Entries By maile wade

Yesterday was the first full day of the 2012 RMI Denali season. After a great team breakfast at the historic Talkeetna Roadhouse, we headed to the National Park Service for our pre-climb orientation meeting, followed by a full day of packing and sorting our gear at the K2 Aviation hangar. We're all excited for this trip to start, and optimistic that we will be able to fly on to the Kahiltna Glacier today. There are some clouds in the sky, and a little precipitation in the forecast, so we'll see if the planes are able to fly or not. Hopefully our next dispatch is sent from the glacier...either way, we'll keep you posted. RMI Guide Mike Walter

On The Map

Hola from Ecuador, We woke up to a beautiful morning with beautiful views of Cotopaxi. We hung out at the Hacienda Chilcabamba, enjoying the breakfast and the sun. We began the drive up to the parking lot, running in to a crazy hailstorm, thunder and lightning, and TONS of people. The National Park is only an hour from Quito and is a popular weekend getaway for the locals. Our driver, Victor, worked his magic with the bus and got us all the way up to the parking lot in the snow. We then had dinner and hung out in the hut this afternoon. Everyone is settling in to go to bed now. The team is psyched to get up and climb in the morning and is psyched to have guide Jaime Avila come climb with as well. We will be climbing tonight and hope to be checking in from the summit tomorrow! RMI Guide Maile Wade

Hello, this is Maile and Casey checking in from Ecuador and the climber's hut on Cayambe. Everyone is settling in for a good night sleep at 15,500 feet. This morning we woke up to a beautiful morning at the Hacienda San Luis and had a leisurely morning down there, we drove in to the town of Cayambe and had a local lunch before heading up to the mountain. We were able to drive up to 13,500' before the road become too rough for the vehicles. We then walked up to the climber's hut. Everyone is doing well, it is a beautiful night and we will check in again tomorrow and we hope everyone is doing well back at home! RMI Guides Maile Wade & Casey Grom

Hey Everybody - This is the Ecuador group checking in. We had a great day today and everybody is doing well. We had another delicious breakfast at the hotel and took off early to ride the teleferique (gondola) up to Rucu Pichincha. Pichincha is a volcano just outside of Quito and we hiked the older (Rucu, in the indigenous language of Quechua) extinct side of it. We rode the gondola up the mountain to 13,500' into the grasslands above Quito. We began our acclimatization hike up to the top of the volcano from there. Our Ecuadorian guide Freddy joined us today and set the pace for everybody to follow. As we ascended, we moved from the grasslands into a rocky scramble that led to the summit. It took us 3 hours to ascend to the top at 15,406', which was a new altitude record for some members of the group. The descent was welcomed as we headed back to the comfortable altitude of Quito. We did a little shopping then headed out for an early dinner on a rooftop in old-town. We had spectacular views of the Basilica, the San Francisco de Quito, and the Virgin as we ate traditional Ecuadorian cuisine. Everyone seems to be having a great time and we will check in tomorrow. RMI Guides Casey Grom, Maile Wade & the team