Hola Amigos! All is well here in Ecuador. Today we had a very early start to try our luck climbing Illiniza Norte. We left our hacienda just after 3am and after a short ride to the trailhead, the team was hiking uphill just before 4am. We hiked for about three hrs to reach the Refugio or climbers hut that sits in the saddle between the two mountains where we ducked inside for a little hot tea and coffee. Unfortunately the weather made a turn for the worse while we were relaxing inside. However, we suited up in our climbing gear and made a valiant effort to see if we could push through anyway. But today the mountain won as the snow falling only thickened as we made our way uphill. We reached about 16,000' before calling it good. The team quickly descended back to our hacienda were we packed up and headed for a nice warm lunch. We are currently relaxing in another wonderful hacienda close to Cotopaxi called Chilcabamba. RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew