Our Ecuador Volcanoes team has all arrived in Ecuador without complications. We started our first morning in country with a team breakfast and then departed on a city tour of the historic, colonial are of Quito and a trip to Mitad del Mundo (literally the middle of the world), or the Equator.
We had good views of our climbing objectives, Cotopaxi and Cayambe, from El Panecillo, a hill in southern Quito that looks out over the city. From there we toured around “old town” Quito, visiting churches, parks, and the presidential palace, all while learning about the rich cultural history of Ecuador.
The last stop on our trip was to the equator, where we visited an ethnographic museum. In addition to information and exhibits about the many different cultures of Ecuador, we stood on the equatorial line, with one foot in the northern hemisphere and one in the southern.
We’re headed out for a team dinner before getting some rest in preparation for our first acclimatization hike of the volcano Rucu Pichincha, which sits on the flanks of Quito. We’ll check in tomorrow to let you know how our first venture into very high altitude goes. Thanks for checking in!
RMI Guide Mike Walter and Team
Greetings from the Ishinca Valley! We're writing from our base camp, at 14,400ft, right at the foothills of our first two objectives; Nevados Ishinca and Urus. We left our hotel this morning in Huaraz, and an uneventful bus ride took us to the sunny village of Pashpa, where we met our pack of donkeys and their gentle drivers. Four hours of hiking through a forest of quenuales (the Andean staple tree) took us to the open meadow where camp sits. Everyone hiked in pretty good style! Our first day of training starts tomorrow, and everyone is looking forward to move further uphill soon!
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
Our Four Day Summit Climb team led by RMI Guides Adam Knoff and Pete Van Deventer reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning under clear skies, with warm temperatures and a light breeze. The teams enjoyed some time on the summit before starting their descent from the crater rim just after 7 am PST.
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Kautz led by RMI Guide Geoff Schellens made a sunset climb last night and reached the crater with 100% of their team.
All three teams will descend to Paradise today and return to Ashford to conclude their programs.
Congratulations to today's climbers!
Tuesday June 30th 6:00 pm PT
Hey there, this is Billy checking in from 17,000 feet on Denali. We woke up this morning and actually almost pull the trigger. The weather was looking really good. But then things kind of soured a little bit. Thin clouds with intermittent snow, and so we eventually pulled the plug on our summit attempt before we really got it going. We're having a weather day today. We are hoping for better weather tomorrow. That's all for now. Bye.
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
RMI Guide Billy Nugent calls in from 17,200ft on Mount McKinley.
Congrats on making it this far Rob, now is your time! Safe travels for all….........Jeff
Posted by: Jeff Austin on 7/1/2015 at 6:54 pm
Pick your moment team, wait and be great!!
Doug - I bid you fair winds and a following sea. My thoughts are with you as you wait to make your summit attempt. And just in case you need reminding…don’t forget to be awesome!
~Belladonna
June 30, 2015 5:46pm PST
Today's wake-up call was a quiet and windless fall of about six inches of light powder snow. It was our planned rest day, after five busy days getting on and up the approaches to Denali, so there wasn't any early morning angst as to whether the snow would keep us from our goals for the day. Today, those goals included a breakfast of bagels and smoked salmon in the POSH tent and a session of digging out camp as the snow continued to fall. We eventually climbed back in the tents for naps and reading. A few teams came down the mountain today, resting near our camp as they prepared to march on toward the airstrip in the snowstorm. We'll hope to move uphill tomorrow and we'll be ready for that, but of course we'll pay attention to the weather and see what it allows.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn and Team
doing a great job HAHN team, pulling for all of you. glad you reached 14,000. I want to say Hello to my grandson Jm
Posted by: Floyd Tirey on 7/7/2015 at 10:51 am
Finally I am learning to use this computer. We are praying every inch of the way for you and your team mates and guide. Remember the story, Foot Prints in the Sand. Well, It’s Foot Prints in the Snow, for each one of you. We are sending our hugs and lots of love to you, our son, GLR.
