Hola Everyone,
Today began much like yesterday. Breakfast in our newly remodeled hotel at 7:30 with the team preparing for the day's activities. But instead of taking a tour of Quito, we stayed close to home and headed ten minutes east of our hotel to the 15,500' Rucu Pinchincha volcano. This mountain gave Quito quite a scare in 1999 spewing large amounts of ash into the air which caused half of this enormous city to be evacuated. Nothing major came of the eruption. So today it is a prefect acclimatizing hike. Because it is only the team's second day in Ecuador, one might speculate that marching from 9,200' to 15,500' first thing might be a bit much. Not the case when a gondola zips you up the mountain side turning what should have been a two hour hike into a 10 minute cruise. We were a bit bummed to have thick cloud cover resting heavily in the valley but we lifted out of the mist at 13,000' and were allowed great summit views of both Cotopaxi and Cayambe, two of Ecuador's most impressive peaks.
Once on the move our team showed their enthusiasm and readiness to climb. Led by RMI's local Ecuadorian Guide Fredy Tipan, we all headed 2.5 miles up a well traveled trail making good time to the mountain's summit. Several members of the group broke personal altitude records. We spent 20 cool and cloudy minutes on top before returning to the cable car. With a rather late arrival back in town, it was decided that a late lunch would set everyone up nicely for a leisurely evening and some much needed rest. We are all looking forward to leaving the city and seeing more of this beautiful country tomorrow.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff
Great group and the pics are really beautiful!! Great job, keep working hard!! Charlie, I like your jacket!!!!
Posted by: simona fioravanti on 12/14/2011 at 5:58 am
It’s great to see you all on your hike. Thanks for sharing the photos and story. Best of luck on Cotopaxi! Do you see any airliners flying right over your heads?
Posted by: Charley Knauff on 12/13/2011 at 1:42 pm
Conditions today can only be described as having been perfect for a summit climb. It is tough to recall that we ate breakfast and geared up in cloud at high camp. But when we roped up and got going at 9:45, it only took us fifteen minutes to climb out of the cloud and into a world of bright snow, brighter sunshine and a big and brilliant blue sky. In our ten and a half hour round trip to the top, we barely noticed anything that could actually be described as a breeze. And so it is possible that the summit temps were the forecasted -38C but we sure didn't notice or mind the cold with the sun's super strong radiation at 16,067 ft above sea level. There did seem to be plenty of cloud down low -we couldn't see basecamp and a few hundred odd peaks were obscured. But a few thousand others were not. TA, Vlado, Mindy and myself all considered that we'd gotten extremely lucky... And so we made good use of the day in tagging Vinson's summit. We were back for a relatively early and relaxed dinner, and got to enjoy diving into the sleeping bags with plenty of good sun left on the tent walls.
Tomorrow we'll head for basecamp on the Branscomb.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hello Everyone,
It was a beautiful first day here in Quito, Ecuador. We started the day off with a visit to the equator which is just a few miles north of our hotel. The short drive through the busy streets of Quito gave us a brief glimpse of life here in this city of over 2 million people. We spent an hour at an outdoor cultural museum that is set up to show the importance and effects the equator has on the planet. Most of us were amazed to see the Coriolis effect in both hemispheres. It is true that water spins in different directions while being drained.
After our visit up north we headed back to Quito where we took in the sights of the colonial old town. There was much to see in this city that was founded in 1530. Our stops included the monastery of San Francisco (built in 1535), the church of La Compania, which has gold painted throughout the interior, and a quick stop at the Virgin de Quito. It's also called the La Panicia and it sits atop a small hill and overlooks this beautiful city. We snuck in a very appropriate siesta after yesterday's long flights and wrapped up the day with a wonderful dinner full of good conversations.
Everyone is doing great and looking forward to stretching our legs tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
What a nice and informative Blog. I cannot wait to read more about the climb. Hoping for good weather for all of you! I will be watching from my warm couch.
Posted by: Sue Campbell on 12/13/2011 at 8:46 am
Great picture, Chuck!!! At 2,250 feet in my treestand, I didn’t have any trouble breathing! Have a great climb. We’ll be in Wmspt. when you get back.
Posted by: Charley Knauff on 12/13/2011 at 5:36 am
Hey, this is Dave Hahn calling in from the summit of Mount Vinson 16,067 feet above sea level. And I'm up here. It's 5:25 in the evening. I'm with three wonderful climbers: T.A., Mindy and Vlado, and we picked a beautiful day to be up here. It's calm, it's sunny, it's wonderful. This is my 29th time on top- likely a record of some sort and what an enjoyable day. What an enjoyable week's its been. Here's T.A.: Hey, this is T.A. calling from the summit of Mt. Vinson and the view is absolutely... absolutely awesome! Special hello to everyone in Newfoundland and another special hello to Rain and Zander up there in Edmonton. Take care everybody. [Mindy] The view is... I've never dreamed about it. Without Dave and the team I couldn't dream I could make it. Dave you are a lasting reward. I made a good choice with RMI. Without the team I couldn't have made it. Total team work. This is Vlado from Slovakia calling from the highest point in Antarctica. Beautiful time, we are having a great time. Alright, well that's us from the top of the Vinson Massif, highest point in Antarctica. We have gotten very lucky. Very lucky and we appreciate all the help people have given us a long the way. Thanks a lot and we'll keep you informed. I'll send out a dispatch from our high camp tonight because we are going to get down nice and safe. We are all doing strong and well. It's going to be a nice day, a day to remember.
