Mt. Rainier: Four Day Climb Team Turns at Cathedral Gap
May 8, 2021
Posted by: Hannah Smith, Dustin Wittmier
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,700'
The Four Day Climb Team led by RMI Guides Hannah Smith and Dustin Whittmier were turned by winterlike conditions on their summit attempt of Mt. Raineir this morning. The team reach Cathedral Gap at about 10,700'. The team has started their descent from Camp Muir and are en rote to Paradise.
Congratulaions to Today'sTeam!
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Mt. Rainier; Five Day Climb Team Turned by Weather at 13,000
May 6, 2021
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Andy Bond, Ben Luedtke, Dominic Cifelli, Jack Delaney, Luke Wilhelm
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 13,000'
RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer and Andy Bond led their team of climbers on the Five Day Climb May 3 - 7 to 13,000' today before deteriorating weather forced them to turn around.
The team completed their Mountaineering School on Tuesday and ascended to Camp Muir yesterday for their first night at 10,080'. They will return to Camp Muir today for their final night on the mountain. We look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp tomorrow.
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A valiant climb made by all! Good work, climbers. Sorry you did not reach the summit, but glad for your safety. <3
Posted by: Lauren Kraft on 5/7/2021 at 9:20 am
Bummer.
Hope they get the chance and make the summit.
Posted by: Don West on 5/6/2021 at 9:56 pm
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Mt. Rainier: Hahn, Gorum and Teams Turn at 12,600’
May 5, 2021
Posted by: Dave Hahn, Avery Parrinello, Cal Smith, JM Gorum, Ben Ammon, Matias Francis
Categories:
Elevation: 12,600'
The Five Day Climb May 1 - 5 led by RMI Guides Dave Hahn and JM Gorum has returned to Camp Muir after making their summit attempt today. The team reached 12,600' today before being forced to turn around due to route conditions. On Tuesday the group ascended to Camp Muir and spent time yesterday getting in more glacier training and exploring parts of the route before morning their attempt this morning. The group will pack up their gear and decend to Paradise this afternoon.
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maybe i have previously been on your list. I know i have been for years. I climbed with you guys in 1969, 1970, and 1972
Also, Please add my two sons, one of which climbed with you in 2016 I believe. also, my daughter-in-law.
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Posted by: Bill Bussey on 5/6/2021 at 8:17 am
Great work!!
Posted by: TK Ito on 5/6/2021 at 7:45 am
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Mt. Rainier: Climbing Team reaches Summit
May 3, 2021
Posted by: Eric Frank, Hannah Smith
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
RMI Guides Eric Frank and Hannah Smith led a team of climbers with the Inspiration4 Team to the summit of Mt. Rainier today. The teams enjoyed nice conditions on the mountain and a direct route via the Ingraham Direct.
Congratulations to the Inspriation4 Team!
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Mt. Baker: RMI Team Reaches Summit
May 2, 2021
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer, Grayson Swingle, Henry Coppolillo
Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades
Elevation: 10,781'
RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Grayson Swingle and Henry Coppolillo led their team to the summit of Mt. Baker today on the program Apriil 30 - 2 May, 2021.
The team gathered on Friday and made their ascent to Sandy Camp. Yesterday they spent the morning with a Ski Mountaineering Day School practicing basic mountaineering skills. They took a short ski tour in the afternoon to get in some turns.
Today they made their summit attempt and reached the top of Mt. Baker in the early afternoon. They will be enjoying their ski descent back to camp this afternoon and will pack their gear and descend to the trailhead.
Congratulations to the team!
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Mt. Rainier: Five Day Climb Reaches 11,800’
May 1, 2021
Posted by: Avery Parrinello, Robby Young
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 11,800'
The Five Day Climb led by RMI Guides Robby Young and Avery Parrinello climbed the Ingraham Direct route and were able to reach 11,800'before high winds forced them to turn. The team spent two days at Camp Muir on this climb and will be descending later this morining. We expect them back at Rainier Basecamp to clelebrate thisafternoon.
Congratiulations to Today's Team!
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Almost 48° north. Can be tough weather any time of year. Getting to the top is optional, getting down is mandatory. Believe that was a quote from Ed Viesturs.
