Trip Reports
The team is enjoying a Christmas Eve rest day in their comfy dining tent at the Plaza Argentina basecamp tonight. These rest days are all about acclimatizing and recovering before moving higher on the mountain, so this was well timed to enjoy a Christmas Eve rest day in the comforts of base camp. Everyone sounds…
John Schaffer called in from the Plaza Argentina Base Camp! The team hiked about seven miles and 3000′ of elevation up the steep-sided Relinchos Valley today, making it the toughest day on the trail thus far. Everyone is doing great and they are excited to enjoy the comforts of Base Camp for a few days.…
Dave Montesanti called in to give us an update on the Donner Party, err… on Mountain Trip’s December 2019 Aconcagua Expedition. It’s good to keep a sense of humor whilst on an expedition, and, judging on today’s dispatch – I reckon the team has a surplus of humor! They awoke fairly early today and hiked…
The team is on the move! Yesterday, they drove from Mendoza up into the rugged, arid mountains just shy of the border with Chile. They stopped for lunch in a town called Ushpallata, which gained some fame years ago as the base for the filming of the Brad Pitt film, Seven Years In Tibet. After…
DECEMBER 19th ACONCAGUA TEAM Truly the “Roof of the Americas,” Cerro Aconcagua, at 22,841 ft. (6,962 meters) is not only the highest mountain in South America, but also the highest peak outside of Asia. The December 19 group met a couple of days back in the small, lively city of Mendoza, Argentina, capital of the…
Jambo (Hi)! It’s a bittersweet moment sitting on the deck at the Ngorongoro Safari Lodge. We are perched high above the Ngorongoro Crater overlooking one of the most beautiful conservation areas in the world, yet it is our last night here in Africa. Our team has enjoyed three days of safari, what an incredible way…
The Elbrus team has returned to civilization and they’re back down in the valley of Cheget after a perfect summit day. They had the good weather when they needed it, and everyone reached the top on the 29th, and now they are enjoying traveling around the region a bit before heading North to St. Petersburg…
Joe Ceurvorst called in on behalf of our 2019 Elbrus team to report that the entire team made the summit! The team departed early in the morning, traveling up the first segment of the route via snowcat and then cramponing up to the top! We don’t have much additional information at this time, but we’ll…
Laura Duncan called in from the flank of Elbrus after the team spent the day reviewing skills under bluebird skies. The plan is to awaken at 2 am and start uphill at 3:30 in the morning. They have hiked up the initial stretch of the route previously so rather than repeat the start of the…