Entries from Expedition Dispatches
Hello to all following the Ecuadorean skills seminar. As Casey mentioned yesterday, the wind gods in this neck of the woods, or jungle, seem to be a tad upset with
Cayambe the last few days. Last night the gale rocked our hut, shaking windows and spraying dust onto our sleeping bags and equipment all through the bunk room. As I woke my concern shifted quickly not to dirt in my eyes but to Jan who will get his merit badge as the only one to have spent a night in a tent. I don't think too many of us were complaining though because the tent this morning looked very close to flying away. Unfortunately this same wind pattern continued throughout the morning making our projected second attempt at moving to high camp seem a bit detrimental to our actual summit attempt. As much as I wanted to give our team the experience of moving upward and making a high camp, discussions with Casey and Jamie helped me realize the effort needed to move up, pitch tents and get substantial rest was not advantageous to our climb tonight. What another day at the hut did allow us was more valuable training. The opening section to our route directly out of the hut offers impressive rock out croppings ideal for fixed rope travel and rappelling. After our outside time, that was certainly tested by the wind, we retreated back to the hut where we practiced rope coiling, knots and time killing activities. We are now preparing for an early dinner and retirement to our sleeping bags. We look forward to getting up early and gunning for the summit of the equator's highest point.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff
On The Map
After a good trip up the Relinchos Valley yesterday, the team is enjoying a well-earned rest day here at
Plaza Argentina. Our night of good rest rolled into a breakfast of eggs, fried ham, peppers and onions with coffee and hot chocolate, and was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.
After giving the team time to digest, we all went over to the medical office and got the obligatory physical check-up. Everyone passed with flying colors, and we're now poised and ready for our carry up to
Camp One tomorrow, situated at 16,200'.
While we're living at about 14,000 feet, everyone is feeling tip top and acclimating perfectly. We have beautiful weather and look forward to staging for the move higher on this beautiful mountain.
Keep sending the positive energy!
RMI Aconcagua Expedition and Guides JJ Justman, Garrett Stevens and Geoff Schellens
On The Map
Hola amigos:
The last few nights have been a bit windy to say the least and the rattling of the windows has been soothing to some of us, and not so much for others. So we've had a few traditional siestas during the day.
Our plan was to move up to a
higher camp today, but due to weather and acclimatization we have decided to spend one more night here in the cozy hut.
Thankfully
Adam greeted the team with plenty of pancakes and coffee this morning, which helped start the day. We then headed out to do some training not far from the hut and did a short hike to get a better look at our route.
A number of climbers arrived today and are planning on climbing Cayambe tonight, which is good news for us. Hopefully they will be successful and kick in a good trail to help us out.
Other than that all is well here at just over 15'000'. Everyone is happy and hungry and looking forward to dinner.
RMI Guide
Casey Grom and crew
Hello Everyone!
Galloping across the Vacas River we had a few team members think we were riding mules the rest of the way to base camp. However, once on drier ground we hopped off, thanked the mules for keeping us dry and began walking up towards
Plaza Argentina.
Now at 14000 feet the team has had their fill of fresh melon and juice. Acclimating begins now and the entire team is feeling good, especially after a hot shower and a fresh change of clothes.
Tomorrow we will be resting. A full report of activities will follow. Now, it's time to set up the volleyball net.
RMI Guide JJ Justman & Team
On The Map
Buenos Dias from the Cayambe hut. Today was the first "real" day spent training on our first "real" mountain. It always amazes me how a simple acclimatizing hike ten minutes from our hotel in Quito puts us well over 15,000 feet in a matter of hours accomplished in simple hiking boots and a day pack. So when I say "real" it must refer to something big. Our first mountain,
Cayambe seems to fill those shoes. Sitting at 18,997', even the shortest climbers on the team will have the privilege of saying their throbbing noggins broke the respectable altitude of 19,000 feet. Breaking this psychological barrier should make climbing
Cotopaxi, a whopping 400 feet higher, a walk in the park.
