Entries By mike bennet

Monday, June 16, 2025 - 7:53 pm PT

Our sled companies:

The Happy Cappy’s Express

Sled Dawg Logistics

Snow B.E.T.S Supply Co.

are here at 11,000 feet, ready to help you will all your needs.  We even offer cache back.   Please note: Trail breaking to retrieve a lost water bottle in the Polo Fields comes at an additional. 

Today we got to visit the top of Motorcycle Hill, Squirrel Hill and the Polo Fields before caching our food and gear for the move to 14,000' Camp.  Unfortunately, the excursion brochure was wrong.  Motorcycles were not included, no squirrels to see on the hill and no Polo was being played.  The trek was worth the views and will still give a 5 star on Google Review. As we venture into new markets and camps, our logistic companies look forward offering our services at 14,000 camp very soon.   Just remember, you call, we haul. 

Shout out to our amazing leaders; Dom, Ben, and Mike.   It’s hard to put in words how much we appreciate all the warm drinks, hot chow, dressed ropes and everything between. 

On a personal note, Happy Birthday to my beautiful wife, Lauren.  Wells and Winn please give her an extra hug and kiss from me.   

Love and miss yall.  

- RMI Climber Andrew

June 15, 2025 - 8:38 pm PT

Gooooood evening Denali blog followers and welcome back to your personal tell all of mountain news, gossip, and glory. Today, just like the itsy bitsy spider we climbed that spout again. We were gently awoken by our guides at  5:30 and left for a 6:45 start back down the mountain to our cache below. At 10,000 feet we… and by we I mean our relentless guides…  dug out our cache filled with snacks, solar panels, clean clothes, and summit gear. And thank god I was reunited with my cheese. ‘Twas a short jaunt back up to 11,000' Camp where we enjoyed bagels with bacon and honey jalapeño cream cheese. Contrary to yesterday’s blog, the American Canadian peace balance now falls in the hands of the Oilers and Panthers. 

We then got a quick refresher course on how moving up the rest of the mountain will go as we ditch our snow shoes and move into crampons. A few of us gathered in a big circle and traded cheeses of all kinds until we made certain none of us would ever poop again.

Tomorrow we await to see what the weather brings in hope of moving more gear up to the next cache.

I continue to think about and question why a person takes on an effort such as this. Perhaps there’s answers we think the mountain holds, perhaps a bottomless pit of an ego we are trying to fill, the need for contrast from our everyday lives, or maybe it’s just the love of mountains and pushing ourselves to the jagged edge of our capabilities. No matter the reason, it’s an honor to be here with such talented and kind human beings. Sitting here at 11,000 ft our team has no idea what the future holds, to that I raise a toast to my fellow climbers at all stages on Denali… To the mountains we are meant to summit, and the ones we are not, may we enjoy the company, the views, and the climb either way.

I want to say thank you to my parents, I wouldn’t be here without you, and a special shout out to Moose Hockey Alaska, and the 525 bulldogs, YBYSA!

Love,

RMI Climber Mikayla

Received June 15, 2025 - 12:04 pm PT 

June 14, 2025

Today is day 6 since we first met at Anchorage airport.
After waking it at 2 AM and taking all my strength to get out of my sleeping bag in the cold night (the worst part of the day for me!), we climbed from camp 1 to camp 2 and made our biggest elevation gain yet, 1000m, with moderately heavy bags and sleds. It was quite the workout! | arrived with a small headache, hopefully not related to altitude because it's what scares me the most. When you arrive at camp, you do not just install your tent and call it a day, you have to shovel the hell out of that place to build your toilets and dining tent. We try to help the guides but they are doing a tremendous job.

Once again, I was impressed by the power of the elements, the sun is so strong at this latitude in summer and it reflects on the snow everywhere so you're literally cooking. That's why we have walked at "night" up until now (it's never really dark). We haven't experience the other hazards of nature yet, such as bad weather, extreme cold or high altitude. The mountain imposes respect. Despite that the harder is yet to come, I think the group has a good start!

Considérant le contexte géopolitique actuel, je suis également soulagé de bien m'intégrer en étant le seul Canadien dans un groupe 100% American (although one was born in Ireland and is very comedic). I don't feel that they want to invade my country, they are rather very friendly. Ceci dit, personne n'a encore osé mentionner celui-dont-on-ne-doit-pas-prononcer-le-nom lo!! Salutations à Samu, maman, papa et mes amis, hâte de vous revoir! On se croise les doigts que tout se passe bien!

