New Year (Almost)

Well today we climbed a smaller peak in Cotopaxi National Park. There was no snow involved and we didn’t start climbing until 9am so it was a nice change. There are three peaks on the one mountain and we were planning on walking the ridge to get each peak, it didn’t work out as planned. The rock that we were scrambling on kept breaking off in our hands and under our feet. So after only traversing for a quarter mile we ended up slipping and sliding down a scree field and then bushwhacking through some very tall grass and shrubs. Things could have gone better but we did get the south peak before we ran out of time and had to get down to catch our ride at 5pm. Weather half way cooperated with us as well. We only had to climb in the clouds for around an hour. I think I may have even gotten a slight sunburn on the back of my neck!

All of us felt pretty good for the climb. Once again Travis and I seem to be Michael’s ball and chain always slowing him down. We even try to make him carry most of the gear but it doesn’t seem to do much. He probably would have been able to summit the North peak as well but Travis and I were ready to head down.

Tonight there is supposed to be a BBQ at PapaGayo and then we were invited to ride into Quito to celebrate there. I am not exactly sure what we will all end up doing. I hope everyone at home has been enjoying the holiday seasons as it is almost over.

Thanks once again for all the prayers and thoughts. Michael should have some more good pictures of today if I can poke and prod him into writing a blog tonight.

~Jeremy

Since Michael put up some of my most flattering pictures on the last post I thought I would

return the favor ;o)

Where we go from here.

We are now back at papagayo. After evaluating our situation and thinking about our plans for the next two weeks, this is what we have decided.

As you all know, weather has been very bad since we have been here and has made some of our climbing a bit difficult. You also all know that Travis has not been having a good time dealing with high altitude climbing. Here is our change of plans for the moment.

We came to Ecuador not to break records, or climb as high as we possibly could, we came to Ecuador to climb as three friends, to enjoy ourselves, to challenge ourselves, and to provide an adventure, for all of you following us, to live vicariously through. This being the goal and focus of our trip, we have decided to forgo our attempt on Chimborazo, the highest mountain in Ecuador. Not only has the weather put this mountain in poor condition for climbing, but it is also well out of the reach of Travis due to his altitude problems. We have already climbed to over 19,000ft on Cotopaxi and to just under 19,000ft on Cayambe. Travis could not join us for either of these climbs. Rather than having jer and I continue to climb while trav sits at camp or at the Refugio, we are going to change our schedule.

Tomorrow we will attempt a three peak traverse of rumihaui (sp), which is a rock mountain, with all three peaks just over 15,000ft. This is a challenging, exciting climb that Travis can join us for because of its lower elevation. After that we will celebrate New Years Eve at Papagayo and in the first week of January we will attempt Illiniza sur, an ice climb that should be doable for Travis as well, and last of all we will attempt Antisana as our last climb on the 4th of Jan.

We will have more details on these plans in the next blog, for now we are getting to bed to prepare for our climb tomorrow.

God Bless and Love Always,

Michael

Hello Everyone,

I apologize for the delay in getting this last blog up, the past few days have been a bit hectic.

I last left you with a blog from Quito as we were about to depart for the north to the mountain of Cayambe. Since then we have had many adventures. Here is the latest update.

