Entries from Expedition Dispatches

After dinner I asked the team what some of their highlights were from the day:

• One had fun learning and playing Scum (Scum is the chosen card game of this group — we’ve been playing every night and I’m happy to report we saw our first female president who served two terms, iykyk.)
   
• Some said they enjoyed waking up at 5:00am to the symphony of dogs barking and someone else chimed in “or not sleeping to dog’s barking” and then I reminded them I asked for highlights…
   
• There was consensus that the lasagna dinner served with deep fried cauliflower was a top notch moment.
   
• One mentioned that passing every other group on the trail was their highlight. Now before you think we were zooming, dear readers, we weren’t. We were moving in our uphill formation slow and steady. You know what they say, smooth is fast and fast is slow. That was definitely proven true today.
   
• Many mentioned that skipping and/or running down the many rocky stairs was the highlight. With caution! No injuries! But it was fun.
   
• But the top highlight was climbing the 430 flights of stairs (more than 4,000 vertical feet) to Dead Woman’s Pass, the highest point on the whole Inca trail, named because the ridgeline lays out like a woman on her back against the sky. And seeing down into the valley below — the views were 10/10.

 - RMI Guide Jess and the Machu Picchu team

We woke up with a little pep in our step after a good night’s rest at lower altitudes.

Today was our shortest day on the trail, and it came at exactly the right time after two big days and more ahead. After a leisurely breakfast — oat bread (a crowd favorite), quinoa porridge, breakfast sandwiches, and as much hot cocoa and coffee as we could physically put down — we hit the trail.

Descending for a couple hours, we took our time and stopped to learn about the plants, herbs, and flowers along the way. We stopped by the river and sat in silence for some minutes, everyone on their own rock, listening to what Edgar called “the music of Pachamama.” Peaceful, and a good reminder that you can do this anywhere, just sit and listen to birds and moving water, you don’t need to be at 12,000 feet in Peru to remember that. Though it helps.

We visited our first archaeological site on trail, then said goodbye to our horses and wranglers. From here on, we’re on the official Inca Trail, porter team and all.

The afternoon was ours. Rest, laundry, lying in the sun. A campsite chess match. Meanwhile the local chickens and roosters strutted through camp like they owned the place (they might.)

Well-earned, all of it, before tomorrow’s big climb up to Dead Woman’s Pass.

Everyone is doing well. Chess champions, laundry doers, chicken diplomats, the whole crew.

- RMI Guide Jess Wedel and the Machu Picchu team

The Four Day Climb, led by RMI Guides Dan May and Stella Johnson, reached the summit of Mt. Rainier at 5:45 a.m. today. Dan reported excellent weather and a great route, allowing the team to remain above the smoky conditions below. The climbers have begun their descent and are currently making their way to Camp Muir, where they will gather their overnight gear before continuing down to Paradise.

Congratulations to the entire team on a successful summit!

Hola!

We left Cusco long before sunrise, trading city lights for a winding, bumpy road that climbed steadily into the Andes. By the time we reached the trailhead, the sun was out and so were the mountains. The serac-laced slopes of Humantay and Salkantay both standing over 20,000 feet stopped us still. Today we met the rest of the team who will make this journey possible. Diego is joining us as a guide, and Pancho is our head chef (he's already far exceeded our expectations by serving up trucha, local trout, for lunch that we all deemed the best we’ve had this whole trip.) After days of travel, packing, reorganizing and checking gear, it was a relief to finally shoulder a pack and start hiking. We quickly settled into the simple rhythm of the trail: one step after another through mountains that people have called home and traveled across for generations. The highlight of the day was arriving at our camp at nearly 15,000 feet. We’re right at the foot of Salkantay — the mountain towers over our camp and we couldn’t stop looking up. Watching the clouds and the fading sunlight in a dance across the jagged slopes.

A pinch me moment for every single one of us.

We piled in the dining tent for an early dinner. One full of laughs & ease. After getting our hot water bottles (a necessity, it’s brrr cold up here) we headed for an early bedtime. But not before seeing the Milky Way and one million stars holding the sky.

What a dream.

Jess and the Machu Picchu team

RMI Guides Nick Sinapius and Hannah Blum checked in from camp on Mt. Shuksan with an update from an impressive Alpine Seminar week.

Over the course of the seminar, climbers developed essential skills in glacier travel, alpine rock, steep snow and ice, and multi-pitch systems. The team summited Mt. Baker via the Coleman Deming in stormy conditions, then climbed above the smoke on Mt. Shuksan, ascending the Fisher Chimneys to the Southeast Ridge and on to the summit.

