from Stu in Tambopaxi lodge at the base of Cotopaxi
Feb 4, 2010

Everyone on team Lava Monkey is healthy and well and we send our love to our friends and family!

We are sitting here at 3700m/12700ft enjoying the fine view afforded from one of the great hostels on the planet, the Tambopaxi Lodge. Before us is the lurking hulk of Cotopaxi with its top secreted in clouds and only allowing us to see its lower slopes up to the rust-colored refugio. We have enjoyed an afternoon playing lacrosse with the backdrop of 3 volcanoes and a fine dinner which began with thick and rich tomato-cheese soup and ended with a passion fruit flavored frozen yogurt. This is all a well deserved reward after our thrashing on Cayambe a day ago and we hope that the weather gods will smile on us tomorrow as we head up the the hut and begin out summit bid at midnight.

Turning the clock back to when we last left word on the site ….

Illinizas Norte – On this hulking volcanoe we enjoyed summits and safe returns for the entire team on a day requiring careful climbing and great teamwork. The peak is much more demanding and rewarding than many may say and it counts as a significant alpine climb by the route from the hut and we cannot recommend it highly enough as both a shakedown climb for great peak and as a climb unto itself.

After our climb we headed down to Tambopaxi to enjoy an evening of beers and movies and all fell asleep before finishing either!

In the morning we left for Otavalo and the state of Imbabura. Just before descending into Otavalo, Imbabura comes into view and rises up steeply from lago San Pablo. It was much greener than any other volcanoe we had seen and with its top shrouded by clouds had the feel of the home of the gods. It is a climb the FTA groups have done in the past and one we’ll certainly do again!

We then spent a fun day touring the markets of Otavalo (fabrics, carvings, muscial instruments, hats, jackets, gloves, swings, hammocks and much much more!) and Cotacachi (leather goods from wallets to indian jones hats). Inbetween the markets we took a ride up to the crater lake of Cuicocha to eat fresh trout and look out at Volcan Cotacachi rising above the lake.

In the afternoon we made our way to the small town of Peguche and to the hostal Aya Huma. Aya Huma looks like very little when you arrive but it is like an iceberg and most of it exists below street level. As well the hotel is separated by a defunct rail line which led to nearby Otavalo. On one side the room are seemingly carved into the steep hill side leading down to a nearly jungle like area to relax complete with hammocks. It was more like thailand than ecuador and many of us had flashbacks to days squandered in south east asia! On the other side of the tracks is the restaurant and relaxing area – a multi tiered space with arched doorways dividing eating areas and lounging areas. We were treated to not only a great meal but a 2 hour concert by a traditional Andean folks music band. we fell asleep with the sound of zampoñas, churangos and spanish ballads still resounding.

In the morning we packed up and made our way to the Cayambe refugio by way of one of the worst roads we have encountered. The road is so back the our Bus driver Victor called in for 2 4×4 trucks to take us to the refugio.

after an hour or bone jarring but spectacular driving we arrived at the hut amid high winds and wet conditions. These conditions were to persist for several days and in fact only worsened while we were there. We quickly made our way into the refugio, found our bunks and hunkered down for the afternoon. unable to head over to the glacier to practice our skills we ran through them in the hut (along with 3 other teams) and enjoyed great meals by our our local guide Nacho. We headed to bed at 8 with the idea of waking at midnight and going for the top.

Conditions were more than ugly at midnight so we decided to get some more sleep and go for a 7 am recon. By the time the morning came around the conditions were so bad than only Phil, Mike and myself decided to venture out with the modest goal of reaching the glacier and crunching around on it for a bit. We had a great time fighting high winds, driving ice pellets and wind shot sand bullets! Meandering through rocks above the hut and traversing over to the glacier was one of the best adventures I’ve had. Though we could barely stand up, we could see enough to know where to go, we could hear each other if we were 2-3 ft apart and we managed to make our way in about 1.5 hours to the glacier! we practiced some basic steps and took some “you had to be there to see it” photos and quickly made our way back to the hut. Arriving at the hut we came in arms locked and singing “hey, hey we’re the monkeys” and enjoyed the bemused looks on all of the dry people inside! empying the water in our boots and backpacks and drying out we enjoyed hot drinks galore and all had a good laugh about a silly outing we’ll all remember for a long time to come!