RMI Climber Etienne

P.s. Joyeux anniversaire et bonne fête des pères papa!

Friday, June 13, 2025 9:24pm PDT

Déjà-vu: both for climbing Ski Hill and blogging about climbing Ski Hill. So here we are again. Same same, yet also different. I put in my headphones and cue up the Hadestown OCR. “Road to Hell” begins playing.

We awoke at 2:30am. So close to the arctic circle, Denali never gets dark in June. But the movement of the sun across the skies nevertheless plays a big role in our schedule each day, as the temps - and thus snow conditions - change readily with its absence or appearance.

Today’s itinerary is to move part of our food and gear up the mountain, dig a hole in the snow - our “cache” - dump our food and gear, cover it back up, and head back down to our camp. In a few days, we will hike back to our cache from our next camp and retrieve it. This allows us to move our 22 days of supplies up the mountain in stages while we acclimate to the altitude by following a “climb high, sleep low” methodology. So, we load approximately 16 days of our food and any gear we won’t need until the upper mountain into our sleds and head up Ski Hill to Kalhitna Pass just after 4am. Ski Hill is the first significant elevation gain of our climb. Even having climbed it - twice - before, it’s surprising how interminable it seems. It’s a cold morning. With the sun still below the horizon, there’s enough light to walk by, but none to spare for warming us. Any warmth is self-generated. After several hours of marching uphill, we arrive at the base of Kalhitna pass and relieve ourselves of our burdens. The sun peeks over the ridge, and before long our shivering will become sweating as we race back downhill, unencumbered by load or slope. Matt + Kim “Don’t Slow Down” plays in my headphones.

Climber Sophia Bishop & Team

Thursday June 12, 2025 10:15pm PDT

We moved to the base of Ski Hill.

Dia dhuibh, Taimid anocht i Camp 1. Ta an foireann go maith, tar eis an suil anseo. Taimid tuirseach, ach go beo. Nil eine eile anseo. Tar eis an suil, codlaimid go leir, agus ansin, bia, deoch, caint, agus sos. Is la eile amarach!

That was a special request for Tate and Sophia. They understand that about as well they understand me talking.  I have an accent!!! However, I’m not alone.  There’s a fair TexAn contingent in the group, and they taawk aaaawful slooow.  It takes them sooooo long to saaay some ot, that we’re aaaawl daaaamn neeeeear asleeeep by the time it’s finished! And then there is the very suave, some might say sesay Etienne, the French Canadian. Throw in the New Yorkers (because we can’t throw them out), and you have quite the cultural hotpot! Seriously, this team is a blast. Quick facts, stories, jokes - it helps ease the end of day pain.

Oh yes - the hike update! Up at midnight, after a weird dream where Dominic gave a graphic presentation on CMC (clean mountain can a.k.the potty) etiquette, and an old buddy of his called Timmy…. Sleds loaded, teams roped up by 3 am, and a quick 4.5-hour jaunt to Camp 1. On the way we got some early sunlight on Mt Foraker, making it illuminate like a candle.  Camp one is a ghost town. We are home alone. Tents and camp erected, water, and a very welcome sleep. Spent the afternoon lazing, with the whoosh of an occasional avalanche.

Finally, and most importantly, happy wedding anniversary to my beautiful wife Fionnuala. (you thought I’d forget!). I am the luckiest man on this planet. I love you.

RMI Climber Myles O'Neil

Wednesday, June 11, 2025 - 9:21 pm PT

We’ve Landed

We’re officially on the glacier.

After spending, as Dom puts it, “the right amount of time in Talkeetna,” we loaded into the Dehavilland Otters this morning and flew into the heart of the Alaska Range.  Jack, our pilot, confirmed that “of all the RMI groups this year, this is the nicest day to fly.”  Jack was kind enough to take us around for a view of the climbing route.   It is difficult to describe the scenic majesty of the jagged snow-capped peaks as we circled around and made our landing approach.  We have base camp practically to ourselves, and it’s very peaceful and quiet, with a few clouds drifting in the blue sky above.  After setting up, and spending time learning how to rig the sleds, and how to pack as to not look “like traveling merchants on the Kahiltna glacier,” we settled in for a break.  

