RMI, is it any good?

[Bronco]

 

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My name is Nima and I have had an expedition on Mount Denali in May-June 2017 by RMI company.

As a mountaineer with three successful 8000m peaks (Everest north face, Cho Oyu and Shisha Pangma), Kilimanjaro, Aconcagua and passing many training courses, here is my feedback regarding my experience with RMI in the Denali expedition.

The following feedback has been shared with Joe Horiskey and Jeff Martin and they have been informed in advance that the following feedback will be shared in public for future applicants who are interested to know about the quality of services by RMI.

I have registered with RMI to join the expedition on Denali for May-June 2017 under leadership of Mr. Tyler Jones (TJ). Here are my feedback regarding this expedition based on the different subjects:

A-     Safety: As all of us heard many times in the expedition, “safety” is number one. It has also been said by TJ as the first priority for RMI, however, practically I have not seen at all that “safety” was his first priority in the expedition based on the following incidents:

1-TJ said no Avalanche Transceiver is needed in the cache day from 14000ft to 17000 ft. As you know about the West Buttress rout, the fixed rope and the steep part above 14000ft camp is the most avalanche hazardous part of the expedition. If Avalanche Transceiver is not needed here, where we should use the Avalanche Transceiver? It just gives me the idea that “safety” is just a slogan and is not really the concern for the leader but on the other hand TJ was so strict about the equipment list on the RMI website.

2-After few days staying in the 14000ft camp due to bad weather, I suggested TJ to climb up to the beginning of the fixed ropes and come back to 14000ft to have an activity and to keep being acclimatized. He refused my suggestion, and his reason was high chance of frostbite for the team members. However, in the last push ascent from 14000ft to 17000ft, the entire team waited in the shadow on the steep part before the fixed ropes for one hour between 6 am to 7 am due to strong winds on the ridge. All of these happened just because TJ always wanted to be the first team on the path regardless of the frostbite dangers which seriously threatened the team in the shadow. I myself had to move for one hour in the super cold weather to keep myself warm which was really tough in the freezing temperature. The recorded videos and the taken pictures from the morning are available to show how cold the weather was and how wrong the decision was to depart the 14000ft camp early in the morning. The temperature was between -20 to -30 oC at that morning. All these proved to me that frostbite was just an excuse to refuse my suggestion because the chance of frostbite in that morning we were waiting in the shadow was much higher and TJ was not worried about the members safety practically.

3-When TJ pushed the team as the first team to descend from 17000ft, the weather was so stormy and windy. It was one of the most dangerous weather conditions I have ever seen in mountains, and we had to descend on a very stormy ridge from 17000ft to 14000ft. TJ knew that the weather will be much better in the afternoon based on the weather forecast but he pushed the team to descend in the stormy weather just again because he wanted to be the first team on the ridge. In those conditions, one of the member’s crampons was opened in my rope and put us in a very dangerous situation. As per forecast, the weather became very calm, and clouds gone in few hours at the same afternoon however his wrong decision caused 2 frostbites on the faces for 2 members in addition to the crampon incident.

 B-      Customer Service / Behavior

1-In my presence and without my permission, TJ opened my personal backpack and “throw” out my gears/cloths/food out of my backpack in the K2 aviation garage before the expedition started. He said he will cut the extra rope from my backpack just because he believed that the rope had extra weight. All his immature and unprofessional behaviors and words were witnessed by other members and guides.

2-TJ threatened me to send me back to Anchorage even before the expedition begins and threatened me twice more again during the trip in 14000ft camp. It is totally unprofessional approach to resolve “any” issue with a member and I have not seen this treatment from any leader before neither in Himalaya nor anywhere else.

3-When the team arrived to 17000ft camp in the last summit push, the weather was partially windy. TJ asked the team to set up tents. They were new set-up tents (the red and tunnel type tents however we have had “Mountain Hardware” orange tents before) and the members not fully familiar how to set it up. TJ became angry on us, hauled us and shouted on us just because we didn’t exactly know how to set the tents up. After being in 5-6 expeditions, I have not never ever seen such a behavior from a LEADER in the last camp before summit push when everybody is nervous about the summit. TJ was very moody and got angry and aggressive easily on the members for very minor issues and was very weak in stress and anger management.

4-Many times said “do not be stressed out” by TJ, however he himself made so much stress for members. For example, if I would be ready few minutes later than other members, he would raise it up during the day many times and mentioned my name in this regard that you were late and tried to tease me in front of other members. It has happened not only for me but also for most members. So, if needed to wake up in a cache or moving day, I wouldn’t sleep well the night before and was partially ready in the tent just no to be late and no to be criticized by TJ. All these things made the team like a group of stressful soldiers in a casern who should compete to each other not to be late. This attitude is completely against the spirit of mountaineering in which a mountaineer should be peaceful and calm in mountains.

