Entries By sam hoffman

The Four Day Climbs led by RMI Guides Seth Burns and Joe Hoch walked into the summit crater of Mt. Rainier this morning around 6:45 am. The teams enjoyed calm and warm weather on the summit. They are currently on their descent and will return to Ashford later this afternoon.

Congratulations climbers!

6:30 pm August 18th 

Around 12:30 today, our entire team stood on top of Mt. Shuksan. Today the weather was mostly cloudy, but we were rewarded with a break in the clouds on our descent. Tomorrow morning we will pack up camp and head into town to celebrate. Congrats to the team! 

RMI guide Sam Hoffman, Hannah Blum, and Brooks Ordway-Smith 

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!

The Four Day Climb July 31 - 3 August led by RMI Guides Sam Hoffman and Tom Skoog reached the summit of Mt. Rainier early this morning. The teams reported nice day and a smooth climb. The teams were at 13,800' on their descent en route to Camp Muir.  Once back at camp the teams will repack and continue the final 4,500' to Paradise and then continue to Ashford to conclude their program.

Congratulations to today's climbers.

PC: Tom Skoog

Friday, July 4, 2025 - 1:33 AM PT

After we got in the tents at 11k last night, there was a violent thunderstorm passing over with inches of hailstones. We awoke at 2:00 AM to fire the stoves, choke down some oatmeal and get ready for a big day. It was party cloudy but mostly clear, which led to easy  walking conditions. We were walking by 4:00 AM and and fairly soon, we’d reached the upper regions of Ski Hill and then our old camp at 8k. It only took us a further three hours to reach base camp. For late season, conditions were amazing. We never had to cross an open crevasse. We stayed busy at base camp sorting our own gear and helping others to load planes. Our flights came in around 1:00 PM and then we were headed to Talkeetna. Our team had donated pizzas in their mouths within 5 minutes of landing in Talkeetna. K2 Aviation did an excellent job bringing us home. In checking out with the National Park Service, we learned that we had been the absolute last team on the mountain and that the success rate for the season had only been 36%.

We sorted gear for the afternoon and then celebrated with a dinner at the brew pub. We celebrated a safe and enjoyable climb that didn’t reach the summit. That seemed appropriate given how much we enjoyed the effort of simply trying to get up the mountain.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn and Team   

PC: Dave Hahn

Wednesday, July 2, 2025 - 10:43 pm PT

There are amazing views every step of the way from the crest of the ridge, but with heavy packs and steep terrain to negotiate, we didn't take so many pictures. Sure enough, the wind was still blowing and the slope was still loaded when we woke at 17,000' this morning. We packed up and started down the West Buttress at 11AM. The fixed rope section went smoothly and we were digging up our 14,000' cache by 2PM and continuing our descent by 3:30. Much snow had fallen on Windy Corner since we'd last been there and the walking and sled pulling was a little challenging as a result. We persevered on down the Polo Field, Squirrel Hill and finally down the reflecting oven that Motorcycle Hill tends to be in late afternoon. At 11,000' we got right to work building a hasty camp and running the stoves. We'd been in blazing hot sun but as soon as we sat down to an outdoor dinner, a spectacular hailstorm hit. But we were hungry and sat through it. 

Folks are getting a few hours rest now. We'll get up in the night and make a push for the airstrip in the early morning hours.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Tuesday, July 1, 2025 - 10:04 pm PT

Today was windy from start to finish, which we weren't quite expecting from the forecasts. There was plenty of sunshine though and so it wasn't uncomfortable. But we mostly hung in the tents, just coming out occasionally to look at the world stretched out below. And to look at the route to Denali Pass, over and over. The avalanche hazard still exists and we can't will it away by staring at the slope. The team is agreed that we'll look at it one more time -tomorrow morning- but then, without some dramatic change, we'll descend, as the teams around us have done.  The forecasts are calling for strong winds up high now in any case. 

It is a tough situation.  Luckily we are climbing with tough people.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Monday, June 30, 2025 - 11:04 pm PT

Perfect day for moving on up.  We took advantage and climbed to 17,200. The team was already roped and moving toward the headwall at 8:30 AM when the cold shadows still covered the entire basin. We got much needed sun at the first rest break. It was a pleasure as always to top out the ropes at 16,200.  We broke into our cache for a few essentials... just to make sure the guide packs were heavy enough for climbing the West Buttress. The spectacular walk up the crest went smoothly for us and we rolled into 17,000' Camp at 3:15. As usual, it was tough to build a solid and safe camp at such a high elevation just after arriving. But we got it done and sat down to a nice dinner inside our dining tent. Snow conditions on the route to Denali Pass are still unstable so there is no chance for us to go for the summit tomorrow.

We'll keep evaluating to see whether we get a chance on following days.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Sunday June 29, 2025 - 10:49 pm PT

It was the ultimate luxury to lie in until the sun came around this morning. We ate our last bagel breakfast and lounged about in the sunshine. We rested, but we also schemed and plotted our ascent for the next few days, and that scheming got tougher as the day progressed. We became aware that the teams at 17K had turned around from their summit bids after finding avalanche conditions on the "autobahn". Of course we will need some improvement in that condition by the time we reach the same terrain, so the team will have the challenge of trying to remain optimistic and positive while acknowledging that a problem lies ahead. We said goodbye to Dom's RMI team as they descended through 14 camp, we ate our dinner and we prepared to climb. 

- RMI Guide Dave Hahn

Saturday, June 28, 2025 - 10:28 pm PT

Today was the day for us to get up on the West Buttress. But it was the day for everybody else to get up on the West Buttress too. We had no choice but to climb in a crowd. That said, it was a crowd of pretty nice folks all around. We didn’t try to be the first out of camp, there was no desire to race anybody. We had a leisurely breakfast and geared up in time to leave by around 10 AM. There were perhaps thirty climbers ahead of us and thirty behind. The storm and waiting for snow to stabilize had put everybody on the same schedule. The downside of that was that we couldn’t go at our own pace, the upside was that we didn’t have to break trail. Patience was the word of the day and that paid off for us. It was neither cold nor windy and we could afford to be patient. The entire team did just fine on the much anticipated “fixed rope” section and then we topped out on the ridge at 16,200 ft, shattering altitude records for Bailey, Calvin, Rahul and Frederick. We cached our food and fuel and got down to camp by 5 PM. Tomorrow will be a rest and recovery day and we’ll be keeping fingers crossed for Dom Cifelli’s RMI team to ring the summit bell. 

- RMI Guide Dave Hahn