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Hey, this is JM Gorum checking from Mt. Elbrus. We are not on the summit right now but we were a few hours ago. The team summited around 9 am local time. It was pretty windy up there so we didn't hang out for too long. Thankfully it was also quite warm, but now we're almost back down to the huts. The team did an excellent job. We are planning to go all the way back down to Cheget today. We will check in later and let you know how that goes. The team says says hi to everyone at home. RMI Guide JM Gorum

On The Map

The Mt. Rainier Summit Climb, led by RMI Guide Mike Haugen, was 100% successful to the summit this morning! After topping out at 8:00 a.m., the team was able to enjoy over an hour taking in the views before starting their descent at 9:30 a.m. Congratulations team!

The Five Day Summit Climb, led by RMI Guide Sid Pattison, made a successful ascent to the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. As they stood on the crater of this mighty volcano, the climbers found themselves in a cloud cap with strong winds. Around 8:30 AM, they were initiating their descent. Congratulations to all of the team members!

Saturday, July 9, 2016 - 8:46 p.m. PDT As planned, today was something of a forced rest day at 11,000 ft. By virtue of our having slept through the night here -which we certainly needed- the next option would have been to travel the lower glacier in the heat of the day... Or to rest up and aim for going out tonight when it gets cold and the glacial surface is frozen and safer for travel. We are all about option two. So the team woke late and folks talked about having gotten a real night's sleep for the first time in weeks. We ate long slow breakfasts and then went back to sleep. It is possible that this will be our last full day in the park, so many took longer looks than usual at the ice and rock cliffs surrounding and towering over us. At first the sky looked threatening, as if it might get to snowing again, but by dinner things had changed back to calm, sunny, blue skies... making us all optimistic about smooth travel out the glacier and the chance for prompt flying from the mountain tomorrow morning. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Hey Everyone, This is JJ Justman and Pepper Dee and Team 3 Aconcagua. We had one heck of a day you can probably hear the wind here. We fought the battle and we got up here to Camp One at 16,500 feet. Pretty adverse conditions, but the team just did a fantastic job! Actually Pepper and I are really impressed with these guys, none of them hired any porters and when we got to camp they set up the tents themselves. They're anchoring them out right now and getting moved, it's been a long day. I wanted to write a dispatch to let you know how great the team is doing, but we're running a little bit behind schedule. We've got some stoves to get going and get some snow melt into water to get re-hydrated and make sure these folks are doing well. Everyone's doing great! Thanks for Following along, Tough day to get up here at Camp One, but everyone safe and sound. As usual we're still having fun and the views are only getting better! We're probably going to have a couple of lazy days here. The forecast is calling for a quite a bit of wind for the next several days, so we're not in a huge rush to go running up hill. It is nice to get a little higher and improve on our acclimatization. Again, thanks for following along and we'll touch base soon.

Our Ecuador Volcanoes team has all arrived in Ecuador without complications. We started our first morning in country with a team breakfast and then departed on a city tour of the historic, colonial are of Quito and a trip to Mitad del Mundo (literally the middle of the world), or the Equator. We had good views of our climbing objectives, Cotopaxi and Cayambe, from El Panecillo, a hill in southern Quito that looks out over the city. From there we toured around “old town” Quito, visiting churches, parks, and the presidential palace, all while learning about the rich cultural history of Ecuador. The last stop on our trip was to the equator, where we visited an ethnographic museum. In addition to information and exhibits about the many different cultures of Ecuador, we stood on the equatorial line, with one foot in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern. We’re headed out for a team dinner before getting some rest in preparation for our first acclimatization hike of the volcano Rucu Pichincha, which sits on the flanks of Quito. We’ll check in tomorrow to let you know how our first venture into very high altitude goes. Thanks for checking in! RMI Guide Mike Walter and Team

Hello again everyone,

After a relatively good nights sleep the team woke early to have breakfast and head higher up the mountain to do some training, acclimating and put ourselves in position to climb Cayambe.

Unfortunately the clouds had gathered and some light rain greeted us for breakfast, and didn’t let up until this afternoon. However, we made the most of it by moving up to the climbers hut (Refugio), getting settled and we were able to sneak out for a quick hike to help our lungs prepare for the deep breathing we’ll be doing tonight. 

Here in just a short while we will have our summit talk, where we will review the climb and game plan for tonight. Then we’ll have an early dinner before hopefully climbing into our sleep bags for a few hours of rest. The plan is to wake up around 10:30pm (yes…you read that right) have breakfast and hit the trail around 11:30.
I’m expecting the climb to take in the neighborhood of 7-8  hours to reach the summit if weather cooperates.

Everyone is doing well, a little excited and a little nervous, but that’s all very normal for climbing big mountains.

We’ll touch base as soon as we make it back down tomorrow.

Wish us luck with the weather!!

RMI Guides Casey, Jackson, Fatima and the Cayambe crew.

We woke to crystal clear skies today at Machame Camp and so the team got their first views of Kibo, Kilimanjaro’s central peak. We could see the hanging glaciers and ice fields sparkling in the morning light. Way down below us, there were clouds, but they were minding their own business and didn’t seem capable of rising up to swallow us. After a fine breakfast, we hit the trail at 8 AM with Philibet leading the charge. It was a slow charge as the trail steepened and got a whole lot more rocky just out of camp. But we made good progress anyway, gaining altitude through a forest of giant heather. Directly behind us and out on the western horizon was the giant pyramid of Mt Meru, Tanzania’s third highest peak rising out of a sea of low cloud. We gained a ridge crest and traveled along it toward Kibo for a ways before banging a left turn and traversing a series of old lava ledges. Finally, at about 12,700 ft we turned a corner and walked onto the broad Shira Plateau. We finished up by dropping downhill briefly before coming into our new camp at 12,500 ft. We’d seen our first Senecios and Lobelias, some of the distinctive endemic plants of Kilimanjaro. We’d gotten the walking finished in about five hours which gave us plenty of time for a relaxing afternoon in Shira Camp. The team reviewed their Swahili vocabulary at 4:30 tea time and watched a fine sunset a few hours later out over the old volcanic towers of Shira. We filed into the big dining tent by headlight at 7:00 and were once again greatly impressed with the meal that Tosha had produced in his simple kitchen tent. It was another fabulous evening for stars and planets... and sleep as well. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

Today was perfect from start to finish. Perfect for resting and catching up on our acclimatization and hydration. It was another cloudless and windless day, at Low Camp -that is- our radio check-in with basecamp revealed that they were in fog down below. But we had fine weather and a forecast for more of the same. We had a leisurely breakfast followed by prolonged snacking and napping. The troops were instructed to down a few liters each of water as their primary chore for the day. After a couple of longer, tougher days, this was a welcome change and we hope the rest sets us up well for the move to higher altitude tomorrow. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

RMI Guide Steve Gately led the Expedition Skills Seminar - Emmons team to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. The team topped out at 8:15 a.m. and enjoyed breezy conditions on the summit. The Emmons Seminar descended to Camp Schurman where they will spend their last night on the mountain. We look forward to seeing them in Ashford tomorrow afternoon. Congratulations climbers!