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
A long and easy day at high camp, preparing for the summit. There wasn't a breath of wind, which we are hoping will be the situation tomorrow as well. Still plenty of cloud about, although we seem to be near the top of it all. I spoke on the radio with Vinson basecamp and they seem to be down in the soup. Clouds shouldn't present any great problem for us though, as long as the predictions hold true and the calm continues. The forecast calls for -38 C tomorrow on top. It was far more comfortable than that in our tents today though. We napped, we drank water, we napped, we ate food, and we napped. Tomorrow we climb.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Half past one in the morning and the sun is blazing away at high camp on Mt. Vinson. We made the move up today. It was a murky day from the start, with lazy clouds and light snowfall keeping the views pretty limited as we cranked on up the steep fixed rope section. We made the trip in about 6.5 hours, coming in to camp just after 9 PM. By midnight we'd gotten a good hot dinner and the team was turning in while the clouds began to drop away. We'll likely take a rest day tomorrow and go for the top on December 11th if weather permits.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
You guys are amazing!! While we are sitting in our warm places you are weathering the incredible cold hights..Wishing you great weather all the way to the summit!! Go, Vlado go!
Lumir, Maria and Patrick
It is a quarter after one in the morning in the Ellsworth Mountains of Antarctica. We made our carry of summit supplies to Vinson high camp today. It all went quite well. We made it up there in under six hours, arriving just before 8 PM. Two-and-a-half hours later we were back down the fixed ropes and thirty-five hundred feet lower in camp one. These are late days, but we are simply trying to use the best sun of the day. In such cold temperatures it doesn't make sense to do otherwise. Our storm is gone, but there is still a lot of high cloud in the area. We were warm enough going up the fixed ropes but met with a nagging four mile per hour breeze on the less steep slopes before high camp and that allowed us to fully appreciate the ambient temperature (forecast to be -24 C today with about -35 C at the summit) It was all good training for the bigger and harder days which will follow. Climbing out of the Branscomb valley, the team got to look out upon the endless world of ice to our west today. It is a stunning and magnificent view, and virtually impossible to tell where ice ends and sky begins.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Hello everybody back home this is Casey Grom checking for RMI’s Ecuador Expedition.
We are currently on the summit of Cotopaxi. We had a great day, pretty tough conditions, lots of new and loose snow. We made it up in just over 6 hours. Everybody did great. We are hanging in some sunshine right now taking a few photos and are going to be heading down in just a little bit.
We will check in again as soon as we get back safely to the hut. We’ll be heading back to Quito tonight.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
RMI Guide Casey Grom and the team check in from the summit of Cotopaxi!
Well done team! I am looking forward to getting the full report when you visit for Xmas Spence. Feel free to bring what ever amount of snow you can manage to Idaho because we are dying up here.
Winds stayed mercifully calm throughout last night, but just as we got hoping for the morning sunshine (it takes until 11:30 AM for the sun to get around the mountain and into our camp) the storm came in again good and strong for several hours. There was not any question of going ahead with our carry to high camp. Instead, we rested, which turned out to be quite pleasant when the cloud caps blew off the peaks and the winds quit. Just a lazy day in the sun, trying to drink plenty of water and get organized for going higher. This evening's dinner was relaxed and leisurely, the total opposite of our battle with the elements 24 hours before. Things don't seem totally stable yet, but there isn't much doubt now that we are headed for better days.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
This is Craig Herd reporting in for the RMI Team on the Cotopaxi Climb. We are now at the hut on Cotopaxi at 16,000 feet. The weather is a balmy & cold. We just had an enjoyable dinner.
The climbing team has come together very well. We're looking forward to an early morning start for our summit attempt. Everyone is in good spirits. We look forward to reporting in tomorrow.
Thank you.
RMI Team Member Craig Heard
Papa, GREAT job! Hope there was a little bit of clear skies so everyone could have a good view. We can’t wait to hear all about your adventure tomorrow. Love, Michael and Gracie
Posted by: michael and gracie on 12/8/2011 at 4:20 pm
Spence - Looks like you and the team are really ready for the big climb. Sounds like all has gone extremely well. Luck to all!
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Great group and the pics are really beautiful!! Great job, keep working hard!! Charlie, I like your jacket!!!!
Posted by: simona fioravanti on 12/14/2011 at 5:58 am
It’s great to see you all on your hike. Thanks for sharing the photos and story. Best of luck on Cotopaxi! Do you see any airliners flying right over your heads?
Posted by: Charley Knauff on 12/13/2011 at 1:42 pm
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