Entries By henry coppolillo

Saturday, May 13, 2023 - 7:03 pm PT

A gentle shushhhh of snow falling on the tent woke us this morning. We were the central theme in the snow globe as snow fell quietly and windlessly down. We lingered over coffee and bagel sandwiches letting the day progress. We really couldn't see much, but it was calm, warm enough, and we had a nice camp to return to, so we finally sorted some loads out, loaded packs and sleds, and turned uphill again to go cache. We walked through a milky white world for several hours before we decided that we had done enough, and further walking was going to involve a lot of feel and not much sight. So we dug quite a large hole and left our loads there under the snow to be retrieved in a few days time. The walk down went quite quickly, and after an hour we were back at camp where the clouds were lifting and the sun was blazing at max intensity. We are currently enjoying a short siesta, before a hearty dinner of reindeer gumbo. We plan to pack up camp tomorrow and trade up to an abode at 11,000'.

We'll be in touch.

RMI Guide Pete Van Deventer

The team did strong work today, shouldering a load out of base camp that would have made an ox shudder. Each climber probably had north of 100lbs of gear between pack and sled. We schussed down Heart Break Hill relatively smoothly, given the load and started the long, gradual accent of the Kahiltna. The weather was beyond perfect. Blue skies, warm, probably too warm for a bit, but then a gentle kiss of breeze cooled us down. 

6 hours of that steady diesel truck burn brought us to our first real camp of the climb at the Base of Ski Hill. We spent the next couple hours establishing a routine that will become quite familiar: building tent platforms, erecting tents, digging kitchens, bathrooms, melting water, making dinner, and finding time for self-care.

Tomorrow, we will look to move a load uphill and cache before returning to this same camp. We will all be happy for lighter loads. 
Wish us bon voyage.

Our Denali escapade has commenced! Everyone arrived in Anchorage without incident and enjoyed a surprisingly smooth drive to Talkeetna. We spent yesterday crawling through all our gear, packing, repacking, wondering if we should bring more, less, or had forgotten something entirely and tearing it all apart to start again. Once we were sure, we weighed it all in for the planes and got sorted for the two Otters that would ferry us to base camp. We enjoyed a last dinner in Talkeetna, and some took two, three, or four showers to make up for the coming weeks and be sure to fly on smelling like roses.

We woke up this morning ready and hopeful to launch immediately, but it wasn't to be. Base camp reported that they were in a snow globe with 12 new inches overnight. We commenced the chill, sipped coffee, visited the myriad shops, ate lunch, and became somewhat convinced that we would HAVE to spend another night in a bed, have to take another shower, and have to eat a meal. Then, suddenly the RMI1 team got told to ready 5 and launched. Our hopes changed - but also Came with the realization that we would be landing quite late, and cooking dinner would be even later. So, we compromised. We would sleep on the ground and forego a shower if we could have one more mountain high pizza meal. We grabbed pizzas, trapped the stack together, and flew in with them in our lap. Our flight was stunning, with the long light of evening lighting the thousands of peaks in the Alaska range. We landed, set up our shelter, ate our pizza, and are settling in for our first night on the glacier.

We will be in touch tomorrow with more news. Stay tuned!

RMI Guides Pete Van Deventer, Henry Coppolillo, Tatum Whatford, and Team

From Dan May

At the beginning of April a crop of RMI guides including myself, Leif Bergstrom, Henry Coppolillo, Lacie Smith, Tatum Whatford, and George Hedreen, headed off to the Rocky Mountains of Colorado to work on honing our alpine guide skills with the help of the AMGA. We split our time between Boulder and Estes Park, Colorado while completing the Alpine Guide Course. Often in these courses, you are amongst colleagues spread across other guiding companies, however in this instance, we had the opportunity to work and learn together. Being able to sharpen our guiding skills in alpine terrain amongst our peers that we work with in the North Cascades, Denali, and South America was a great opportunity.

These courses offer us the chance to add additional tools to our ever-growing toolkit as guides while being reviewed, critiqued, and taught by the AMGA instructors. While romping around the Flat Irons, Eldorado Canyon, and Tyndall Gorge of Rocky Mountain National Park, we took turns climbing rock, ice, snow, and mixed routes while guiding each other through the terrain. These chances and skills as a guide are invaluable. It is easy to convince your friends to go climbing with you, but to convince your friends to let you guide them through peculiar terrain to practice your techniques and skill sets is another story.

At the end of the nine days, all RMI guides successfully completed the course and had a great time doing so. Now we are all turning our sights to Ashford and Mt. Rainier in preparation for another great summer of climbing.

Well, a summit of Chimborazo was not in the cards this time. In Ecuador, we lack the same resources that are available to us in the United States for weather and avalanche forecasting. The team headed to the mountain physically and mentally prepared, but upon arrival it became apparent that we would not be climbing. Teams from the previous two nights reported deep snow above 5800 meters and the high camp staff gave us their snow report from the past several days. The guides ventured out to look at the structure of the snowpack and we determined that it did not even make sense to go to 5800 meters on a mountain known for avalanching. The team, being prepared for this possibility, was happy to sleep at a new sleeping altitude record for almost everyone and then practice avalanche rescue in the morning.

The morning was a touch lethargic, it's tough waking up at 17,400'. After a few pressure breaths, a handful of Ibuprofen and some pizza and eggs we were all feeling a touch better. Henry led the team in avalanche transceiver searches while we were also treated to views of the upper mountain. It was tough to look at the false summit on such a calm, sunny day and not be able to climb, but our decisions were confirmed when we looked up and saw some evidence of avalanche activity on the route this morning.

