Entries from Expedition Dispatches
We stood on top of Cotopaxi this morning! Our windy adventures in Ecuador continued yesterday and into this morning. Hiking to the climbing hut we battled 30 mph winds, which continued through the evening. When I woke up to check the weather at 11 pm it was windy but clear. I woke the team up at midnight and we had an alpine start breakfast and prepared to climb. By the time we left, clouds were intermittently blowing in and out. During the first hour of our climb a very humid cloud moved in that dampened our outer layers, which then turned to ice. The wind persisted, so did we. Climbing higher, our clothes began to wear a layer of rime ice as we fought with the wind to maintain good posture and climb efficiently. Clouds would come and go (mostly come) throughout our climb, but the wind would not relent. It made the ascent very difficult and also very cold. Our breaks were shorter due to the weather, but the team climbed strong and toughed it out. We reached the summit around 6:45 am, five hours and fifteen minutes after we set out (which, by the way, is a fast pace for Cotopaxi). The summit views were obscured by clouds so we didn't spend much time up top. Did I mention it was windy?
The descent was smooth and now we're all resting at the historic
Hosteria La Cienega in Lasso, Ecuador, near the south entrance to Cotopaxi National Park. We'll enjoy a well earned dinner here tonight, and a good night's sleep with a leisurely wake up call before heading back to Quito tomorrow.
The summit of Cotopaxi was a heck of a way to end our two week volcano tour on the Ecuador Seminar. We'll check in again tomorrow from Quito.
Saludos,
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
RMI Guides
Casey Grom and
Chase Nelson and team reached the summit of Mt. Baker via the North Ridge. Casey checked-in from the summit reporting a great route, strong team, and beautiful weather with a steady breeze.
Congratulations!
Update - June 27th 3:24 pm
RMI Guide Leon Davis and team are back at camp in Boston Basin. They will spend the night before descending to the trailhead in the morning.
Original Post
In the North Cascades of Washington,
RMI Guide Leon Davis and team reached the summit of
Forbidden Peak via the West Ridge this morning. Leon reported perfect weather for climbing today.
Way to go climbers!
The Four Day Summit Climb teams led by
RMI Guides Adam Knoff and Solveig Waterfall reached the summit of Mt. Rainier this morning. While on the summit, the teams enjoyed light winds and high clouds. The teams will return to Rainier BaseCamp in
Ashford this afternoon.
Congratulations Climbers!
Friday, June 26, 2015 - 11:40 pm PT
We made it... almost. We left our camp at 11,200 feet around 4 am this morning. The group was traveling quickly in spite of heavy packs and sleds. All was well until we encountered a wet, snowy drizzle around 7,800 feet. We trudged on knowing the end was just a few hours away. When we finally reached
base camp, the snow stopped, but the clouds did not permit planes to come and pick us up. The rest of the day consisted of napping, to compensate for the lack of sleep over the past few days, and hoping for clear skies tomorrow. RMI Guides
Pepper and
Uchal are working on their clear skies interpretive dance in the event that we wake up to clouds tomorrow.
RMI 7 "El Siete"
On The Map
Friday June 26th 9:13 pm PT
Our weather took a dive. But our timing and luck have been pretty good anyway. We were up at 1 AM this morning and on the trail by 4 AM (getting breakfast and gearing up while tearing down camp takes a while the first time). The clouds were getting lower and lower until about 7 AM when we were swallowed up by the murk. Wet snow was falling by 8:30, but luckily we were pulling into our intended camp at 8,000 feet by 9:15. So we were indeed lucky to get flown on before the weather deteriorated and happy we were able to make use of what otherwise might have been considered a storm day today.
Just as the snow began to fall, we met up with
Mike Haugen's victorious team on their way out. Nice to see them, even if just in passing. Once our new camp at the base of "Ski Hill" was built, we climbed in to rest away the late morning and afternoon. Dinner was under the shelter of our POSH tent in a well-dug dining/kitchen snow pit.
Aside from the weather, glacier conditions were quite good for traveling today and we had very few issues with the multitude of crevasse bridges that needed crossing.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
We're up at the
Jose Ribas Refugio on Cotopaxi at 15,953 ft. Tomorrow is climb day on Cotopaxi so we're hitting the sack early tonight in preparation for our alpine start. We'll check in again tomorrow and let you know how things go.
RMI Guide Mike Walter and Team
On The Map
Friday, June 26, 2015 - 2:47 pm PT
It is a snowy day here at Camp 4...The gang is currently chilling in the tents and posh on our first scheduled
rest day that just happened to coincide with a change in the weather. Spirits are high and we are keeping our fingers crossed for marginally better weather tomorrow and a hopeful carry up to high camp.
Quotes of the day:
"Don't tell me how to eat my Oreos!" - Sean
"How are geriatrics and RMI guides alike? It depends..." - Art and Doug
"The wise man chooses nachos." - Mike
"I gotta save Canada from those gosh darn moose..." - Marc
"I love pico de gallo!" - Billy
RMI Guide Billy Nugent and Team
On The Map
The
Mount Rainier Four-Day Summit Climb, led by Seth Waterfall and Mike Soucy, reached the summit this morning. Seth reported a nice day and 10-15 mph winds from the North. As of 7:38 a.m. the teams began their descent from the crater rim.
Congratulations to today's summit climbers!
Our climbing team had a great morning climbing to within a few hundred feet (16,500') of Iliniza Norte's summit (16,818'), before the wind was too intense and we had to turn around. Climbing up the rocky, exposed ridge from the climbing hut, the clouds would momentarily part, affording us intermittent views of Iliniza Norte's austere summit, covered in rime ice. The climbing was a very enjoyable 3rd class rock scramble and everyone did great. The wind was literally making it hard to stand up, much less climb a high altitude mountain. So we retreated back to the safety of the climber's hut. After a bowl of soup and a cup of tea, we descended back down the trail to our vehicles. Now we're at the beautiful hacienda Chilcabamba, outside of
Cotopaxi National Park, where we're resting before heading out to climb our final objective, Cotopaxi. We'll keep you in the loop...
RMI Guide Mike Walter
Was it windy?
Posted by: Tiina on 6/27/2015 at 8:23 pm
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