diff --git a/src/instructlab/training/utils.py b/src/instructlab/training/utils.py
index 6f76ccb7..61b83bc4 100644
--- a/src/instructlab/training/utils.py
+++ b/src/instructlab/training/utils.py
@@ -487,8 +487,6 @@ def ensure_loadable_granite_checkpoint(
     tmpdir: str,
 ):
 
-    # this has to be done per node, so we use local rank
-    local_rank = int(os.environ["LOCAL_RANK"])
     try:
         GPTDolomiteConfig.from_pretrained(model_name_or_path)
         yield model_name_or_path
@@ -501,18 +499,31 @@ def ensure_loadable_granite_checkpoint(
         # for now just assume its a llama
         # make a temp directory name, but do not create it
         # previously we used mktemp, but it caused problems in multi node settings
-        # so now we use a provided
+        # so now we use a provided tmpdir
+        # Assumption: tmpdir should be accessible by all ranks, even those
+        # in different nodes
         tmpdir = Path(tmpdir) / 'tmp'
         if os.path.exists(tmpdir):
             # need to delete if it exists because import doesnt like it to
             shutil.rmtree(tmpdir, ignore_errors=True)
 
-        if not dist.is_initialized() or local_rank == 0:
+        if not dist.is_initialized() or dist.get_rank() == 0:
             import_from_huggingface(model_name_or_path, tmpdir)
+
         if dist.is_initialized():
+            # the first barrier is to wait for rank 0 to finish converting the model 
+            # and place into tmpdir
             dist.barrier()
+
+        # return tmpdir out for loading
         yield tmpdir
-        if not dist.is_initialized() or local_rank == 0:
+
+        if dist.is_initialized():
+            # the second barrier is to wait for all the models to finish loading
+            dist.barrier()
+
+        if not dist.is_initialized() or dist.get_rank() == 0:
+            # at this point, we can be confident that the tmpdir is no longer needed
             shutil.rmtree(tmpdir, ignore_errors=True)