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Posts from 12/2011

Ecuador Cotopaxi Express: Casey Grom & Team Explore Quito

Posted by: Casey Grom | December 11, 2011
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Ecuador

Hello Everyone,

It was a beautiful first day here in Quito, Ecuador. We started the day off with a visit to the equator which is just a few miles north of our hotel.  The short drive through the busy streets of Quito gave us a brief glimpse of life here in this city of over 2 million people. We spent an hour at an outdoor cultural museum that is set up to show the importance and effects the equator has on the planet. Most of us were amazed to see the Coriolis effect in both hemispheres. It is true that water spins in different directions while being drained.

After our visit up north we headed back to Quito where we took in the sights of the colonial old town. There was much to see in this city that was founded in 1530. Our stops included the monastery of San Francisco (built in 1535), the church of La Compania, which has gold painted throughout the interior, and a quick stop at the Virgin de Quito. It’s also called the La Panicia and it sits atop a small hill and overlooks this beautiful city. We snuck in a very appropriate siesta after yesterday’s long flights and wrapped up the day with a wonderful dinner full of good conversations.

Everyone is doing great and looking forward to stretching our legs tomorrow.

RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew

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Vinson Massif: Summit!

Posted by: Dave Hahn | December 11, 2011
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Vinson Massif
Elevation: 16,067'

Hey, this is Dave Hahn calling in from the summit of Mount Vinson 16,067 feet above sea level. And I’m up here. It’s 5:25 in the evening. I’m with three wonderful climbers: T.A., Mindy and Vlado, and we picked a beautiful day to be up here. It’s calm, it’s sunny, it’s wonderful. This is my 29th time on top- likely a record of some sort and what an enjoyable day. What an enjoyable week’s its been. Here’s T.A.: Hey, this is T.A. calling from the summit of Mt. Vinson and the view is absolutely… absolutely awesome! Special hello to everyone in Newfoundland and another special hello to Rain and Zander up there in Edmonton. Take care everybody. [Mindy] The view is… I’ve never dreamed about it. Without Dave and the team I couldn’t dream I could make it. Dave you are a lasting reward. I made a good choice with RMI. Without the team I couldn’t have made it. Total team work. This is Vlado from Slovakia calling from the highest point in Antarctica. Beautiful time, we are having a great time. Alright, well that’s us from the top of the Vinson Massif, highest point in Antarctica. We have gotten very lucky. Very lucky and we appreciate all the help people have given us a long the way. Thanks a lot and we’ll keep you informed. I’ll send out a dispatch from our high camp tonight because we are going to get down nice and safe. We are all doing strong and well. It’s going to be a nice day, a day to remember.

RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

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Vinson Massif: Teams Rests at High Camp and Readies for Summit Bid

Posted by: Dave Hahn | December 10, 2011
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Vinson Massif
Elevation: 12,400'

A long and easy day at high camp, preparing for the summit.  There wasn’t a breath of wind, which we are hoping will be the situation tomorrow as well.  Still plenty of cloud about, although we seem to be near the top of it all.  I spoke on the radio with Vinson basecamp and they seem to be down in the soup.  Clouds shouldn’t present any great problem for us though, as long as the predictions hold true and the calm continues.  The forecast calls for -38 C tomorrow on top.  It was far more comfortable than that in our tents today though.  We napped, we drank water, we napped, we ate food, and we napped.  Tomorrow we climb.

Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

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Vinson Massif: Move to High Camp

Posted by: Dave Hahn | December 09, 2011
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Vinson Massif
Elevation: 12,400'

Half past one in the morning and the sun is blazing away at high camp on Mt. Vinson.  We made the move up today.  It was a murky day from the start, with lazy clouds and light snowfall keeping the views pretty limited as we cranked on up the steep fixed rope section.  We made the trip in about 6.5 hours, coming in to camp just after 9 PM.  By midnight we’d gotten a good hot dinner and the team was turning in while the clouds began to drop away.  We’ll likely take a rest day tomorrow and go for the top on December 11th if weather permits.

Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

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Vinson Massif: Dave & Team Carry to High Camp

Posted by: Dave Hahn | December 08, 2011
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Vinson Massif
Elevation: 9,500'

It is a quarter after one in the morning in the Ellsworth Mountains of Antarctica.  We made our carry of summit supplies to Vinson high camp today.  It all went quite well.  We made it up there in under six hours, arriving just before 8 PM.  Two-and-a-half hours later we were back down the fixed ropes and thirty-five hundred feet lower in camp one.  These are late days, but we are simply trying to use the best sun of the day.  In such cold temperatures it doesn’t make sense to do otherwise.  Our storm is gone, but there is still a lot of high cloud in the area.  We were warm enough going up the fixed ropes but met with a nagging four mile per hour breeze on the less steep slopes before high camp and that allowed us to fully appreciate the ambient temperature (forecast to be -24 C today with about -35 C at the summit)  It was all good training for the bigger and harder days which will follow.  Climbing out of the Branscomb valley, the team got to look out upon the endless world of ice to our west today.  It is a stunning and magnificent view, and virtually impossible to tell where ice ends and sky begins.

Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

On The Map

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Ecuador’s Volcanoes: Cotopaxi Summit!

Posted by: Casey Grom | December 08, 2011
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Ecuador
Elevation: 19,348'

Hello everybody back home this is Casey Grom checking for RMI’s Ecuador Expedition.

We are currently on the summit of Cotopaxi.  We had a great day, pretty tough conditions, lots of new and loose snow.  We made it up in just over 6 hours.  Everybody did great.  We are hanging in some sunshine right now taking a few photos and are going to be heading down in just a little bit.

We will check in again as soon as we get back safely to the hut.  We’ll be heading back to Quito tonight.

RMI Guide Casey Grom

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Vinson Massif: Rest Day for the Team

Posted by: Dave Hahn | December 07, 2011
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Vinson Massif
Elevation: 9,500'

Winds stayed mercifully calm throughout last night, but just as we got hoping for the morning sunshine (it takes until 11:30 AM for the sun to get around the mountain and into our camp) the storm came in again good and strong for several hours.  There was not any question of going ahead with our carry to high camp.  Instead, we rested, which turned out to be quite pleasant when the cloud caps blew off the peaks and the winds quit.  Just a lazy day in the sun, trying to drink plenty of water and get organized for going higher.  This evening’s dinner was relaxed and leisurely, the total opposite of our battle with the elements 24 hours before.  Things don’t seem totally stable yet, but there isn’t much doubt now that we are headed for better days.

Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

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Ecuador Volcanoes: Team Checks in from High Hut on Cotapaxi

Posted by: Casey Grom | December 07, 2011
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Ecuador
Elevation: 16,000

This is Craig Herd reporting in for the RMI Team on the Cotopaxi Climb. We are now at the hut on Cotopaxi at 16,000 feet.  The weather is a balmy & cold.  We just had an enjoyable dinner.
 
The climbing team has come together very well.  We’re looking forward to an early morning start for our summit attempt.  Everyone is in good spirits. We look forward to reporting in tomorrow.

Thank you.

RMI Team Member Craig Heard

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Ecuador’s Volcanoes: Enjoying a Rest Day

Posted by: Jason Thompson | December 07, 2011
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Ecuador

Hey, this is the Ecuador trip checking in. 

Today we had a much deserved and much needed rest day here at the Chilcabamba Lodge.  We woke up this morning to glorious views of Cotopaxi and a magnificent breakfast.  We ate wonderful food and drank lots of coffee.  We spent the majority of the day resting, relaxing and drying out and organizing our gear for tomorrow’s departure to Cotopaxi.  This afternoon we enjoyed more coffee and continued reviews of Cotopaxi and finished the day off with a wonderful dinner this evening.

Everyone is doing well here in Ecuador and we are all looking forward to tomorrow’s adventures. We’ll check in later.

RMI Guide Jason Thompson

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Vinson Massif: Team Moves Uphill

Posted by: Dave Hahn | December 06, 2011
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Vinson Massif
Elevation: 9,500'

Another day of storm, as predicted and expected.  But it seemed as though things were improving gradually and so we thought we might sneak up into position at Low Camp so as to be ready for the good weather.  This plan worked well, at first.  We packed up and got rolling from basecamp at 1:30 PM.  At the big right-angle turn of the Branscomb Glacier we picked up our cache from yesterday and marched on.  Travel was actually easier than it had been for the first Vinson team since much of the soft snow blew away.  With a good path and calm and even occasionally sunny conditions, the miles flew by.  We hit low camp at 9,300 ft right on five hours, at 6:30.  That also happened to be the moment that the first big cold and random wave of wind played through.  Sure enough, the storm had a sting in its tail.  We got hammered by gusts as we carefully built our tents and lit stoves.  It all certainly lent drama to our situation, but the team remained in good humor and coped well.  Meals were served up in the sleeping tents instead of in the POSH, but that worked out just fine.  By 10 PM the wind was behaving much better and it pretty much quit by midnight (although it can still be heard howling through high camp, 3,500 ft directly above us).  Obviously we want our share of good and stable weather to begin tomorrow, but if necessary, we can wait right here for whenever the fine stuff shows up.

Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn

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