Trip Reports
Vanessa Blasic called in after the team completed an acclimatization ascent of the 15,413 foot Rucu Pichincha, an active stratovolcano situated above the capital city of Quito Ecuador. The team took a gondola or teleferrique up to the trailhead and climbed through tall, straw-like alpine grass to reach the summit. Tonight, they will camp up…
We had a great acclimatization hike today on the 13,700 ft Volcan Pasachoa, an extinct volcano on the outskirts of Quito. It was a beautiful day, but clouds coming up from the Amazon Jungle to the east obscured the views of the upper reaches of Cotopaxi and Chimborazo off in the distance. Tomorrow we’ll be…
The Blasics are building up a foundation of acclimatization while taking in some of the sights in and around the capital city of Quito, Ecuador. They toured the historical Old Town of the city, including La Catedral (the Metropolitan Cathedral of Quito), which dates back to the late 1500’s. They also took advantage of being…
We would like to warmly thank the Blasics for joining Mountain Trip on yet another expedition, this one to climb the three highest peaks in the Andean country of Ecuador. Greg, Nick and Vanessa arrived last night into the capital city of Quito, where Mountain Trip co-owner Bill Allen and our Ecuadorian support staff met…
A final dispatch from lead guide Adam Smith: We climbed the breathtaking 16000-foot ridge towards high camp and passed the remaining climbers on their descent. Arriving to a deserted camp at 17,200 feet and watching the final groups round Windy Corner and out of sight, the isolation sunk in. It is a wild and special…
Thank you Brandon, Dawn, Will, Sam & Josh for an excellent trip. To me a successful trip ends with people in high spirits about what happened and excited about what will happen next, and this Denali trip did. While we were out there, we enjoyed good weather, a classic route and a few weeks in…
The team arrived in base camp early in the afternoon today, and shortly after hopped in ski planes and were in Talkeetna. They are spending tonight enjoying the relative civilization of Talkeetna and will be coming back to Anchorage tomorrow. Congratulations to everyone on the team for working hard and getting down safely. This was…
Earlier today the team called from Camp 1 and reported that they were going to rest and evaluate conditions of the lower glacier. The plan is to continue to Base Camp when conditions allow.
Thanks to guide Josh Garner for the following photos:
A fantastic summit day allowed seven of us to make the top at 7pm on 7/9/15. The weather was calm and the views were amazing! The following day, we packed up and headed back down to 14 Camp to some warm greetings from our other team members, who had prepared some wonderful hot food for…