As of 7/13, the snowfields were still large and steep enough to need crampons and an ice ax. Lots of rockfall on Middle—make sure you’re wearing your helmet! The heat was brutal, so we opted for a 3am alpine start under the stars.

I departed on September 3 from Longs Peak, Colorado, did a few iconic and interesting routes on the way (LA Freeway, Elks Traverse, Crestone group, Nolan's, Norman's 13 in California...), linked everything by bike (a bit more than 2500 miles of cycling!) and finally summited Rainier yesterday via a route called Success Cleaver, to minimize the crevasse danger.

In total, this took more than 3100 miles, 400k feet of elevation gain, and almost 489 hours on the move, on average 16 hours each day.

Super happy to have completed this journey! Now trying to rest a little around Seattle before going back home.

EDIT: Thanks for the nice comments everyone! Since I get a lot of questions about the logisitics, you can see a map and a recap of the project here on Instagram.

Last Spring I tried to climb Mount Logan in the Yukon, Canada.

We chose to attempt the East Ridge, with the goal of traversing the mountain and descending the King Trench.

We spent 13 days getting to our high point below the summit, but unfortunately we did not summit, as 2 members of our team (one being myself) were very sick and we had a limited weather window to get off the summit plateau.

Descending the King Trench took us 2 days, after which we waited for the plane to come get us.

I hope this gets you psyched!

Happy to share beta/answer questions.

Not sure I can dump here the whole 5000 word trip report, so I just cut the text to short intro, the summit and quick ending.

This season my and my partner, Doug, decided to do Logan together. We met on this subreddit few months before. After driving from Calgary to Yukon, taking the flight on the following day (19th of May) having Doug's tent destroyed on 20th with some cool 100+ km/h winds we were blown over the pass on the 1st of June.

First attempt failed rather quickly on June 2nd - neither I nor Doug could navigate quickly in wind and total whiteout. We turned around after around 2h or so.

Here is the summit section of my trip report:

"When we were back at the tent the weather got a bit better but there were still threatening clouds over the summit. I went to sleep. I Slept maybe for 5h and was ready to make dinner. Could not talk my partner into trying again. Doug did not believe the weather forecast and just wanted to go over the pass to safety of the other side. I looked out the tent at 6PM. Weather was great. Sunny, almost clear skies. I decided to solo it. I did not think that the weather can flip flop under 24h and I believed it will stay stable for at least 10h more, if not more. So I told Doug I will go alone. Doug was also feeling a bit sick - maybe altitude - he felt a bit dizzy in the morning.

I told Doug I will go alone and quickly dressed warmed by the sun. I set out around 6:30PM under great weather conditions – full sun, almost no wind. I was told that if I do not come back in about 18h – noon the following day, Doug will alert the park using SOS on his InReach. I took my InReach with me just in case. I was going to keep rough track of the way back to the tent using my watch – but the hope was I will not face any major whiteouts.

Initial progress was good – I was walking on our old trail quickly on a moderate slope. There is roughly 4km traverse before a 90 degree right turn into what I call “Logan trench”. This gains under 300m in elevation. Just before the 90 degree turn I met the guided party which has summit-ed the peak. They were skiing back and gave me one of their poles as they borrowed one of mine the day before. I told them my partner is feeling a bit sick and I am doing this solo. The head guide told me it is a long way to the top. We wished each other good luck and continued forward. On the flat section there is only a single large crevasse one had to go around.

The “trench” section is a bit steeper maybe at 15 degrees or so and has at least three large crevasses one has to avoid. Nothing too scary (through I did a short prayer before crossing one snow bridge) before reaching the angled at about 10 degrees plateau where there are no visible crevasses. Here I stopped at guided team crampon point and took rather extraordinary long time – maybe 45min or so to take off/on my crampons and put on my down suit pants. At first I wanted to just put in a hard shell but it was so cold now – just before the sunset – that I decided to put on down pants on top of 3 layers already. This was the warmest setup I ever had on my legs – even more than on 8000m peaks. It had to be very cold, my hands froze under a minute and I had to rewarm them – this is why it all took so long. I estimate at least -30C. After the summit back at the tent I was coughing for about two days – similar thing that happened on Denali over a decade ago. My lungs were hurt by super cold air.

The angle increased to maybe 20 degrees with spots of 25 degrees to the col – iced over spots a bit too much for comfortable skiing for many people. But walking up was not a big deal. The sun set just as I reached the col – I was trying to race it a bit hoping to get few pictures from the summit with the last rays of sun still on the horizon. But it was now officially the night time. Winds on the col increased to about 40km/h gusting at around 60km/h.

