Entries from Expedition Dispatches

Monday, February 26, 2024 - 5:20 pm PT

A long evening in La Malinche Parque Nationale cabins, late breakfast, and improved air quality revived the group, following what Dom had sold us as a “nothing conditioning stroll” on La Malinche volcano. We boarded our Sprinter van for the drive to Amecameca’s central plaza where we grazed the food stalls for lunch, and our guides bought huge jugs of water for our tent site at Ixta base camp.  The Sprinter took us to our next Parque National, Ixta-Popo, where we let Hecter drive our bags up to our base camp at 13,000 feet.  The couple hour walk up a trail was, this time, indeed a “stroll”.  Our local guide Allen, along with our cook, Rudolpho, and porters, Ali and Alejandro, greeted us happily, and then we focused on an intense gear check and pack planning session, followed by instructions in erecting the Trango tents.  Spaghetti for dinner, and several layers of down wrapped up our day.  Everyone is excited to carry our heavy packs up to Ixta’s High Camp tomorrow.

RMI Climber Katherine Jankaew 

"Pista!” 

“¡Venga!”

“¡Sí se puede!”

The hike up La Malinche gave our RMI crew a chance to stretch our legs (muchas gracias to our driver, Hector, for our safe travels from CDMX) as well as to practice our Spanish thanks to a race up and down the mountain that was happening during our acclimation hike.  

Our group went from 10,000 ft at the La Malinche resort to a near summit at 14,000ft. About half the crew tried to summit but were turned away by the local enforcers of summit attempts. 

In a few quick hours everyone was back at the resort and enjoying a delicious authentic Mexican meal prepared by the resort staff. 

Off to bed early and in the morning we will be back at it headed to Ixta base camp. 

“Watch the course!”

“Come on!” 

“Yes you can!” 

RMI Climber Jared Wood 

Chimborazo Summit!

We have now traveled much of Ecuador's "Avenue of Volcanoes", visiting some of the highest mountains in this country and having the fortune to stand on top of a few:

Rucu Pichincha (15,354') - A warm-up hike that often sets a new altitude record for someone on the team

Cerro Fuya Fuya (14,039') - The first agenda item after leaving Quito, another acclimatization hike

Cayambe (18,996') - Wow, the weather almost stopped us and we were the only team to summit that day

Chimborazo (20,561') - A perfect sunrise summit this morning

Tonight, we find ourselves in the city of Riobamba, recovering from a third alpine start within a two-week vacation. As it turns out, even with built-in rest days, that is a demanding schedule. On top of climbing, there are the long bus rides and the never-ending duffel shuffle. Every member of the team has two large duffels full of mountaineering gear and general travel items that are continuously being unpacked, repacked and subsequently toted around. Hacienda and hotel staff always get a chuckle when they see how much stuff we have.

As for last night's climb, the weather worked out perfectly. It has been several days of wind and humidity on Chimborazo, which has been regularly stymying climbing parties' attempts. Even yesterday, right as we arrived at camp the clouds moved in and there was hail off and on for a couple of hours. However, in the late evening the sky cleared and it was a calm, clear night and morning. It was the perfect way to cap a trip that saw us turn around on Antisana for some pretty intense weather. We can go home with a couple big summits and start thinking about our next trips!

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

Sunday, February 18, 2024 - 7:11 am PST

Summit Chimborazo, walking down from high camp. Another blog and more pictures later!

Saturday, February 17, 2024 - 4:14 pm PST

We are settled in for the night at Chimborazo High Camp. One final climb for the team, wish us luck.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier & Team

Friday, February 16, 2023 | 5:38 PT

This morning everyone reported having slept soundly. As it turns out, even climbing half of Antisana is still hard. We're recovering and now looking forward to Chimborazo, which has been giving us quite the show this evening. We're staying at the Chimborazo Lodge, an historic mountain lodge run by Marco Cruz, a climbing legend in Ecuador. It sits at about 13000' right at the base of the southwest flank of the mountain. There is no cell reception and no wifi, giving us a chance to unplug and hone our focus towards the task at hand, climbing another massive volcano. With any luck and a lot of trying hard we may have a chance to visit a truly majestic summit. Stay tuned!

-- RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

Yesterday morning the wind began blowing from the east around 2am, accompanied by moisture in the form of a light rain at basecamp. It continued in this manner until, well... it's still raining at basecamp. The rain was never too horrible at camp and was often accompanied by sun to the west. We had a really successful time practicing some skills and just enjoying a nice couple of nights up high (14700').

However, today we attempted to climb Antisana and ultimately were turned around at about 17500'. The team climbed strong, but the further we pushed towards the summit and therefore towards the cloud, the wetter and windier it got. It was great experience for the team and we came away from it without too epic of a tale to tell. We now set our sights on Chimborazo, the final climb of the trip. The remainder of today is for resting and tomorrow we continue the drive south to Riobamba and ultimately to the Chimborazo Lodge for one more relaxing night prior to our climb.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier & Team

Happy Valentine's Day!

We spent the day up here at Antisana Base Camp (14700'). The weather was too mediocre all day to walk to the glacier, so we practiced skills around camp. The main topic for the day was crevasse rescue and we spent several hours dialing it in. The rest of the day was spent physically and mentally resting in quite a romantic locale.

The camp chef made great meals today, which would have made lovely meals to share with our significant others :( Seriously, this place is so beautiful, and the food is so delicious, it's worth booking a couple nights just to camp. Alas, we don't get to enjoy such a civil night in this wonderful place. Instead, our alarms will be going off in the next few hours for another alpine start.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier & Team

We had hoped that the clouds would lift if we woke up early and headed for the Torres. A little rain last night and another warm morning had us walking by 4:30 am. We gained a 1500’ and walked into the clouds just before getting to the Chileno Refugio about halfway through. We waited at the Refugio to watch the clouds and see if they had any movement in them. There was no wind present to encourage the clouds to lift so with the rain increasing we made the difficult decision to head back to Central. The terrain above Chileno is rocky and filled with roots in steeper terrain. Avoiding injury in this terrain when wet and with the clouds covering the Torres seemed like the right call. 

It has been a great trek down here, lots of laughs and scenic views with a fun group. We head back Puerto Natales this morning for flights tomorrow.

Thanks for following along,

RMI Guide Mike King & Team

We are off the grid! Battling through holiday traffic as the bus was continually sprayed with celebratory foam and squirt guns, we made it beyond the hoards. Arriving at Antisana Base Camp was a welcome relief as we showed up to our private camp and pitched tents in the páramo. The mountain was out, and we caught glimpses of Cotopaxi as well. The team spent several hours learning how to rappel safely and added to our knowledge a couple more hitches.

Now we are settled into our tents, waiting for dinner. Tomorrow morning will include more training before we rest in the afternoon in preparation for our climb.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier & Team

After the long day up the French Valley, we had a really warm and windy day into the Central area. There was a close sighting of a Condor which was the highlight. We had to just duck our heads and push forward and get over the humidity as much of the day was out of the trees and the sun was intense. We are hanging out watching clouds roll over the Torres, catching a few naps and cleaned up for dinner. Tomorrow, we’ll get up early for an attempt to see the Torres, the forecast is for rain and wind so fingers crossed. 

RMI Guide Mike King