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This morning we pulled stakes after a great night’s sleep in La Malintzi and made our way toward Ixta. Along the way we explored the little town of Amecameca, registered with the park and double checked our equipment for the climb. Tomorrow we will head uphill, establishing our high camp on Ixta. The team is doing great and after our afternoon walk, we plan to feast and do our best to duplicate last nights slumber in our new home at 13k! Tomorrow we ride... RMI Jake Beren and Team

This is Dave Hahn calling from Antarctica our Vinson season ended today. About midday, around 11 AM, we flew from Vinson Basecamp back to Union Glacier. Today was a beautiful day out there, big blue sky all around, the clouds were gone and we had good flying conditions back to Union Glacier. The Illyusion came in this evening and my climbers should be getting to Punta Arenas right about now. I'm still in Antarctica; I am going to stay on for one more project down here to the South Pole. T.A, Mindy and Vlado should be enjoying Punta Arenas tonight. A successful trip all around. RMI Guide Dave Hahn

This is Dave Hahn with the RMI Vinson Expedition, V1, we are starting the Vinson season. Myself, Seth Waterfall, Billy Nugent along with our climbers have had a run of good luck now. We flew from Punta Arenas last night. At quarter to midnight we left the ground after a day of stop and go, hoping for a flight and being stopped short earlier in the day. And then finally, late last night we departed Punta Arenas and arrived in Union Glacier around 5 am. Things were great there, it was nice and calm and our good luck continued. During the day the staff at ALE managed to get us all out to Vinson Basecamp and that is where we are sitting right now, on the Branscomb Glacier below Mt. Vinson. We are at about 7,000', it's partly cloudy and again calm. We are excited, after a few days in Torres del Paine, which was not that bad of a delay being in a National Park in Southern Chile, to come on the very next day and already be on the mountain. Everything is looking good now. More when we can, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Monday, May 30, 2022 - 2:40 pm PT

Happy Memorial Day. After a few early mornings, we finally got to "sleep in". Waking up as the sun hit our tents, we were all drinking coffee and making breakfast burritos by 8:30 am. With clear skies above, and the cloud deck sitting right below 11 Camp we loaded up our empty packs and sleds to head downhill into the cloud to grab our cache. After a few short minutes downhill, we filled our packs and sleds back up with the gear and food we had left. The short uphill went by quickly compared to the last few days, and it felt good to shake out the legs before spending the rest of the day resting.

Tomorrow we begin this whole process again, with hopes to cache somewhere above Windy Corner. Until then we will be resting, napping and snacking at camp.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion and Team

Our first rotation up the hill is completed. We came down the Icefall this morning in fresh falling snow, which muffled sound, concealed crevasses and greatly reduced traffic. Normally, after three nights acclimating at Camp One, we'd have gotten up a little earlier and come down a bit sooner in the morning, but daybreak at close to 20,000 ft was a bit different this time around. We had received a foot of snow in the past 24 hours and listened to avalanches running almost constantly down the steep faces of Nuptse and Everest West Shoulder. We weren't terribly anxious to run out and test our luck at finding the path through the icefall, but a few things began to work in our favor. Although no Sherpas were breaking trail from below on such a day, a few teams at Camp One were more anxious to get down than we were. We actually contemplated sitting another day to let things settle and improve, but once a few bigger teams had plowed a trail down and a short break in the storm materialized, we decided to capitalize and descend. We packed and closed our tents up tight and began walking toward Basecamp at around 9:30 AM. It wasn't a quick descent, we were quite careful stepping through the concealing powder and onto shaky ladders as the snowstorm returned to make things interesting. We were all stunned to see that the "horseshoe hotel" had fallen. This was a massive free-standing cube of glacier which we'd been passing under with a fair amount of trepidation. It came down all at once... luckily with no one in the vicinity, and we were amazed to see that the massive chunks of debris had fallen in several directions... But they hadn't bulldozed away the climbing route. The intervening crevasses had done their work and swallowed up a whole lot of hotel. The snows kept falling and we kept working our way down in a quiet cloud. Eventually we came out from under the clouds just as we reached the less hazardous features at the bottom of the Icefall. We weren't able to do everything we wanted on this rotation; it certainly would have been nice to have hiked up and touched ABC (Camp 2) but it would have been foolish in the snowstorm, so we mostly sat in our tents yesterday... But that also can lead to good acclimatization when the tents are high enough. Now we'll enjoy the relative comforts of Basecamp (although the snowstorm has seemed to follow us down) First; tables and chairs and food served up by the plateful... Later showers and shaves and the freedom of walking around without worry of crevasses and cliffs. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

