Entries from Expedition Dispatches

Today we left Quito and the city life is in our rear view. Yeah, the hotel is nice. Yeah, the coffee shop across the street knows my name and order. Yeah, the eucalyptus steam room is great. But we are here to climb, experience culture, be a little uncomfortable. All those other things are available everywhere else!

So, we turn our sights towards Cayambe. Today, we did one more acclimatization hike to Cerro Fuya Fuya and were once again fortunate to stay dry. Walking around in the high grasslands gave us a chance to breathe some fresh air and continue to work towards the physiological adaptations that will be advantageous for us on higher mountains. Tonight, we are enjoying a lovely rest in a classic Andean highlands hacienda before we head to the lower Cayambe hut tomorrow.

The team is in good spirits after reaching the summits of both acclimatization peaks. I seem to be the only person who is a bit chapped about missing the Super Bowl (once again) because we will be out of cell range. Oh well, I don’t actually care who wins, just as long as all the players have fun.

Anyways, it’s time to call it a night, keep us in your thoughts as we venture higher the next few days. Hopefully to 18,996’ by Monday morning!

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

A little over 7 miles of hiking brought us to the Perros glacier overlook and nearby camp. The wind, forest and rivers make for a soothing ambient soundtrack as the trail winds through the lenga trees. We are at the base of the Pass, fed & rested for the longest day to join the "W" circuit in the Grey Glacier Valley. The laughs continue as we get to know each other.

RMI Guide Mike King

A needed rest, headed to Orizaba!

After our success on Ixta, Team Mexico Volcanoes settled into a very well deserved couple of nights and a day of rest in beautiful Puebla, Mexico. 

Everyone got some sleep, washed off the mountain, and checked out the colonial buildings and many cathedrals and artisan markets. 

After a great team dinner and another night of rest we got up early and hit the road to Tlachichuca, and our final and largest mountain, 18,500’ Pico de Orizaba. 

Wish us luck!

RMI Guide Joe Hoch

Hi Everyone,

We had a windy eleven miles into Lago Dickson today. The trail takes us through the appropriately named windy pass. The group enjoyed the scenic views of Lago Paine and the glaciated mountains that surround Lago Dickson. We are enjoying the trek and having a lot of laughs along the way. Watching the clouds move quickly over the mountains now.

RMI Guide Mike King & Team

Hello everybody!

We are now a couple days into the final RMI Ecuador trip for this winter. The whole team is here and we're settled into the Quito hotel and spa life. The soft landing is nice after basically everyone has to spend a full day in transit reaching Ecuador. Not everyone is sold on the cold plunge and the science is still out on it, but we can all agree on hot tubbing.

Yesterday, we had a nice tour to overlook the crater of Pululahua, visit the equator and see some sights in the old town sector of Quito before the skies fully opened on us and lightning struck within the city. This was real rain, equatorial rain, the kind where you get soaked if you spend any amount of time in it and the streets turn to streams. Needless to say, we all hoped that would not be the case for our hike of Rucu Pichincha today.

I am happy to report that our wishes and our sun dances worked! We had a lovely day on Rucu Pichincha. As clouds built throughout the day, there continued to be nervous anticipation about whether or not we would need to turn around. As much as I love reaching the summit of Rucu Pichincha, I would hate to be struck by lightning. However, the clouds continued to peel away and never quite turned to their menacing, cumulonimbus form. So, we were excited to have every member of the team stand on top, with it being an altitude record for several in the group.

Tomorrow, we head north out of the city working our way towards Cayambe. It's still a few days before we will venture that high, so we have some time planned continuing to acclimate and just enjoy ourselves as tourists in this beautiful country.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier & Team

100% Summit on Ixta!

After welcoming us to La Joya basecamp with a lovely warm sunset and delicious dinner from our Mexican host company, 17,160’ Ixtaccihuatl showed us that she is still a huge wild mountain. Out of the calm starry night sky, winds suddenly gusting 40-50mph forced us out of our sleeping bags and we scrambled to move our tents in the dark to the shelter of the old basecamp refugio. But our crew laughed it off as ‘adventure!’ And the next two days on the mountain showed everyone what a Mexican wilderness alpine experience can be. Complete with a spectacular high camp, billowing ash from our volcanic neighbor Popocatéptl, and the best sunset some of us have ever seen. 

