Entries By seth burns

Saturday, June 6th

Burns & team make it back to Talkeetna.

Congratulations everyone!

Friday, June 5th - 11:30PM PST

Sleep at 17 camp is never glorious nor sound. We woke up our tired and stiff bodies feeling better the more we moved. The sun was hot on the tent, and encouraged us slowly out of our sleeping bags. Once again, the day was splitter, and we broke down camp excited to climb down the buttress.

Spectacular climbing led to one more trip down the fixed lines and back to 14 camp. We made a quick stop at 14, digging up our cache and saying hi to friends. We rigged up the sleds and wrangled them down to 11 camp where we now enjoy dehydrated meals to a short nights sleep.
 

Thursday, June 4, 2026 5:53pm PDT

Summited at 4:20 with 100% . Headed down now.

Thursday June 4, 2026 10:12pm PDT

Everyone is back at 17 Camp. 

Thursday June 5, 2026 12:24am PDT

We will start with the great news, our entire team went to the top of Denali today! We reached the point where we could go no further at approx. 4:30 pm.

Our day started on the colder side with clear skies and a mild but biting wind. We left 17 camp and began our We broke out into the warming sun at Denali pass and continued steadily up, enjoying decreasing winds and sunshine, climb across the autobahn.

By the time we had reached the Football Field, a broad basin below the final climb to the summit, we were down to only one or two layers. With the summit ridge in sight, we climbed up Pig Hill to Kahiltna Horn, breaking 20,000'. Here we were quickly reminded of our location as freezing winds had us scrambling for more clothes.

The final push to the true summit went slowly but smoothly as we topped out on the highest point in North America. Strong and cold winds made our stay on top short, but lifelong goals and aspirations were fulfilled in those fleeting moments.

We are all now back down to 17,000' camp and tucked into our sleeping bags. Our descent continues tomorrow!

Cheers - RMI Guide Seth Burns & Team

Wednesday, June 3, 2026 - 9:40 pm PT

We woke to cold temps around 20 below zero and did our best to stay warm as we emptied our tents, broke them down, and cached anything we wouldn't need for the next few days up high. Over half the route was already familiar as we did our acclimation day two days prior to 16.2k at the top of the fixed lines. Today, we needed to not only get there but an additional 1000 feet of gain while traversing the West Buttress, for which our approach is named.
 
The chilly morning very quickly turned hot as the sun crested the edge of where we set our sights, camp at 17.2k elevation. By the first break we had shed at least a layer and by the second, most of us were in our base layer sun-hoodies for the rest of the hike. We have not seen a clearer day so far on the trip and the bluebird skies made for epic photo ops of not only the Kahiltna Glacier from which we started but the entire valley - about 270 degrees of snowy mountains, rivers, and the snowless flatlands beyond. Once we reached the Buttress we could peer down at the 2000+ foot drop at 14 camp where we had slept the night before.
 
We navigated the fixed lines using our ascenders, sliding up an anchored rope while allowing us to easily not slip back down very steep slopes. We clipped in and out of anchored pickets with caribeners across the snow and the sometimes rocky Buttress spine. We used a mixture of steps - the crossover and duck step to carefully drive our crampons into hard snow and blue ice while balancing with our ice axes. All in all, we did everything needed to safely arrive at our destination.

After chiseling very hard snow and ice to make flat platforms, we pitched tents and settled in to rest our legs, get hydrated, and refuel. The weather tomorrow is forecast to be clear as well with some possibility of moderate winds. If we wake up and the mountain isn't blowing snow we will most likely go, if it's too windy we will rest and go Friday. All of our team is still relatively healthy and in good spirits. We are all super stoked for the great weather forecast and the hard work we have put in to get to this point. Tonight, we settle into freeze dried meals and watch the midnight sun drift across the horizon. Tomorrow, we all hope to summit this great and beautiful mountain.

RMI Climber Treavor 

Tuesday, June 2, 2026 - 7:24 pm PM

Today we rested! Tomorrow we climb!

Send us well wishes and good vibes!

Stoke is high!

RMI Guide Seth Burns

Monday, June 1st - 11PM PST

Good fortune rewards the bold.

