Winds plagued the mountain throughout the night, but luckily our hut kept us fairly sheltered from the raucous. The winds persisted through the morning with off and on showers as we enjoyed our breakfast of scrambled eggs, yogurt and granola. With the weather not letting up we opted to do some training inside our hut in hopes that it would dry out later and we would be able to to move up to the glacier for more training. We spent a few hours discussing anchor building and construction. The team enjoyed getting hands on and nerding out some of the more technical aspects.
Just as we had begun our second topic the skies cleared a bit and the sun popped out! We opted to gather our things, take advantage of the nicer weather and head up to the glacier for more training.
The climb up to the glacier takes about an hour and meanders its way through loose talus, sand and a few rocky steps. The wind persisted through this area and kept the temperatures cool. Once to the glacier we spent the next few hours discussing and practicing efficient walking techniques, cramponing, team and self arrest, as well as rope travel on a glacier. The winds died down shortly into our first topics and we were glad to stay warm and dry for the remainder of the session.
We started back down at around 1:30pm in hopes to get back early to rest and relax before dinner at 5:30PM. The rain has returned since our arrival back to camp and we'll meet in a moment to discuss our summit attempt tomorrow morning! The team is excited and anxious for the challenge of their first volcano of the trip, Cayambe! It's not uncommon to get afternoon rains here so we're optimistic things should clear overnight, pray to the weather gods for us. Thanks for following along!
RMI Guide Steve Gately
Our second day at Glacier Grey Camp afforded us an opportunity to get up close and personal with the bottom tip of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, a massive expanse of glacial ice spanning 270 km. A gleeful 20-minute ride in a speedboat across Lago Grey deposited us at the foot of the moraine, where we set out on our approach across smooth, rocky ledges with their painterly striated patterns, fossil imprints, and telling scrapes and scars.
After an hour of scrambling through chutes and ladders, our Skittle-colored team of alpine outerwear landed itself at the gear cache our local guide team had waiting for us at the base of the ice. We transitioned into crampon and ice axe mode, but not before receiving a quick crash course on glacier travel skills. Up the slope we went, our metal spikes crunching along the firm ice. It was hard to keep our hands off our cameras, with impressive landscapes beckoning our gaze in all directions, but walking on the irregular surface required our full attention to keep a clumsy foot from plummeting into any one of the many nooks and crannies on the icy floor beneath us.
The pools of melt water were a brilliant blue color almost too fluorescent to believe that nature could produce it. A highlight of the trek was stopping to pose like alpine goddesses at the opening of a cavern where a stream of water rushed along the the icy chute.
A warm meal back at our hut sent us off to bed dreaming about our next day's adventure along the classic "W" route on the front side of the Park.
Â
Bridget Schletty
Mama Munford - Just showed Grandele the posts and pics and she was amazed and proud of you! Forgot to get her to post a comment…but I would be willing to bet she would say: “AH WOO”. Looks unreal. Keep it up skittles-clad-badasses!!
xoxo B
Posted by: Blair on 1/31/2017 at 11:14 am
I just discovered this blog! Gorgeous photos! Looking forward to your next update. High five and big hugs to Missy!!!
Summit!
Casey Grom and team reached the Kilimanjaro summit this morning. The team's ascent took 7 1/2 hours and are back safe in camp. They will be headed to thicker air soon.
Congratulations Casey and team on your summit!
Congratulations to Robert and Jayne. What a way to celebrate 70th birthday ! Looks like this part of the trip is a little more upscale. Continue to have fun and safe travels for all.
Posted by: Marilyn Aboussie on 1/31/2017 at 3:06 pm
Congrats Rob and Jayne ... a very successful climb ! Way to Go !!!!
Posted by: Ernie & Victoria on 1/30/2017 at 3:57 pm
Hello again,
This is the Ecuador team checking in from 15,300' on Cayambe. We have successfully made the transition from comfortable city living to our slightly less glamorous base camp, and our excitement continues to grow. Through gaps in the clouds, we are finally able to catch a few glimpses of what lies ahead, with the summit looking as good as ever!
Before heading uphill this morning, we were able to enjoy a little more of a relaxed start. We slept in a bit, partook in some fantastically hot showers, ate a good breakfast, and headed in to the Otavalo market. This market is the largest market of its kind in Ecuador, offering miles (literally) of artisanal souvenirs: paintings, textiles, wood carvings, clothing, you name it. It can almost be a bit of sensory overload when you first step in, with the endless stalls of crafts and cuisine. Our team did an admirable job of filling the extra space in the duffels with goodies!
When its all said and done, though, we were ready to move on and head to the hills. The real work starts tomorrow, so the evening tonight is all about taking it easy. We are just about to head in for a nice hot meal and then prepare for our mountaineering skills refresher course tomorrow.
Until then,
RMI Guides Nick Hunt, Steve Gately, and the rest of the RMI team
Hey, it's Billy checking in from High Camp, Plaza Colera. The whole crew is back down safely, and we are super psyched that we all had the chance to stand on top of Aconcagua today. We're a little beat up, but ultimately no worse for the wear. We'll check in again. We have a long walk down to Base Camp tomorrow, and then the journey continues until we hit the road in Mendoza in several days from now. So a lot of activity coming up, but we'll try to keep you guys posted on our whereabouts.
That's all for now.
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
Hey, it's Billy. I'm checking in with Hannah and Rollo my two assistant guides here. We are on top of South America, 6962 meters, we are also up here with eight climbers and not a single puff of wind. We are the first crew on top today, and it's all smiles from our climbers. We got some happy but tired folks. So that's all I have to report for now. We'll check in when we're back at camp safe and sound.