With one more day remaining, the group will wrap up a memorable week of learning, challenge, and growth in the mountains. Congratulations to the climbers and guides on a fantastic seminar.

The Four Day Climb August 2 - 5 reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today.  They were descending from the crater rim just after 7 am.  RMI Guide Dominic Cifelli reported a beautiful day with a little breeze and great route conditions.  The team is descending to Camp Muir where they will take a short break, repack their gear and continue the final 4,500' descent to Paradise. Their program will conclude this afternoon with a short celebration at Rainier BaseCamp.

Nice work team!

Hello from Cusco, on our last night before the trail!

Today started about as well as a day can start: alpacas, llamas, guanacos, and vicuñas, all of them looking slightly like cartoons come to life, all of them very willing to be fed by hand. Pure, uncomplicated joy.

We learned all about the fibers and the natural dyeing techniques from bugs to plants and had a chance to shop, of course.

From there, up to Sacsayhuamán, the massive stone fortress above the city, and then down on foot into Cusco itself for a walk through the old imperial center. “Stone with stone, no element in between,” Edgar told us, pointing out joints so tight you couldn’t slide a knife between the blocks. Limestone, interlocking, no mortar, nothing but precision holding it together. The Incas had a passion for perfectionism.

After a few more stops at the convent and the cathedral, we took some time to go through our gear and pare it down for the trail. We also have a passion for perfectionism, or something.

And then, the main dinner event — cuy. Guinea pig. A full plate and a genuinely brave showing from this group. Verdict, once everyone had worked up the nerve: chewy. Very chewy. Chewy cuy, we said. Would we order it again? Debatable. Do you have to try it once in Cusco? Also yes.

Bags are packed, boots are ready, and tomorrow we drive to the trailhead.

RMI Guide Jess Wedel and the Machu Picchu team

The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guides Mac Nolde and Seth Burns reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning under calm and pleasant skies. The team was starting their descent from the crater rim just after 7 am. They will return to Camp Muir for a quick stop and then continue down to Paradise later this afternoon.

Congratulations to today's climbers!

PC: Seth Burns

Hello from the Sacred Valley! Today felt like someone hit a fast-forward button on wonder.

We started at the Maras salt mines, which are, visually, out of this world. Thousands of small terraced pools cut into the mountainside, all fed by a single underground spring. Salty because this land used to be ocean floor millions of years before it was mountains. The Andes basically pushed the sea up and out and left the salt behind. People have been harvesting it by hand the same way for centuries.

We also met Edgar, our local guide, who’s with us for the rest of the trip. He walked us through the history and the agriculture of it all with this quiet, easy authority. The kind of person you feel lucky to be learning from.

From there, Moray. An old agricultural site built in circular terraces. Each ring its own microclimate which the Incas apparently used to figure out what would grow where. Hot sun, curiosity and a lot of walking and talking.

Lunch was box lunches by a still lake, Urubamba mountains in front of us, two baby alpacas grazing about ten feet away. The cutest little faces you’ve ever seen. Genuinely one of the better lunch spots of my life.

After a little rest, we had dinner in Cusco square: Japanese-Peruvian fusion. Does it seem like we’re only eating the best food ever? Okay good. Because we are…

Big day but we’re all doing well adapting to life at nearly 11,000 feet and looking forward to more tomorrow!

RMI Guide Jess Wedel and the Machu Picchu team

Hello from Cusco!

We made it. Though “made it” is a relative term for a group that survived delayed flights, rebooked tickets, and enough all-night travel to qualify as its own endurance event. But every duffel and every human is here, upright, and (mostly) coherent. We’ll take it.

Today’s whole job was: recuperate. And that we did. Some wandered the streets a bit, some rested and most of us consumed our first coca and muña teas. Definitely not our last.

Then this afternoon we gathered for our first team meeting — introductions, the shape of the next 10 days, and the buzz of a team coming together.

Cusco is not a city you see, it’s a city you feel. With its narrow cobblestone streets, worn smooth by about a thousand years of foot traffic. Terracotta pots hang off white walls. Immovable gray stone sits shoulder to shoulder with European facades, and somehow none of it argues with the other. Then color just erupts everywhere it can: pinks, blues, greens, color forever.

We closed the day with our first team dinner. Authentic Peruvian — lomo saltado, osobucco, potatoes and corn galore. (Nom nom nom, no notes.)

Ten days, one incredible crew, and Salkantay and Machu Picchu waiting on the other side. We’re just getting started.

RMI Guide Jess Wedel and the Machu Picchu team