Tonight we’ll have some pizza for dinner, the last trace of civilization (apart from the 9 inReach units our group brought along. . . )

For now, the focus is rest. We’re planning to head out with our sleds sometime around 3 a.m., taking advantage of the firm snow and cool conditions for travel on the lower glacier.

Signing off from Kahiltna Base camp,

RMI Climber Nate Brunner

The June 9th Mt. McKinley Expedition has loaded up in Talkeetna in the K2 Aviation Twin Otters and is heading to Kahiltna Base Camp. Their next check in should be from the glacier.

Good luck team!

The Team is Packed and Ready for the Flight in!

Welll we did it. We packed. We’re ready….. we hope. 

Today is quite the bear of a day. What starts as a nice leisurely breakfast at the Swiss Alaska quickly turns into a packing, sorting, repacking, resorting conundrum. We have to pack for a 3 week trip with all of our food, gear, and shelters for the trip. It’s a task. BUT, we did it in style. 

The team worked through the maze of duffels, carabiners, and a million ziplocks to finally weigh in and separate our gear for the flight tomorrow. We’ll be eating up and soaking in the last bit  of creature comforts that Talkeetna has to offer. We’re excited to let the gun go off and the trip to officially start. Once we’re on the mountain, the jitters fade and the fun begins. Wish us luck and be sure to look for your climbers name at the bottom of these dispatches. We’ll pass this blog around the team so that you can hear about the journey from your loved ones. 

Be on the lookout and talk to you all following along from Kahiltna Basecamp! 

RMI Guide Dominic Cifelli 

It has been a rewarding and exhausting week and a half traveling around Ecuador and venturing into the high mountains. Yesterday, we concluded the trip with an attempt of Cotopaxi, followed by a celebration dinner in Quito. We did not summit Cotopaxi and yet, had a meaningful and memorable experience. There are some days that the mountain does not grant reasonably safe passage and that is just how it goes. Reflecting on my own experiences climbing in this country, some of the windless, sunny days where we reached big summits have begun to blend together. On the other hand, those nights with unrelenting wind, rain, snow, rime ice or lightning really stand out. Our attempt of Cotopaxi falls into that category.

As we left the hut, the feeling was that the steady 20-30mph wind would need to relent during the early morning hours as we went higher on the mountain. Adding to this, we were occassionaly spritzed by rain or very moist clouds. I know that may sound like the same thing, but there is a subtle difference. Either way, by the time we reached the glacier our clothing was thoroughly coated in rime ice and we found ourselves in even more need of improvements in the weather. We began the long, steep traverse from the entrance of the glacier to the Yanasacha Ridge and the weather never improved. At 17600' we made the decision for the team to turn around. That is a tough call to make, albeit the right one. Most people's reflection seemed to include some continued dialing of how much weather is too much weather. I often reflect using a thought process along the lines of: if I continue to the summit in these conditions 100 times, does something catastrophic occur? Of course, we can't know for sure the answer to that, but we can begin to imagine the variety of outcomes and I think we all know a 1 in 100 chance of catastrophe is not worth the reward. We can feel proud to have pushed ourselves in adverse conditions and have had a learning experience.

Today the team is parting ways. Most are headed home to family, while some are extending their vacations or climbing plans further into South America. Wherever it is, this team now carries with them some great memories and stories to be shared.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier & Team

Monday, January 27, 2025 - 11:43 pm PT

What a proper effort that was. Every member of our team pushed themselves today and some reached the summit of Cayambe, while others reached personal high points. Overall, the climb was a great learning experience.

It was a pretty challenging climb. We sat in the hut for most of the day yesterday because it was too rainy to go outside. Then knowing we needed to get an early start, we left the hut with wind and a light mist, wearing hard shell jackets and pants. We had to push towards the upper mountain gambling on some clearing in the weather and we got just that, SOME clearing. We faced moderate winds for most of the remainder of the climb as well as clouds that obscured visibility at times. Everyone had a thin layer of rime ice.

We're now headed to a hacienda for two nights of rest before heading off to Cotopaxi!

RMI Guide Dustin Witmier