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Posts for Ecuador

Ecuador’s Volcanoes: Cotopaxi Summit!

Posted by: Jake Beren | January 19, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Ecuador
Elevation: 19,348'

After our hailstorm approach and the lightning storms visible on the horizon, no one on our team really had a lock on how the day would turn out. When we started breaking trail at midnight and the stars quickly disappeared, everyone crossed their fingers that Cotopaxi would let us stand on top.  Luckily fortune smiled on us and we managed to find our way through some quickly changing glacial conditions with plenty of new snow to go with. The higher we climbed, the clearer it got and this team did a great job climbing smart and safe on this tough mountain and we all returned healthy and happy, albeit with the weirdest facial tanning we’ve seen. Thanks for a great trip with an awesome team.
   
RMI Guide Jake Beren

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Ecuador’s Volcanoes: After the Climb

Posted by: Jake Beren | January 16, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Ecuador

Things didn’t look all that promising when the team woke up this morning.  The clear skies we lit the stoves under were gone and we were solidly in a thick cloud.  Often when climbing you have to go check it out and at the end of our first hour Cayambe was entirely visible.  A waning half moon illuminated the upper mountain and the snow was perfect cramponing.  With barely a breeze, you couldn’t ask for a better day to climb.  The team worked hard today, earning the top in great style and enjoying the views of the other Ecuadorian volcanoes poking out of the clouds.  We could even see Cotopaxi, our next objective. 

Good job everyone and enjoy tomorrow’s rest.

RMI Guide Jake Beren

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Ecuador Volcanoes: Cayambe Summit!

Posted by: Jake Beren | January 16, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Ecuador
Elevation: 18,997'

Good morning, this is Jake Beren and the RMI Ecuador team standing on top of Cayambe.  Everybody did super well today.  We had a beautiful day to climb and now we are perched pretty high above the clouds surrounded by some pretty large volcanoes.  It was just about as good today as I have ever seen out here.  It was a real pleasure to be here with such a good team. So, I guess that’s it. I’ll be in touch when we get further down.

RMI Guide Jake Beren

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Ecuador’s Volcanoes: Ready for Summit Bid Tonight

Posted by: Jake Beren | January 15, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Ecuador
Elevation: 15,300'

Our team woke to a beautiful morning after our first night at 15,300’ Refugio Cayambe. Inspiring views of the glaciers and rugged landscape made our day of mountaineering skills amazing. The team is strong and we’re all looking forward to a great summit day. We’re hoping for good weather and climbing conditions as we make our summit push tonight.

RMI Guide Jake Beren

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Ecuador Volcanoes: Team visits Otavalo Market

Posted by: Jake Beren | January 14, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Ecuador
Elevation: 15,300'

Waking at the lovely Hacienda San Luis, we soon found ourselves in the midst of the Saturday Otavalo market.  Full of local crafts, raw chickens, entire cooked pigs and about anything you could imagine. We wandered around the vibrant market doing a bit of shopping and a lot of looking around. 

After a fun morning of exploring the market we traveled to the Cayambe hut making it most of the way on wheels before finishing up the approach on foot.  Here at the hut we celebrated Brad’s birthday and turned in to get some rest before our training day tomorrow.  A fun day for sure and great to get to the base of our first big climb.

RMI Guide Jake Beren

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Ecuador’s Volcanoes: Acclimating Hike on Cerro Fuya Fuya

Posted by: Jake Beren | January 13, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Ecuador
Elevation: 14,000'

Buenos Dias!  Today we loaded up our gear and left Quito, driving North on the Pan-American Highway to our next acclimatization hike on Cerro Fuya Fuya. Again in the clouds, we had openings on our way up that provided great views of Lago Fuya Fuya and Cerro Negra. Hiking through the mountain grasses, we ascended quickly as we followed a little steeper trail than yesterday. Again the team did well, standing on top of the volcanic remnants in a few hours, feeling strong at 14,000 feet above sea level.

After walking down the mountain and reloading the vehicles we rejoined the highway and made our way to the Hacienda San Luis, a beautiful hacienda to relax and prepare for our trip to the hut on Cayambe, our first big objective. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for continued luck here in the Mountains of Ecuador.

RMI Guide Jake Beren

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Ecuador’s Volcanoes: First Acclimatization Hike

Posted by: Jake Beren | January 12, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Ecuador
Elevation: 15,700'

Today was a great day. After an early breakfast, we left the hotel and headed to the morning opening of the teleferico, the gondola that launches from Quito and lands at 13,500 feet on the old volcano of Rucu Pinchincha. Quite a leap in elevation and great for an acclimatization hike.

The team did a great job ascending the grassy ridges that led to a rocky scramble to the cloudy summit of Pinchincha. Our maiden voyage was a success, climbing to around 15,700 feet in an afternoon and even getting enough of a clearing to see both Cayambe and Cotopaxi rising high above Quito.

Tomorrow we head out for another altitude mission, but this one was tough to beat.
RMI Guide Jake Beren

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Ecuador’s Volcanoes: Sight Seeing in Quito

Posted by: Jake Beren | January 12, 2012
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Ecuador

Our Ecuador’s Volcanoes team has arrived here in Quito after a fair bit of travel, but healthy and with all of our gear!  Always a good start to a trip.

Today we took to the streets, touring Quito’s revitalized Old Town and taking in the sights from La Panela, the hilltop site of the Virgin of Quito where we could clearly see the city snaking to the North and South, the ancient churches and plazas quite visible from our vantage point. Then it was off to lunch and a stop at the “Mitada del Mundo,” the “center of the earth.” Here the equator is marked by more than just a line and we were able to double check it’s accuracy with a few tests, putting to rest the long debate about which way the toilet flushes in which hemisphere (can you remember without testing?).

All in all a great first day and the afternoon thunderstorms even held off for us!

RMI Guides Jake Beren & Zeb Blais

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Cotopaxi Express:  Team on the Summit

Posted by: Casey Grom | December 16, 2011
Categories: *Expedition Dispatches *Ecuador
Elevation: 19,348'

Hey everybody, this is Casey from RMI checking in from the Cotopaxi Express Ascent. We are currently on the summit of Cotopaxi with everyone!  We are 100% today.  It was a tough climb and took just over 7 and a half hours.  A little bit of new snow, definitely some slow going.  Everyone did fantastic. Not too much of a view right now. We’re actually up here in the clouds and can’t really see much other than our little faces.  Everybody is doing well. Our plan is to take a few photos up here and then start back to the hut.  We will check in a little later on today.

RMI Guide Casey Grom

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Cotopaxi Express: Team Readies for Summit Climb

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

Hello everybody back home, this is Casey Grom checking in from the RMI Cotopaxi trip.  We wanted to let you know that we’re all here just below 16000’ at the Cotopaxi hut. We had a nice morning, a great breakfast with some eggs, cereal and yogurt and a nice relaxing start to the day.  We went for a short walk, about 45 minutes, up to where we could access the glacier.  We spent about 2 hours reviewing some of the techniques that are going to be applicable for tonight’s climb.

Everyone seems to be doing great. The weather’s been a bit in and out today, some snow and a little bit of light rain.  And currently we are kind of socked in a cloud but not much precipitation. The team has just finished dinner and we had a little pre- summit climb chat.  Everyone is off to bed right now. So, our plan is to try to get up and leave about 12:30 and hopefully will reach the summit just after sunrise. If we get the opportunity we will try to give a call from the summit. And if not, we will certainly give a call as soon as we return back to the hut. Thanks for following, and we will talk to you guys later on. 

RMI Guide Casey Grom

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