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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
Hello, this is RMI Guide Jake Beren calling to check in from our Mexico's Volcanoes program. We are happy to report that we reached the summit of Orizaba today at 9:00 a.m. local time. Our team did a great job on the climb.
We are headed back to Tlachichuca to celebrate and enjoy our last night in Mexico. Tomorrow we will return to Mexico City for our outbound flights.
Another early morning saw us loading our gear and climbing into the backs of a couple of grey Russian four wheel drive vans and heading south out of Kislovodsk. Within a couple of minutes we left the city's edge and were driving through the rolling expanse of the Caucasus foothills. Intercut by deep valleys and crossed by bands of white limestone cliffs, the vast plateaus that gradually ascend to the mountains themselves are a glimpse back in time from the hustle of Moscow. Small clusterings of buildings can be found at the valley floors, lonely communities of a couple of cinder block homes surrounded by vegetable patches and fruit trees. Above, shepherds wander the plateaus keeping a careful watch over their flock's of sheep.
It was another beautiful day and above this landscape, growing ever taller as we approached, stood Elbrus. By late morning we reached the valley where Base Camp sits, alongside a couple of shepherd's huts near the edge of the vegetation. We unloaded our gear and carried all of our supplies the final couple hundred of meters across the creek and into camp. The majority of the day was spent setting up camp and repacking our gear into portable loads for the mountain. In the afternoon we went for a short hike above Base Camp, enjoying the opportunity to stretch our legs after so many days of travel. At ~8,400', the air felt cool and refreshing especially after Moscow's subway stations the other day.
Everyone is absolutely jazzed to be here, we are feeling strong and excited about the climb ahead. Tomorrow we will carry a portion of gear to our cache just below Camp 1. We will check in tomorrow after returning to Base Camp.
Our Camp 2 staycation continues with a weather day. The winds are blowing above with lots of snow transport. We went for a walk and are enjoying warm tents with some Pink Floyd playing in the background. The appetites are still strong and team is getting restless. The 14th looks like the best summit day when considering wind speed and trail breaking.
Thanks for following along.
RMI Guide Mike King
Summit on Cotopaxi!!!
We awoke to start our climb from the Refugio at 16,000' in a misty cloud, but as we ascended the thick fog gave way to clear skies and stars. Our ascent took a direct route that brought 100% of our team to the summit of https://
Cotopaxi">Cotopaxi just as the sun began to rise.
We had a calm and relatively warm hour on the summit to make some calls and take photos while enjoying impressive views of the crater and surrounding volcanoes.
We are now all safely back in Quito and just returned from a delicious celebration dinner!
We are looking forward to being home with our friends and family soon!
RMI Guides https://
Casey Grom and https://
Solveig Waterfall
On The Map
The alarm was set for 11:30 PM at 8000 ft on the Kahiltna Glacier. The rain began at 10:00 PM and continued on and off until 11:20. Rain wouldn't be considered a good thing if you were laying in your sleeping bag hoping that the glacial surface would freeze up in the night to permit safe and easy passage to the Southeast Fork and a possible airplane pickup. So at the appointed wakeup time, we had a soggy glacier, groggy climbers and a murky vision of the world. Although it is still light for twenty four hours in this part of Alaska in mid-July, it isn't very light between about midnight and four. But we made the decision, along with Rob Gowler's AMS group camped nearby, to make a break for the airstrip before the storm got worse. We were on the move by 2:00 AM and stumbling along on snowshoes in the gloom. Surprisingly, it rained no more. It was slow going at first, hitting big crevasses broadside, without being able to see them ahead of time and take evasive action. But conditions improved as we got further down glacier... there had been a great deal of new snow (bridging crevasses) the sky overhead was clearing and the snow surface was consequently freezing, and it was getting lighter. It was a great help to be backed up in route-finding by Rob and the AMS team. Together, as the last climbers on the mountain, we worked through the early morning hours. By seven, we'd solved all significant problems and found ourselves at the foot of "heartbreak hill". We climbed the Southeast Fork to the airstrip and called in the ski-planes. Conditions overhead were good, but it took a few hours until our planes could even get into the range. The bigger storm was still coming in, but all passes into the mountains were already clogged with cloud. We considered ourselves lucky to be flown out in the afternoon. What followed was a whirlwind of drying/sorting gear, connecting with the outer world again and showers and shaves. We enjoyed a fabulous West Rib victory dinner celebration, a summit certificate awards ceremony and copious amounts of laughter over our shared experiences of the past three weeks. Day 20... Trip done... all we could possibly have hoped for in defining a fine expedition.