This morning the group woke slowly having slept surprisingly well for the large jump in altitude. Our luxurious hut sits at
15,200', a casual one hour hike below the tongue of the glacier. Regardless of our groups strong résumé, we began hiking from the hut revisiting breathing techniques, rest stepping and minor drooling. After an hour hiking upward, we chose our high camp location and cached some tents, stoves and climbing headwear. After a brief rest we moved to the start of the glacier where we revisited self arrest, cramponing and rope travel. This three-hour exercise proved more taxing than expected so upon our return to the hut, eyes were closing sitting at the table so our next training skill was napping at altitude. So far the groups favorite skill to practice. We then practiced knots and hitches before sitting down for dinner. The altitude and full day caught up with all of us so we are looking forward to hitting the sack early. Tomorrow we move to high camp.
RMI Guides
Adam Knoff and
Casey Grom
On The Map
We are cooking with gas now...and fire! Team 3 is at 11000 feet at
Casa de Piedra. We had a beautiful day trekking in the warm sun surrounded by the high Andes mountains.
Now, the dining table is up, the chickens are on the grill, the homemade pesto is sautéing, and the angel hair pasta is cooking.
Everyone is doing fantastic and our motto is "a well fed climber is a strong climber". So we are going to sit down to a nice meal and get ready for our final day of trekking into
Aconcagua base camp.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
We are back in the mountains again! And it feels great! Our team had a leisurely walk with light packs in the Vacas Valley. The clouds kept us cool and the sun off our backs.
After a nice picnic lunch along the
Vacas River we arrived at our first trekking camp. The team is relaxing and we are about to prepare some snacks before we sit down with the cowboys as they prepare an asado meal of steak, corn on the cob and grilled vegetables. There's no need to start eating ramen just yet.
Everyone says hello to friends and family and the guides say hello to our RMI family back in Ashford, WA.
Chau from Pampa de Lenas!
RMI Guide JJ Justman
We had a nice leisurely start to the day today and met at 8:00 for breakfast and more importantly COFFEE! There was no rush today as our agenda was to visit the market of
Otovalo. It just happens to be one of the largest open air markets in all of South America. There were hundreds of vendors selling everything imaginable. Lots of handmade goods and endless nick-nacks. Everyone enjoyed the market and had fun practicing their bargaining skills.
After the shopping spree we loaded up the vehicles and made our way towards
Cayambe, which is the third largest mountain in Ecuador at 18,997'. It was a long and bumpy drive through the rural countryside. We stopped just short of the hut that we will base out of the next few days and hiked the remainder to further help with acclimatization.
The team has just finished a nice pasta dinner and are currently sipping some hot drinks and making our plan for the next few days. Everyone is doing well and looking forward to training tomorrow.
Casey,
Adam, Jaime ( our wonderful local guide) and crew.
It has been a whirlwind few hours for the team, but we are all safe and sound in
Mendoza, about to enjoy the comfort of a hot shower, actual bed and a celebratory meal. These things are certainly fine, but it will be tough to beat the meat cooked by our friends the herreros under the stars. I guess we'll just have to take it as it comes.
It sure has been a great trip with an awesome team. Thanks to the squad and everyone's people back home for letting them out for the holidays!
RMI Guides
Jake Beren,
Leon Davis &
Zeb Blais
We have arrived in the quaint little ski town of Penitentes. It was nice enjoying the "good life" in Mendoza. However, it's a refreshing change getting into the high desert mountains near
Aconcagua.
The team organized our gear to be carried in by the mules. Then it was quickly off to dinner at Hotel Ayelen. I'd like to joke that it was the team's last good meal. However, we have several kilos of filet mignon and fresh chickens to grill and I'm planning on making my 2001 award winning homemade pesto served over hand made angel hair pasta. Sorry, we won't send photos of that, don't want to make you too jealous.
RMI Guide JJ Justman
On The Map
Thought the wind may have died down - seems to have arrived in NZ last couple of days. Good luck with progress up the peak. Brett
Posted by: Brett Vautier on 1/9/2013 at 12:25 pm
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