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The last two days have been a whirlwind. We had a long drive to
Puebla after climbing Ixta. The team rallied out that night for a much needed meal and then hit the racks for some well deserved sleep. The Hotel Colonial in Puebla was built in 1865 and is located on the historic square among several massive cathedrals.
We spent the day off exploring historic Puebla. Some of the group got massages while others wandered the various markets and narrow streets lined with colorful buildings. We are recharged and ready to head towards Orizaba this morning. The ride to Senior Reye’s climbing hostel takes us hours hours East towards the Gulf of Mexico. From there we will pack our mountain gear and head up in 4x4 trucks through the dry grassy slopes and dense pine forests that cover the lower flanks of Orizaba. Once at the Piedra Grande hut we’ll get a walk in to stretch our legs and get some rest for the main objective, Orizaba’s 18,400’ summit.
The group is doing well and surprised how fast the trip has gone.
RMI Guide Mike King
On The Map
Our coldest night this trip and it still wasn’t that cold. The sun hits camp closer to 8 am so after breakfast and a little time in the tents to warm up we headed for 19,600’. Our
High Camp is called Colera, named after the fierce winds that frequent that part of the mountain, not the contagion. The Team definitely noticed the 1,600’ difference in how their lungs and legs felt. We spent about 45 minutes there and headed down for a restful afternoon. Paperback books have been read and are now being passed around the group. We will have our last scheduled rest day tomorrow so that we can sleep one more night at 18,000' before moving up. The weather is holding steady with 20-30 mph winds forecast. We need to take advantage and not wait for a “better” day that might not materialize. Thanks for following along, we are all eager for our summit bid on the 26th.
RMI Guide Mike King
On The Map
Today was our first day of safari and we headed West to visit the beautiful
Lake Manyara. The lake is a brief stopping ground for many migratory animals and home to many unique birds.
Everyone enjoyed the day cruising around in our safari vehicles with cold beverages in hand while seeing the animals up close and personal.
We saw wildebeest, zebras, Cape buffalo, lots of baboons, a few impalas, hippos, and several elephants so close we could have touched them.
It was a pretty nice introduction to the incredible diversity of wildlife that Africa has and the team is looking forward to seeing more tomorrow.
We spent the remainder of the day relaxing at our new lodge and finished the evening with a wonderful meal at our new lodge.
RMI Guide Casey Grom and the Safari crew
Good evening from
Alpamayo Base Camp. We had a good rest day, where we ate, slept and socialized, all while getting excited for tomorrow's move to Camp 1. We're also excited to see many teams come down, and know it's not going to be too crowded up high... Fingers crossed!
Stay tuned for updates on our progress up high.
RMI Guide
Elías de Andres Martos and team.
Tuesday, June 26, 2018 - 10:58 PM PT
Ahhhh. We made it to a much deserved rest day. It kept on snowing lightly through the night with some restless breezes playing through in the morning, but we didn’t care much what it did. We slept in and did a long, slow, yummy bagel breakfast in our comfortable dining tent. The day was a mix of napping, reading, and visiting with other climbers. We watched a handful of neighboring teams pick up and move to
14,000' Camp, although it looked as though they’d have to deal with higher winds on the way. Weather got gradually better through the day and by evening it was just calm, sunny and nice. At dinner we went through plans for our own big move up to 14,000' Camp tomorrow.
Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn
On The Map
Sunday, June 24, 2018 - 7:34 PM PT
We had a great acclimatization climb today, tackling our first peak of the trip. It was a high altitude mark for many of our climbers, reaching the summit of Rucu Pichincha at ~16,300’. The day started off with a gondola ride where we left the city of Quito and traveled to ~13,500’. From there we continued on a well established trail for an hour or so before it gave way to a steeper single track trail. The climb culminated in a fun rock scramble to the top of the peak. The weather was great: in the morning we had clear views of
Cotopaxi before clouds rolled in; the temps stayed perfect as we climbed into the clouds, and the wind up high made it feel very alpine but not too cold. Every climbed very well today, despite only being at altitude for about a day; this bodes well for our upcoming summit attempt on Cotopaxi. Tomorrow morning we will pack up and leave Quito, heading south into the countryside en route to our next acclimatization hike.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
The
Four Day Summit Climb June 1 - 4, 2018 reached the summit of Mt. Rainier today.
RMI Guides Mike Haugen and
Zeb Blais led the teams and reported high winds at Camp Muir overnight that decreased enough for them to make their attempt. They reported good weather with increasing winds as they reached the upper mountain. The teams will return to Camp Muir and then continue down to Paradise.
Congratulations to today's Summit Climb teams!
Friday, June 1, 2018 - 5:01 PM PT
A good weather window appears to be forming right now, and lasting through the weekend. Our plan is to take advantage of the good weather and move camp to 17,000' tomorrow and, hopefully, summit the following day. We'll keep you posted with our progress.
RMI Guide Mike Walter
On The Map
Thursday, May 24, 2018 - 8:55 PM PT
Our
Alaska Seminar Team packed and un-packed and re-packed all day waiting for the weather to clear. The bad news is we are still in Talkeetna but the good news is we've never been more ready to fly on. The team practiced knots, rigged their sleds and attached ropes to packs. We had time to sort meals and repackage food for our nine days out. Today gave us the opportunity to prepare well and practice skills we will use right out of the gates. We are first in line for flights tomorrow and the weather is looking good so with confidence, we will have a nice dinner and the last night in real beds.
RMI Guide Christina Dale
Today we got wet!
The city tour is over, the team is gathered and the mountain was calling. On any other day a group of motivated hikers would look out the window, see falling rain and decide its not a good idea to stick with the plan. When that same team is on a schedule though, we gotta go when the bus arrives.
After a nice caffeine-laden breakfast, a short introduction to our local guide Peter, and some quick sneaking of the great chocolate croissants into our lunch sacks from the bakery, we were on our way to 15,700'
Rucu Pinchincha, a active volcano only ten minutes from our hotel in downtown Quito. Form the get go rain splattered the windows. We knew things could get interesting but we didn't know how much.
After unloading from the van, a quick walk landed us at the ticket office of the gondola we planned to take form 10,000' to 13,000'. The ride was uneventful with dense fog obscuring any views on the way up. Once at the top of the gondola we took refuge inside a building and put on our Gore-Tex for what looked like a rainy start. It was......
Two minutes after beginning our initial walk, we turned around and headed back to shelter as the rain was too much. We decided to wait it out for twenty minutes which paid off because the rain let up and we made our move.
We got one good hour of walking in making it to the elevation of 14,700 feet before the rain and terrain turned us around.
Back at the shelter we all exchanged hard shell jacket performances reviews and admitted how nice it will be to get out of our wet, soggy clothes. On the ride down in the gondola lightning began flashing and thunder crashing, stopping the machine two or three times in a matter of minutes. Down at the station, the real downpour started.
So goes the unpredictable weather in the mountains.
By 2:30 we were all back at the hotel ready for some lunch and relaxation.
Tomorrow we try again on another peak north of Quito.
Stay tuned for more reports.
RMI Guide Adam Knoff signing off.
Hope you’re staying warmer than we’ve been in NJ! Good luck team!! Keep it up! Love to Ross :)
Posted by: Jen Rapach on 1/23/2019 at 3:18 pm
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