We woke craving the sun. Shivering, yet still smiling, our breakfast of grits and pop tarts fueled our warm laughs and usual morning camaraderie. When finished, we all knew what we needed to do. Today was our acclimatization climb. Now strong worriers against our ever present enemy, the cold, we roped up and left camp just as the rest of the 14k village began to rise. We had the buttress to ourselves and our temperatures rose back to normal, the unimaginable views ripened as we climbed higher into the thin air. For much of our crew, every step up was a new personal record in either elevation or latitude north. The awe of where we are and what we are doing had started to truly sink in. The once daunting fixed lines were a breeze for our well prepared and efficient team. With ease we reached the saddle. Just over 16,000 feet, the deep breaths were welcome. The thin air seemed to render nothing but gratitude. Appreciation for the raw beauty that surrounds us. Happiness for this experience we get to share together. Gratitude for each others efforts and pride in being part of this team. With the same efficiency we made it back to camp with enough afternoon to relax and watch the swarms of climbers conga line up and down the fixed lines. We reflected on the simplicity of life up here, the simple joys and the few frustrations and just how lucky we are to be here. But maybe what we’ve been calling luck, the luck of our awesome teammates, luck of the weather, the luck of feeling good and our strength, the luck seeing the surrounding, jaw-dropping views, is actually the reward for our valiant efforts. Burns and team knows they’ve earned a rest day.

Sunday, May 31st - 8:30PM PST

Today Seth, our benevolent lead, let us sleep in for one extra hour. We woke to crisp, clear skies. Many hot beverages were served, paired with  granola bars and an air of white gas. Post “breakfast” we headed downhill to collect our cache. There were tears of joy as people were reunited with precious snacks, and for some, toilet paper. After our short adventure, we settled into the posh, ate blueberry pancakes doused in maple syrup and enjoyed the heat from the stoves. Full on cakes, we moved to our next task: fortify our walls for the incoming wind. Graham is the undisputed block building champ, and after some time in the sun our labyrinth was complete. Thankfully this included higher bathroom walls, hopefully decreasing awkward interactions at the pee hole. The rest of the day was spent training, and then greeting our friends from up high. Continuing the food trend, we finished with a green coconut curry. All in all, the day was good, and somehow, the food was even better.

- RMI guide Marge

Saturday, May 31st, 11PM PST

Burns Team Makes it to 4327 meters
We woke early to a very cold morning and started packing our things. Today was the day we would move to camp 4. After a breakfast of granola, and powdered milk for the brave, we packed our backpacks until it seemed they would bust. The sun broke the rim of the mountain as we prepared to set out. We underdressed as we expected to warm up as we climbed, it would be the theme for the day as the hot sun battled the cold wind. After we climbed each steep hill we were rewarded by another steep hill to climb. On our brakes we pondered if we would rather be a strawberry with humans thoughts or a human with strawberry thoughts. As I climbed I thought it would be nice to be a strawberry, no mountains to climb or life to worry about, just sit on the vine and enjoy the sun. I tried to have strawberry thoughts as I climbed, no fatigue or suffering, just enjoy the sun on my face turning it a nice ripe red. Finally camp 4 appeared on the horizon like Shangrala, we had made it.

- RMI Climber James

5/29 - Today’s post includes two stories, we’ll let you decide what happened with Burn’s team’s seventh day on the mountain.

Story 1:
Seth and guides woke everyone up at 1 am, seizing the weather window and decided to make the first ever RMI summit push from Camp 2. After pounding 5 shots of espresso and 2 cups of powdered milk each, in just base layers, the team sprinted up the mountain at a blistering pace, reaching the highest point in North America in just 3 hours. They celebrated by shotgunning beers at the top, and cruised back to Camp 2 in 37 minutes (Denali FKT?). Very proud of everyone’s efforts today!

Story 2:
The team woke up to some more snow and decided to rest. Life is good.

- RMI Climber Andy

Friday, 5/29 1AM PST

After topping off our batteries (personal and electronic) with a sun filled rest day at 11 camp, our team went to bed last night ready for a carry in the morning. Silence greeted us as we awoke, an unusual sound around camps on the mountain. Snow had fallen through the night and we had nearly 2 feet of dry powder to contend with. Hope for moving today was all but lost and we prepared ourselves for a leisurely day, starting with delicious bacon (and vegan bacon) filled breakfast bagels. Once we had all finally settled into our books, movies, and journals, we got the news: “Let’s go! We’re going to carry, we want to be out as soon as possible.” Everyone jumped to it, got into our crampons, and we cruised through snow showers to break through a cloud layer into blistering sun just past Windy Corner to complete our cache at ~13,600ft. Soon we were back at our camp, refueling, and hoping to make a more permanent move to 14 camp in the next few days. 

-RMI Climber Graham