RMI Expeditions Blog
The Ecuador Seminar team, led by Casey Grom and Ben Liken reached the Cotopaxi summit this morning! Check out the photos Casey sent us this morning from their summit bid.
Congratulations team!
On The Map
Posted by: Solveig Waterfall, Chase Nelson
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mexico
Hi Everyone!
Chase and I have been in Mexico City since last night and spent this afternoon grocery shopping and sorting equipment in preparation for the start of our program. Climbers arrived throughout the afternoon and evening, and by 9:00 PM we were a complete team around the dinner table at the Holiday Inn here in the Zona Rosa.
We spent the evening discussing logistics, gear, and getting ourselves prepared to hit the trail, starting with our first acclimatization hike tomorrow. We are all excited to leave the sounds of the city behind and get into the mountains! Our first objective will be an afternoon stroll on the flanks of La Malinche.
Thanks for following along and we'll check in again tomorrow evening!
RMI Guide Solveig Waterfall
Posted by: Casey Grom, Ben Liken
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador
Happy Valentine's Day Everyone,
We spent the day relaxing here at Hacienda Tambopaxi that sits just at the base of the beautiful volcano Cotopaxi. It's one of the highest active volcanoes in the world and we've been told that Cotopaxi is a pre-inca name meaning "neck of the moon". The area surrounding the volcano is mostly high plateau grasslands and is home to a thousands of wild horses, which we could easily see just outside of the hacienda.
The team is doing great and everyone is well rested and excited for our last big climb. We'll be waking up at 10pm and hopefully hitting the road shortly after breakfast and if all goes well, standing at 19,347ft above sea level right after sunrise.
We will check in tomorrow when we are safely back down.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Posted by: Casey Grom, Ben Liken
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador
Greetings from Tambopaxi Lodge,
Today we took a full day to rest our weary legs and heal our slightly sun burnt faces. After a breakfast with a view of Cotopaxi a few of team members went horseback riding while the rest of us drank coffee and swapped stories from our Antisana climb. The riders got all dressed up in Ecuadorean ponchos, cowboy hats, and alpaca chaps. We then wasted no time getting to our next activity...... A four course lunch. We did manage to get in some training in during the afternoon but were easily distracted by views of the mountain and galloping wild horses.
We look forward to a good night of sleep because tomorrow there will be no such luxury. Tomorrow we will be up and at 'em around 10 pm to ascend our final peak, Cotopaxi.
Everyone hear wishes their special someone at home a very happy Valentine's Day!
RMI Guide Ben Liken and Amigos
Congratulations to my Climbing buddies so proud of you have a safe trip home.
Posted by: Wanda Manderson on 2/14/2015 at 7:37 pm
We are currently back in Plaza Argentina enjoying some well deserved pizza and ice cold beverages. The team cruised down hill this morning, picking up gear and waste, leaving Aconcagua in better shape then we found it. When your descent takes only 4.5 hours compared to the 9 days it took on the ascent, you have to just shake your head a little.
The team is all smiles, waiting on shower water to heat up, enjoying time out of their boots and laughing.
This will be our last dispatch of the climb. We will walk to Leñas on Saturday for an amazing Argentine BBQ (that's slow cooked beef for you non-southerners). Sunday will see us with a short hike to the road and back in Mendoza.
Thanks for checking in on us during the climb.
RMI Guides Mike King and Steve Gately
Congratulations to our team of climbers on their climb today!
It wasn't easy, in fact far from it.
We started the day with a 10:30 pm wake up call that no one ever enjoys, but everyone made it to breakfast relatively quickly and seemed excited as the weather looked to be in our favor. We then hoped into our 4 wheeled vehicles and drove about 20 minutes to the start of the climb. The weather continued to improve as we made our way to the the start of the glacier where we put on our crampons and roped up for the rest of the climb. The initial part of the glacier was mostly bare ice which made for rather easy climbing and slowly increased in angle and crevasses. Everyone did a great job of taking care of themselves and stayed calm even though the terrain was challenging.
After several hours of climbing we reached the final headwall that looked to be too much, but with perseverance the team surmounted the last steep slope and made our way to the top of Antisana. All in all it took 9 hard hours to reach the summit where we enjoyed the views and took a few photos. The descent was no easy task either having to reverse the climb, but we all made it back safely in a couple of hours.
