Entries from Expedition Dispatches
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
Hi there,
Team Aconcagua checking in from
Camp 1 (16,200'). We arrived at camp around 3 pm today. It took almost 5 hours for us to complete the move to our new home (we are planing to spend 3 nights here).
It started to snow right after we set the tents and it hasn't stop since (3 hours), the accumulation is just 2 inches so far.
We are ready to have dinner and relax for the evening and recover from our move. Tomorrow, if the weather is good and everyone is feeling well, we plan to make our carry up toward Camp 2.
We will check in tomorrow when we are return to Camp. Thanks for all the comments on the
RMI blog, keep sending them.
Cheers,
Team Aconcagua
On The Map
Hello Everyone,
The
Winter Skills Seminar is down safe and sound from a week of good training and climbing on
Mt. Rainier. We made a solid summit attempt on Thursday with the team climbing strongly to 13,000’ before wind, cold, and firm conditions had us turn around. The week saw high points for some of the team, lots of new knowledge gained, and many climbers hankering to come back for more. Congratulations and thanks to the team for a great week!
RMI Guide Adam Knoff
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
Hey all,
This is the Aconcagua crew checking in from Base Camp. It's been a beautiful rest day here with crystal blue skies most of the morning. It was a great day to sit outside, enjoy the sun, and visit with other teams here. Several folks were even warm enough to take showers via nalgene bottles.
It hasn't been all play though, as each team member had to sort through gear and decide what is going to make the move with us and what will stay here at base camp. It's an important task, since from here on out, every extra thing we bring adds weight to our packs. We will enjoy a last gourmet dinner from our outfitter, Grajales, before our big
move to Camp 1 tomorrow. As I write, clouds are building, and it looks like we may get a touch of snow to brighten the landscape tonight.
All the best, and we'll check in from 16,000' tomorrow!
Ciao,
RMI Guides Pete, Gabi, Gilbert, and team
On The Map
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
Hello everyone! We are back at basecamp after a very successful carry to, and cache at
Camp 1! The group did very well today, and now all of our upper mountain gear and food is staged for us. The next step: REST. Today was the first day of the trip with heavy packs, and for many of the group a new personal altitude record. Tomorrow we will spend the day at base, eating food, napping, and recovering tired muscles. If all goes according to plan, we will move our camp to 16,000 feet the day after tomorrow, and continue the process of acclimating and moving our gear up the
mountain. Everyone is excited to have completed our first big day, and sends their best!
All for now.
Cheers,
RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Gilbert Chase, Gabriel Barral, and team
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
Hello,
Our team arrived yesterday to
Aconcagua Base Camp at 14,000' after three nice days on the trail.
We spent today resting and acclimating for the upper mountain. After a delicious breakfast we checked in with the Basecamp Medical Staff and received a clean bill of health all the way around (everybody looks like rock stars).
During the afternoon we worked on sorting the gear that we are going to carry to
Camp 1 tomorrow. The weather was marvelous until 4 pm and since then it has been cloudy with a little bit of snow.
The team wants to wish a very Happy Birthday to Chad Johnson!
Cheers,
RMI Aconcagua Team
On The Map
Hi everybody,
This is the Aconcagua team checking in from
Pampa de Leñas camp.
After a few days in Mendoza and Penitentes doing the hardest part of climbing a big mountain (getting the climbing permits, trying to get all the duffel bags that didn't make it to the airport with us, packing a ton of food and gear for the mules, etc), today we started the trek to Base Camp. The mountain welcomed us with a perfect blue sky day. We hiked for five and half hours today and got to our first camp on the Vacas Valley.
Everybody did a great job and we are all feeling good. We are getting ready to sit down to dinner. Pete and Gilbert have cooked a gorgeous veggie pasta, almost as good as the amazing Argentinian steaks that we were eating since we arrived in Mendoza.
That is all for today, cheers!
RMI Guide Gabriel Barral and Team Aconcagua.
On The Map
Hi, I’m Oscar’s wife! I am very happy that everything is fine and enjoying every moment. I wish all of you the best for tomorrow’s hike!
Posted by: Marisol Fernández on 1/15/2012 at 7:22 pm
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