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
RMI Guide Billy Nugent calls in from the Aconcagua summit!
Felicitaciones!!!! un abrazo enorme a ROLO, y a todo el equipo, buen regreso para todos!!!. Esperamos noticias..
Posted by: deby on 1/30/2017 at 6:40 am
Congratulations to Billy, Hannah, Rollo and the rest of the team. I bet that is a great experience to be on top with no wind. Enjoy the rest, when you get the chance.
The equator of our journey has been reached; greetings from Lake Grey. We had an interesting (by all means) hike between "Los Perros camp" and Grey Hut. With the longest of our stages ahead, an early start despite the lingering rain showers, was required. Soon after dawn we were packing up and heading uphill towards Gardner Pass, the highest point of our entire trek, with deteriorating weather. The rain became snow, and the wind gusts plastered it against our gloves, packs and faces reminding us of where we were. But the group didn't give in, and despite a long 3 hours of unpleasant coldness, slippery trails and loaded packs, we reached the saddle that would initiate our descent to the western slope of the Olguin Range.
Winds died down, precipitation vanished and clouds lifted; the Patagonian Gods had now befriended us as a recognition for the perseverance of everyone in the group. As a reward, they laid out a view of the Glacier Grey, one of the terminus of the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, the third largest continental mass of ice on the planet. Wow.
The day continued uneventful, warm and pleasant, just with long hours of hiking to complete a 13 mile day of rugged terrain that, after five days, brought us to the place where day tourist visit coming by boat from the other side of the lake, completely oblivious of what it takes to make it here unmotorized.
RMI Guide ElÃas de Andres Martos
Your last blog entries included “scrapes and scars”, “scrambling through chutes and ladders”, “ice axe mode”, “quick crash course”, “metal spikes crunching”, “clumsy foot from plummeting”, “icy chute”......WTH !?!?!?!
You promised Dad this was piece of cake.Be careful for him. (I know you are having a blast and he’s just a wuss….ignore him, just like usual). He’s checking his weather channel iPhone app all the time to see whats going on, cant wait to hear all about it. Get lots of close-ups of you and your crew. YTG Monster Boy
Posted by: Monster on 1/30/2017 at 3:24 am
Torrey,
Fay and I are following you daily on your journey! We are so proud of you and truly the entire group. It is often the most difficult things we do that end up being the most satisfying.
We've arrived at High Camp! Summit push tonight.
It was a short and uneventful move from Karanga Camp up to Barafu Camp, which is our launching point for the summit. The team did great and we arrived in just over three hours with sprinkles of snow falling most of the way.
We've had our summit talk where we discussed our plan and the teams strategy for tomorrow. Final packing is taking place as I write this and we'll have dinner shortly, then it's off to bed for a little sleep before the climb. Weather permitting, we'll be up at 11 pm, have breakfast, and hopefully hit the trail around midnight. As per usual, I'm expecting the ascent to take around eight hours with breaks to the "Roof of Africa".
Keep your fingers crossed for us, and there's a chance, if time allows, some of you back home might receive a satellite phone call from the summit. So keep your phones handy. My best guess is we'll be on the summit around 8 in the morning, Tanzania time.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
Hello again friends and family!
Today was another wonderful day! We officially moved out of the big city of Quito, heading towards our first big objective of the trip: Cayambe. As beautiful as Quito is, it's nice to finally be underway and heading toward the hills.
Our long drive to the city of Otavalo was broken up with our second acclimatization hike of the trip, Cerro Fuya Fuya. Despite the gray skies and light sprinkles when we arrived at the trailhead, we geared up and headed uphill, and boy did it pay off!
Although never quite turning to blue skies, the rain stopped almost immediately and the clouds dipped in and out, giving us alternating views of beautiful vistas and white nothingness. We pushed on, and the entire team was able to celebrate our second minor summit of the trip, at just over 14,000'. This team is looking strong!
Once down from our successful hike, we headed to La Casa Sol for the night. Our plans for this evening include packing up for our move to Cayambe tomorrow, and practicing a variety of climbing knots before dinner.
Spirits are high and we're looking good! We'll check in tomorrow from our 15,000' basecamp on Cayambe.
Until then,
RMI Guides Nick Hunt, Steve Gately and the rest of the team
Hey there. It's Billy. I am checking in from 19,600 feet on Aconcagua. Our crew just rolled in, actually we didn't just roll in, we rolled in a while ago to Plaza Colera, Camp 3, which is going to be our high camp. We're planning on taking a crack at the summit tonight. Everyone moved super well from Camp 2 to Camp 3. We were able to make good work of that leg in under three hours. Right now the team is lounging around, enjoying the calm weather and blue skies, and resting and gearing up for a late or early, depending on how you want to look at it, wake up tonight for our summit attempt. Wish us luck. We'll hopefully check in with you guys again on the top of South America.
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
RMI Guide Billy Nugent calls in from Aconcagua High Camp.
.JPG)
-640x480.jpg)
-640x480.jpg)
-640x480.jpg)
Mama Munford - Just showed Grandele the posts and pics and she was amazed and proud of you! Forgot to get her to post a comment…but I would be willing to bet she would say: “AH WOO”. Looks unreal. Keep it up skittles-clad-badasses!!
xoxo B
Posted by: Blair on 1/31/2017 at 11:14 am
I just discovered this blog! Gorgeous photos! Looking forward to your next update. High five and big hugs to Missy!!!
Posted by: Laurie on 1/31/2017 at 6:59 am
View All Comments