The 4×4’s arrived about 12″30pm and took us back down to the sun filled valley and to the oldest hacienda in all of ecuador – Guachala. Here we put all of our wet things out to dry on gthe ancient grounds and enjoyed a few beers by the pool before exploring the grounds. The hacienda has its own church, museum, reading room (with a pool table and pingping table), old stables, servants quarters and enough rooms for at least 50-60 guests. After another dinner that couldn’t be beat (i had trout again!) we crashed and got the best sleep of the trip so far!

In the morning we made our way to Cotpaxi by way of Quito and are now raring to go for the mountain tomorrow!

more news from Baños in 2 days!

stu

Feb 1, 2010
El Chaupi, Quito
From team member Craig Kannel,

Mini Epic on Last Acclimatization Hike!

After yesterday’s leisurely morning in Quito our new bus driver Victor took us southeast to El Chaupi, where we were pleased to find ourselves in a warm and homey inn called Los Lloviznas. After a relaxing afternoon reading and practicing our knots we were treated to a beautiful sunset view of Cotopaxi while we finished dinner. The night was not as restful as we would have liked, due partly to the high altitude and partly to the fiesta in town – the crowning of the Queen of El Chaupi in the village center which involved a heavily amplified mobile disco! We nonetheless we responded to our 5:00am wake up call, ate a hearty breakfast and and downed numerous cups of thick coffee!

After a quick breakfast we were off on the bus to Ilinizas Norte, our final acclimatization climb at 5220 meters. Formerly a glaciated peak like it’s twin Ilinizas Sur, global warming has left it ice free, so our crampons can wait another couple of days. It was to prove a significant undertaking and quite challenging. Our first hint as to what we were in for came as we watched both imposing peaks from the bus window lit up by the rising sun, with clouds shooting over the peaks at an impressive speed.

The climb started uneventfully, with a long walk through a fresh smelling forest and then above the tree line through some loose gravel. After 2 hours and 45 minutes we arrived at the Illinizas Hut and clambered inside to warm up. After a snack and some drink we were instructed, by local Ecuadorian guide Nacho, to put on our harnesses and helmets because “now the real hike begins.”

Imagine your favorite scramble near the top of your favorite local hiking spot. Now elevate it to 15,000 feet or so, throw in lots of loose rock and dirt, and wind – that we are guessing gusted up to 70 mph. Throw in a couple of traverses and rock walls that required roping in, and you begin to get the picture. And that was the way up. The summit has barely enough room for 2-3 people and we all had to wait our turn for pictures on the top along with about 10 other people who had ventured up. We were treated to a few moments of clearing and could get a sense of just how high we were. or the rest of the time on the summit ridge we rarely had more than a few hundred feet of visibility and often much less.

After 5 or 10 frosty howling moments on the top we were ready to head down. On the way down we roped in as two teams but due to the terrible visibility and wind we managed to lose sight of each other during the descent. No problem for Nacho, Jamey and Scott, because Nacho knew the way. For Stu, Mike, Craig and Phil it was a somewhat different story. Thanks to Stu and Mike’s experience they were able find their way to the track (keep in mind there are no nice white or blue trail markers painted on the rocks!) based on Nacho’s description and hand-held radio contact. We made our way very quickly down through a lunar-like scree field (think boot skiing), eventually we reunited about an hour from the bottom, and ambled down through the forest to the awaiting van and our good friend Victor!

All told we were out there from just after 7 until close to 5 pm. A very long and tiring day and certainly the most challenging thing I’ve ever done. The Lava Monkey teamwork was impressive under duress. Phil manage to keep me from knocking any bread box sized boulders on him on the way down, and recognized when I needed to stop to eat and drink before I did. Mike took care of Jamie when he started to get too cold near the top.

When we returned to the cozy Lloviznas we all enjoyed a great meal of seared pork chops and an evening of beers and movies in front of a fire in the potbelly stove. We attempted to make it all the way through our tall Pilsners and the movie “Stripes” but we only made it about half way through both before we crashed in our rooms.

