Entries By casey grom
Posted by: Casey Grom, Solveig Waterfall
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador
Elevation: 12,000'
We all enjoyed a restful, relaxing, and rejuvenating day off at the Chilcabama Eco Lodge just outside the Cotopaxi National Park. The Hacienda sits at about 12,000', which after our summit on Cayambe feels like sea level!
Our team took advantage of the thicker air with a variety of afternoon activities. Some of us participated in a cribbage tournament, some took naps, a few motivated folks went for a scenic jog, and we all spent time wandering the property taking in the beautiful plants and wildlife.
During the pre-dinner hours we discussed packing strategy and the game plan for Cotopaxi, and are excited and prepared to tackle our next objective tomorrow.
Wish us luck!
RMI Guides Casey Grom and Solveig Waterfall
On The Map
Posted by: Casey Grom, Solveig Waterfall
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador
Elevation: 18,997'
Summit!
We did it, most of us anyway, but I have to wonder if those that turned around short of the summit didn't make a better decision. I say that because it was one of the toughest days I've had on Cayambe in a long time. It was cold, windy, and snowy almost the entire day. The conditions were safe to climb in, but it was far from enjoyable. Six of our nine climbers made the summit and the three that chose to head down early did so because I believe they simply weren't enjoying it.
We started our day rather early with breakfast at 11pm and were walking shortly after midnight. The first hour of the climb went rather smoothly as we made our way to the start of the glacier. We took a short break to adjust layers, put our crampons on and rope up for the ascent. It seemed like as soon as we started walking the wind picked up and the snow began to blow. Unfortunately for us the blowing snow was coming straight down the glacier and directly into our faces. As we painfully made our way uphill, we had to stop and put on our Gore-tex to protect us from the conditions. We slowly battled our way for the next few hours taking short breaks and finally after seven trying hours stood on the summit. It was so windy on top we only stayed for just a few minutes before quickly descending back down the glacier.
Once safely back at camp the team made quick work of getting packed up and we headed down valley to thicker air and a wonderful cafe where we filled bellies before heading south to our home at Chilcabamba for the next few days. I'm sure everyone will sleep soundly tonight and we are looking forward to taking a rest day tomorrow.
Everyone is in good spirits!
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
On The Map
Posted by: Casey Grom, Solveig Waterfall
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador
Elevation: 15,300'
Greetings everyone back home. This is Casey Grom checking in from the RMI Ecuador Volcanoes expedition. Just wanted to let you know that everyone's doing fantastic. We are up here at the Refugio or the hut this sits at the base of glacier on Cayambe. We just finished dinner and packed our bags for tomorrow's climb. We took the day to get up early and go for a nice hike up to the glacier to do a little climbing review. Everyone did fantastic. The weather is looking pretty good. It was incredibly nice today; sunny almost all day. A little bit of clouds now but the forecast is pretty good. So we are going to be getting up about 11 PM and hopefully walking a little after midnight. We'll do our best to check in from the summit. I'm anticipating is is going to take us about seven hours to reach the summit. Sorry we are having some technology difficulties with charging some of our iPhones up here but will hopefully have some pictures sent tomorrow when we descend after our climb and we get cell reception or Wi-Fi access. Everything's great and looking forward to sending some pictures to you guys. Thanks.
RMI Guide Casey Grom
Casey Grom calling in from Cayambe's Refugio.
On The Map
Posted by: Casey Grom, Solveig Waterfall
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador
Hi Everyone!
We are enjoying a relaxing evening here at the beautiful La Casa Sol near the city of Otavalo.
We left the comforts of Quito this morning and headed into the mountains (where many of us actually feel more comfortable!) for our second acclimatization hike. As we watched the city disappear in the rear view mirror we traded well paved roads for cobblestones and washboard. The van bumped along, and our driver skillfully negotiated the hazards of rural driving... while we all fought the urge to hold our breath and cross our fingers. Maybe we should have, because our luck soon ran out and Friday the 13th delivered us a logistical sucker punch.
With a loud crack, our vehicle let us know it was done going uphill for the day. A dislodged cobblestone had broken the axel and stopped us, quite suddenly, in our tracks.
Fortunately, our group has the perfect easy going attitude, and after getting the baggage and van transfer sorted out, we shouldered our daypacks and set off for some slightly more oxygenated exercise. Nearly three hours and five miles later we arrived at the trailhead!
One of our local guides, Esteban (nicknamed Topo), had been busy reorganizing our logistics while we strolled, and he and a few others arrived to our rescue shortly thereafter in shining Toyota Hilux's.
Delivered safely to our hacienda we enjoyed a delicious dinner and are now all busy packing our gear and getting organized and prepared to tackle our first big objective. Wish us luck as we travel towards Cayambe tomorrow!
RMI Guide Solveig Waterfall
On The Map
Posted by: Casey Grom, Solveig Waterfall
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador
Elevation: 15,000
Hello again everyone
Today we had a very nice hike to help with our acclimatization on a nearby peak called Pichincha. It is one of the many local peaks that is situated above Quito and is used by many climbers to help adjust to the higher altitude here in Ecuador. We made use of the gondolas to help us gain access to around 12,500 ft then hiked the additional 2,500 ft to the summit. It took our team roughly 3 hours to gain the top after a little scrambling up the final bit to reach our high point thus far. It was a personal high point for a few of us, and the entire team did a fantastic job. After spending a bit of time on the summit and getting are photos we descended all the back to our hotel for a brief nap before dinner.
