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Our attempt on the highest mountain in Antarctica is coming together. We've got our entire team -four climbers and one guide- pulled together in Patagonia to kick this thing off. The "normal" air travel is finished... we even got all of our baggage through the system. We celebrated by walking about the town of Punta Arenas, Chile in unseasonably warm and comfy weather. The team fought off jet lag long enough to enjoy a great meal together. We've got to get to work in the morning to prep for a Saturday morning departure for the Ice, but now it is time to sleep hard and recover from overexposure to those evil airline seats. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

The Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir led by RMI Guides Dave Hahn and Billy Nugent attempted to summit Mt. Rainier early this morning, but snow instability forced the teams to turn at the top of Disappointment Cleaver today. The is headed back to Camp Muir and will spend their remainder of their time on the mountain training before descending to back to Rainier Basecamp tomorrow afternoon. Congratulations to today's team!

The expansive extent of the Tibetan Plateau dominated our conversation during our approach drive from Lhasa. Today, we put boots on the ground and had the pleasure of experiencing this beautiful wide open space first-hand. An active 'rest' day here at Base Camp started with a 2-hour hike up to the top of a neighboring 17,400' "hill" in order to stimulate our muscles and help coax our acclimatization process along. We spent the afternoon sharing life lessons and enjoying each other's company in the dining tent over an unending supply of coffee, tea, and grilled Nepalese meat snacks. On an expedition of this length and this altitude, our rest days prove just as important as the climbing itself. Tomorrow, we plan to load another 1000 kilos of gear onto yaks and make our way to Advanced Base Camp at 19,400'. 'Progress' as we say. The crew is pumped, and enjoying the beginnings of true expedition life. Until tomorrow. RMI Guides Robby, Adam, Elias, and your Shishapangma team. PS- Go Blue, beat UCF.

This is Zeb Blais and team checking in from 16,000-foot, Moraine Camp on Pisco Oeste. We had a great day today moving up to camp- pretty leisurely. We are now tucked in, fueled up and ready to make a charge on Pisco Oeste early in the morning. So we'll check in when we get back. Until then. RMI Guide Zeb Blais

It rained last night. Then it fired off a couple blinding flashes of lightning with a throaty growl of thunder that rolled on and on for what seemed like minutes. Then it rained some more. We did the only logical thing we could think of this morning and put on the brightest clothing we all could find and crawled out to eat a breakfast of champions: cocoa puff and coffee. The rain eventually diminished and we grabbed empty packs and returned to our cache to be reunited with the rest of our gear. An afternoon of rest and staying dry led to dinner, which showed promise with a brief glimpse of the sun. But it was not to be; within 30 seconds of putting out the dinner call, the hail began, which became rain once again. Despite the 110% humidity, spirits are high, and we keep looking upwards at our next step, the glacier climbing towards Lenz Rocks and eventually the summit. We shared our current reading endeavors, learning about the reality of fish farming, and the Russian stereotypes portrayed by Dostoyevsky. Tomorrow we will try for an acclimatization hike and small carry to Lenz, with an eye towards making that move the day after to start our summit push. We'll see if that lines up with the weather's ideas. Best from a soggy camp one, RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, JM Gorum, and Team

June 26, 2016 - 10:49 pm PT Our team did an excellent job relaxing this day away. We continued our tradition of rest day brunch, and then dispersed for several hours of Uno playing, book reading, and 'nappacino' taking. There was a lingering feeling of excitement in the air- partially a celebratory vibe because of Pepper's birthday, partially an anticipatory tingle because our intention to move to high camp tomorrow will put us in striking distance of the summit. After today our bodies and minds are recharged for tomorrow's move up to 17K camp, and we will see what the mountain has for us there. RMI Guide Mike Haugen

On The Map

After two days of training the Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons June 19 - 24, 2016 began their climb. They drove this morning to their trail head near the White River Camp Ground. RMI Guide JJ Justman checked in this afternoon to let us know the team was setting up camp on a beautiful day. Everyone is great and they are going to spend the evening learning how to build snow anchors. Tomorrow they will break camp and ascend to Camp Schurman, their High Camp.

Kilimanjaro...Kilimanjaro!!! Team Orlando is in full effect!! The entire team flew together to Tanzania and we just finished a great dinner. I am going to let you know why I love guiding here in Africa...The People! It has been two years since my last trip here and as soon as I arrived I was welcomed with the kindest smiles and warmest hugs. Our local staff are like family to me and it's so nice to see how lovely they treat our teams. We are so happy to be here!! RMI Guide JJ Justman

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

On The Map

The team did an incredible job today with our Carry to Camp 1 (16,200ft). The route starts off traveling up the moraine to the Glaciar de Los Ingleses. The terrain is loose and awkward, peppered with penitentes as tall as 6 feet. Penitentes are towers of snow and ice that form from different melting patterns in the snowpack, specifically from wind transported glacial pumice. After that the terrain eases off as we pick our way through a maze of rock debris covering old glacial ice. We finish with what is normally steep loose scree but we had the pleasure of ascending snow which made the walking much nicer. This portion is a lot of work as we're carrying 40-50lbs packs and are entering an elevation of over 16,000ft. We reached Camp 1, left some gear, teased our bodies with a new high altitude to jump start the acclimatization process and took in the views. We're now back at basecamp and everyone is resting before another enormous basecamp dinner. Tomorrow we look forward to a well deserved rest day. Keep your fingers crossed the weather stays nice for us! Hasta mañana! RMI Guide Steve Gately

On The Map