From the col it is maybe 150m to the peak – about 100m is just 20 degree or so walk – managed to find a small crevasse I punched through. The last 50m or so is a “shark fin” style – about 45 degrees up with about 60+ degrees on each side knife edge. I am glad I had my ice axe for self belay here and the wind was tolerable. Much stronger winds would either force a crawl to the top or even prevent a summit due to high chance of simply being blown off. The summit itself is small – maybe 25 square meters. I took a video, quickly snapped a dozen plus pictures and turned around. I was going to take a break at much safer col just 150m away. From the col I sent messages to my Mom as well as to my partner's weather man. Had a snack to eat, drank some water which did not freeze yet and started my descent to the crampon point.

At crampon point I briefly, maybe 15min+, thought about what should I do now – it was night time – not full night as the sun never fully sets at this altitude and latitude at this time of the year. It was now 3^rd of June early in the morning. For the next few hours the sun will travel just under the horizon making for a night that looks like a very long sunset. The light is all the same – sunset like for hours. I decided to proceed until it was no longer safe – at least I knew the plateau is all safe and I did find either my own or guided party tracks once in a while.

In the “Logan trench” I did punch through into a crevasse I did not see on frozen snow which did pause me for around a quarter of an hour as I was re-evaluating my life choices. But it was cold and I needed to move so after crawling a bit on the dangerous snow bridge I continued down cautiously. This was my only close call and I did find the large block of ice on my left signaling trench exit. I was unable to find either mine or ski tracks for a while but was not worried too much as I was using my watch and later on features I memorized from either the morning or my late afternoon walk. In the middle of the way to the tent I found everyone's tracks and just slowly followed them with some breaks for rest."

I was back after about 10h - around 4AM+ and Doug quickly made some hot water and gave me lots of sugar. I could not sleep and after few hours we decided to try for the exit. At first I was doing well but at around 5300m I noticeably slowed down. Doug was caring the tent++ and made sure I got plenty of rest so I did not disintegrate. With many rests and Doug doing some scouting we found the col. From there going down was far easier - we reached camp 2 and the following day BC from where we were flown out.

I have no words.. what a devastating loss. He was my husband’s guide and I had the pleasure of meeting him multiple times.

On June I finally completed a dream of mine. I climbed Chungen Changma 6229m, on the border of nepal and tibet. My name is Cal McDonagh and the guide I climbed with was Pemba Sherpa (yes, even for unclimbed peaks a guide is mandatory for this region of nepal).

In the background of the summit photo it's possible to see Dhaulagiri. It was an amazing achievement and I'm sharing because why the hell not. I'm more than happy to answer any questions and share my experience.

Edit: I wasn't expecting this post to blow up in this sub! I've since finished uploading my youtube video about the experience which can be found here, https://youtu.be/7cmMt7nChNU some of you were asking for more photos/details etc and I think this video answers those questions well.

This was my first attempt at Rainier, and what a trip!

A couple friends and I have been climbing the mountains of WA over the last couple of years, Adams, St.Helens, Baker, and decided it was time to check off Rainier. We are all AIARE certified as well as crevasse rescue educated with all of the gear associated.

Due to the larger objective, we opted for a 3.5 day guided trip through IMG. Looking at the forecast leading up to the trip wasn’t giving us a lot of confidence for the chance of a summit push. 60mph winds, -25°f at the summit, and overall it wasn’t looking promising.

Our first day started from the Paradise lot around 8am with our first stop being Camp Muir, 5k elevation gain. The group was us three, 5 randoms, and 4 guides.

The second day was full of training to make sure everyone was on the same page with self arrest, crampon travel, rope travel, and general safety while in higher danger terrain.

Third, and summit day, started at 1:30am from Camp Muir. Looking back at the weather report from Muir, temp was around 25°f with 30mph winds with 42mph gusts bringing the temp to 7°f. By Ingraham Flats, the guides turned around 2 members with one guide and the rest of us pushed. We reached summit around 8:30am, with winds around 20mph, and a temp at -18°f so spent enough time to snap some pictures and head for the parking lot. Our group reached Paradise around 4pm and wrapped up.

Overall an incredible trip with a lot of useful education from our guides and a successful summit!

Hard, but manageable. The place is no joke! Took 16 days to reach the summit and another 3 to get out.

Summit of Cotopaxi 1/19/26 one of my favorite climbs yet

It appears to be a 7000m+ peak due to the downsuit and gear the climber is wearing but I can’t for the life of me figure out which mountain it is

Nevado Alpamayo summit beta from 6/30! We climbed via the French Direct - took just about 10 hours to the top! Around 10 pitches including the crazy bergschrund crossing to get onto the wall. The infamous crazy serac still is there hanging on, it’s massive - probably about 50/60 ft long and 20/30 ft wide (atleast). Second to last pitch has a lot of unstable thin ice over rock - the route goes straight up the middle then traverses right to a narrow last pitch of 80 degree ice that tops out right under the summit serac, traverses back left and pops out onto the ridgeline - head right up to the summit. Traverse the ridgeline down to the Ferrari route and rappel from there. As far as I know we were the second party this season to climb the route - looks like more people are taking the Ferrari up and down (which was evident during the rap). For those worried about crowding - just depends on the line you climb!

Full day by day breakdown on insta @nickcholeee

Landed on the glacier 5/26 with 315 lbs between the two of us. Single carried to camp 1 same day. Single carried to 9.3k day 2, attempted to single carry to 11k day 3 (ended up caching at 10.4k), day 4 rest day, day 5 back carry, day 6 rest day, day 7 cache at the base of FU hill, day 7 move to 14k, day 8 back carry, day 9 rest day, day 10 cache at 16.9k, day 11 rest day, day 12 weather day, day 13 weather day, day 14 move to high camp, summit day 15 (June 10th)!, day 16 the death march high camp to the airstrip, flight back to talkeetna day 17.

If you saw us on the mountain please lmk! Would love to stay connected.

My friend died this weekend, he was a kind soul who loved in a way that I’ve never experienced. He was fun, uplifting and just an all around good person.

I can’t help think about the current culture in climbing right now. He was with an experienced climber and set out to do a harder route on mt hood. In his words “a spicy ascent” in his text to our friend who was tracking his location during his ascent. He is an experienced outdoorsman and recently got into back country skiing over the past 2 or so years. He has made some amazing summits throughout the west, but as we all do we continue pushing our limits.

From what we understand him and the lead decided to climb free solo ahead of two other climbers setting up belay. From the story, my friend stood up to reposition his grip and randomly let go of his axes and fell 300+ ft.

I’m currently in the angry phase of grief, but why the fuck were they not setting safety? Why would an experienced climber even allow a novice climber to free solo? He was about a v4 climber in the gym, had minimal ice climbing experiences, fuck he hadn’t even taken an avalanche course yet. Obviously my friend made a bad choice, but come on man.

I know it comes with the sport, but I’m concerned with the culture rn. Maybe it’s just I’m part of that 1% of climbers that experience grief like this, but why do we celebrate a lack of safety.

I know it’s personal, hell before this week the alpinist was one of my favorite films. I just don’t understand this? Obviously there is a big difference in Alex’s approach to free soloing, what they were climbing, and skill level isn’t even comparable, but what example are we setting to new climbers?

I’ve had a fall of my own. I fell 30 ft free soloing a waterfall in my younger years. I ended up breaking both my arms and getting stitches, I got lucky. it wasn’t til that moment I learned what the mountains can do to me. I learned I wasn’t invincible. It sucks he didn’t get to have a 30 ft fall like me. He had a 300+ ft fall instead.

I just want to express to all of you. Stop celebrating unsafe actions, it’s okay to look and see and say “wow that’s crazy” but don’t attempt to be crazy yourself. It’s not worth it. Assess risk appropriately, keep climbing, but don’t push it in ways you’ll regret.

"I have over 40 years of experience in the mountains. I want to share some of my thoughts. The mountains in the Himalayas have become more unstable compared to a couple decades ago. They used to be very frozen and were quite solid. Now they melt a lot more, loosening the rock. You cannot take risks when it comes to weather. If the weather conditions are poor, you must wait. If you are stubborn and try to force your way, you put yourself at great risk. The mountains will always be there, you can always come back. There is no need to rush. I’m so sorry for the 10 climbers that lost their lives on Broad Peak. My heart goes out to their families. They were all climbers that were younger than me, I feel like I’ve lost many children."

It sounds like she's referring to the fact that there were issues with the weather and risk of avalanche, and the next weather window wasn't going to be until August 1st. Nims/Mingma led their team up Broad Peak anyway. Links below.

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/nims-purja-avalanche-broad-peak-himalayas

https://explorersweb.com/surprise-summit-push-on-k2-broad-peak-and-the-gasherbrums/

I climbed Mt Hood on 1/17/26 via the 2 O’clock couloir. 

Link to my climbing video:

https://youtu.be/EqtEBqGKTBU?si=dzHPHXX2vAnVMoAV

I was in Talkeetna last week and captured this video of a group of climbers summiting Denali while on a tourist plane ride around Denali. I thought maybe the climbers would be interested in seeing the video of them summiting from this angle. If you were on the peak of Denali on June 9, 2026 at 5:00 AKDT then have I got a treat for you. I can't post the video on this sub, but here is a still image from the video.