Despite our lack of a summit on Chimborazo, the team is happy, keeping in mind that we did summit two big mountains on this trip already (Cayambe and Antisana). It has been a great two weeks of hiking, climbing and learning expedition-related skills. We will have a celebration dinner tonight in Riobamba and be headed back to Quito tomorrow. If you have a loved one or friend on this trip, everyone has been challenged to learn ten more words in Spanish, so make sure to give them a pop quiz when you pick them up from the airport! This is as much a climbing trip as it is a cultural experience.

Thanks for following along.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

Upon arrival at Antisana basecamp, we had no views of the mountain and a light drizzle. Upon departure it was beginning to storm again: rain, hail and lightning. But right in the middle was a perfect weather window for climbing.

We awoke to fog in camp, which we continued to ascend through until reaching about 17,300’. From that point, the clouds would remain below us and we climbed into a starry, calm night. We reached the summit just a bit after sunrise and it was perfectly still, so we hung for a while.

The route on Antisana is not particularly long, but it is complex, featuring heavily crevassed terrain. At the bergschrund, a steep pitch of belayed climbing takes you to the summit plateau where an additional 20 minutes of high-altitude walking takes you to the summit. Due to these various complexities, our group took just over 10 hours round trip for a route that ascends 4,080’.

Back at camp we enjoyed a lovely breakfast before spending several hours in transit to the town of Latacunga and Hacienda La Cienega, where many members of the team reported sleeping eight or nine hours straight through. The wine and comfy beds were well deserved.

We are now sitting on the bus, making the several hour drive south towards Chimborazo. We will stop in the town of Ambato for hilariously large burritos before continuing to Riobamba, where we will stay the night. Summit day on Chimborazo is Saturday night into Sunday morning and we are hoping for continued good weather.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier and team

Yesterday, ALL TEAM MEMBERS AND GUIDES reached the summit of Cayambe around 6am EST. For those of us living in or around Seattle, we felt accomplished having completed such a hard activity before we would normally even be awake. Most climbers were back to the refugio by about 8am, a very speedy descent. Route conditions were ideal on Cayambe, when you would step out of the trail it was just a light dusting of snow on top of a supportable crust, meaning there was very little plunging, and the crampons would bite into the hard surface during the cold night. Although the route is in great shape, this is always a challenging mountain. At 18,500’ the route ascends a steep headwall for about 300 vertical feet before passing through crevassed terrain. Additionally, sleeping above 15,000’ for two nights and then going to nearly 19,000’ on day seven of an expedition is a quick jump in altitude and everyone seemed to handle it well. Now we turn our sights towards Antisana. 

On our way to Antisana we are staying in two different haciendas. Last night we were at the rustic Guachala, which was built in the early 1500s. It has it’s charm and is steeped in local history; we also enjoyed a quiet dinner and breakfast under the watchful eye of the two house dogs, always hoping for a scrap. This morning we packed up and got ourselves closer to Antisana. We are using the beautiful yard at Casa Ilayaku to learn skills for our next climb (tent setup and running belays) as well as more expedition skills for future endeavors. Tomorrow we will go to Antisana basecamp via 4x4 vehicles and spend the night in tents before taking our shot at the summit.  

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

100% summit success on Cayambe!

The team is now looking forward to a day of rest and relaxation before heading towards Antisana.

Photos and a more interesting blog forthcoming 

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

Our warmup stretch is coming to an end as we head to the Cayambe today. It takes a handful of days acclimatizing in cities and shorter day hikes before it makes sense to be sleeping above 15,000' at the Cayambe hut. All members of the team completed both acclimatization hiked, Rucu Pichincha (15,354') and Cerro Fuya Fuya (14,039'), in good style.

After a quiet night at the quaint La Casa Sol we are now at the Otavalo Market. People choose from a variety of activities here: souvenir shopping, a visit to the pharmacy or for myself enjoying an affogato in my favorite coffee shop.

Thank you for following along and look for updates from us in the coming days. Tomorrow is skills training on the glacier and the following night we will make our summit attempt on Cayambe!

RMI Guides Dustin, Henry & Team

Hello friends, families, Farmer Dave and anyone else out there who might be following our blog. We have just kicked off the first Ecuador Expedition of 2023. It started with a rainy travel day and a rainy day for our Quito city tour (although a few of us still managed minor sunburns). Today, we took our first acclimatization hike and were surprised/delighted to wake up to partially sunny skies! 

The hike up Rucu Pichincha is really quite scenic. I think it’s my favorite day hike in the world that is more or less in a major metropolitan area. A gondola takes us to 13,000’ where we begin our ascent to the summit of Rucu Pichincha (13,354’). Along the way there are a variety of wildflowers and the final push to the summit is engaging, involving a short section of class 3 scrambling. 

I should also mention that the team is in good health, especially thanks to the newly renovated penthouse spa here at the Hotel Mercure. Many of us have used this opportunity to cycle cold plunges and wet sauna or cold plunges and hot tubbing. Henry, the ultimate masochist, prefers cold plunge only, first thing in the morning. 

Tomorrow we will depart Quito early to head north. The itinerary of this trip has us working our way from north to south, making attempts on Cayambe, Antisana and Chimborazo. These are the 3rd, 4th and 1st highest mountains in Ecuador, respectively. We also hope to capture a glimpse of Cotopaxi, which is normally on the itinerary but was scratched this time due to recent eruptions and a moratorium on summit bids. Better to witness that from a safe distance. 

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier