Entries By joe hoch
Posted by: Joe Hoch, Seth Burns, Felipe Guarderas, Dylan Anderson, Celeste Wilson, David Rathbun, Marissa Tremblay, Gabriel Puhky
Categories: Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
RMI's four-day climb led by guides Joe Hoch and Felipe Guarderas reached the summit of Mt Rainier this morning around 6:20am. They reported sunshine with a light breeze and a trace of new snow. They are currently on their descent back to Camp Muir and will return to Ashford this afternoon.
Great work everyone!
Posted by: Joe Hoch, Robert Whyte, Sam Traylor, Marissa Tremblay
Categories: Mount Rainier
Elevation: 11,200'
The four-day climb led by RMI Guide Joe Hoch turned around at Ingraham Flats this morning due to unfit route conditions. They have returned to Camp Muir and will descend to Paradise later this morning. While they didn't make it to the summit, they enjoyed a classic Little Tahoma sunrise!
Great work up there team!
Posted by: Joe Hoch, Kat Porter, Dan Harper, Edward Barrett
Categories: Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
Around 6:45am this morning, RMI's four-day climb led by guide Joe Hoch made it to the summit of Mt. Rainier. The team reported good conditions and are on their descent back to Camp Muir. They will be back in Ashford this afternoon.
Great work up there!
Posted by: Joe Hoch, Jess Wedel, Henry Coppolillo, Matt Tucker, Kat Porter, Oliver Sperin, Oliver Kendall, Edward Barrett
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,300'
The Four Day Climb June 14 - 17 led by RMI Guides Joe Hoch and Jess Wedel were turned around by high winds at 10,300'. The telemetry at Camp Muir is showing wind gusts up to 48 mph. The teams returned to Camp Muir and enjoyed a bit of rest and perhaps a nice sunrise. They plan to descend from Camp Muir around 9:30 am. We look forward to seeing them at Rainier BaseCamp this afternoon.
Posted by: Joe Hoch, Felipe Guarderas, Rosie Hust, Nina Bridges
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 11,300'
We weren't able to summit this morning after multiple days and multiple feet of new snow. But we took advantage of the perfect weather for a classic stunning sunrise at Ingraham Flats!
- RMI Guide Joe Hoch
Posted by: Joe Hoch, Ben Ammon, Josh McDowell, Dylan Anderson, Miles Watson, Kat Porter, Sean James
Categories: Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,640'
The Four Day Climb (June 2-5) led by Joe Hoch and Ben Ammon turned at the top Cathedral Gap (10,640’) early this morning due to strong winds that were making climbing and continuing uphill very difficult. They are back at Camp Muir and plan to descend from Paradise later this morning. They will be back in Ashford this afternoon.
Way to hang in there team!
RMI Guides Joe Hoch and Ben Ammon and the Four Day Climb Team reached High Break (13,200’) and were still ascending as of 7:11 a.m. Joe reported a beautiful morning, with light winds and cold temperatures.By 8:33 a.m., the team had summited all smiles, and was beginning their descent toward Camp Muir.
Congratulaitons Team!
Posted by: Joe Hoch, Avery Stolte, Miles Watson, Julian Kral
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,800'
The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guide Joe Hoch turned at 10,800' at Cathedral Gap due to snow instability and potential avalanche danger. The team returned to Camp Muir and plans to start their descent to Paradise around 9:30 am. They will be back at Rainier BaseCamp in the early afternoon.
Posted by: Joe Hoch, Hannah Blum
Categories: Expedition Dispatches North Cascades
Elevation: 10,781'
Sunday, May 10 11:19 AM PT
As we woke at 3:30am for our summit day, excited with our mostly sunny forecast, a wet cloud settled into camp and over the Squak glacier. Crowds of skiers passed us up into the white-out, but we decided to have another cup of coffee in our tents. The weather will do what it wants on Mt Baker it seems.
And lucky for us, an hour later it decided to grant us a little clearing, and by an hour into our tour uphill, not a cloud in the sky. This added a lucky euphoria to the already stunning views of the North Cascades all the way to Mt Rainier.
It was a solid refreeze overnight, and as we cramponned up a solidly frozen Roman Wall, the question of skiing this steep frozen mogul field weighed on everyone. But we had a wild card up our sleeves.
After our triumphant photo session on Mt Baker’s summit, we clicked into skis and skied directly into the Barbeque Run, straight off the summit into the smoking crater of the volcano. It has a little more east exposure and a little volcanic activity, and was perfect soft carving!
A short skin took us to the top of the Squak Glacier, and as we carved perfect shiny corn snow for the next 4000 vertical feet, the only reason to stop was to give the legs a little break. It doesn’t get much better than 20 minutes of perfect carving snow to camp.
We packed up camp and were treated with a fun session of snow to forest floor to snow patch skiing which had everyone giggling like kids. Doesn’t get much better on Mt Baker!
RMI Guide Joe Hoch & Team
Posted by: Joe Hoch, Bailey Servais
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mexico
'Un clima raro' -strange weather- has been the theme of our Mexico Volcanos trip.
Though it’s the ‘dry season’ we had a full winter ascent of Ixta, and as we pulled into high camp at Pico de Orizaba with a forecast of a clear calm sky, we instead were greeted by a dark cloud deck streaming over the mountain at what we estimated to be 40+ mph. Not ideal for a 18500ft volcano.
But Team Mexican Koala has proven quite hearty and as I poked my head out of the tent at 12am, a clear starry sky and a light breeze greeted me. Classic Orizaba!
We left camp with 6 of 9 climbers (something has been working through the group) and as we fought freezing winds and bone-chilling temps it looked like we would pull off a sunny summit!
Having not had a summit view yet, we spent almost 45 minutes on the Orizaba summit taking in the cloudless sky and expansive views of Ixta, Malinche and a sea of other Mexican volcanos. A perfect end to our week!
Congratulations team Mexican Koala-3 for 3 on summits, and a full week of Mexican adventure!
RMI Guide Joe Hoch
Way to go! Congrats on summiting!
-MGS
Posted by: Sam S on 7/3/2026 at 10:44 am
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