5- “I am DICTATOR”, said by TJ when the team was waiting in the K2 aviation garage to fly to the base camp. He emphasized that he would push people to accept his words and his words do not have necessarily any logic behind. Since the members were mature, it was needed to convince members by logical reasons rather than dictatorship manner. However, he thought he is the leader of kids in a kindergarten and should dictate his words to the members.

6-Anytime any member asked TJ what the reason was that we don’t climb to the higher camps, instead of answering the question he replied that anyone who is not happy with his decision can return home. This is the most unprofessional, illogical, and immature answer to any question. He wanted to establish his dictatorship by threatening members like this type of answer. It has happened for me the third night in 14000ft camp in the dinner time in the kitchen tent. It happened many more other times such as day 9 in the 14000 ft camp. It all proved to me that TJ has no idea about crisis management and mental support of his team and simply he is not a professional leader, and he just imposed his ideas to the members by threatening them to either follow him or go back home.

 C- Food

1-How TJ endue the team food to another RMI team when our own expedition has not been finished yet? It has happened when another RMI team led by Brent was in food shortage.

2-After coming back from 17000ft camp in the cache day, the team was fed by noodle. You obviously know that the cache day to 17000ft takes few thousand calories and noodle isn’t obviously a nutritious food to recover members.

3-On June 9^th, we were fed again with a very low-quality dinner called quinoa. This is not a nutritious food to have a very active day after it. It was in such a low quality that one of the members couldn’t eat it at all.

4-For two breakfasts for 11 people included 8 members and 3 guides, two small packs of cheese (8 Oz each) were provided for each breakfast. Interestingly, TJ mentioned twice to the members to eat less and leave the rest of the cheese for the guides. Considering that the 9^th member (Todd) left us in the second day of expedition, why we were in food shortage for the rest of the team and how rude his behavior was when TJ said eat less to have more for guides? It also has happened for other foods such as guak and bacon in many times at dinner.

5-On 8^th June which was day 13 of the expedition, TJ said we are running out of food. On the official RMI site, the expedition takes 21 days. Considering that Todd left the team in the 2^nd day of expedition, how come our food was in shortage in day 13 of the expedition? Then our team should beg food from other teams when TJ went out every day for 3-4 days after breakfast to find food. Was it just happened due to food mismanagement? One of the reasons was that part of our food was given to Brent team (another RMI team) because they ran out of food. From Humanity perspective, it is nice to help others however TJ always preferred others to his team and forgot his main responsibilities. As a leader, I saw TJ in many situations that he preferred to have a good reputation in other teams/female climbers’ view rather than thinking about his team members.

6-As preferred other teams to his team, TJ gave few bottles of fuel to Brent team since they have run out of fuel too and it caused our team not to have fuel for few nights and after dinner we didn’t have hot water for four nights.

 D-     Technical Issues

1-There was zero tolerance by TJ and the two guides to modify or change the ascend or descend pace during the entire expedition. For example, in ascending from 17000ft to 14000ft in the cache day, I asked the guide in my rope to give a 5-minute break just one hour from 14000ft camp because I was so thirsty and I ran out of water and my request was rejected! The weather was cloudy but not windy at all and having break for 5 minutes couldn’t change anything, but it was strangely rejected without any reasonable reason.

2-The major reason for any mountaineer to climb mountains is pure joy and record these joyful seconds. TJ and his guides didn’t let us to take pictures when the condition was safe and stable for photography. Honestly, it has happened many times but not always. On the arrival to 17000ft in the cache day, I asked permission to take few pics from the “edge of the world” in 17000ft camp and the guide didn’t let me to do it. The weather was sunny, we have had time and we were in no rush to come back to 14000ft camp.  So why am I not allowed to take pictures? How can I record beautiful seconds when I am in the mountain when TJ and his guides didn’t let us to take pictures without any safety or technical reasons. All these non-logical behaviors make not only me but also others to think that we are in casern instead of mountain and we are soldiers who should follow our commander’s orders.

3-During the entire trip, TJ was always insisting to wear exactly as he wore. It seems he doesn’t know and doesn’t want to understand that different people have different bodies. Some people are tolerant to cold, and some are tolerant to hot weather. In TJ’s idea there is just ONE correct clothing system in mountaineering which is his system and if someone wears in a different system, he will react very offensive and push him to change his cloth. It has happened for me in camps 7000ft, 11000ft and 14000ft for 3 times.

