Entries By henry coppolillo
Posted by: Dustin Wittmier, Henry Coppolillo
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador
Elevation: 15,000'
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
Posted by: Dustin Wittmier, Henry Coppolillo
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Ecuador
Elevation: 9,350'
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.
Two adventurous young women! Wishing them and all of you the best on both continents.
How great to stay in touch and be able to go along on your climb laptop-wise.
Posted by: Coreen on 1/13/2023 at 11:25 pm
It’s got to be Sarah that has a sunburn in the cloudy weather :-D That’s a Hillebrand special! Wishing you all a safe journey and glad for the blog updates!
Posted by: Hannah on 1/13/2023 at 12:32 pm
We had a calm night to begin our climb of Pico de Orizaba. The climb begins with a steep switch backing trail through an old moraine. After a few hours, we entered the labyrinth which was once covered by glacial ice about 25 years ago. Now, a polished slab rock that can be difficult to find your way through, hence its name. Once at the base of the Jamapa glacier, we put on our boots and crampons - 3.5 hours later and we were on top with a beautiful sunrise, summit pyramid shadow, and calm weather.
The whole group stood on top this morning, couldn’t have asked for more. It’s been a great week climbing here with an amazing group. Our local guide Alan and Servimont’s assistance always make these trips special for us.
We are back in town getting cleaned up, listening to rockets explode, drinking cold drinks and sorting gear for flights home tomorrow morning.
Thanks,
Hey Mike!
It was Awesome following along! Great job!
Farmer Dave
Posted by: Dave Kestel on 11/13/2022 at 3:54 am
Posted by: Mike King, Henry Coppolillo
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mexico
We enjoyed a fun and relaxing day in Puebla’s historic colonial area. We are headed for Piedra Grande hut on Orizaba this afternoon. Our first stop is at Sr. Reyes’ historic soap factory turned climber’s hostel. We will get our gear sorted and have a meal before jumping in the trucks for a bumpy, slow and often dusty ride to the alpine zone where we’ll camp for the night.
Tonight we’ll get started for this trip’s main event, the 18,491’ third tallest peak in North America. The group is rested and eager to get going.
Thanks for following along.
RMI Guides Mike King, Henry Coppolillo, and Team
We had a warm and clear night at high camp that would turn into sustained 20 mph wind along the seemingly endless summit ridge that makes up the main route on Ixta. We summited in the dark but with a near full moon the views of the surrounding area were spectacular. We caught the sunrise and Orizaba on our return.
The team is headed to Puebla for the evening and our day off tomorrow.
Thanks for following along.
RMI Guides Mike King, Henry Coppolillo and Team
We hiked to 15,400' on Ixtacchuatl to put our camp in for the evening. The team did great and we got some clear skies and a nice view of Orizaba. Our plan is to wake up around midnight and head for the summit of Ixta. We'll check in tomorrow regardless of our high point or weather. Thanks for following along and fingers crossed for clear weather and calm winds.
The weather cooperated yesterday and let us get to the top of La Malinche, 14,636’. The thunder rolled in as we got to the cabins.
Today we are in transit to Ixta. A few stops to get provisions and register with park at Paso de Cortez puts us between Popo and Ixta. We’ll have a nice hike to our camp to continue acclimating. Once in camp we’ll get our gear sorted for our move to high camp tomorrow and our summit attempt on Wednesday. The team is doing great, lots of laughs and camaraderie. We have clear skies as we drive and got our first views of Ixta and Popo. We’ll check in tomorrow from our high camp.
Thanks,
Our Team arrived in Mexico City over the last two days. We met and enjoyed a quick dinner last night after a nice meet & greet. This morning we’ll head for an acclimatization hike on the extinct volcanic remnants of La Malinche. It’s a long day to the top and electric storms sometimes thwart our efforts. Regardless of our high point it’s a nice hike to stretch the legs after a long flight and wake the lungs up in preparation for the high altitudes on Ixta & Orizaba. We’ll stay in some small cabins to sleep around 10,000’ for the night and check in once we get back into cell coverage tomorrow morning. Until then, we’ll enjoy the rolling corn planted countryside and dense pine trees surrounding our hike and cabins. Thanks for checking in.
Posted by: Matias Francis, Seth Burns, Henry Coppolillo, Roland Scott
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,080'
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir September 16 - 21 led by RMI Guides Matias Francis and Seth Burns have wrapped up an excellent week of training at Camp Muir. The team enjoyed stellar weather and were able to complete their seminar training, ice climbing up to AI6+, alpine bouldering and candy bar snow protection tests (you will have to ask them) and more. The team will descend from Camp Muir today and return to Rainier BaseCamp for a final celebration. Nice work everyone!
Photo: Matias Francis
Posted by: Matias Francis, Henry Coppolillo, Daniel May, Ellison Boord, Nick Sinapius
Categories: Expedition Dispatches Mount Rainier
Elevation: 10,080'
The Expedition Skills Seminar - Muir September 8 - 13, 2022 enjoyed a great week of training at Camp Muir. RMI Guides Matias Francis and Henry Copolillo led the team with instruction on ice climbing, crevasse rescue, student led glacier navigation, fixed line travel, intro to multi pitch climbing, rappelling, alpine bouldering, nightly talks about altitude and avalanche awareness. The team is doing a bit more training this morning before starting their descent to Paradise later today. They will conclude their program this afternoon at Rainier Base Camp.
Nice work team!
Wishing you all a successful and safe climb. Especially a certain member of the team.
Posted by: John (Dad) on 1/15/2023 at 5:40 am
You’re doing great, team!
Posted by: Andrew on 1/14/2023 at 10:20 am
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