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Posted by: James Bealer
Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades
This weekend our Backcountry Ski and Ride course had an excellent time learning the fundamentals of backcountry skiing. Saturday gave us a light dusting of fresh snow as we practiced our rescue skills and learned how to move as a group in the backcountry.
The next day, we practiced making terrain decisions and students navigated the group through the ascents and descents of our long tour. We ended up having beautiful weather for most of the course and had the whole mountain to ourselves on Sunday.
Our students are excited to use their new skills for upcoming ski descents of local Washington mountains as well as skiing corn with their friends.
RMI Guide James Bealer & Team
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Joe Hoch, Axel Ryd, Daniel May, Leif Bergstrom, Seth Burns
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
RMI Four Day Climb teams reached the summit of Mt. Rainier around 6 am PT today. The climb took slightly longer than it has been due to many climbers on the route this morning. RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer & Joe Hoch reported great conditions with clear skies, light breeze and nice cool temperatures. The teams were able to spend about an hour on the summit enjoying the views and taking photos. They began their descent from the crater rim shortly after 7 am. Once back at Camp Muir the teams will take a short break and repack their gear for the final 4.5 mile hike down to Paradise.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
Posted by:
Categories: Mountaineering Fitness & Training
“Do you train?” A climber recently asked me as we descended the Disappointment Cleaver on Mt. Rainier. My answer: “Well, to be honest, training to most guides is a way of life.” We don’t HAVE TO go for a run, lift weights, and bike all day; we GET TO. Training and performing are both mentally demanding to do and to motivate for. My remedy is to remove the need to motivate and intentionally make training part of who I am. There are two ways to view the 5 A.M. wake up to go to the gym: The first - it’s a choice you make every day and the second - it’s what you do. Consciously removing the decision to get out the door and train makes the process easier. I was suffering from decision making fatigue just the other day as I tried to decide which Tillamook ice cream to buy, but had no problem walking out the door to get in a jog because it wasn’t a choice. On days when it seems harder to get moving, I tell myself; “Well, there is no decision to make. Here we go.”
What do many of us guides do for training? You name it and guides are doing it: road biking, mountain biking, rock climbing, yoga, HITT, sprinting, jogging, swimming, skiing, weight lifting, sit-ups, bouldering, and on and on. The guiding lifestyle lends itself well to activity and a solid foundation of endurance, and as a result our training may be less structured. We all make choices around what’s important to us. If I am building fitness for a specific climb however, I will be more organized about my approach, dividing my training into specific categories and foci to more efficiently reach the gains that I’m depending on. This is probably more applicable to many of the climbers I work with, for whom their next climb likely is one of the largest athletic feats they have taken on in their life.
Training takes time in what is often a busy schedule. What if we took 5 to 10 minutes from different ways we spend our time each day (time on our computers, socializing, food preparation, tv watching, house cleaning, shopping, sleeping, social media) and put that into fitness? There is no way I can navigate your personal time management, but it is all a compromise and we can do almost anything but not everything.
There are lots of good blogs here on types of workout and training preparation routines so I’m not going to outline specific workouts here but instead link to some of my favorite references:
https://www.uphillathlete.com/training-plans/
https://www.redbull.com/us-en/lindsey-vonns-training-regimen-will-wreck-you
https://www.rmiguides.com/resources/fitness-and-training
http://www.fitclimb.com/page/6-week-beginner-mountaineering
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Christina Dale has led climbing expeditions all over the world - from Everest Base Camp to the Mexican volcanoes to the summit of Denali. She’s skied from the top of Chilean volcanoes, peaks in Patagonia, and across Mount Cook. During the summer, she’s a regular on Rainier. She spends her winters ski patrolling at Crystal Mountain, with her avalanche search and rescue dog in tow.
Questions? Comments? Share your thoughts here on the RMI Blog!
Posted by: Brent Okita, Leon Davis, Lindsay Mann
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mt. McKinley
Elevation: 17,200'
Brent from High Camp after Summit Day
On The Map
Gary, Congrats! It’s been awesome to follow along! Rory keeps asking me “how does Uncle Gary do that?” He’s excited to get back to the climbing wall! Love, Lorrie, Chas, Carson and Rory
Posted by: Lorrie, Chas, Carson & Rory on 6/16/2012 at 4:37 pm
Congratulations Kristen! We want to hear all about it when you get back to the Upper Valley.
Posted by: ASOLO USA on 6/15/2012 at 1:39 pm
Greetings from Vinson High Camp @ 12,500. Much nicer day. No wind. Up in 6 hrs 15 min. We are looking good for top tomorrow. Other teams rested at high camp today. Forecast is for continued good weather. We caught the 99.2% total eclipse this morning at 4:44 am. We were able to see Venus, but no stars. Still pretty bright out, surrounded by ice and snow, but a different light. We enjoyed it. Team is psyched for tomorrow. Stay tuned.
Best Regards,
Posted by:
Categories: Guide News
Thanks for the inspiring videos. Awesome to see people doing what I have wanted to do my entire life.
Posted by: Joe Winter on 12/17/2012 at 6:42 pm
Nice videos. I watched them all, although I have seen a few of them before. Happy Holidays!
Posted by: Dan on 12/14/2012 at 12:53 pm
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Posted by: Christina Dale, Jess Matthews
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
Congratulations to all!! We are looking forward to seeing you at Paradise!
Posted by: Delene gillespie on 8/1/2019 at 8:39 am
Howdy everyone back home.
All is well in Tanzania. We’ve had great weather and the team is humming along really well.
We hit the trail just after 8am and hiked for an hour before taking our usual 15 minute break, then back on the trail for another hour and so on. All total today we hiked for just over six hours before reaching Barranco Camp. Our gracious Kilimanjaro porters have been working very hard and we arrive once again to a camp set up and ready for us.
Along the way we passed around the famous Lava Tower reaching just over 15,000' setting new altitude records for many. We also passed by many of the giant groundsels and towering Senecio trees that made us feel as if we were in some crazy Dr. Suess story.
The team is in good spirits and doing great.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and the Kili crew
Karl, Derek,
Congrats to the Summit!!!! What an achievement! Cheers! Jack & Mary
Posted by: Jack on 9/4/2022 at 6:48 am
To Eric: We all look forward to reading the updates each day and can’t wait to hear all about the trek! We miss you and love you. Stay safe.
Posted by: Vicki Sutton-Beattie on 9/2/2022 at 9:36 am
Posted by: Casey Grom, Abby Westling, JT Schmitt, Lily Emerson, Jenna Burkey, Cal Seeley
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,080'
Continuous rain overnight at Camp Muir, kept the Five Day climb July 2 - 6 teams from making their summit attempt. RMI Guide Casey Grom reported a slight break in the weather but the rain was continuing. They plan to leave Camp Muir around 9:30 am for a hopefully dry walk down to Paradise. The teams should return to Rainier BaseCamp in the early afternoon.
Thank you Abby, Casey and all the guides for your leadership and hard work to help us all develop our mountaineering skills.
Posted by: Jeff Wrobel on 7/7/2022 at 7:24 am
Joe, Dan and Seth - You three were amazing guides, very compassionate and set achievable expectations. You stuck to your words and engaged with everyone and made this a memorable and successful climb. I had Fun and you made feel like i was Doing a regular training hike up Mt Si or Mailbox Peak beyond DC.
Thanks again!
AsvinMandadi
Posted by: Asvin Mandadi on 8/1/2021 at 10:56 am
Nice work!!
Posted by: Andre on 7/12/2021 at 7:23 pm
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