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
Our team is back in Quito, safe and sound after a successful and challenging
Cotopaxi summit today. The weather looked perfect when we woke before midnight but that didn't last long, as a storm began to brew as we were climbing. Most of the climb, we were in the clouds with light precipitation and moderate winds. It never got bad enough to turn around; instead, it just made our climbing harder. We didn't need any help making the route harder, as we encountered ladders spanning crevasses, steep slopes, and open crevasses, in addition to the extreme altitude that is always present on
Cotopaxi.
All in all, we had a fun and safe climb. We were climbing for more than 12 hours, so we're all bushed. Hopefully showers and a quick nap will rejuvenate everyone so that we can enjoy our celebration dinner tonight in Quito. It's been great spending the past 10 days in
Ecuador with our team. We enjoyed a ton of different activities, both cultural and adventurous. Thanks team, for being an integral part of a great trip.
Hasta la próxima montaña,
Adios.
...stay tuned for the
Cotopaxi Express trip's blog, starting this weekend!
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
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
The RMI Mt. Baker Team led by RMI Guides Henry Coppolillo and Leif Bergstrom were standing on the summit of Mt. Baker at 1:15 pm PDT today. Henry, Leif, and Team traversed the stunning North Face of Mt. Baker to scale the ice cliff of the North Ridge route. Leif reported clear skies, light winds, and great day of climbing. They will descend via the Coleman-Deming route and make their way back to camp for the night.
Congratulations Team!
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Today we are all contributing to the blog. Have had big winds once again and are fixing our kitchen tent and building more walls - getting a little stir crazy! Hope you all enjoy the words from each of us!
Hi to my family, I love you all hope to give grandpa a hi five soon! Kiss to Bean. Love, Ty
Hello to all my family and friends! Kisses to Amy, a big scratching behind the ears to Barley, Blue, and Miles. Thanks for all the positive wishes! -g
Wendy, Taylor and Nathan.
Love and miss you. I hope you feel my hugs and kisses at bedtime. Be home soon. Love Dad
Dear Michelle,
I love you and miss you and the girls so very much. Please give all of my love to A-Bear and K-Bear, and tell them daddy will be home soon. Also, pass along my love to my mom, dad, Clubbie and Chevy. Love, Justin.
To my Hubby,
I hope you're flying high this week and passing all your tests. I really really miss you right now. Give my love and lots of treats to the girls :) Until i get home i'll leave you with reflections of a week at 14,200. To quote the crew from BBT"It was a snowy nightmare from whence there's no return." Tiamo mi amore-Jess
To my family and friends, thanks for all of the support, love and prayers. I am "living the dream" at 14K. The DeLorme transceiver is no longer working, thus no updates there. I love you, Matt! You are my light. I love you Mom, Dad, Bud and all my family. Stump, there was a C-17 overhead yesterday--your handiwork? ;) Dad, sadly there is no Denali branch of Subway, but I'm sure you can petition corporate headquarters as one of their most valuable customers. :) Bernard and Judy, the boots are fantastic and keeping my feet warm, thank you! I love you all and miss you all so much. -Robin
Friends, family, countrymen, lend me your ear! The Denali wind gods have saddled us at 14000. The team is at the mercy of Mother Nature and patience is the name of the game. It also means my work schedule is a bit hosed. Team PCET don't count on me coming in next week! Poof - ha! To all loved ones we are sitting strong and doing well. Hope to see you soon. James.
Hello to my dear family Mom Dad Sue Ryan Mia Ron Jodi Dannie Casey Nell Meg Ivy Maggie and awesome friends from frosty Denali! Thanks for all the comments and positive vibes sent! Love you and miss you!! All is good here - hoping our "out chilling" will soon end and we can move up the mtn in the am. Hope all is well with all you! Have I told you that I love and miss you? :) I do! Lori
On The Map
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Load up on Snickers, Swedish fish and whatever they are serving. Remember there are TWO summits this trip. Know you are very well prepared. Praying for good weather and be safe. We are anxious to hear about it. Kathryn
Posted by: Kathryn on 7/28/2011 at 1:49 pm
Hope the Snickers hold out! Wishing you much love and good luck. Renee
Posted by: Renee on 7/28/2011 at 11:36 am
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