I think we are ready for the snow!

Craig Kannel, Lava Monkey team member.

From team member, and lead Lava Monkey, Phil Jackson
Saturday morning, Jan 30, 2010 – Quito

And now the journey begins…

Today is a rest day, much needed after climbing Guagua Pinchincha, one of three active volcanoes on the outskirts of Quito. There´s a rather dramatic picture in our hotel lobby of its most recent eruption in 1999. The approach to the mountain was more picturesque than the one to Pasachoa. We entered the last remote valley outside of Quito and had a number of spectacular views back towards Pasachoa and Cotopaxi. Most of the climb was on a road, which runs to the Humboldt hut below the summit. There were a number of dramatic views to be had on the ascent, culminating in a dramatic ridge walk that had us walking with jungle clouds swirling on our left and sunlight on our right. The summit was pretty well socked in, so we couldn’t see into the crater, although we could periodically smell it. The descent included skiing down a scree field of pumice rocks – quite exciting!

The summit was a new personal record for a number of us and glad that no one was suffering any noticeable effects of altitude.

Several important lessons were revealed on the climb. In addition to a team name (solidly locked in Lava Monkeys or “Monos de Lava” at this point), it is important to have a have games to play. Today we enjoyed some lacrosse at altitude courtesy of El Jefe (stu) who brought short sticks and balls. (We did play a brief game at the summit of Pasachua, but the first ball almost went into the crater, so we opted for the natural field we found on the second climb.) We also learned the importance of pace and the rest step. Most importantly, we also were reminded how easily we can become strung out and lose sight of one another in the clouds. The team is coming together nicely, and everyone is beginning to know each other – this will prove important on all the climbs to come where we will no longer be climbing on our own, but working as a rope team to achieve our collective goal of summiting the peaks.

Last night we were all pleased but tired at another excellent day. No one was feeling any serious ill effects, although we all had varying levels of headache. Hydration is key and we’re all recognizing the importance of drinking lots of fluids. Cocao tea, a local remedy, is also a great aid. A solid dinner and everyone to bed – we all managed to sleep despite the carnival-like street life in our neighborhood which has been slowly building all week. Now we all know why ear plugs were on the gear list!

My last travel (other than to Europe) was in 1990, so it´s wild to have email, phone and the ability to check my bank accounts pretty much at will. Quito has a very mellow vibe (except after 11pm) for a city, although it only has a population of 4 million. There is clearly a profound disparity between the haves and the have nots. Because of dollarization, prices here don’t seem all that low. Dinner in a restaurant ranges from $4-$12, for example. A large 3 litre bottle of water is $1.20.

Everyone is relaxing this morning, doing some laundry and some provisioning while repacking.. We get picked up at 2 to drive to El Chaupi, where we stay for two nights. Looking forward to seeing the Ecuadoran landscape – yesterday gave us a taste of the spectacular views of the Andes to come.

Our next climb is Illinizas Norte at 5,116m/16,800ft feet. This used to be glaciated, but thanks to changes in the environment, is no longer. This will also be the first climb with harnesses, helmets and rope – while the climb is not especially technical, there is a short spot that is exposed and requires caution. After another travel rest day to the market at Otavalo, we’ll tackle Cayambe, the first of the glaciated 18k footers! With good luck we’ll top out on Cayambe, move on to Cotpaxi and finish with Antisana before returning to Quito. We’ll be keepiong an eye on Chimborazo but the conditions have been very bad there this year so at this point we have decided to replace it with Antisana. One of the great advantage to Antisana is that we will be setting up a base camp with mess tents, sleeping tents and get a real expedition feel rather than just hole up in huts!

we’ll be out of touch for a few days and aim to put up a new dispatch on the 1st or 2nd of February.

til then,

phil and the monos de lava

Hello from Mendoza.

Everyone is safe and sound back home and we are all enjoying the warm air, red wine and great food in town. The trip went really well this time around. Not only did we have near perfect weather but we were also fortunate enough to all stay happy & healthy throughout the entire expedition. The members are slowly leaving and Ben and I will be heading back to our home countries after the weekend.

Ben, Brian and Erika on the Polish Glacier

The Polish Glacier Direct

I must say, it was really great to climb Aconcagua instead of just walking up it. At 3am Ben, Chris, Erika, Mitch and Brian set off for the foot of the Polish Glacier. Shortly after setting out, Mitch decided it just wasn’t his day and returned to camp 2 and the 4 of us carried on into the darkness. We chose not to rope up for the first 300M of the climb but as the angle increased we tied in and made things a little more secure.

The route is actually pretty straightforward despite its reputation. In my opinion the most important thing is speed. We never once pitched out the climb choosing instead to simu-climb with a running belay. This offers good protection as well as being able to keep moving at all times. The climb is about 40 degrees up to 70 degrees in the bottle neck area and above. Its a great steep snow climb with amazing views but beware, once you are at the top of the face it is still at least 2-4 hours to the summit, depending on conditions and fatigue.

Once you arrive at the top of the face, the technical portion of the climb is over and now the thin air at nearly 6900M is a lot for some to deal with. Amazing views though. We made our descent via the False Polish route and back to camp 2.

Chris in the Bottleneck

It’s great to be finished with another successful season on Aconcagua. This year we had small groups and all became great friends. We were also fortunate enough to have Augistina from Ushuia cooking for us at base camp. She really went out of her way to accommodate us and make our days at base camp really comfortable. Oh yeah, she is also an amazing cook. A big thanks also to our great members this season. Greg, Brooks, Isabel, Erika, Marty, Mitch and Brian, it was great to have you all on the hill with Ben and I.

Chris from Mendoza.

From member Phil Jackson in Quito
January 28, 2010

Most of our merry little band arrived in Quito on Tuesday afternoon – the Amherst-area contingent having left for JFK just before midnight – having experienced a smooth flight. No overages on luggage, no delays in transit, and an easy ride to our hotel in the heart of town. A brief meeting with Javier, our local agent, some food and to bed. I was certainly struck by how low key the Quito vibe is, at least during daylight hours. No teeming sea of humanity at every turn as in other parts of the world.

Wednesday was our first acclimitization day and consisted of a great variety of sights and activities. Nacho, our guide, and Marcos, our driver, picked us up and drove us to our first stop, Reserva Geobotanica Pululahua, a volcanic crater on the edge of Quito. It has a small farming community (and a few hostals) inside, which we trekked down to see. The ascent back out certainly gave us our first taste of the altitude, but no major problems. Our next stop was La Mitad del Mundo, the monument marking the equator, which Nacho informed us wasn´t really in the right spot. A great lunch of comida tipicas was followed by a ride to the Old Town where we did a brief walking tour of several churches and streets. Again, not especially crowded and very pleasant. And it was here that our trip began in earnest.

El Jefe (Stu) informed us that all expeditions require a team name. Our friends on the earlier trip had been dubbed “The Family” by their guide. We had kicked a few names around, half-heartedly, during the day until our last stop of the day, La Compania, an over-the-top Baroque-styled Jesuit church we toured. The gilding and trappings were amazing – the entire place glowed and even included a spiral staircase. Each side of the church had competing paintings, each mirroring in layout the ones opposite. The final ones we saw depicted first the path to glory and salvation on one side and in one corner of an otherwise luminescent painting was a small entrance to Hell, which could be found in excruciating (and I do mean excruciating) detail in its companion piece. The painting depicted the horrors of hell, with each sin clearly labeled and the appropriate dose of eternal damnation graphically depicted. The drunkard was on a table of spikes with a demon pouring drink into his overflowing mouth. And, he was strapped down such that he would never be able to relieve himself. The unrepentant were on a fiendish Ferris wheel. The best, and in our married eyes most cautionary, was the adulterer, who had a monkey-like fiend vomiting hot lava onto his genetalia. And thus was Team “Lava Monkey” born!

Our day concluded with attending “Jacchigua es Ecuador”, a nearly 3-hour musical/dance extravaganza involving more than 90 dancers and, according to the program, more than 2000 kilos of authentic native costumes, which were spectacular.

Today Nacho took the Lava Monkeys to Pasachoa, our first acclimatization hike to 13,700 ft/4200m. This was a truly stupendous outing involving an incredibly diverse and evolving set of conditions – farm roads to pastures to vertical grass – to the summit, where we peered down into the volcanic crater. We had a number of spectacular views of the valley outside of Quito and portions of the higher peaks.

Our day concluded with pizza and a slide show of our trip at Javier´s house. While we all feel pleasantly tired, we´re all feeling fit and glad to have our first hike under our belts with no blisters or other ill effects.

Tomorrow Team Lava Moneky climbs Guagua Pinchincha before moving on to El Chaupi on Saturday!

from stu in quito
28 Jan, 2010

Just a quick note to say all is well in Quito and we are off for our hike on Pasachoa today in just few minutes and will drop a note late tonight or tomorrow morning recapping the last few days. Needles to say it has been wonderfully busy hitting the worlds largest inhabited crater, the zero degree park, the old town and then a 2.5 hour folk dancing/singing spectacular and finally returning back to the hostal at 11pm after a late super. Phew!!

Our love to everyone at home!

More shortly!

stu

Stu from quito
27th January 2010

Group 2 arrives!

Our first group this January had a great trip and lots for summits and we begin our second round of climbs with high hopes!

Our second group consists of

Stu Remensnyder (USA) – guide
Mike Leyden (USA) – guide
Nacho Espinoza (ECU) – guide
Craig Kannell (USA)
Scott Biddle (USA)
Phil Jackson (USA)
Jamey Hasbrouck (USA)

We have all arrived and are beginning the process of acclimating ourselves to the high altitude, great food and warm weather.

Our flight down was quite good and we enjoyed a short layover in Panama city just long enough for a café con leche and to learn about shipping and politics in the “Canal Country” from an ex-pat Norwegian!

We arrived in Quito to a warm and mostly sunny day with enormous billowing clouds clinging to Guagua Pichincha and the other surrounding hills. We crammed all 5 of us and 10 enormous bags into a small micro van and made our wayt to the Hostal Alcala where we will be stationed for the next 4 nights. It is a lovely and relaxed hostal in the midst of the tourist district with everything you could need in a short radius. By the time our evening wads out we had bought ice cream, drinks, books, newspapers, roasted peanuts, had cameras repaired, made phone calls, sent emails and eaten a great Mexican meal!

Mike pulled in at about midnight last night and completed our team of 6.

Plans
Today we have a day tour planned and will be leaving shortly…pics and more tonight when we are done! at the end of the tour day we’ll be headed to a great show of folks dancing and much more:

http://www.jacchiguaesecuador.com/eng_show.htm

“The permanent choreographic mounting of the National Folkloric Ballet Jacchigua, is a show with 90 dancers, musicians and ecuadorian technicians that put into scene a spectacular show of traditions and customs of Ecuador. 2.800 kilos of costumes and technique elements are utilized by the dancers in choreographies designed by the director.”

Tomorrow we will arise early and head up Pasachoa for our first real effort in the mountains and return to Quito for the traditional slide show, pizza and beers with our local agent Javier.

Health
Everyone is safe and sound and has a pulse oximeter reading of over 93% today. About half of our members are taking diamox and it will be interesting to see the control study outcome. Lots of extra peeing for the D-group and perhaps 1% higher oximeter readings but no headaches for either group! Belly’s are all good and we’ll be watching for some normal gurgles as we adjust to the new critters in our food and drink and we’ll hope for nothing major in the days ahead.

We have begun our day with a massive infusion of coffee from our Columbian Urn in the Alcala hostal and it looks to be our best friend for some days!

We are off in a few minutes for the day tour and will get some photos up tonight!

todo bien en quito!

stu

from stu in the usa office
January 24, 2009

I received a call from Chris in Mulas BC letting us know that the entire team is down safe and sound and relaxing in Mulas. They will be catching the mule train out to Penitentes and the transport back to Mendoza tomorrow.

Chris let me know that on the 22nd four members topped out on a long and demanding day on the Polish Glacier Direct route! They hit the start of the route at 4am and were on the top of the highest peak in the Americas at 5pm!! The remaining two members toped out the next day by the False Polish making our team 6 for 6 summiting Aconcagua – nice going to everyone!