Thursday afternoon we were picked up at Posada Del Maple in Quito by Eran, the Israeli owner of Gulliver’s Travels, a guide agency in Quito. Last week we decided to hire one company to take care of all of our transportation for the rest of the trip. It was expensive, but a wise decision. We drove north with Eran for about four hours, stopping for lunch along the way and then driving 1 ½ from the town of Cayambe, into the highlands to the climbing Refugio at the base of Cayambe, the mountain. The road was intense, switchbacks up a 1000 ft face, with water running off everywhere and washing out the road bed. Usually vehicles cannot make it all the way to the Refugio, but Eran managed to get us there.
It is a beautiful Refugio, three floors, kitchens, wood stoves, a large bunk loft, and a hut keeper, Sergio, who fit the part of “mountain hut keeper” perfectly. We unloaded our gear and put our our sleeping bags for the night and then headed up the glacier to scout the route for the next days climb. Jer and I entered the Glacier from the wrong location and found ourselves in a field of crevasses that never ended. We backtracked and eventually found the correct route near sunset; we made a quick trip up the glacier to get a feel for what we would be doing at midnight, in the dark. We returned to the Refugio and had a very luxurious dinner of a just cooked Chicken, Pasta, Gouda cheese, potatoes, etc. (it was nice being able to drive right to the Refugio). We got to bed early to prepare for the next morning. Jer and I woke up at 11 pm, organized our packs and had a quick snack before we left at midnight, along with one German lady and her guide, and a group of seven very ill-equipped, very old, Ecuadorians. Because we did not know the route up Cayambe very well, we chose to stay behind the guide and his German client. We climbed the rock fin behind the Refugio and were on the glacier by 1 am. Our pace caused us to soon overtake the guide and after talking with him shortly about avalanche conditions, which he had been checking often, he decided to turn around with his client. He felt that their pace would be to slow and place them on the mountain as the sun came up, which could be fatal. He gave us a quick summary of the route and told us that with our pace, we should be fine.
We continued up the glacier with perfect weather. We had a crystal clear sky above us and a field of clouds blanketing the valley below us, no wind, and a bright moon. We made good time and were high on the mountain by 3 am. As we climbed jer started to feel quite sick, his condition worsening as we gained elevation. His signs and symptoms were not suggesting altitude sickeness, but something more along the lines of a food sickness or head cold, either way it was making the climbing difficult. By 4 am, jer was having trouble moving more than 30 steps at a time and a storm had moved in quickly, giving us lots of snow and visibility of less than 50 ft. With not many options for turning back until the sun rose, we pushed on, taking 30 steeps at a time, resting for 2 minutes and doing it again. We made very slow progress. At 5 am our GPS indicated that we were less than 800 ft from the summit. We made our way through a crevasse field, and climbed a steep ice wall between two seracs. We could see the summit above us, less than 200 ft away. We took another break and made our final push for the summit. It was 6 am and the sun was just starting to provide a glow through the whiteout. As we crested the final bulge of snow, we found ourselves inches from a 60ft drop into a crevasse that was full of massive blocks of fallen ice. Across the crevasse and 50 ft above us we could see the summit block, a shady outline through the snow. By this point Jer could barely stand up on his own and we had reached our deadline turn around time of 6 am to avoid avalanche conditions on the lower mountain. We were on the volcano rim, all that was left to climb was a 50 ft block of ice, weather conditions were terrible, physically, we were both drained, and avalanche safety was demanding we turn around. We snapped a few quick photos of the summit flag and turned around to start our slow journey off the mountain. As we made our way back along our route, conditions only got worse, instead of helping us see better, the sunrise had only turned the environment around us into a white zone, we could not judge distances, slope of the snow, direction, it was not cool. We started to navigate our way down with our GPS which had recorded our route up the mountain, but it could only get us within 30ft or so of our actual foot steeps. Ten minutes into our decent as Jer was leading ahead of me, I watched him disappear to his waist, He had fallen through a layer of snow into a crevasse, I put tension on the rope and luckily he managed to lift himself out easily onto the other side. We peered into the hole he had created in the snow and saw that the crevasse was 60 or 70 ft deep, but only about 3 ft wide. If it had been any wider, we could have had a crevasse rescue to deal with. Jer kept me tight on the rope and as I jumped the crevasse and we continued, very carefully on our trip down the mountain. We returned to the Refugio without any other mishaps and soon fell asleep, to wait for our ride at 11 am.
While we did not technically summit Cayambe, we still were very successful and made it to within 50 ft of the true summit. Considering both other climbing parties had turned around hours below us, we did very well, managing our own route finding, dealing with altitude, being prepared for hidden crevasses and making good judgment calls concerning how far we pushed ourselves.
From Cayambe, we were picked up by another employee of Gulliver’s and driven, in the back of a pickup, two hours to the town of Otovalo, a famous market town three hours north of Quito. We spent Friday night there and spent Saturday morning in the market, doing some late Christmas shopping and exploring all the many stalls, booths, and food vendors that went on for street after street after street. Due to time, I will try to post another blog devoted to our day in Otovalo in the near future.

Below are a few pictures from our adventures on Cayambe, the bad weather condions and difficult time we had on the mountain made for very few good photos, but here is what we got. Enjoy.

God Bless and Love Always,

Michael

One of Cayambes many glaciers near the Refugio.

The Refugio, hidden in with the rock on the left hand side.

If I may be so bold as to comment on my own photo, an Amazing photo of jer scouting the route the night before our climb.

Jer, at 4 am, feeling terrible.

Doesn't it look like we are having fun.....

6 am, as close to the summit as we could possibly get, close enough for ACC purposes anyways.

On the descent, feeling better and taking a break in the snowstorm.

Sergio, the keeper of the Refugio.
Our trip out of the mountans, along a very rugged "road".

Off we go again.

We returned to Quito yesterday afternoon to do laundry, stock up on food and catch our breath. The weather here is nice for the moment, but it is still supposted to rain for the next two weeks in all the mountain areas. Things are looking gloomy. Both Trav and I have gotten sick from something we ate and are enjoying a day of travelers diaerra. We are leaving in a few hours to drive north to the Volcano of Cayambe. With the way weather is, we may just be spending the night in the Refugio and returning to Quito, but we are hoping there is a break in the rain and we can go for the summit tommorow morning. If everything goes as planned, we should be back in Quito Saturday afternoon.
The rest of our trip is looking very bleak, all the mountains we planned to climb are not in any condition to be climbed at the moment. Unless the weather improves significantally, we might be changing our plans for the remanider of the trip.
I apologize for the spelling, I am in a rush, on a spanish keyboard and on a computer without spell check.

God Bless and Love Always,

Michael

Well, due to yet more bad weather, we got out of the mountains earlier than planned and are back at Hosteria Papagayo for Christmas night. Here are some photos from the past two days of climbing.

Jer, on the way to Number 2

Jer and Trav on the approach hike, with our Mystery Ranch Packs, that Rock!

The Mystery Ranch Backpack hall of Fame.