Good attempt! The adventure was still exhilarating I’m sure.
My greatest accomplishment was summiting Mount Washington here in the northeast around the same time of year probably 25 yrs ago.
Still recovering…lol.
Posted by: John B on 5/3/2021 at 12:31 pm
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April 26, 2021
Posted by: Mike King, Andy Bond
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Mt. Rainier Five Day Climb, led by RMI Guides Mike King and Andy Bond, reached the summit today! They enjoyed calm winds and great conditions on their climb today. The teams will return to Camp Muir for their second night on the mountain. We look forward to congratulating them in Ashford tomorrow afternoon!
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Congratulations, well done!
Posted by: Mark M on 4/27/2021 at 5:45 pm
Great job!!
Posted by: Christine Malatras on 4/27/2021 at 9:57 am
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Mt. Rainier: Muir Seminar Teams Enjoy Training at Muir and Reach Summit
April 22, 2021
Posted by: Avery Parrinello, Chase Halbert, Ben Luedtke, Luke Wilhelm, Dustin Wittmier
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir teams led by RMI Guides Dustin Wittmier and Avery Parrinello ascended to Camp Muir on Monday under beautiful blue skies. The good weather continued for their training at Camp Muir the following day. Wednesday morning, with an alpine start, the team left Camp Muir en route to the summit. The team enjoyed nice weather and clear skies, allowing them to spend some time in the crater. After their time on top, the teams returned to Camp Muir. They will continue their training today and tomorrow morning. Tomorrow afternoon they will re-pack their gear and descend to Paradise.
Congratulations to the climbers on reaching the summit of Mt. Rainier and being the first RMI Team to do so this season!
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Congratulations! Seeing these updates again is awesome!
Posted by: Glenn Kline on 4/23/2021 at 4:29 pm
Always great to hear of Rainier success. Bravo - especially to rookies.
Posted by: Waltero Glover on 4/23/2021 at 6:37 am
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Mountaineering Training | Reorienting Training in 2020
November 8, 2020
Posted by: Pete Van Deventer
Categories:
From RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer
This season brought about a different approach to training for me, as for so many of our guides and climbers. In a typical year, the summer guiding season counts for the vast majority of my “training” time. Multiple 12+ hour days a week in the mountains is a great way to build a deep aerobic base, and that leaves me free to fill in around workdays with activities that I enjoy (trail running, mountain biking, and ski touring top that list). While many of our climbers are training for a specific climb and many of our guides are counting those same climbs as training, the training principles between groups aren’t actually that different. Our climbers are trying to be at peak fitness for their climb to give themselves the best chance of reaching the summit, for guides the same training gives us the durability to do 10, 20, even 30 climbs a season without our bodies falling apart.
The cancellation of the climbing season this year necessitated a different approach for me. I count myself extremely lucky to live amongst Colorado’s Elk Mountains, with miles of trail running, mountain biking, ski touring, and peaks immediately accessible. With local trails one of the few outlets left to us this spring, I happily was putting in miles, finding new trails, and generally filling the aerobic base hole that the loss of the season brought. Just like everyone, I have my preferred activities, things that I count as training, but bring me personal joy as well. Ripping through swoopy single track on a mountain bike makes me grin, even if my heart is jumping out of my chest. Other activities aren’t so enjoyable, and they feel like training. I do them out of a sense of duty to the training plan, but I’m not smiling. Weight rooms top this list. I found as spring bled into summer, that I was putting a lot of time into the training activities that I liked, while totally dropping the ones I didn’t, and that was leaving a big hole in my fitness. I needed some structure.
