Our team wasn't feeling 100% when we woke at 3:30 this morning, but our team couldn't be held down. At 10 am our entire team was sitting on the summit of Nevado Urus. Zero wind, full sun, incredible views all around.
This team has shown great strength and has supported one another through the entire journey. It was a tough day, but we pushed ourselves and ended up with a spectacular experience and one of the most beautiful summits we've seen.
Tomorrow we will be packing early and heading back to Huaraz.
RMI Guides Zeb Blais, Chase Nelson and team
Congratulations on making it to the summit of Nevado Uris. It’s encouraging to hear that, although the team wasn’t feeling 100% early in the morning, you showed great support for one another and were rewarded with an amazing experience! We feel proud and have great confidence in all of you.
Bonnie & Rick
Posted by: Bonnie & Rick on 8/15/2016 at 6:46 am
Thinking of you every day..have a great climb team be safe.
Wednesday June 17th 10:00 pm PT
We feel like we are finally on the mountain. We woke up early and left camp around 4:30 to cache some gear at 14,000' Camp. Our attempt to beat the heat worked since we pulled into camp right when the direct sun hit. The rest of the day was spent resting and preparing for the move back up to 14 Camp tomorrow. The boys of el Siete feasted on quesaritos this evening, and are going to sleep with full bellies and full hearts thinking about you all.
RMI Guide Mike Haugen
El Siete—every time I see your name I think of the theme song to The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Hope things are all good, no bad and ugly. Brian, missing you, and will check the garden and give Perry and Darthy and Mama Cat a hug for you. Keep having fun team!
This morning we woke to the traditional Aconcagua weather pattern, cold temps and consistent winds. We watched snow billow off the upper Polish glacier into the sky forming clouds that resembled smoke rising from a 23,000 ft bonfire.
Everyone is chomping at the bit to move camp and begin our summit attempt, but we will spend one more night at Camp 2 and hope the forecast of 5-20 mph winds holds out.
Quesadillas for lunch and more tent time. If you are reading these blogs with any desire to go expedition climbing get a Kindle and crush tent time like a pro.
RMI Guides Mike King and Steve Gately
January 17, 2015 - 8:25 pm PT
Hey, this is Seth checking in from the summit of Kilimanjaro! We are on the Roof of Africa. We had a great day, just clear skies and no wind was the story. A little bit chilly. Also, not very people on the route, so we actually were on top by ourselves for a solid 10 or 15 minutes before the next group came up, which is a total treat and a first for me. Everybody is feeling great, feels like we want to get back down to some thicker air. We are gonna head on down right now. Actually everyone has ditched me and I'm going to go catch up. That's it. We'll check in from high camp when we get back down. All is well in Africa.
11:32 pm PT
Hey, this is Seth checking in again. We have all returned back to high camp, safe and sound, although all are a little bit tired. We are going spend some time packing up, get some food on board and then we're going to head to our last camp for this Kili climb. Should be down there sometime mid-afternoon and then tomorrow we'll be walking off the mountain. That's it for us. We'll check in again tomorrow.
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall
RMI Guide Seth Waterfall calling in from the Kilimanjaro summit.
Seth checking in once the team is at high camp after Kilimanjaro summit.
Congratulations to the whole team, especially to my awesome daughter, Ryan!! I have no doubt that new friendships have resulted from the teamwork needed for everyone to summit. I am in awe of each one of you. Great job everyone. You guys definitely rock!
Posted by: Shirley on 1/18/2015 at 2:24 pm
Congratulations to the team!! You did it! Looks beautiful. What an accomplishment. Matt hope you took lots of pictures!! Stay safe.
Posted by: Barb McAllister on 1/18/2015 at 12:52 pm
Early this morning we made our summit attempt on Cayambe. Although we were unable to make it to the top, we gained some invaluable mountain experience and made many new personal high points. Spending the time at altitude will also help us be better acclimatized for our next two targets, Antisana and Cotopaxi. Just after leaving our break at 17,000 ft on Cayambe, we were faced with exceptionally high winds and freezing rain, conditions that just don't allow us to continue moving uphill safely. The decision was made to turn the entire team around descend back to the refugio (our mountain hut).
After making it back to our camp, we went right in to packing our gear and preparing for our descent. No rest for the weary! We made the short hike downhill to our waiting bus and started our journey to Termas Papallacta, a natural hot-spring resort that we called home for the evening. A nice, long soak in the hot springs does wonders for sore legs! The rest of our evening will be spent organizing and packing our gear, preparing for our move to Antisana in the morning.
