone 3 seconds to guess, that's right, three seconds to guess where we are. You don't need that much time you guessed it, we are all 100%, the entire team, is on the summit of Ixta as we speak. I'll tell you what, it was a beautiful day climbing, actually probably my best day on Ixta of all my years, over a decade of coming here. Just a beautiful day climbing and a great strong team, we worked hard but everyone did well. We are taking a few summit photos, have a little bit of water and food and then we are going to throw the rucksacks back on and head down hill. Don't go too far away we are going to go all the way down to Puebla later this afternoon. And I'm going to hopefully make a summit video as well as post a few photos. Thanks for following along. We are really excited to be up here and we really appreciate your support. So stay tuned a little later and you'll see how beautiful today was climbing. Take care everyone, chao from the summit of Ixta.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
RMI Guide JJ Justman calls from the summit of Ixtaccihuatl, 17,340', Mexico.
Congrats to Rhonda and the rest of the team. Stay strong and be safe.
Posted by: Judy on 11/11/2015 at 10:13 am
Awesome!! Congratulations on summiting Ixta! We love the blog and hearing how the expedition is progressing. Can’t wait to see the photos and videos! Hello to our son, Nick:-)!! Good luck with the rest of the week.
We know you all must be disappointed about not getting to the Summit. But Denali’s conditions are notoriously unpredictable, and you met every challenge with immense courage, skill, and endurance. You should absolutely be proud of your resilience in the face of such harsh conditions. What’s clear from the daily blogs is that you will all return with incredible memories, lasting friendships, and valuable new skills for your next mountain challenges.
Posted by: Chris & Theresa Mizer on 6/5/2025 at 8:24 am
You just can't make this stuff up folks. It started as a normal morning. We woke and ate rice portage, followed by some confusion on when we were leaving and how far we would go. This relaxed sense of time and a schedule is called Nepali time. Everything takes longer then you think and no one has a direct answer. We sat around a bit then we were informed there was going to be a goat sacrifice. Bells, chanting and smoke filled the air as a momma goat and and baby goat were taken into the temple and killed. Then the goats were decapitated by the teeth of a priest. Shortly afterwards we ate some bread and piece of goat and were on our way to the next camp. After walking roughly four hours we arrived to our jungle camp, a forest of marijuana. The porters took machetes to the marijuana, stumped it down, then we set up our tents. With so many people it is a sea of yellow tents, with no room to walk between them. As I write this it has began to sprinkle a little, so we are settling into our home for the night and having tea time. Tomorrow we will hit the trail again, getting closer to our Base Camp.
Talk to you later,
RMI Guide Hannah Smith
Geez Louise! Like I said, what you are experiencing is like a movie! Small town minnesota girl! Who would ever dream that you would be doing what you are!
Hello everyone,
All is well here in the beautiful Khumbu Valley. Today was a scheduled rest/acclimatization day, so we did just that. After breakfast we made a long slow climb up the big hill that’s just behind our tea house. We climbed just up over 16,000ft to help our bodies adjust to the upcoming altitude of BC (base camp). The team did great and thoroughly enjoyed the amazing views in nearly all directions. We could see Makalu in the far off distance which is the world's seventh highest mountain, as well as countless other huge mountains. It’s very surreal to be higher than anyplace in the continental US and be surrounded by so many big mountains.
We spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing at the tea house chatting with other trekkers and recovering from our day’s outing.
Most of us took showers again and rewarmed ourselves by the big wood stove that burns dried Yak dung, just as the Sherpa people have done for centuries. We are a little ways above tree line and firewood is scarce, but Yak dung is plentiful.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and a warm crew
Hello, this is Eric Frank and team up on the North Side of Mt. Shuksan. I just wanted to send a quick note and let everyone know that we reached the summit this morning. It was a textbook climb in perfect weather conditions.
We intend to descend to Lake Anne later this afternoon, and work our way out to the trailhead in the morning.
RMI Guide Eric Frank
June 5, 2017
Day 16 of the hostage crisis and negotiations are at a standstill. Apparently, those that hold the key to the summit have not been impressed with our payment so far. Climbing through a cold and snowy first week and a half impressed no one. Then they would not recognize the currency of toil that got us and all our food and gear to 17,200'. We missed a golden opportunity by a day, as the winds picked up last night, shaking the fabric of our tents and blowing light plumes of snow higher off the mountain.
These conditions entitled the team to breakfast in bed this morning, considering that we left our Posh House at 14,200' to reduce our loads a bit.
But, the sun is shining, we have plenty of food and fuel, and our spirits are still high. After a post breakfast siesta we'll get to work building walls around our new home to keep the tents a little more protected.
We'll be ready to rock this mountain just as soon as she gives us a chance,
Staying warm enough,
RMI Guides Brent, Christina and JT
-640x480.jpg)
I climbed Tocllaraju in 1965 from base camp in Ishinka Valley. Fabulous glacier climb. But in those days we were all sick from drinking bad water. Hope your water is better now!!
Berg Heil!
Posted by: Keith Gunnar on 7/5/2017 at 11:03 am
Are you guys climbing Tocllaraju? It is one of the most beautiful mountains to climb. I will
never forget it. Be safe.
Posted by: Ed Saenz on 7/4/2017 at 9:58 pm
View All Comments