Monday June 29th 10:20 pm PT
We had a short break from the cloud and snow this morning. When we got out of the tents, there were actually views to be had in most directions and blue skies above. Being at 11,000 ft, it was slightly colder than what we've experienced so far, but a hot breakfast took care of the chills and got us ready for our carry. We set out for "Motorcycle Hill" at 9:30. It was good to be in crampons and carrying ice axes after days of snowshoes and ski poles. An hour put us in the middle of "Squirrel Hill" with great views of Denali's Northwest Buttress and the Peter's Glacier. It began to cloud up as we reached the "Polo Field" off the end of the giant granite towers of the West Buttress. By Windy Corner we were in light snow, but close to our destination. We dug a deep and raven-proof pit in the snow at 13,500 ft in which to cache the food and fuel we were carrying. It was an easy climb down with light packs and we walked out of the snow showers and into sunny and warm camp at 11K again by 4:30 PM. We'll hope for a comfortable night of sleep tonight as we've followed the "climb high, sleep low" rule of acclimatization to altitude. Tomorrow will be a rest day, as part of that same plan.
Kryz wishes his dad a happy birthday from Mount McKinley.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Greetings all,
Today was one of those beautiful bluebird days in Huaraz where the views of the surrounding 20,000ft peaks are especially stunning. Our team took advantage of the perfect weather and made an acclimatization hike up into the hills above our hotel, to about 11,500', in preparation of our move to 14,000' base camp in the Ishinca Valley tomorrow. Views from the top gave us a great birds eye view of the city of Huaraz and the surrounding peaks. After the hike, we treated ourselves to a pizza lunch at El Horno, a local favorite located near the Casa de Guias, in the climbing center of Huaraz. After a packing session and a casual dinner, we're prepped and ready for our move into the Ishinca Valley first thing tomorrow.
Thanks for following and we'll be in touch from base camp tomorrow!
Best,
RMI Guides Robby Young, Elias de Andres Martos, and Team
RMI Guides Seth Waterfall and Walter Hailes led their Four Day Summit Climb Teams to the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. Both teams began their descent from the crater rim shortly after 7 am. Seth reported clear skies, very little wind and warm temperatures. Climbers will return to Camp Muir to rest and repack before continuing their descent down the Muir Snowfield and to Paradise later this afternoon.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climbs team!
A summit of Rainier, a mountain that seems to taunt me almost daily living in Seattle, has always been a goal. Thanks so much for safely guiding us to the top, Walter, Megan and Nick! You all are an impressive crew.
-Josh
Posted by: Joshua Trujillo on 7/2/2015 at 5:05 pm
Thank you, Walter, Megan, and Nick for helping me complete my fatherly goal of riding the Seattle to Portland bike ride and climbing Mt. Rainier with each of my three kids, Brendan, Patrick, and Brigit!
June 29, 2015 5:20 pm PST
Hey there, it's Billy checking in from Camp 5 on Denali at over 17,000 ft. Our crew made the move today. We got up super early this morning and made great time moving up the West Buttress. We're settled in now at High Camp. We spent some time, improving one of the campsites and building some walls. And now everybody's snug up in their sleeping bag hanging out in their tents. We're sort of chilling and filling with food and water. We are hoping for a good patch of weather in the next few days so we can maybe take a crack at the summit. Yeah, that's all for now. Everyone is psyched and doing extremely well. We will check in again tomorrow and let you know what happens.
RMI Guide Billy Nugent
RMI Guide Billy Nugent calls in from Camp 5 on Denali.
Hope you summited today. You’ve been in my thoughts all day
Posted by: Stacey on 6/30/2015 at 12:39 pm
Incredible progress - keep it up!!! Hopefully the “Jim jokes” (ask him to tell you the joke about the bell ringer) aren’t ruining everyone’s time up there. Looking forward to updates from the summit…
Posted by: Jessica LaTorre on 6/30/2015 at 12:10 pm
Greetings from Huaraz!
We have arrived to the Andean capital of climbing after our standard eight-hour bus ride from Lima. Everyone is doing great and growing in excitement to get into the range soon. The highlight of the day was to see the Cordillera Blanca as clear as it could be from about two hours out, on a strategic bus stop; a few gasps of amazement were audible.
Tomorrow we'll start our acclimatization process with a morning hike on the surrounding hills, to be continued by a packing session before hitting the trails for good the next morning.
That's it for now from Huaraz,
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos and team
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That’s brilliant! Cameron, Connor, John and Patrick… Congratulations!! What an adventure. I can’t wait to hear the amazing tale.
Posted by: Debbie on 7/1/2015 at 4:39 pm
Congrats, Chuck and all the climbers!
Posted by: Ross on 7/1/2015 at 4:09 pm
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