Entries By calvin jiricko

Thursday, May 14, 2026 - 11:23 pm PT

Hey yall! It’s Haley coming to you from Camp 2! Or 11 camp as it’s called way up yonder.

Why we chose this venture over someplace like Maui, we woke up to clear blue skies and a beautiful, windless day. This stunning and dynamic mountain is truly a place of wonder!

The team felt strong and enjoyed the glorious experience of only needing base layers as we made excellent time up to our next camp. It’s bustling up here already and we are even more thankful to have made it by day 3 after hearing weather pinned lots of teams down for days.

We must be a bunch of plants because the sun really brought us back to life! We plan to spend our next few days back carrying and caching up to 14 so stay tuned for updates on our wild and wondrous adventure!

Out here having a blast and a half,
RMI Climber Haley

PS I love you Kevin, Mom, Dad, William, Kayla and Abel

Hello faithful readers!

Imagine the inside of a ping pong ball. Now imagine yourself inside that ping pong ball. That was us for 8 hours today. Today the plan was to take all our excess gear and food and cache it at around 9800. After spending the morning organizing our gear, we took off slogging up “Ski Hill”. Slow and steady was the name of game. Navigation was difficult at best and a blind guess at worst. The team was strong both mentally and physically today. The effort was top notch.

After digging a very large snow hole and burying all our gear, we took off downhill. Home sweet home and burritos were calling our names. A relaxing evening and a filling meal. The simple pleasures of mountain life We hope to wake up to slightly better weather tomorrow, so please cross your fingers for us!

Cheers,

Jack and the Team

Wednesday, May 13, 2026 - 12:56 am PT

Goodbye world, hello Denali!

Sorry for the late blog post, it's been a wild couple of days! We spent all day Monday ready to go at a moments notice. The weather was fickle, the clouds were playing games and the sunshine was promising flight potential. Finally around 4pm we received word of a potential window so we loaded planes and launched towards Kahiltna Base Camp. Sadly the clouds decided to reappear and we had to turn around back to Talkeetna. After about 30 minutes of sitting in the hangar, the pilots told us another gap in the clouds had appeared. Again we loaded up and took to the skies! Yet again the clouds were sneaky and by the time we got there they had cut us off from our destination. We circled for 20 minutes hopeful the clouds would shift and clear. Finally the pilots made the call - back to the Talkeetna again! We had a hearty dinner and were off to bed to try again in the morning.

Morning came quick with a 8am text from K2 saying the skies were clear! The team kicked into overdrive and within 30 minutes we were loaded up and flying! Smooth sailing took us right into Kahiltna Base Camp. We then got ourselves organized and took off up glacier towards our first camp, Ski Hill! Several hours of slogging later plus a couple more hours of hard work, we had camp established! It was a long day but we did it.

We were here. Our Denali expedition has officially begun.

Cheers,

RMI Guide Jack Delaney and the Team

Day 3 – Sunday, May 10, 2026

Hang time in Talkeetna! 

With unflyable weather, the gang spent the whole day on standby. We practiced the critical Denali skill of hurry up and wait, and also practiced our ping pong (table tennis for those who are serious) skills. 

K2 Aviation lost the Talkeetna ping pong tournament to TAT (Talkeetna Air Taxi) last year, so luckily the RMI team was there to train with the K2 pilots. Hopefully, K2 will take a win in 2026!

We also reviewed our sled rigging and had an excellent team dinner at the Lattitude 62.

All eyeballs are looking towards the weather forecast for tomorrow for flyable weather!!

RMI Guide Calvin Jiricko & Team

Sunday, May 10, 2026 - 11:19 am PT

Hello bloggateers!

Today was a busy day. The name of the game in Talkeetna is "Hurry up and Wait" - and hurry up we did. It was flurry of packing and organizing. The key to making sure you have everything for climbing Denali is pulling every item out of your bags, looking at them one by one, making sure you really need the item and then repacking them. After thoroughly examining everything we had and shedding any excess weight, we began weighing our bags. The pilots need the weights of all our gear and persons so they can calculate how to evenly distribute the weight amongst the planes and the gas needed to fly into the Alaska range. Finally we were able to able to call it a day and head to dinner. We enjoyed the fine ales and delicious food of the Denali Brew Pub. It was then off to another early bedtime in the hopes of flying off the next morning. 

Cheers,

RMI Guide Jack Delany and the Team 

Hello world!

Greetings from Alaska! After a long day of travel from all over the US and Europe, we all assembled at the Ted Stevens Airport in Anchorage. We then loaded up the shuttle bus with our eccentric driver Ross and drove the two hours to Talkeetna. We then checked into the Swiss Alaska Inn and got the lowdown on the winter Talkeetna gossip from the Inn's proprietor Critter. After a brief break to get settled in we enjoyed some fine pizza at Mile High Pizza Pie. The team finished the evening off with a walk to the river front where we witnessed a large ice flow break up at the confluence of the Susitna and Talkeetna rivers.  Then it was off to an early bedtime to prepare for an early start the next morning to begin gear checking and packing. 

Thanks for tuning in -

RMI Guide Jack and the Team! 

Sometimes, climbing is about a new experience. Sometimes, climbing is about the people. Sometimes, climbing is about the experience you get to enjoy with the people you are with while doing something epic, unexpected, and downright enjoyable. That is what we had. We may not have achieved the objectives we signed up for, but we got to experience something we never have before; an incredible four days with an incredible team on objectives that very few people ever get to be a part of. After an incredibly incredible yet long day that we'd rather not discuss, we then still got to go ice climbing (in August) on the lower Coleman Glacier of Mount Baker. Outside of that, we'll keep the jokes we shared, the sandals we made, and the amount of caffeine we consume amongst ourselves. Thanks to all our loved ones for supporting us on these crazy left field objectives. We are back where it all started at Chair 9 with limited service and celebrating. 

RMI Guides Ben Luedtke, Calvin Jiricko, Bailey Servais, and team

Summit Success!
Our entire team reached the top of South Twin Sister with big smiles and perfect weather. It was a stunning day of climbing, and everyone crushed it! We made it back late last night, safe and sound, and spirits are high.

Now we’re gearing up for our next adventure: ice climbing on the lower Coleman Deming Glacier. Conditions look promising, and we’re excited to get back out there.

— RMI Guide Ben Luedtke & Team

Today, we sauntered into the wilderness of Washington for our first objective: South Twin Sister.
“What are we doing?” you might ask. “Where the heck is that?” you may wonder. Spoiler alert: it’s a hidden gem of a climb just south of Mt. Baker.

After crossing a downed tree over a raging creek and bushwhacking through a sea of berries, we arrived at camp nestled in a field of boulders. The question kept coming: “Have y’all done this climb before?” Sure have.

We spent the afternoon refreshing our skills in preparation for what’s to come. Hiding from the sun and heat, we’re hoping to get some sleep tonight.

Tomorrow, we climb.
— RMI Guide Ben & Team

The Four Day Climb August 9-12 led by RMI Guides Casey Grom and Sam Hoffman reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today with all of their climbers.  It's a beautiful bluebird day and the teams climbed strong. They started their descent from the crater rim around 7 am.  Once back at Camp Muir they will take a quick break before continuing the remaining 4.5 miles to Paradise.

Congratulations to today's climbers!