4-TJ said many times during the expedition that we should keep our bodies chilled! How come?! All the legend mountaineers such as Reinhold Messner, Jerzy Kukuczka, Anatoli Boukreev highly recommended to keep yourself as warm as possible and try not to lose any warmth from your body. TJ not only believed in an opposite belief he also pushed others to follow this wrong methodology.

5-After few days waiting in 14000ft camp, I suggested TJ to have an activity on 7^th June and to hike up to the beginning of fixed ropes. My suggestion was rejected because of possibility of frostbite! Just 3 days after my suggestion, on 10^th June, TJ decided to hike up to the fixed ropes from 14000ft camp. First, the weather was much worse than 10^th June and second, he decided to do it just because Jake wanted to cache on 10^th June and TJ wanted to help him and his team members. When Jake’s team arrived to the beginning of the fixed ropes, TJ and Jake took all the cache from Jake’s team members and did cache above the fixed ropes. Meanwhile our team members went down to 14000 ft camp with our 2 guides. Again, TJ was just thinking about other teams and devoted his team members for other teams. Practically he was a great leader for Brent’s and Jake’s teams not for his own team.

6-In 14000ft camp, TJ planned to hike up to 17000ft camp on 13^th June and we will push for the summit on 14^th June. As planned, we hiked to 17000ft camp on 13^th June and the weather was perfect on 14^th June. However, TJ kept the team in 17000ft camp on 14^th June without any reason. At the same day, 14^th June, 26 climbers summited Denali. His only excuse was that he wanted to have ALL (weak and strong) members together on the top which was impossible because the gap between weak (sick) people ad strong people in our team was so wide and 2 sick people even could not walk properly in 17000ft camp. So, TJ wanted to spend more time in 17000ft camp to acclimatize the weak people and we missed good weather for summit. After 14^th June, TJ made numerous excuses not to push for summit just because he was sure he could not make all members on the top.

7-Eventually TJ made his final decision about 15^th June as the “up-down” day meaning that on 15^th June the team either must push for the summit or must go down to 14000ft camp. Although the weather was little windy in the morning, but the wind was fully vanished around 11 am and the weather became very calm but TJ neither pushed the team up for the summit nor moved down the team and we stayed in 17000ft for another night. The same illogical excuses were given to us on 15^th June and the team went down on 16^th June in a very stormy weather.

 E-      Other Teams / “Female” mountaineers & skiers

1- On 7^th June the team has been in the 14000ft camp for 4 days. The team was worried and nervous due to losing time. In this situation TJ has just been next to his team just twice in breakfast and dinner times and spent the rest of the day with other teams and girls who commuted to the camp. Was TJ our team leader or he was the girl’s program manager, or he is ladies mountaineer lover? Obviously, it is no one’s business what TJ wants to do in his personal life, but it obviously seemed that he completely forgot where he was and what his major responsibilities were. The other days that we stayed in 11000ft and 14000ft camps, he spent hours and hours with the girls who reached to the camps. Any girl who commuted between camp came to our kitchen and our facilities have been provided to them for water, food, etc. I understand that many of them were his friends, but a professional LEADER always first think about his team during expedition not about his friends and his fun. I have been tour leader for 8 years and met my mountaineer friends in the mountains. However, I always stick to my team and never left them alone to spend time with my friends when I was in a leader position.

F-      Dawn suite

1-TJ insisted many times that my down suit (which was used in my Everest expedition) was not appropriate for Denali and pushed me to rent down jacket and pant from AMS for $280. I have seen 3 other climbers from other teams in 17000ft camp who wore the same down suit and asked them how comfortable they are in their down suit and all of them were quite happy with it. I took few pictures from these climbers and recorded their voices to be used as evidence wherever it is needed. I had plan to use mine above 14000ft however TJ said that Denali is different from other mountains and never explained for me how come Denali is different from other mountains? He also made joke and teased me in public about my down suit. Our team members were witness of his behavior.

2-TJ pushed me to buy a hike pant which didn’t help me at all. I have had a high-quality Gore-Tex pant, but I have been pushed to buy a new pant just because TJ didn’t like it and he threatened me to leave me behind the team and I had to come back home.

All the words used in this email were thought about and all my claims are very precise, based on truth and recorded as photos, voices and iPhone movie and would be provided if needed.

 

21 year thread bump to post a 7 year old complaint.  Bravo!

Edited Tuesday at 11:39 PM by Bronco