Entries from Expedition Dispatches
Great first day on the ground here in
Quito. After a leisurely breakfast here at our hotel, we met up with our trusty city tour guide Jorge and hit the streets. Touring the Basilica and Old Town districts and paying the Virgin of Quito a visit, we got a pretty good set of views this morning. The afternoon took us to the
Equator where we marveled at how easy it is to jump from one hemisphere to another and tested which way the water spins (or doesn't) in the North and South.
Now it's time to rest before getting an early-ish start and exploring
Rucu Pinchincha, an extinct volcano accessed by a Teleferico from town.
Buenes noches,
RMI Guide Jake Beren
Groundhog Day here at
Aconcagua Camp 2. A windy night and windy day here confirmed our decision to wait a day before moving up. It's hard to spend two days just hanging in tents though, and the group is psyched to move tomorrow and get closer to our objective. As the forecasts keep coming in (we get pretty OCD as guides right around now) things are looking great for Sunday! Onward and upward,
RMI Guides Pete, Leon, Mike, and team
On The Map
Hello Everyone,
We woke to mostly clear skies for the first time since leaving our hotel. We had the normal tea in our tents just before 7 and had another enjoyable breakfast of fresh fruit and eggs for breakfast. We then hit the trail shortly after 8 and made good time up the
Barranco Wall. This wall is about 1,000' high and is the steepest part of the entire climb requiring hands in a few places to assist us up a few steep steps. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the challenge and change of the new terrain. It was amazing to watch the porters easily navigate this terrain with their loads carefully balanced on their heads. We made good time and arrived in a little over 3 hours to our new home sitting at just over 13'000'.
We are incredibly thankfully to all of our porters and crew who have been working so hard to keep us well feed and comfortable thus far. You can't imagine how they dismantle one camp shortly after we leave, to then have it reassembled before we arrive.
Enjoying being spoiled!
RMI Guide
Casey Grom and Crew
A Special note:
I hope all is well back home and appreciate the updates from you guys. To mom and my two wonderful brothers. Its been a memorable experience. Built a cairn in honor of dad at camp 4. To "G" in Washington - All is well. ; )
Hello Everyone,
We are off to a good start here in
Quito! Everyone (and all their bags) has arrived and today we are hitting the streets to check out Ecuador's capital city. We will also take a jaunt to the Equator,the Mitada del Mundo. We'll let you know how the day's adventure unfolds when we get back, but it sure feels good to be off to a good start.
RMI Guide
Jake Beren & Team
Hey all,
We had a fabulous rest day at
Camp 2 today. We went for a short walk to look at the route above us, ate, and napped. We did get a new forecast today, and with the new info, we've decided to rest tomorrow again at Camp 2, then move up Saturday to summit Sunday. This sets us up better for winds, and Camp 2 is a great place to acclimate and get strong. So tomorrow: Groundhog Day! We'll be in touch soon.
Cheers,
The
Aconcagua crew
We departed the Shira Plateau this morning in a light mist. Last night brought significant precipitation and muddied the trails a bit. However, the night rain afforded us a beautiful view of the mountain and its new snow. The day's traverse provided great views of the landscape and curious vegetation. About five hours from the onset, we walked down through rolling fog to our camp nestled underneath the
Barranco Wall. Spirits are high and bellies are full. Tomorrow, we wake up early to traverse beneath the Southern Breach Wall.
Stay tuned,
RMI Climber Dan C.
On The Map
We made the jump!
Camp One was old news and folks were sick of the same old scenery, so we decided to move to
Camp Two at 18,000' today. We had beautiful climbing conditions: a light breeze and sunshine, and arrived at camp to find it mostly empty. We got our pick of tent sites before several groups rolled in after us.
Because
RMI Guide JJ Justman's team was kind enough to leave us a cache of food and fuel at Camp 3, we have decided not to carry tomorrow, but to rest instead. That sets us up to potentially move to
Camp 3 on Friday, and potentially summit on Saturday. There are a lot of ifs in that sentence, and we have to remain flexible up here, but we have our fingers crossed. We'll keep you updated.
Cheers,
RMI Guides Pete, Leon, Mike, and the crew
On The Map
All is well here in
Africa and the team is doing great.
We started early again today to stay ahead of the massive group that is climbing alongside us. We recently heard that it is the largest group ever allowed to climb together on
Kilimanjaro. However they are doing a good job of staggering themselves on the trail.
We started out under cloudy skies which made for comfortable hiking but didn't help with the drying out. However, since we have arrived at camp the sun has come out and it looks like everything will dry in time for tomorrow. We hiked for about four hours today and chose not to have a sit down lunch as we were a little worried it could rain, and luckily for us it didn't.
We are relaxing here at Camp 2 on top of the
Shira Plateau that overlooks the Great Rift Valley. It's incredibly beautiful and we even have a nice view of the upper mountain too.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
Just as planned, we spent today lounging at
Camp 1. Snow plumes off of the col above us indicated high winds this morning, and made us glad we had gotten our carry out of the way yesterday. Otherwise, the sky was clear, and the sun we had been missing for the last couple days made things pleasantly warm. Today was a day for recovery, organizing for tomorrow, and eating all of the extra lunch food we could. Tomorrow will be our move to
Camp 2 (18,000 ft)! We'll check from there.
Cheers,
RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer and the RMI Aconcagua team
The team was up by 6:30 and out the door by 7:30 after a quick breakfast. We loaded up all the gear and food then drove for just over a hour to
Kilimanjaro National Park. Once we were at the park entrance we registered our team and picked the 20+ porters to help us along the way. We were the first team to start walking thankfully, as a team of 100 showed up and began picking their 300+ porters. It was busy at the gate but we managed to stay out front all the way to camp. It was far from a perfect day here on
Kilimanjaro. We encountered a very heavy rain after about two hours of hiking that soaked us almost to the bone. Everyone did great and remained positive despite the less than ideal weather.
We are currently relaxing in our tents now that the rain has subsided and are getting ready for dinner. Tomorrow we'll have more than a few items hanging from our pack to dry in the sun.
Enjoying the adventure!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
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Wow! Mountain Climbing is an incredible feat! Godspeed Joe & George!
Posted by: Daniel Nolan on 2/2/2013 at 7:42 pm
Hang in there team. Relax! When it is right you will move on and summit when it is time.
Love you Tony and David!
Posted by: Laura Rito on 2/2/2013 at 5:22 pm
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