Until next time,
RMI Guide Nick Hunt and team
Sorry about your summitt bid, good luck with the next one! Just catching up with your latest adventures. Stay safe, have fun and great posts. Hope you summitt the rest.
Love from cold MN! Kris, Jon and Boys
We had a very windy day today amidst the clouds at 15,300'. Despite today's weather we're optimistic about our Cayambe summit attempt for tomorrow. Caio for now!
RMI Guide Mike Walter
This is the Aconcagua team checking in from Camp 1. Last night we got more snow at Basecamp, not too much, but enough to get the camp completely white when we left this morning. The landscape was unique so we didn't miss the opportunity to take lot of pictures. The group did a great job climbing to C1 today, it took us 4:30hs to get here and everybody is feeling strong. Right now we have started the stoves and will enjoy a nice dinner with vegetarian couscous in a little bit.
Our plan for tomorrow is to carry to our Camp 2 (also known as Campo Lama, because of the remains of a helicopter Lama that crashed there a long time ago).
We hope that everybody there is enjoying the progress of our team, we will keep sending updates!
Hello friends, family and everyone else who plans to follow along! We are off to a great start on another RMI Expeditions Ecuador Volcanoes trip. On this itinerary we plan to (hopefully) visit the summits of both Cayambe and Cotopaxi, the third and second highest mountains in Ecuador, respectively.
To kick of the acclimatization, we traveled around Quito yesterday seeing various sights, mostly related to gaining independence from the Spanish and to the cultural history of indigenous peoples. Of course, that takes us in and out of a variety of old churches as we all marveled at the architecture of these places. In addition to learning some interesting things about Ecuador, it was also a chance to dust off the jet lag and get the bodies moving around a bit.
To continue in that direction, we hiked Rucu Pichincha today. The day started off a bit hazy, but as that layer moved we had glimpses of Cayambe, Antisana and Cotopaxi amongst other high mountains of the Ecuadorian highlands. The group all did well today and we are about to head out for one more dinner in town before we leave for the countryside tomorrow.
Hola Amigos!
All is well here in Ecuador.
Today we had a very early start to try our luck climbing Illiniza Norte. We left our hacienda just after 3am and after a short ride to the trailhead, the team was hiking uphill just before 4am. We hiked for about three hrs to reach the Refugio or climbers hut that sits in the saddle between the two mountains where we ducked inside for a little hot tea and coffee.
Unfortunately the weather made a turn for the worse while we were relaxing inside. However, we suited up in our climbing gear and made a valiant effort to see if we could push through anyway. But today the mountain won as the snow falling only thickened as we made our way uphill. We reached about 16,000' before calling it good.
The team quickly descended back to our hacienda were we packed up and headed for a nice warm lunch.
We are currently relaxing in another wonderful hacienda close to Cotopaxi called Chilcabamba.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and crew
Thursday, May 16, 2019
A few short waves of snow showers passed through camp overnight and we woke up to a fresh dusting of new snow. A quick breakfast of oatmeal, dried fruit and nuts got us ready for the task ahead today. The terrain ahead would be a bit more challenging then our first day and the team was eager to explore new parts of the range. A decent amount of recent climber traffic has resulted in a well kicked in trail and we were grateful for the easy travel.
From camp our first obstacle is "Ski Hill". In any other setting this slope wouldn't make you bat an eye lash, but with Denali loads it poses quite a challenge. The team did fantastic with the increase in gradient. A short wave low pressure system was forecast to pass over the region today and we were greeted to a few intense snow flurries that reminded me of the Kahiltna Glacier that I'm more used to seeing. From the top of Ski Hill however, the terrain eases off quite a bit and we meandered our way to about 10,000' where we left a cache of gear to be retrieved later. A quick descent brought us back into camp in seemingly no time at all and the crew is currently taking a load off before an early dinner in anticipation of another long day tomorrow.
Tomorrow, weather permitting, our goal will be to move to 11,000' Camp. Its great to finally settle in at 11,000', build a fortified camp, build the best kitchen this mountain has ever seen and look forward to our first rest day of the trip. That's all for now, thanks for following along!
RMI Guide Steve Gately
Congratulations on making it to the summit of Nevado Uris. It’s encouraging to hear that, although the team wasn’t feeling 100% early in the morning, you showed great support for one another and were rewarded with an amazing experience! We feel proud and have great confidence in all of you.
Bonnie & Rick
Posted by: Bonnie & Rick on 8/15/2016 at 6:46 am
Thinking of you every day..have a great climb team be safe.
Posted by: Mary Lou keran on 8/15/2016 at 4:53 am
View All Comments