Entries By henry coppolillo

Saturday, May 21, 2023 - 11:27 pm PT

Big moves today. We bounced back and forth on whether to move this morning, as it snowed all night and was still when we woke up. After a bit of waffling we decided it was time. Though it was pretty cloudy and white at 11,000', it was dead calm, and it looked much the same above. We stayed in that cloud until Windy Corner and it was HOT. It acted much like a microwave and we were sweating, both from heat and loads. The theme was pretty similar to yesterday - our travel was smooth, it was hard work, but the team was strong and we clipped right along. Six hours after leaving 11,000', we walked into our new home at 14,000'. 

RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer

Friday, May 19, 2023 10:30pm PDT

We had a quite pleasant jaunt up to Windy Corner and around today to cache. It was good to make another step forward and get a load of food and fuel stashed up near 14,000’. Things are looking promising to move to 14,000’ soon, our first chance is tomorrow and hopefully we wake up and things look good to go. It's been Nice to be at 11,000', but we have seen enough of it and it's time to move on.

Our day today was calm, mostly clear, and very warm. The team was fully in sync, and we made short work of the round trip and walked back into camp looking fresh as ever. Juan chose mac and cheese for his birthday dinner, so we also had something to celebrate today.

All around, spirits are high, and life is good.

RMI Guides Pete, Henry, and Tatum

Thursday, May 18, 2023 8:12 pm PDT

Finally, we got to stretch our legs today!

We woke to beautiful conditions in camp, the first time we haven't woken to the tents flapping and slapping. We smashed an oatmeal breakfast and coffee and grabbed backpacks, sleds, and snowshoes and beat feet back to our hole in the snow that held all our best food and treats. We made quick work of the day, three hours round trip, and came back to sunny camp, warm tents, and dry sleeping bags. It was also our last day hauling sleds until we descended for good. So, when we walked into camp there was much rejoicing.

Tomorrow we plan to carry another cache up high to Windy Corner or 14 Camp depending. That will set us up to be ready to make a big move to 14!

RMI Guides Pete, Henry, Tatum and Team

Tuesday, May 16, 2023 - 7:40 PM PT

Our life inside the snow globe continued today but got more comfortable as we dug in more completely. We dug our cooktent down further this morning so that standing puts us level with ground. Down that deep the wind cease to matter as much and we have sealed ourselves into a quite cozy spot. We moved through breakfast before retreating to the tents for the majority of the day. We made a lot of progress on our reading lists and did a fair bit of napping and eating to pass the time. We are hopeful that the trend will improve tomorrow and allow us to jump back down to 9,600 to retrieve our cache. Then we will have more exciting news to report, but for now, we are warm, fed, and happy, patiently waiting for the mountain to say we may pass.

RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer

Monday, May 15, 2023 - 8:00 pm PT

It was a windy, snowy day at 11,000' Camp. The kind that had us happy to linger in sleeping bags until late. Eventually we rose and put some energy into solidifying camp before we plowed through a bunch of hot breakfast burritos. Weather days are for spending in tents so we spent a fair amount of time horizontal, welcome after yesterday's effort. As the afternoon wore on we were ready for movement so we got to building some walls to deflect the wind and make life a bit more pleasant. Much like building with adult legos, made out of snow. So now we have quite a habitable spot, a good thing since this weather system may stick around for a few more days.

RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer

Sunday, May 14, 2023 - 9:49 pm PT

The mountain reminded us how strong she is today and have us a good fight. We woke to sun and warm temps in camp and the beginnings of a beautiful day. We packed up camp and started moving uphill again to 11. At first we moved with better vis, views, and a little jump in our step. But as we walked the clouds from yesterday moved back in with a stiff wind and a lot of blowing snow. Quite quickly we had little visibility and following the tracks of previous climbers became quite difficult. But the team was warm, had all the gear we needed to move in the weather, so we marched on with the help of GPS. After a good battle and a longer day than anticipated, we made it to 11,000' Camp. Tents were a welcome sight but the battle wasn't over. We still had a few hours of camp constructing to do before we would be in our shelters. The team worked really well together and rallied it out, and now we are sitting snug In tents and sleeping bags, reminiscing about the day.

RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer

Saturday, May 13, 2023 - 7:03 pm PT

A gentle shushhhh of snow falling on the tent woke us this morning. We were the central theme in the snow globe as snow fell quietly and windlessly down. We lingered over coffee and bagel sandwiches letting the day progress. We really couldn't see much, but it was calm, warm enough, and we had a nice camp to return to, so we finally sorted some loads out, loaded packs and sleds, and turned uphill again to go cache. We walked through a milky white world for several hours before we decided that we had done enough, and further walking was going to involve a lot of feel and not much sight. So we dug quite a large hole and left our loads there under the snow to be retrieved in a few days time. The walk down went quite quickly, and after an hour we were back at camp where the clouds were lifting and the sun was blazing at max intensity. We are currently enjoying a short siesta, before a hearty dinner of reindeer gumbo. We plan to pack up camp tomorrow and trade up to an abode at 11,000'.

We'll be in touch.

RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer

The team did strong work today, shouldering a load out of base camp that would have made an ox shudder. Each climber probably had north of 100lbs of gear between pack and sled. We schussed down Heart Break Hill relatively smoothly, given the load and started the long, gradual accent of the Kahiltna. The weather was beyond perfect. Blue skies, warm, probably too warm for a bit, but then a gentle kiss of breeze cooled us down. 

6 hours of that steady diesel truck burn brought us to our first real camp of the climb at the Base of Ski Hill. We spent the next couple hours establishing a routine that will become quite familiar: building tent platforms, erecting tents, digging kitchens, bathrooms, melting water, making dinner, and finding time for self-care.

Tomorrow, we will look to move a load uphill and cache before returning to this same camp. We will all be happy for lighter loads. 
Wish us bon voyage.

Our Denali escapade has commenced! Everyone arrived in Anchorage without incident and enjoyed a surprisingly smooth drive to Talkeetna. We spent yesterday crawling through all our gear, packing, repacking, wondering if we should bring more, less, or had forgotten something entirely and tearing it all apart to start again. Once we were sure, we weighed it all in for the planes and got sorted for the two Otters that would ferry us to base camp. We enjoyed a last dinner in Talkeetna, and some took two, three, or four showers to make up for the coming weeks and be sure to fly on smelling like roses.

We woke up this morning ready and hopeful to launch immediately, but it wasn't to be. Base camp reported that they were in a snow globe with 12 new inches overnight. We commenced the chill, sipped coffee, visited the myriad shops, ate lunch, and became somewhat convinced that we would HAVE to spend another night in a bed, have to take another shower, and have to eat a meal. Then, suddenly the RMI1 team got told to ready 5 and launched. Our hopes changed - but also Came with the realization that we would be landing quite late, and cooking dinner would be even later. So, we compromised. We would sleep on the ground and forego a shower if we could have one more mountain high pizza meal. We grabbed pizzas, trapped the stack together, and flew in with them in our lap. Our flight was stunning, with the long light of evening lighting the thousands of peaks in the Alaska range. We landed, set up our shelter, ate our pizza, and are settling in for our first night on the glacier.

We will be in touch tomorrow with more news. Stay tuned!

RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Henry Coppolillo, Tatum Whatford, and Team

From Dan May

At the beginning of April a crop of RMI guides including myself, Leif Bergstrom, Henry Coppolillo, Lacie Smith, Tatum Whatford, and George Hedreen, headed off to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado to work on honing our alpine guide skills with the help of the AMGA. We split our time between Boulder and Estes Park, Colorado while completing the Alpine Guide Course. Often in these courses, you are amongst colleagues spread across other guiding companies, however in this instance, we had the opportunity to work and learn together. Being able to sharpen our guiding skills in alpine terrain amongst our peers that we work with in the North Cascades, Denali, and South America was a great opportunity.

These courses offer us the chance to add additional tools to our ever-growing toolkit as guides while being reviewed, critiqued, and taught by the AMGA instructors. While romping around the Flat Irons, Eldorado Canyon, and Tyndall Gorge of Rocky Mountain National Park, we took turns climbing rock, ice, snow, and mixed routes while guiding each other through the terrain. These chances and skills as a guide are invaluable. It is easy to convince your friends to go climbing with you, but to convince your friends to let you guide them through peculiar terrain to practice your techniques and skill sets is another story.

At the end of the nine days, all RMI guides successfully completed the course and had a great time doing so. Now we are all turning our sights to Ashford and Mt. Rainier in preparation for another great summer of climbing.