Everyone is in good spirits and looking forward to tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew.
On The Map
Posted by: Casey Grom, Solveig Waterfall
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador
Hello from Quito everyone!
After some very long flights the team has arrived safe and sound here in Ecuador. We started our day with a group meeting where we shared a little about each other and discussed the plans for our expedition. We then headed out on a city tour which was mostly spent visiting the colonial old town and it's many churches built in the 17th century. We also visited the Virgin de Quito, which is a statue that overlooks the entire city and is similar in importance to our Statue of Liberty.
After our tour we headed back to our hotel to allow the team some time to rest before meeting and discussing the gear needed for our upcoming climbs. After making sure everyone was well equipped with the essentials we took a short walk to a nearby restaurant and patiently waited for all of our food to arrive. The food was delicious and everyone left with smiles on their faces.
It looks like a great group of people and everyone is looking forward to stretching their legs tomorrow.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Brian,
Safe travels my friend and I wish I was with you! Enjoy the views for me!
Klay
Posted by: Klay on 12/16/2013 at 11:43 am
HI Brian
have a safe and fun time! We missed you at the Easterday family Christmas gathering!
Marcia and Dave send their best!
xo
Posted by: Kim on 12/14/2013 at 7:50 pm
Posted by: Casey Grom, Elias de Andres Martos
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 14,410'
The last Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir Team of our 2013 Rainier climbing season reached the Summit of Mt. Rainier at about 2:00pm yesterday. RMI Guides Casey Grom and Elias deAndres Martos reported a blue bird day with cold temperatures and fresh snow on the route. The team will spend the morning at Camp Muir finishing up their mountaineering skills training before heading back to RMI Basecamp this afternoon.
Congratulations Team!
Fatima, Casey….just awesome. I wish I was there!!
Posted by: Debbi on 9/28/2013 at 5:39 am
Congratulations Tim! That’s one checked off the Bucket List. Keep goin’!
Posted by: Le on 9/27/2013 at 10:14 am
Posted by: Casey Grom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
We spent all of yesterday in Tarangire National Park. It's home to more elephants per square mile than any place on earth, and we weren't disappointed at all. If I had to guess I'd say we saw somewhere close to a thousand elephants between yesterday and on our short drive back through today.
We spent the night just outside of the park boundaries in another tented camp. And enjoyed an amazing meal provided by the kind staff at the Kikoti Camp.
It's been an incredible adventure and everyone has had a wonderful time here in Africa, but our trip has come to an end and its time to return to our homes.
Thanks for following.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
WOW! Looking forward to your return and the narration of these pictures!
Safe travels home!
Posted by: Tracy O. on 9/15/2013 at 9:23 am
Posted by: Casey Grom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
Today we visited the famous Ngorongoro Crater, believed by many to be the 8th wonder of the world. It is a two million year old collapsed caldera that is home to more than 25,000 large mammals, and has a dense population of lions.
We spent nearly the entire day driving around looking at all the animals and waiting at times for either the wildebeest, or zebras to get out of our way. We saw about a dozen lions, a far off black rhino, thousands of pink flamingos and many others. I'm pretty sure everyone had a great day.
We finished off the day with a quick visit to a working Maasai Village to see how this semi-nomadic group of people still live the way they have for thousands of years.
Hopefully tomorrow we'll catch a glimpse of a cheetah and leopard to round out the safari.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Words cannot describe my envy, but so happy at the same time for these experiences for you. Love and miss you (and Gig ‘Em)!
Posted by: Tasha on 9/14/2013 at 7:34 am
WOW. Just like on Wild Kingdom. “Jim, jump down and get that lion”. ( showing my age here). Waiting on giraffe pictures.
Posted by: Tracy O. on 9/13/2013 at 8:44 pm
Posted by: Casey Grom
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Kilimanjaro
On our first day of safari we headed south to Lake Manyara, which is know for its colorful flamingos and tree climbing lions. It wasn't long before we spotted our first of many elephants to come. In fact we stopped just short of a mother and her baby and watched them cross between our two safari vehicles. It was surreal to see them so close and feel as if we could almost touch them, while they barely noticed us. We then headed off to our normal lunch spot but had to find another place as several lions had beaten us there. We think we counted 5 all together, two young males and a few females, but it was a little tough to tell as they were trying to stay cool in the bush.
After a nice hot meal provide by our traveling chef Michael, we headed off to see other animals and a quick visit to the hippo pond. Along the way we spotted a huge Monitor (giant lizard) in a creek and spotted many zebras, giraffes, wildebeest, bush bucks, and a few warthogs too.
All in all it was a pretty rewarding first day on safari.
We are spending the night overlooking the lake in a nice tented camp called Kirurumu. Everyone is doing great and excited for what tomorrow might bring.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and Crew
Incredible. What an experience…but come home now. Can’t wait to see pictures.
Posted by: Tiff on 9/12/2013 at 4:07 pm
WOW!! What an awesome day! Thanks for putting up the pictures. Can’t wait for the stories..
Posted by: Tracy O. on 9/12/2013 at 3:34 pm
yay daddy!
Posted by: Marianne Mycroft on 12/16/2013 at 1:56 pm
Way to go Dad!!
Posted by: Gabe Mycroft on 12/16/2013 at 1:55 pm
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