On summit morning the crew climbed strong and right before sunrise, 100% of the team stood on Ixta’s summit. A new high point for the majority of the team!

We’re headed now to the colorful colonial city of Puebla, where we’ll enjoy a well earned rest day and prepare for 18,500’ Orizaba. 

RMI Guide Joe Hoch

We had a nice ride this morning as the Patagonia landscape opened before our eyes. There were a lot of guanacos, think wild alpaca running around the pampas. The view of the Torres was spectacular upon entering the park.

For the birders, seeing some harriers and Magellanic woodpeckers in the first hour of hiking kicked off this first day nicely. The "O" circuit goes counterclockwise around the park. The first portion is private property that the family manages for tourism in cooperation with the national park now. This side is dry grasslands with rolling hills along the Paine River which is a milky turquoise color and full from rain and snowmelt.

Approximately 8 miles brought us to Seron camp, a former ranching outpost turned campgrund. The team is doing well and enjoying some time in the newly installed rooftop style safari tents to get out of the strong wind that has been blowing all day.

We are excited to be out on the trail and away from the airports and hotels for the next 8 days, we will check in from Lago Dickson tomorrow. 

RMI Guide Mike King and Team

This is Mike checking in from the Torres del Paine trek. Our team is finally assembled in Puerto Natales. We arrived over the last few days and finally got all of the group together for a dinner. There was some delayed bags and subsequent logistics that needed to be figured out. The winds were very strong leaving Punta Arenas, our Magellanic penguin tour was cancelled due to high winds and tide issues, which resulted in a windy van ride that made the cancellation all the more understandable as white caps and ships listed in the harbors. 

We are in Puerto Natales, briefed and packed for our trek. Everyone is eager to leave the amenities of the hotels and begin the "O" portion of our trek tomorrow. We will be heading for Seron camp and fingers crossed that we get a nice view of the Torres and Cuernos as we head into the park. Thanks for following along.

RMI Guide Mike King

A La Malinche summit!

Yesterday team Mexico Volcanos got up early and left Mexico City, hoping for an early departure from the trailhead for our first volcano, 14500 foot La Malinche. 

Recently, the Policía de Montaña, some of whom carry inappropriately large machine guns(tough to argue with), have been quite strict about turning all climbers around at 2pm, no matter your location or fancy technical outerwear. They mean well, as many folks attempt this very large mountain in jeans and street shoes, and seemingly no water or food. With our drive from Mexico City, it would be a push to make it, but the team was willing.

We left the park entrance with 4,500 feet to cover at around 11:30am. The team understood that it would be a little faster pace than normal to make it happen and evade la Policía, but they were up for it. 

At 3 pm, 3.5 hours and 4,500 feet later, we scrambled to the rocky summit of La Malinche with a beautiful view and not a cloud in the sky. There stood a single Policía de Montaña, who said simply, “Bajo por favor, ahora! (Down please, now!).”

We negotiated quickly for, “Solo una foto?(Just one photo?).” He was grumpy but willing, and as we took one picture of the team on the summit, the views were incredible of Volcan Iztaccihautl and Orizaba, our next two volcanos. 

Once we left the strict gaze of our friendly Policía on the summit, we were able to take some well earned relaxing breaks on our descent and enjoy the company of our new mountain dog friends, who showed us a thing or two about negotiating the loose boulder fields. 

A customary feast of barbecued steak and cactus tacos awaited us at our cabins in the forest below La Malinche, and it was an early bedtime!

The crew is super excited for our successful summit, and ready to hit the road and head to our next adventure, 17,159' Volcan Iztaccihautl!

RMI Guide Joe Hoch

And we're off!

The Mexico Volcanos crew arrived last night to the Hotel Geneve in Mexico City. After some introductions, we made our way to a local taco spot and chatted about our upcoming trip. 

This morning the crew was up early and ready to head to our first volcano, La Malinche. 

Many more tacos and mountains await!

RMI Guide Joe Hoch