Entries By dustin wittmier

Saturday, November 9, 2024 - 6:14 am PT

The team is on the move now. From this point on there is only one day of the trip that does not involve hiking, climbing or traveling. Yesterday, as an example, we left Quito in the morning, drove three hours north, got out and hiked for about four hours and then back on the bus for a 45 minute ride to the Intiyaya Residences. That's a full day, but hey, it's what we signed up for and we all were able to enjoy the lovely hike around Laguna Cuicocha. Everyone also enjoyed the serenity of the Intiyaya Residences; most people had a full night's sleep before the neighborhood dogs started barking at about 6:30am.

Today, we head for the market in Otavalo to experience some local culture, shop for souvenirs or just drink a nice latte. Following that sensory overload, we will hop on the bus and head for the town of Cayambe and eventually the lower Cayambe hut. Our group is really coming together as a team; meals have been spent telling stories and much of our time on trails has been spent trying to get some pro bono physical therapy from Malina.

In just a day and a half we will put our bodies and minds to the test on Cayambe!

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

Hello friends, family and everyone else who plans to follow along! We are off to a great start on another RMI Expeditions Ecuador Volcanoes trip. On this itinerary we plan to (hopefully) visit the summits of both Cayambe and Cotopaxi, the third and second highest mountains in Ecuador, respectively.

To kick of the acclimatization, we traveled around Quito yesterday seeing various sights, mostly related to gaining independence from the Spanish and to the cultural history of indigenous peoples. Of course, that takes us in and out of a variety of old churches as we all marveled at the architecture of these places. In addition to learning some interesting things about Ecuador, it was also a chance to dust off the jet lag and get the bodies moving around a bit.

To continue in that direction, we hiked Rucu Pichincha today. The day started off a bit hazy, but as that layer moved we had glimpses of Cayambe, Antisana and Cotopaxi amongst other high mountains of the Ecuadorian highlands. The group all did well today and we are about to head out for one more dinner in town before we leave for the countryside tomorrow.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier & Team

Friday, November 1, 2024

Cotopaxi Summit!

Yes, you heard that right. After a couple years of eruptive activity, the mountain is back open and today was the first Cotopaxi summit for RMI since December of 2021. In that time, a lot has changed.

The two years of eruptions have been characterized by frequent outbursts from the caldera in the form of ash plumes. This has led to a loss in glacial mass as the sun beats down on the dark material deposited on the usually reflective snow surface. The current numbers are not yet known, but also this is not a new part of the mountain's history. Cotopaxi is the second-highest active volcano in the world and has had numerous periods of activity in the past that have led to closures of the mountain for recreational purposes and threatened local communities. In fact, in the past 50 years, Cotopaxi has lost over 54% of it's glacial mass.

In addition to the ash, the country of Ecuador is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. Due to both factors the route has changed dramatically. It routes through some different aspects of the mountain and is quite icy. The main obstacles we encountered today were moving through steep, icy terrain that at times required front pointing with crampons or the occasional swinging of our ice axes. One big factor did save our climb, which was the 6-8cm of fresh snowfall the mountain received yesterday. It deposited just enough snow on the surface to give a little more traction than the hard ice, but not so much to create avalanche hazards. We hope the snow in the mountains will continue, for the sake of the climbing routes; and more importantly, we hope for the people of Ecuador that this is marking the beginning of the wet season.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

Thursday, October 31, 2024 - 8:22 am PT

Yesterday's trip to Illiniza Norte went quite smoothly. We were on the move just after 5am and were able to complete the loop from the refuge to the summit and down the alternate descent back to the trailhead. The route was a touch slippery to begin with as a wet cloud blew past the mountain all night, but as the sun rose, the rocks dried off and we had mostly dry conditions once we reached the scrambling portion. For our entire climb it was dry and in the afternoon there was a heavy downpour, which may signal the change towards the rainy season.

Today, we are headed for Cotopaxi. The mountain does not seem to have received any fresh snowfall from yesterday's weather as we were treated to perfect views of the mountain from our hacienda this morning. The conditions are "dry" meaning that the glacier itself is mostly ice instead of "neve". Tonight after a few fitful hours of rest, we will make our summit attempt starting from the hut at about 16,000'.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

Tuesday, October 29, 2024 - 6:20 am PT

We had a lovely acclimatization trip to the summit of Rucu Pichincha yesterday. We caught a bit of light rain, not enough to stabilize the electrical grid, but enough to keep us cool for our nice day hike. On the way down, the clouds opened up a little and were treated to views of surrounding valleys, which includes the city of Quito.

Today, we are heading for the Illiniza refuge and hopefully a summit of Illiniza Norte tomorrow morning! While this is labeled as an "acclimatization" hike, it's definitely fun in it's own right. The route from the hut goes up a steep ridgeline that occasionally requires some class 3 scrambling. The views from the summit are astounding and the movement enjoyable.

We will check back in tomorrow with an update as we head towards Cotopaxi!

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

The whole team has arrived in Ecuador and we spent our first day of acclimation touring around Quito. While the activities were the standard preplanned trips to the indigenous equator museum and the old town of Quito, the feel is a little different this time. The country of Ecuador is experiencing it's worst drought in sixty years. Their power grid is based about 70% on hydroelectric power and as such, blackouts are a regular part of life right now. Fortunately for us, the hotel has generators that keep the power on throughout the day, but most residences and businesses in Quito have power for only 10-14 hours per day. This brings some moderate uncertainty to everyone here and it is felt in our interactions with our local friends and service providers. Nonetheless, life goes on and local businesses are happy to have the continued support that tourism brings. All that being said, everyone is doing their best rain dance! It feels like one of those moments where if it begins raining, everyone in the street will stop what they're doing to celebrate and honestly, even if it turns us around on Rucu Pichincha today, it will bring a smile to my face as well.

Dustin

The Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir September 4 - 9 led by RMI Guides Dustin Wittmier, Seth Burns, Drew O'Brien and Will Ambler reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today. The team has spent the last several days training on the mountain and enjoying the views. Today they put their work to the test and made their summit attempt, reaching the crater rim around 7:30 am. After enjoying a bit of time on the summit the team is descending to Camp Muir where they will spend the night. Tomorrow they will descend the remaining 4.5 miles to Paradise.  A team celebration will be in order tomorrow afternoon before they conclude their six day program.

Nice work team!

The Mt. Baker Easton Glacier Team led by RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier were unable to climb due to thunderstorms in the area. The team is hanging in their tents doing their best to stay dry!  

Congratulations team on a real mountain adventure! 

The six day Expedition Skills Seminar - Paradise August 15 - 20 led by RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier has enjoyed several days of climbing and training on the mountain.  From glacier travel to camp life and crevasse rescue training the team put all of their skills into play and launched a summit attempt from Camp Muir early this morning. The team reached the summit of Mt. Rainier just before 7 am and spent a bit of time on top.  They are now descending to Camp Muir and will pack up and return to Paradise later today.

Nice work team!

The Four Day Climb led by RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier reached the summit of Mt. Rainer early this morning. The team climbed above the heavy marine layer, and Dustin reported clear skies and calm winds. It took the team 6 hours and 35 minutes to reach the summit from Camp Muir, and they are now on the descent. 

Congratulations Team!