Hello again Everyone All is well here in Ecuador. Yesterday we had a nice leisurely start to our day. We packed up for the move up onto the mountain and left the comfortable Lodge around 11am. We first stopped by the massive market in Otavalo to take in the culture and we did our best at bartering for some local goods. It was a little intimidating as Saturday is the big market day and it was jam packed with people and their goods. The team snaked our way through never ending streets of goods chatting with locals and then had a nice lunch overlooking the main square. After lunch, we headed directly to the mountain with help from a few 4x4 vehicles to make it up the very rugged road that goes all the way to the mountain hut at 15,000ft. The team chose to hike the last hour to help with acclimatization, and allowed our vehicles to deliver the gear at the hut. It was extremely windy so we didn’t venture outdoors too much. We finished the evening with a nice warm meal then turned in early for a good night's rest. Today the team got up around 6:30am to have breakfast and get ready for our hike up to the glacier that’s about an hour uphill. We spent a few hours refreshing our mountaineering skills on the glacier and taking in the views when the clouds allowed. Everyone is doing very well and the whole team is in good spirits up here since the weather has mellowed out. Our plan is to have an early dinner then head to bed as tomorrow we’ll be making our first summit attempt. We’ll shoot for getting up around 11:30pm and hopefully be out the door in an hour's time. If things go well I expect it will take somewhere around 6-8 hours to reach the summit. Then we’ll descend via the route back to the hut. Keep your fingers crossed and wish us luck. RMI Guide Casey Grom and the mountain crew!

On The Map