Summiting by the Polish Direct on the 22nd January:
Chris Szymiec
Ben Kane
Erika Gustavsson
Brian Moran

Summting by the False Polish on the 23rd:
Marty Demers
Mitch Lasky

They were also able to complete the traverse from the Argentina BC to the Mulas BC and will have the wonderful sense of the mountain that cannot be felt from entering and exiting by the same valley. Chris and Ben are getting to know this hill pretty well now with three summits by 2 routes each over the last 3 years.

Chris promised a great dispatch with pics when he gets back to Mendoza tomorrow night. Please forgive him if he does nto get to it til the next morning and instead enjoys the company of his team and few fine bottles of Malbec!!

Chris has had quite a year on FTA expeditions to Broad Peak , K2, Satopanth (summit), Ama Dablam (summit), Island Peak (summit), Aconcagua False Polish (summit) and now the Polish Direct (summit). He’ll be looking forward to a well earned rest back in canada before heading off to the Cassin Ridge on Denali in May (and then startign all over in pakistan again!) Ben has been Hot on Chris’s heals with Broad Peak, New Zealand alpine climbs, 3 Aconcagua trips and is raring for more!

Great job to both guides for a super season for FTA on Aconcagua and we look forward to three trips again next summer! Join us for a great adventure in Argentina in 2010/11 Summer!

Don’t forget to check back in a few days for Chris’s trip report with great pics!

from Brad in Quito
17th Jan, 2010

Quite an Adventure

So when last I wrote we were soaking sore and fatigued bodies after our Cotopaxi summit.  We were all pretty whipped and so gratefully had another rest and travel day on Thursday. 

After a leisurely morning we met Victor and Pepe at 10 am and made the beginnings of our trip toward Cayambe.  Our first stop for lunch was at a national reserve known as Cuicocha, a large lake in the crater of a long deceased volcano.  Coming out of one side were luminous ridges that reached thousands of feet into the sky and swirled with clouds.  This lake has three islands amidst it that are apparently teeming with Guinea pigs, or if you indulge in them as food, “cuy”.  An easy meal for the local carnivore population apparently as the fox swim out there and feast.  You can walk around the lake and even take a boat around the islands to see the fumeroles that still exist off gassing to this day.  We were content with a leisurely lunch overlooking the lake.

From there it was on to the small village of Cotachachi whose specialty was in leather products…it was a tossup between the chaps and the rip off riding jackets.  Jeff settled on a bottle made of cow foot.  I think he will use it on his next stop in Mexico to hold his extra Tequila for making his margaritas stiffer while lounging on the beach after a day of long boarding.

After the market it was on to our hostel in the village called Peguche for the night. About 5 or 10 minutes from the city of Otavalo, the location of a huge Sunday market, we found comfort in a secluded, quiet, luxurious (by our standards) little hostel called Ayahuma (I believe this means spirit mask which is used in the large celebration during the summer solstice).  A restful afternoon was called for as we lounged around in hammocks reading and listening to the birds.  We did actually make it for a short walk before a fabulous dinner at the hostel restaurant before turning back to expedition style food the following day.  We indulged in a drink called Murasso which is fresh juices spiked with cane alcohol and served hot…sort of like apple cider.

In the morning we headed to the principal market in Otavalo which is much smaller than the Sunday equivalent but still kept us busy bargaining for nearly 2 hours.  Eric and I bargained hard with a guy for nearly 30 minutes only to find that he had lived both in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, our respective states, at multiple times in the last 5 years.  In fact he lived only blocks from my current residence in Cambridge…small world!!!!

Upon emptying our wallets at the market we headed to the city of Cayambe to meet our 4 x 4 truck that would take us the last 1.5 hours to the Cayambe refuge…it was quite honestly the worst travel hours of our trip as the road was full of rocks and washed out.  I could hardly believe that the little truck passed in certain places.  (note to the next trip, if you get sick bring Dramamine!)
The refuge was one of the nicer ones that we have been in with two kitchens, eating areas and stable bunks.  I think it only slept about 50 folks and was nearly deserted when we arrived.  The howling winds and poor visibility above were certainly keeping folks away.  With mountain weather things change quickly and dramatically at times so we were hoping for such towards the better in the 8 hours before our departure towards the summit.  Until then it was tea, rest and soup with cheese sandwiches for all!

