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Monday, June 2, 2025 - 11:25 pm PT

We woke up to the muffled sound of snowfall on our tents. Once we made our way out of the tents, it was obvious that a challenging morning would be ahead of us. Seeing if weather or visibility would improve enough to break trail back uphill, past our cache, and to 11,000' Camp. After wandering around camp, chatting with all the other guide teams and sipping a cup of coffee. We began breakfast, a mellow morning of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and fig bars. As we ate, we waited to see if weather improved, and waited, and waited some more. Sadly weather did not improve, snowfall just became more heavy and the winds began to increase. Around 10A we officially made the call that it would be a weather day. So everyone made their way into the tents and hunkered down. Movies were watched, books were read, and world problems were solved. Finally around 7P we all came back to share dinner. World famous jambalaya chef'd up by Hannah, and made a game plan to hopefully move tomorrow.

Fingers crossed.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion

Sunday, June 8, 2025 - 1:15 pm PT

6/7/25 - Dustin, Lacie, and Will's Team

Another day well spent in the most awe inspring, humbling terrain I've ever seen. Our team is in the groove and we are making moves in our bid to climb as high as this mountain will allow. Our goal today-- climb to 13,500' from 11 Camp to cache food and supplies for later in our expedition. After debating way too long about what snacks to keep in camp and what to cache (pro tip... do your packing the night before so you aren't the slow poke in the morning like me) we set out for the climb donning our technical gear and crampons up Motorcycle Hill towards our cache objective just past Windy Corner. While the change to crampons from snowshoes was a welcome one, it means we are entering more consequential terrain and great care must go into each and every step. Today we got our first taste of the sharp side of the mountain. While the weather started out nice we soon found out where Windy Corner gets it's name from. As we navigated the labyrinth of crevasses and "holes" we were met with strong winds, blowing snow, and the most raw conditions mother nature has thrown at us yet. Though brutal at times we achieved our objective and morale is high. I won't name names but one of us even brought our snacks up and back down again just to get a little more workout in! This place is unforgiving but we are all learning and growing together as a team. Tomorrow we will enjoy a well deserved rest day before continuing our journey. Oh, and.... HI MUM, LOVE YOU!

RMI Climber Ben

Thursday June, 12, 2025 9:21pm PDT

Our final rest day in the books. We let the sun warm our tents before we finally crawled out to share a meal of hashbrowns and eggs. After a relaxed and slow morning, we then spent the day basking in the sun like lizards, seeing what other climbers were offering up, and getting our gear ready for the summit push - which would be starting tomorrow.

We are all very excited and looking forward to moving to 17,000’ camp tomorrow.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion & Team

Sunday, June 8, 2025 - 9:55 am PT

Holy cow the team crushed it today. Woke up to lightly cloudy skies, but visibility.  We threw any remaining items to be cached into our packs, ate a quick breakfast of Cinnamon Toast Crunch and just as the sun was hitting camp we began walking up Motorcycle Hill. After a quick break on top of Motorcycle Hill (where the guides applied glitter to celebrate my birthday), we made our way up the steep Squirrel Hill, and across the Polo Fields toward the base of Windy Corner. As we made our way across the Polo Field the snow lightly began to fall and winds were picking up. As we climbed towards Windy Corner, winds were gusting and visibility was decreasing. Teams made a strong push around Windy Corner, through the broke part of the glacier, past 13,500' and all the way to 14 Camp.

At 14,000' Camp we took a nice long break, dug a cache hole, threw on more layers to weather the storm and left all our gear to return to in a few days. Layers on, we made our way back now in moderate snowfall, strong winds, and poor visibility. The team put their head down and made it back to camp in good time. After the long, and impressive day we all shared some Jambalaya and cosmic brownies with candles. It was a great day, and set our team up well to move to 14,000' Camp when weather allows.

RMI Guide Nikki Champion

Tuesday, May 27, 2025 - 12:02 am PT

Day 10 of eating our way across Denali brought to you by RMIGuides.com…as we all lay in our tents in the frigid cold morning air, waiting with bated breath for the verdict go/no go for the day, are we going for a stroll up to 17,000' Camp or will we chill at camp for another day waiting for our perfect window and eating as many snacks as humanly possible? The more important thing we were all waiting to hear is “breakfast in 5”. Because snacks are definitely not enough calories obviously for this group.  These words drive us all to struggle out of our cozy sleeping bags, and put on our puffy pants and jackets, hats and boots as quickly as possible to see what delicious 5 star Yelp meal awaits us to start our day…this morning, they had me at “bacon”.  This word is special to me as I live with the most incredible vegetarian on the planet, my spouse Dr. Lauralynn Jansen, who is an amazing cook and human being, but there is no way in hell she is ever cooking bacon in our kitchen. Gotta get it when I can! Love ya babe!  We stagger out of our tents making our way to the warm cook tent like we haven’t eaten in days and get settled shoulder to shoulder and all check in on each other and on our sleep for that night, sipping a hot drink as we wait for our gourmet bagels and BACON!!

Jason apparently got a full 7 hours and was bragging just a bit. Said he was amped to get the acclimatization hike and summit attempt all knocked out today and call it good.  He may need to lay off the moxy a bit or the rest of us need to get on board and step up our game! I think the rest of us were not necessarily on the same page….as far as my sleep, the outstanding loaner inflatable mat allowed me about a good solid 15 minutes of comfort as it proceeded to slide right out from under me like it was greased up with Crisco prior to me using it.  I relished that precious 15 minutes however.  I’ll take the short stints of comfort when I can get it. 

