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The clouds blanketed Machame Camp for much of the night and we even had brief periods of rain... all of which made it feel wonderful to wake to crystal clear skies in the morning. We were just on top of thick layers of cloud, but finally we had unobstructed views of Kibo (Kilimanjaro's main peak) above. We ate breakfast and marched out of camp at 8:20, immediately encountering a steep and rocky trail up through a forest of giant heather. There were large numbers of porters -ours and those of neighboring teams- balancing loads on their heads as they wove through the straight up stream of morning traffic. The clouds rose up and swallowed us again for several hours as we steadily gained altitude. Up around 12,000 ft we broke free again and had a better look at the exotic giant scenecios among the heather. 16,000 ft Mount Meru became visible to the west as another island in the cloud sea. We began a traverse along shelves of lava with the boys keeping a sharp eye out for crystals among the ancient flows. The gang easily handled a few steeper steps and we reached a high point of 12,800 ft before dropping down into Shira Camp at 12,500 ft. Then it was an easy and peaceful afternoon of eating napping eating and eating some more. We were treated to a magical evening as the sun dropped into the clouds out beyond the Shira Plateau and the moon and stars took over at entertaining us. Everybody is happy and healthy tonight and getting easily into the rhythms of camp and climbing life. Best Regards RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

Hola from C2... And we did it!!! We climbed and summited today what's arguably one of the most beautiful mountains on Earth. Brian, Tom and James climbed in style the super direct line that after nine pitches of consistent 75 degrees on hard névé and ice takes you to the airy top shy of 20,000ft. We woke up at midnight to a beautiful night, and after breaking trail for half hour to the bergschrund, we found ourselves doing what we came to do; swinging our tools into the frozen element of this wall that is the SW Face of Alpamayo. Right at dawn we were straddling the summit and while tired, the sense of accomplishment was as big as the effort we put forth. We earned every feet of the climb by swinging and kicking and pulling and pushing... Now we are in bed, after having enjoyed another meal prepared two days ago by our cook, which we carried up to reheat in our camp stoves; fried rice with beef and fries... At 18,000ft, that feels like cheating when we see other teams eat freeze-dried food. Did we say we care about style points? That's all for now, we will update you tomorrow of our plans for the last couple days. RMI Guide Elías de Andres Martos and team

Greetings everyone - Our team spent the contingency weather day hanging out in Cheget. We had a rather leisurely start with breakfast at 9:30 due to so many climbers being here in the hotel. But no one seemed to mind the extra sleep after yesterday's climb. We spent the day walking around town, riding ATVs, enjoying the new coffee shop in town and of course horseback riding Russian style! Right now we're all relaxing before heading out to a celebratory dinner with the team. Hopefully we'll survive the vodka associated with tonight's traditional Russian celebration, hosted by our gracious local tour operator. Everyone is in good spirits and looking forward to heading to beautiful St. Petersburg early tomorrow. RMI Guide Casey Grom

On The Map

Hola amigos! It is Robby and Steve and your ESS-Peru team. We are here at High Camp on Nevado Copa and about 16,500 feet and just enjoyed the beautiful sunset up here. Just ate some dinner, now we are brushing our teeth, bedding now and getting ready for tonight's climb, which will come very shortly. We're waking up in the middle of the night, sometime tonight to attempt to summit Nevado Copa, which is just over 20,000 feet high. We certainly have our work cut out for us, but the team is strong and ready. We're having a great time here in Peru in the Cordillera Blanca. We will touch base hopefully from the summit of Nevado Copa tomorrow sometime in the late morning. Until then, hasta luego. RMI Guide Robby Young

RMI Guide Brent Okita called from the Mt. Rainier crater rim with the news, "We are on the summit on a Bluebird Day!" Clear skies, no wind, and views for miles- can't beat a summit like that. The teams spent an hour on top before starting their descent at 7:00 a.m.

Our Alaska Mountaineering Seminar May 17 - 27 team is here in Talkeetna, packed and ready to fly...but sometimes ready is not enough. A Southwest flow over the Aleutians is slowly pushing that warm moisture that brings snow and rain to the range. So we played the game of waiting and lost the luck. Nonetheless the team here is of joyous enthusiasm and energy and we shall try again tomorrow. We will hope for clear skies in the morning. RMI Guide Mike King

Today we left the comforts of Base Camp and moved to Camp One! Our whole team did great on the way up, and we are excited to be making upward progress on the mountain. Our journey today was mostly on rocky trails that wove through moraine material, and finished with walking up a big snowy hill the last hour before camp. The view from here is stunning. We can't see the summit, but we can see shape-shifting clouds rip over it. Looking downhill we can see the warm multi-colored mountains that make the far side of the Vacas Valley. Dinner tonight was not three courses, and it's cold and windy and we no longer have well maintained outhouses... And this is exactly what we came here to do! Everyone is in high spirits. And now the game of chess begins. We're expecting strong winds over night and tomorrow, but we'll see what happens. Wind permitting, our plan for tomorrow is to walk to at least 17,000 feet for acclimatization. Meanwhile, a couple of us guides will move some group food as close to camp two as we can get to set the group up for success if we end up having to make a quick move to camp two in the coming days. As the moon wanes the stars are becoming increasingly more spectacular through this dry and thin air. If it wasn't so cold it would be easy to stay mesmerized all night! Wish us mellow winds and dissipating headaches... RMI Guide Steve Gately and Team

Hi Everyone!! First, the entire team wants to say hello to family and friends back home. Today we spent all day traveling to St. Petersburg, the coolest city in Russia. Needless to say, we are tired. However, the team is going to celebrate our first night here by going to one of my favorite restaurants, Jerome’s, a “French-ish” restaurant. Yes, French! We have eaten plenty of authentic Russian cuisine. Tonight, the team is going to kick back, relax and enjoy the “white lights” of St. Petes! RMI Guide JJ Justman

Hello again everyone Today we had a very nice hike to help with our acclimatization on a nearby peak called Pichincha. It is one of the many local peaks that is situated above Quito and is used by many climbers to help adjust to the higher altitude here in Ecuador. We made use of the gondolas to help us gain access to around 13,000 ft then hiked the additional 2,500 ft to the summit. It took our team roughly 3 hours to gain the top after a little scrambling up the final bit to reach our high point thus far. It was a personal high point for a few of us, and the entire team did a fantastic job. After spending a bit of time on the summit and getting are photos we descended all the back to our hotel for a brief nap before dinner. Everyone is in good spirits and looking forward to tomorrow. RMI Guide Casey Grom

On The Map

Hey, this is Dave Hahn calling in from safari in Tanzania. Hey, we had a great day in Tarangire National Park. We saw hundreds of elephants. We saw a million zebras, gazelles; we saw a couple of male lions sleeping. It was great day, wonderful day. We're at Kikoti Camp, just outside the National Park right now. Unexpectedly, we don't have internet tonight so I'm not sending a dispatch but thought I'd give you a yell and let you all know that we're all doing just fine. And we're looking forward to the very last day of our trip. Tomorrow, we'll go back through Tarangire and we'll make our way back to Arusha. But all is well and we'll be in touch. Thank you. RMI Guide Dave Hahn