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We paused for a rest today. It turned out that our hard work of the past few days had acted to bring back a chest cold that poor John thought he was done with. While he didn't seem greatly incapacitated by it, we decided that it was the sort of thing that would get worse by going higher and colder. We chose instead to get John lower and warmer. Namgya and I brought him down to bascamp where ALE's staff graciously agreed to look after him until we get down from our summit bid. Meanwhile, Leif, Sashko, Tim and Brent rested and rehydrated at low camp, enjoying a lunch of quesadillas and aji sauce. Namgya and I cruised back up in a businesslike 2 hrs, rejoining the gang in time for a late dinner in the strong sunshine. It was still brilliantly clear except for some sculpted wave clouds forming and fading on the high peaks. The word from up above was that it was cold and windy. Even so, Scott made the summit with his climbers. Vern and Willie chose to rest their teams at high camp for the day. We are hoping for a drop in winds tomorrow and a green light for moving up.
We had a great acclimatization hike today at the Ecological Reserve Pasachoa, an ancient volcano which now hosts a cloud forest ecosystem. We hiked up to 12,300', and everyone did great. The weather was nice today, and it was great to stretch our legs and work our lungs a little bit. The altitude of this hike will serve us well, as tomorrow we're off to the climbing refugio at the Ilinizas, where we'll hopefully gain an altitude of over 15,000'. Then we're off to a Hacienda on the flanks of our first climbing destination, Cotopaxi.
This evening we enjoyed fine Ecuadorian cuisine on before leaving Quito; adventurous palates even tried the Ecuadorian delicacy of fried guinea pig (cuy) and the locally fermented corn drink called chicha. We're all enjoying the culture of Ecuador and the conveniences of Quito. But we're also very anxious to head for the mountains and leave the city behind. Tomorrow we'll do just that.
We'll keep you up to date on our adventures.
Today we traded the bustle of Quito for the serenity of the northern Ecuadorian countryside. Life is a little slower here in Otavalo where we are staying for the night. We sat down to dinner, which felt like a family dinner as we are the only party in this hacienda tonight. Even the house dogs joined us at the table, making us truly feel like we're at home.
Our day consisted of several hours of driving and another acclimatization hike, Cerro Fuya Fuya. The weather remained quite dry today and afforded us seldom seen views from the summit. To the north we could see well into Colombia, to our east a clear view of Cayambe and to our south a variety of other big mountains of Ecuador. In fact, it was nice enough that the bus driver took a swim at the lake while we hiked.
Tonight, I'm enjoying literally the best chocolate bar in the world and tomorrow an affogato at my favorite coffee shop near the Otavalo market. Some nice treats before we begin walking up very big hills.
RMI Guide Dustin Witmier
Sleeping in a bed again is pretty good, we decided. Even so, we didn’t sleep late this morning. We got driving west by 8 AM, excited to be on Safari. We made a brief stop on the edge of Arusha for provisions and then pushed farther west in our two Land Cruisers.
Our guides, Jacob and Emmanuel, explained that the arid zone we were traversing was Maasai country. We began seeing herds of cattle being marched to and from dusty waterholes by men and boys. We passed many “bomas” which were clusters of huts around a central animal corral.
Finally, we came to lush vegetation again on the shores of Lake Manyara and entered the National Park of the same name. Our first animal sightings were of waterbucks in the dense forests. Then bushbucks. Before long we were adding elephants and Cape buffalo to our rapidly growing list. Naturally there were plenty of monkeys and baboons. We enjoyed a picnic lunch on the shore of the vast lake and then got back on the dusty roads in search of more. Eventually we saw zebras and impala and warthogs. One shy giraffe appeared momentarily. There were egrets and eagles and hornbills.
As the afternoon stretched on, we headed for the park gate and drove up the steep escarpment to the Ngorogoro Highlands… out of the great rift valley. In Karatu our drivers took a side road through fields full of crops out to the Plantation Lodge. We enjoyed a very civilized evening sipping cocktails in a splendid bar in a splendid garden. Dinner was delicious… but we admitted to missing Tosha’s miraculous mountain cooking. You can take the climber out of the mountains, but…
Best Regards,
RMI Guide Dave Hahn & Team
Summit!
RMI Guide Steve Gately and his Mt. Shuksan team reached the summit via the
Fisher Chimneys Route. They will descend to Upper Curtis Camp and then possibly to Lake Ann this afternoon because of rain moving in this evening. Tomorrow the team will then complete their descent back to the trailhead.
Saturday, June 15, 2019 - 1:51 PM PT
When we hit the sack after dinner last night the weather was beautiful and we expected much of the same today. But the weather threw us a curve ball and at 3 AM we woke to snow and wind. We felt like we were inside of a Ping Pong ball, and the cloud cover prevented the snow from freezing last night. So, all in all, not an ideal morning. We pumped the brakes a little and decided to postpone this morning's climb for tonight. Instead, we had a great breakfast of bagels, cream cheese, and smoked salmon to pass the morning. We're currently still in the Ping Pong ball and wet snow is still falling. Hopefully tonight's weather will treat us better and we can get a cache of supplies up to around
10,000'. We'll keep you posted.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
Back safe and sound in Kathmandu!
Well all most!
Managed to get the team out of
Lukla by the skin of our teeth. Sadly I wasn’t able to join them, only eight helicopter seats available for the nine of us.
Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to join the crew.
I’m sure everyone is enjoying the comforts at the Yak & Yeti Hotel, hot showers, good food, and the warm temps.
It's been one amazing adventure with a great team and it will be sad to say goodbye, but we are all looking forward to getting back home to our loved ones.
Thanks for following.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and a happy crew
Here in Patagonia, you drink the water right out of the streams. It is sourced in the glaciers that hang off the
towering granite above us. We hike all day with an empty water bottle and just fill up at breaks. They say it makes you strong enough to complete the circuit and it's definitely worked for this group. Tomorrow we will connect the dots and walk back to where we started, covering over 100 miles. It's hard to describe what we've seen because the landscape is awe inspiring around every corner.
Today's team member shout-out is to a super fun loving couple from Wisconsin that love to laugh. They inspire us all with a passion for adventure and travel.
RMI Guide Christina Dale
Sunday, June 14, 2015 - 6:37 pm PT
At last, our patience has paid off. After eight nights at 14 Camp, we finally got the weather today to move our camp up the West Buttress to our high camp at 17,200 feet. The team did great work, traveling up the fixed lines, along the Buttress proper, past
Washburn's Thumb, and into camp.
Upon our arrival the team was greeted by blustery winds so we immediately put all of our wall building practice to good use and hammered out a camp in short time. Now we're tucked out of the weather and cooking an early dinner to get ready for a big day tomorrow. If the weather looks good in the morning, we plan on making our summit push!
The team is looking strong and everyone is excited to see the last 18 days of hard work pay off. Time for an early evening, and hopefully the next time you hear from us will be from the top of North America!
RMI Guide
Tyler Jones and Team
On The Map
We had a mellow morning at Base Camp today, enjoying the extra time we had to brew up fresh coffee and watch the sun creep across the glacier and bring with it warming temperatures. Not content to hang around for too long, we pulled on our ski boots and headed out for some touring above
Vinson Base Camp. The rolling ridge-lines descending from the Massif offer phenomenal skiing and we took full advantage to get out and play. We climbed a couple thousand feet above Base Camp to a small summit and found spectacular views of the surrounding terrain before setting our sights back downhill and skiing some great light Antarctic snow back to camp.
As we were relaxing in the evening we received the call we'd been waiting for: the plane from Union Glacier was on its way to get us. We packed up camp and as we closed the last bag the Twin Otter came in with a soft and smooth landing on the glacier. We said goodbye to Vinson and were soon airborne on our way back to Union Glacier camp, our eyes glued to the windows as we watched the massive landscape of snow, ice, and rock flow by beneath us.
We're now back at Union Glacier, enjoying the warmth of their large mess tent and keeping our fingers crossed that an Ilyushin flight can come into tomorrow evening to give us a lift back to South America. We're hoping to spend a few hours checking out the mountains around camp in the morning before getting a weather check about the flight tomorrow midday.
RMI Guide Linden Mallory & Team
On The Map
Hey Dustin!
Those are some beautiful blue skies!! I sure hope you have that for the rest of your trip!!
Farmer Dave
Posted by: Dave Kestel on 1/27/2024 at 3:53 am
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