Everyone is in good spirits and maybe just a little tired ;)
Special thanks to Sally for the wonderful Sahale mixed nuts that were sent along, we enjoyed them!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and a happy albeit tired crew
Luke and rest of team,
Success in Ecuador! Congratulations!
Jim
Posted by: Jim Hill on 2/13/2015 at 1:45 pm
Brad and Brian;
Simply Amazing…Safe journey home!!
Posted by: Bobbi on 2/13/2015 at 6:14 am
February 12, 2015 - 11:56 am PT
Update:
The team is all safely back at Camp III after a successful summit day! Warm temps and literally zero wind made it one for the record books!
RMI Guide Steve Gately
9:20 am PT
Hi, this is Mike King with RMI Aconcagua Team 7 stand on the top of South America! We had a challenging day with extremely cold weather, and wind in the morning. We had a lot of new snow and scree on the way up on the upper mountain. The team did great. We're gonna be heading back down in about 20 minutes. A beautiful day, I don't have ever seen a more beautiful day on the top of Aconcagua. We will call or send a posting when we get back to high camp. Thanks for joining us!
RMI Guide Mike King
Mike King Calling from the Summit of Aconcagua February 12, 2015
Congrats Candace! Can’t wait to hear about your trip! Well Done!
Posted by: Billie on 2/17/2015 at 9:14 pm
Awesome! Congrats!!!
Posted by: Melissa on 2/13/2015 at 8:02 am
Hello everyone,
Tonight we are heading for the summit of Antisana! We arrived this morning to our camp and did a bunch more technical training. The site is like something out of the Lord of the Rings, with tall grasses, roaming horses, and thatch-roof structures all lit by the glaciers of Antisana.
Wish us luck as you head to bed because we will be waking up at that time to go climbing.
We'll let you know how it goes!
RMI Guide Ben Liken and the team
Meredith and Jeff
Congrats to you and your climb team. Wow wow!
Hugs R &. W
Posted by: Ron and Wendy J. on 2/13/2015 at 4:01 pm
We finally got around to packing up camp and climbing up to 19,600 feet, our High Camp for the expedition. Extremely cold and calm morning with a new blanket of snow on the surrounding Andean peaks made for a scenic day.
High Camp is never anyone's favorite camp for a few reasons:
1. Sleeping at 19,600 feet can be difficult.
2. There are no 'great' tent sites due to how the wind swirls around.
3. Lack of snow makes drinking water a time consuming process.
Good thing we are making our summit bid tomorrow and will be back in Base Camp telling stories before to long.
Wish us luck! We will check in hopefully from the summit on Thursday afternoon.
RMI Guide Mike King
On The Map
i hope you will all be home soon.I wish you safety and ssurefootedness. I send Valentines love.
Posted by: tina baker on 2/12/2015 at 6:46 am
Posted by: Ben Liken, Casey Grom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador
Hello again everyone,
The team is feeling good and well rested especially after a good nights sleep. Our stay in Papallacta was enjoyed by all even though it was short.
We have traveled back into the countryside to very near our next climbing objective Antisana. Originally we had planned on camping tonight, but due to the forecasted thunderstorms we opted to stay at a wonderful hacienda not far from the mountain. After getting so soaked on Cayambe we thought this would help keep us stay dry and set us up for a successful climb. So we spent the afternoon doing a little technical training and reviewing some of the skills we hope to put to use tomorrow on the glacier.
The valley we are staying in is famous for condors and we even managed to see several gliding not far above us. It was amazing to see these beautiful and elusive birds to say the least.
That's all for now.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
To my climbing buddy, Luke, and to rest of team: Even with rain, sounds like great experience and I’m jealous. Good luck with conditions on Antisana! Be safe.
Jim
Posted by: Jim hill on 2/10/2015 at 9:42 pm
Congrats Luke and rest of team. Look forward to hearing details. Damn I’m jealous.
Jim
Posted by: Jim hill on 2/15/2015 at 10:39 pm
Great accomplishment - all down safe and sound?
Posted by: sally on 2/15/2015 at 7:08 pm
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