Exercise is doing activities that stress the body and make our body work, while training is the programmed and strategic arrangement of patterns of exercise to increase performance and achieve a predetermined goal. It is difficult to put together a training plan if you do not have a goal. My goal became to build a base of specific strength and endurance to give me durability through the ski season, and I turned to our partners at Uphill Athlete for a 12-week Ski Mountaineering plan. Much of the plan involves activities that I enjoy: lots of trail running and some mountain biking for recovery workouts. There are also some twists that I usually don’t incorporate, but are fun: level 3 long interval workouts, and very short, all out hill sprints. There is also a strong focus on strength work, and though I struggle to be engaged by gyms, a different take on strength has actually been pretty fun and interesting. I’ve been doing a mixture of max strength, very low rep lifting work, as well as very high rep, very low weight muscular endurance work. Both are interesting in how the workout doesn’t necessarily feel taxing during, but for days after I find myself feeling the aftereffects. A bit sore, a bit depleted, but also seeing pretty quick improvements and results.
In Colorado, we got our first snow early, the last week of October. This kicks off the few weeks every year that feel awkward as an athlete. There is too much snow and mud on the trails to ride a mountain bike, but there isn’t enough snow to skin yet (my bar for this is pretty low, as skiing on grass still feels like skiing, but there isn’t enough even for me!). I went for a run up one of my favorite local mountain bike trails, and though the details of getting out the door were complicated (do I wear shorts because it’s in the 60s, or pants because I’ll be running through 4 or 5 inches of snow) I found a simple joy in picking my way through snow and mud and moving fast on foot on a trail that no one else seemed to be interested in taking.
I came back with renewed energy to train, running my local snowy, muddy trails until enough snow lands to allow me to ski. It has been a strange year to train, with gyms alternately open, closed, then open again, restrictions on our ability to get out and travel to our favorite places. I’d encourage everyone to set a training goal (or multiple), lean into what you can do, and blend the activities that leave you smiling with the others that are necessary to reach your goal.
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New to this climbing world, Started out with trail hiking the Grand canyon. Trying my first Mountain at the Grand Tetons in June of 2024. I have a friend that introduced me to kettle-bell work outs. An E.M.O.M. routine 6 days a week with one day of just step ups.
This has been a game changer for my fitness levels, Would highly recommend his program {Adventure fit by Derek Toshner} I adapted the workouts to fit my age and fitness one day kettlebell next day body weight routines. My age is 59, yesterday’s workout was a mile walk with a 44lb bell over head swing to switch arms every 100 steps, Seems easy right, not so much; back, forearms, legs, core, all engaged, an exercise that would help in pulling that 60 pound sled and increase cardio.
Posted by: Richard Hulbert on 2/19/2023 at 4:22 am
I too followed Uphill Athlete’s 12-week program and then some. Never trained harder in my life. Still unable to summit Rainier after a second attempt. The fitness requirements to summit that mountain truly elude me. I had a great time being up there, but when you put in the months of hard work and dedication and still come up short, it is monumentally frustrating. Bottom line mountaineering is no joke, and it demands a level of fitness that despite targeted training and motivated commitment, I still have not achieved. I have immense respect for those who seem to have cracked the code and have made their goals a reality. I only wish I knew where I am going wrong.
Posted by: Jordan Cook on 7/6/2021 at 7:34 pm
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Kilimanjaro: Support for our Kilimanjaro Crew
October 28, 2020
Posted by:
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
Those of you that have traveled to Tanzania and were greeted and assisted by the smiling faces, helpful hands and strong backs from the Barking Zebra Tours Team, it is now our turn to show our kindness and generosity.
Due to the pandemic and lack of tourism in Tanzania, Barking Zebra Tours launched a Go Fund Me campaign in May with a goal to directly provide beans, rice, maze flour and cooking oil to their Tanzanian team and their families.To distribute food to 150 people for six months they set their goal at $14,000, slightly more than $15 per person per month. Thanks to the generosity of many that goal was reached in mid-October. We know that some of you were already aware of this campaign and we very much appreciate your kindness toward our friends and team members in Tanzania.
As the worldwide pandemic continues, Barking Zebra Tours has increased its goal with the hopes of providing these provisions for an additional six months.With the launching of the new goal we have been contacted by some of our previous climbers with an offer to match funds.A group of RMI Climbers from the August 2019 Kilimanjaro Climb & Safari led by RMI Guide Dave Hahn has offered to match funds donated by RMI Climbers up to $2,500.
If you are interested in donating, please click this link:Go Fund Me
We appreciate any donation you can make.
We can’t wait to get back in the mountains with you.
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