It is the middle of May and the wait for fine weather on Mount Everest continues. Many climbers have started up the mountain so as to be in position should a break come in the next few days. A combination team of Sherpas from several expeditions is bound for the South Col now, hoping to be able to fix the ropes to the top when the wind dies. Our team is obviously hoping that the fixing effort succeeds and that those lining up for a first shot at the top get their shot. We aren't eager to be in that first run though. The weather window is forecasted to be short and the climbers are many, so we will instead take our chances on whatever more substantial break comes afterward. But the waiting is difficult. We are all healthy and feeling strong and we've now been down and resting for some time. We want to climb soon and it is difficult to hold back when others are going for it, but our judgment is that a little more patience is called for to fully accomplish our goals. We are each feeling the frustrations of being in a dead-end valley where the only real outlet is a journey through the Khumbu Icefall. It doesn't make much sense to go through that jumble simply for exercise and so we repeatedly backtrack down the trail toward Gorak Shep, taking on more sensible and vastly safer hiking goals like Kalapathar and Pumori Camp One. Our hope in doing these hikes is that our legs and lungs will be ready for the real thing and that daily hikes will keep our brains from fretting over the wait. It is sometimes a little difficult for us to remember that these 19,000 feet "hikes" in the midst of spectacular peaks and glaciers would be lifetime goals for many and that we are extremely lucky to be living in this place... But of course we are preoccupied with the top vertical mile or so of Mt. Everest right now. Winds are still raking the upper peaks and ridges and temperatures still seem a bit lower than normal for mid-May. Our walks and scrambles on the glacier adjacent to Basecamp reveal slightly less runoff than we'd consider normal. We choose to view this positively in that the Khumbu Icefall won't get up to its full speed while things remain remain cool. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

The Four Day Climb with RMI Guides Casey Grom and Ben Luedtke climbed to Ingraham Flats early this morning. The team enjyoyed the sunrise and a beautiful morning soaking in all the views. They are back at Camp Muir and will be starting their descent to Paradise soon. 

July 15, 2022

We had a long restful night of sleep at base camp and took our time in the morning as we eased into bacon and eggs while enjoying many cups of coffee and tea. In the afternoon we found a good crag near camp where we could work on more rope skills and set up rappel stations. The backdrop of the Ishinca valley and Tocllaraju made for a nice classroom setting. A quick but delicious dinner and early to bed for another alpine start as we put in our bids of Urus Este tomorrow morning.

RMI Guide Alan Davis and team

Wednesday, May 18, 2022 - 11:19 pm PT

Here is the first dispatch from the third RMI Denali team! We are all packed up and ready to fly in the morning. Our team was efficient and prepared today as we organized all the necessary items for a Denali expedition. The weather is beautiful in Talkeetna and we are excited for the climb ahead. 

RMI guides Jackson Breen, Matias Francis, JT Schmitt and team. 

The Five Day Climb teams led by RMI Guides Joe Hoch and Tatum Whatford reached the summit this morning.  Joe reported a stormy night at Camp Muir and a cloudy ascent but a clear morning with light winds as they were descending from the crater rim.  The teams started their descent from the crater rim a little before 7am today.  They will return to Camp Muir for a quick break and then continue down to Paradise.

Congratulations to today's climbers!