11pm rolled around and Pepe checked the weather giving us the green light for an attempt on the top though it didn’t sound like the winds had slowed at all.  I reckon they were 30 to 40 mph with higher gusts and upon beginning our climb we realized that visibility was pretty poor.  Our rope team that evening was short a member as Eric stayed behind with the new onset of a little GI bug (though as of last night was feeling better as made obvious by his indulgence in a shwarma and Pilsner on our return to Quito) Just like Cotapaxi, another hour climb up a more solid scree ridge led to the glacier entrance.  I learned that in the last 20 years the glacier here at Cayambe has receded 400 meters!  The equator runs across this volcano at about 4600 meters on the south side and without the bad weather and clouds that originate in the jungle just off to the west this glacier wouldn’t exist at all.  The weather prevents enough solar melting to preserve this ice giant…until recently I guess.  Also of interest is the fact this place is the highest point on the equator…back to the climb.

We slowly trudged upward with warm wind whipping our faces.  It suddenly sodden us with rain, followed by cooler air and flying ice knives and eventually turned to snow.  Visibility got so bad that we could hardly see in front of the first person on the rope team and our goggles and equipment got caked in nearly a quarter inch of ice!

At just over 17000 feet we came to the large crevasse field that protects the summit above and here, based on the visibility, weather and fear of difficult route finding on the way down we decided to turn around.  It seemed like the right move as our little adventure was only beginning.  With no obvious foot tracks for descending we were quickly guided off course by glaciers and ended up going further east than we intended.  It wasn’t until it became light and we had a momentary break in the low laying clouds that we realized that we were a full ridge away from the refuge ridge.  We found ourselves needing to traverse across the glacier nearly half a mile and than winding through a field of seracs (ice towers) in order to gain the proper descent ridge.  By the time we reached the refuge the ice that had once glazed our shells had started to melt and we were all drenched and ready for soup and sandwiches once again. 

After another long and painful ride in the 4×4 we were met by Victor in the van and made our way back to Quito for an afternoon of drying off, resting and eating. Sounds like we do a lot of that right?

Today most of us are preparing to leave Ecuador and so packing and final site seeing are in order. Jeff is off on a 23 hour travel day starting tonight to meet his wife in Mexico for a months long stay, Eric and I head back to the states, and Mark stays for another week to practice his Spanish and wander around more before heading to his farm in Argentina for the plum picking season. 

Sadly the soccer match was cancelled today though there was big celebration yesterday evening as a club from Guayaquil beat Columbia 2 nil.  Instead I think we´ll spend our last afternoon riding big yellow bikes around the city.  They close of a main thoroughfare through the city every Sunday for this purpose.  I think it will be a perfect way to end the trip.

Until next year for us…and good luck the the next crew that comes down in a week…have fun and stay healthy!!!!!

Hasta luego
Brad

The first views of the Polish Glacier.

There it is. The beautiful Polish Glacier on Aconcagua. Today, we made some load carries up to camp one and returned back for some rest, rope work and relaxation before committing to the route. If the weather holds, which it just might, and everyone feel good, which we likely will, we will make a push up to camp 2 at 5800M and scope out our objective close up.

The plan is to establish our camp 2, make some height gain up the glacier and return to base camp for a full rest day before ‘goin for it’. That said, we might just go for it right away. This is the nature of expedition climbing, schedules change and plans are modified. We do whatever seems right at the time. Fluidity and flexibility equals success on these big peaks. Too much planning and excessive micromanagement usually just creates stress and ultimately failure to complete the route. Just have fun and go with the flow. Don’t fight the mountain, ride with it.

OK, that’s my rant for what it’s worth. Call me crazy or call me lazy. I’ve done a few of these trips in the past and the one thing I’ve learned is nothing is written in stone.

I hope everyone is satisfied and excited with the dispatches. I likely wont have the opportunity to write one for a few days but just so everyone knows, Ben is great, Erika is excellent, Chris is better than most, Mitch is exceeding expectations, Marty is leading the pack, and Brian is flying high!

Chris from Aconcagua.