After breakfast we decided to take a walk around the camp to stretch out the legs and do some meet and greet with other climbers which ended up being bartering for toilet paper and kielbasas (shocker) as we certainly need to make sure we do not run out of food or TP at this stage of the game. That kielbasa could potentially save our lives for sure in the long run and you know, that TP speaks for itself.  We also had a nice visit with the Park Rangers and we made our way back to camp to some yoga, stretching, pushups, 7-min abs, and some squats to get the blood pumping. Oh how I miss going for a run, but this will do for now as the energy expenditure and effort is about to go up exponentially in the next few days much to our chagrin. Welcome to the reality of why we are here. 

Some home renovations also took place today for our three musketeers tent that needed some leveling work for sure. Team effort, supervised by Task Master Juan (much less critical than previous Project Manager Ethan for sure) provided a much needed leveling upgrade to our snow flooring which will hopefully keep me from unintentionally violating tent space as I roll off my mat. We were also super pumped to see our RMI Team come in from their summit that gave us hope for our team and the effort it will take to reach the top.

Meanwhile, the cook tent was transformed into Casino Royale with Ocean’s 15 blowing up (minus Brad Pitt and George Clooney- sorry guys) as Farkle die were flying and high stakes betting was taking place for Snickers, gorp, sausage, Oreos and other high value items that we certainly don’t have enough of already.  If memory serves me correctly, Senior Juan put the smackdown on the other players and holds bragging rights until the next game fired up.  In addition, Christmas came early as Seth showed up later in the day with an additional inflatable mat for us to use so we will be living large in Musketeer Central.  A special thanks to Grace for burning the incense as it’s getting a bit ripe in these parts let’s be honest and it was lovely to the smell…We have really enjoyed this down time to enjoy each other’s company and continue to rest, hydrate and of course eat… speaking of eating, we hear the hot water brewing as our Master Chef Seth once again prepare the evening meal of Jambalaya and Oreo Cheesecake deliciousness. Shut the front door!  Thank you again to our fearless leaders Seth, Jackson and Ray.  Especially for taking care of my feet. I continue to embrace and appreciate each and every moment of this journey and look forward to what tomorrow brings to this team. 

Thanks for all of your support! It is greatly appreciated!

-RMI Climber Shannon

Friday, June 6, 2025 - 10:45 am PT

Team Dustin/Lacie/Will rose early to low winds, partly sunny skies, & a delightful breakfast of bagels, cream cheese, bacon, & coffee. We broke camp and began our move to Camp 2 at 11,000 feet. The early part of the climb was hot with bright sun, to which one of our Lone Star State participants proclaimed “Welcome to Texas!” The weather gradually turned cloudy with snow which seems to be our mantra but we made good time up the steep terrain. We set up camp and our guides prepared yet another great dinner. The hot sauce selection is truly five stars. The team crashed in anticipation of a full day tomorrow back-carrying yesterday’s cache and training.

--Climber Robert 

PS Happy first birthday as a mom to Melissa!

The Four-Day Climb from May 26–29, led by RMI Guides Dave Hahn and James Bealer, was unable to make a summit attempt this morning due to sustained high winds and stronger gusts. The teams remained safely sheltered at Camp Muir and will begin their descent to Paradise later this morning.

Sunday, June 8, 2025 - 11:01 pm PT

It started snowing yesterday afternoon while we were doing our carry, and it seems it hasn't stopped since. Heavy snowfall has made our entire world a snow globe. We woke up to the sound of snowfall on the tent, a signal to us that today would be another weather day here at 11,000' Camp. After our big effort yesterday, a little bit of a mellow morning was welcomed. So after a later alarm we all gathered in the cook tent for some toasted bagels, cream cheese and bacon. The day continued on with heavy snowfall covering every past sign of other teams or climbers. People would cycle out every hour to brush or shovel off the tents and by the next hour, the snow had just refilled. Wading from one camp to another was a waist deep adventure. After hours of keeping the camp unburied we had yet again, some burritos - and chatted about our plan for tomorrow. The big move. We are all excited about the prospect of a new camp, flat tent platforms, and one step closer to the summit. The weather looks a bit more promising so we are going to bed optimistic.

One more thing - happy birthday to Brandon's Mom!

RMI Guide Nikki Champion

The Four Day Climb June 3 - 6 led by RMI Guides Brent Okita and George Hedreen reached the summit of Mt. Rainier.  The ropes teams were walking into the crater rim around 6:30 am PT.  It's a beautiful day with clear skies.  This marks summit #599 for RMI Guide Brent Okita.  Wow!

After enjoying some time in the crater the teams will descend to Camp Muir and then Paradise later today.

Congratulations to all of today's climbers.

Thursday May 29, 2025 11:15 pm PDT

The rest day at 14K. Waiting on the weather.

99% of people come to Denali with the sole aspiration of reaching the summit. Don’t be like these folks, they are basic and miss out While tent-bound and waiting for our weather window (hopefully Saturday or Sunday by the way, put it on your calendars), we’ve been busy with:

1. Building an ice monument at camp to honor the ice Pharaohs that will last a thousand suns.
2. Setting up an HOA and developing our surrounding community.
3. Reenacting 12 Angry Men, except the crime is who left a covert poop in our bathroom?
4. Putting up “Wanted” posters for Shannon’s friend, the elusive Bill “Big Moxy” Marshall.
5. Filming our workout tape, Body by Denali, guaranteed to deliver muscle loss in 22 days.

Once we complete all these side quests, I think we unlock a free ride to the top.

-  RMI Climber Jason