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The RMI Artesonraju team made a summit attempt yesterday, reaching 5,600 meters. Technical difficulties kept them from continuing, but the team is giving it another try tonight. Stay tuned! RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos

Hello, this is Eric Frank and the Mexican Volcanoes team. We are at the Refugio at the base of Orizaba. We left Puebla this morning and make a quick stop at Tlachichuca, the small town next to Orizaba, where we had enchiladas for lunch. Got packed up, and then got in the back of some big 4x4 trucks and road up here to the Refugio. The weather is clearing up and hopefully things will turn out for us in the morning. Everyone's in good spirits. We just had a big dinner of spaghetti and getting ready to bed down so that we can get up in just a few hours to launch for our climb in the middle of the night. Wish us luck on our last big objective, and we'll be back in the states with family before too long. RMi Guide Eric Frank

Good morning! This is RMI Guide Eric Frank calling from Goat Creek Camp right in the heart of the North Cascades National Park. This is the final day of our climb of Mt. Goode. We couldn't get a signal to call out last night, so we're just checking in this morning. Yesterday we actually woke up to a fair bit of snow on the rocks for our final 5 pitches to the top of Mt. Goode. We had a pretty entertaining time climbing up through mid 5th last climbing with snow on it. We were able to rappel off the the opposite side of the mountain drop down and walk about 10 miles out to this camp. Today we have 20 beautiful miles on the Pacific Crest Trail. We will be out this evening and touch base then. Take Care!

Our Kilimanjaro climbing team has accomplished something truly remarkable...Eight of us managed to travel from America to Africa without a single missed flight or lost bag. Moses, our bus driver from the Dik Dik Hotel, had champagne ready for the occasion when he gathered the team at Tanzania's Kilimanjaro Airport. He then got us back to our peaceful refuge on the outskirts of Arusha. We ate a late night welcome dinner and started getting to know one another. Realizing that major-league jet-lag was imminent, we retreated to our bungalows and resolved to get a full night of sleep before considering an attempt on a continental high point. Tomorrow we'll begin with a strategy meeting and a packing session. Best Regards, RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Today the group toured the Urubamba River Valley that was and continues to be a fertile farming area for the local people of Cusco. With large varieties of corn and potatoes being grown, we could see terraces that the Inca used reaching well above 12,000 ft. We had several stops on our way to Ollantaytambo, a wonderful Incan site featuring farming terraces, ceremonial stone work and intact buildings used for storing food. Our impromptu stop to sample chicha, a fermented corn drink that locals enjoy while playing a fun coin toss style yard game also yielded two cute puppies sleeping by a fire and a guinea pig farm. Cuy, or guinea pig, is a common form of protein consumed by locals and tourists alike. We wrapped the day finalizing our packs for an early departure. Tomorrow morning we begin our Salkantay trek to Machu Picchu, the entire group is excited to leave Cusco. RMI Guide Mike King

Greetings, RMI blog followers! This is your ESS-Peru team standing on the top of Pisco Oeste at 18,871ft. Beautiful day as always in the Cordillera Blanca. Barely any wind and we are standing in the sun. We're all super psyched to get up this high in the culmination of our trip. Our crew has a very important message for those folks at home. [Team cheers!] We're going to enjoy the sunshine on the top for a bit more and then start walking down, then our journey home begins. Thanks for following along. RMI Guide Robby Young

So there we were, moving into the "Blanca". A few hours of hiking brought us to the mouth of Quebarada Ishinca. With "burros" hauling the big part of our load, we arrived in style to Ishinca Base Camp, home for the next 7 days. Unsettled weather only allowed brief glimpses of the ice-cloaked, jagged "rajus" above. If our senses weren't already overstimulated enough, we sat down to a dinner of fresh trout at 14,300'. Stormy skies passed leaving us with a magnificent sea of stars highlighted by the Southern Cross. Until tomorrow, "buenas noches". -Spanish climbing word of the day; la cumbre (the summit) RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos

Hello from Moscow - Our second RMI Team has gathered in Moscow to begin our trip to Mt. Elbrus. New beginnings for me and a new adventure for all. Today we had a beautiful sunny day here in Moscow and spent the morning exploring the beautiful sites on a great city tour. Check out the video to see what we saw!! RMI Guide JJ Justman

Hello! Today our team had a great day acclimatizing on Peak Cheget. We had gorgeous views of Mt. Elbrus the whole way up and we are excited to head on up to the mountain tomorrow. Here is a video of our day. Enjoy! RMI Guide JJ Justman

On The Map

Greetings from Vinson Base Camp, 7000 feet in elevation on the Branscomb Glacier. We were reasonably confident that we’d get here today, but it wasn’t a slam dunk. The weather wasn’t quite right at the start of the day for flying through big mountains, so we took it easy, enjoying breakfast and lunch in the fine dining tent at Union Glacier. The clouds out at Vinson began to break and a Twin Otter fired up to start doing laps. Ours was the third lap... off and on again as clouds drifted in and out, but finally on for real. We left Union a bit after 4 PM and considered ourselves lucky to squeak in to VBC... there were no more laps after ours as snow clouds rolled into the Branscomb. We began building camp at 5 PM. It took a bit to get sorted out, dug in and anchored down, but we were right where we wanted to be for all of that. Eventually the team assembled for dinner in our very own, freshly built dining tent. The snow clouds rolled out again and we had views of Vinson’s great Western escarpment and even of the summit pyramid up at 16,000 ft. It stayed cloudy and murky in every other direction, but we got enough sun to make going to bed easy. It is definitely colder here, up about 4,000 feet higher than where we started today, but right now, at midnight it is pleasantly calm and the sun is shining on our camp. Best Regards RMI Guide Dave Hahn