Jer and his NiceFrame pack, hauling 50lbs at 14,500ft like its no big deal.

Trav and his Big Sky Pack, loaded down with the climbing gear.

Michael and his Super Sky pack.. and all his lifes possesions strapped on.

Trav on the approach hike.. in the rain... again

Christmas tree in the Ilinizas mountain Refugio.

Not quite the same as home but we do what we can.

The Ilinizas Mountain Refugio in the early morning mist

Trav and Jer leaving the Refugio to begin the climb.

Me, after a 25min run at 15,000ft. Oy

crossing loose scree and snow below the summit.

Christmas Morning Summit, with the ACC summit Flag!!

The summit Cross on Iliniza Norte, crusted with ice from the nights storm.

A break in the clouds gave us an amazing Christmas morning view above the clouds, and a glimpse of Iliniza Sur.

Jer, having a Christmas Morning ponder above the clouds.

On the trip out, in the back of a pickup truck.. in the rain... again.

Hope you all enjoy our Christmas day climbing photos.

Merry Merry Christmas to all of you.

Pray that the rain stops and we can continue climbing

God Bless and Love Always,

Michael

The climb went off almost without a hich, much to Mike´s regret forgot the summit flag at the hut about 15 minutes up the climb. Mike blazed back down and was back with us in 20ish minutes. In the mean time the ¨Mountain Goat Jer¨ shouldered Mike´s pack and continued on.
The last part of the climb was alot of fun we had steep snow and a nice little rock scramble at the top. After we reached the top I thought it was time to sit, but the Sherpa and Mountain Goat took off to ¨look around¨. As I laid on the ground hoping to have my heart slow down from red line to an idle a couple of other groups started to arrive at the top.
After a couple of quick summit photo´s we headed down and out.
Over all I´d say the sufferfest went very well.

Number Two

Christmas was a little different this year when we woke up on rock hard beds with ten other people in a room that was 30´x20´ with sleeping bags that were wet from condensation dripping from the cinder block celing of the refuge. But all three of us got our Christmas present when we made it to the summit of Iliniza Norte mid morning. For the entire climb and the first ten minutes on the summit the visiblity was 30 to 50 feet, but after hanging around a while longer praying that it would clear up our prayers were answered. We had a spectacular view of Iliniza Sur, Cotopaxi, and the valley below for around ten minuites before a cloud enveloped the mountain once again. But the few moments of clear skies were all we needed to lift our spirits.

We planned on climbing Sur tomorrow but after talking to several guides decided that the snow was to soft and thus avalanche prone to attempt a summit so soon after fresh snow fall. While we had clear skies we did notice one very large avalanche that had covered part of the normal route up Sur. We hope to come back at a later date when conditions are better.

Michael should be putting up more pictures once again within the next 24 hours.

Merry Christmas to all,
Jeremy

Hello Everyone,

Following is four excerpts from my climbing journal, kept while on the mountain. Hope you enjoy. It was quite the adventure.


Photos of our prepping for and trip to camp.

Packing for Cotopaxi, we sure know how to trash a room fast.

Entering Cotopaxi Nat'l Park.

The drive through the Park, along a very rough and winding dirt road.

Rain.... lots and lots of rain.

Gearing up at the trailhead... in the rain.

The approach hike, with a rare glimpse through the clouds, of the valley below.

Setting up the tent in the sleet.

Climbing Journal
December 21st, 2007
7:30 pm
Cotopaxi Base Camp
We arrived at the trailhead toady at noon. Weather conditions were bleak. It had been snowing/raining on and off since we had entered the park an hour earlier. Wind was approx. 5mph and there was a very low cloud cover that was making visibility less than 500 ft. It took us 35 min. to ascend 1,000ft to the climbers refugio (hut) where we stopped for 30 min. to talk to some people we met there.
We then continued for another 10 min to camp in a small gully over a ridge from the refugio. We set up camp in the rain and Jer and Trav immediately crawled inside the tent and fell asleep. We were dealing well with altitude, but it was still taking its toll on us. Our elevation at camp was 14,800ft. At 4:00pm we started making dinner and boiling water for tea. Dinner tonight consisted of cooked carrots, pasta Bolognese and toast.
After doing dishes, I took my camera and climbed up a ridge 500ft above camp. The clouds were starting to clear for a minute and I ended up getting a beautiful sunset, above the clouds! At 6:30pm I made my way back to camp and organized myself for bed. A coyote was prowling around camp when I returned, so I moved all our food inside the tent. It is now 7:45pm and we are going to try to get some sleep. Jer and Trav feel slightly ill due to the altitude so we are working on drinking lots of water and getting as much rest as we can for the next 28 hours before we make our summit attempt tomorrow at midnight.

Normal view from our tent window, fog and snow.

Jer and Trav, tent bound.

December 22nd, 2007
11:26 am
Cotopaxi Base Camp

Last night we got very little sleep. A 15-20 mph wind picked up as the clouds started to clear after dark and the flapping and fluttering of the tent combined with the altitude made for a rough night. We went to bed at 7:30pm and woke up at 6:30 am, in all we probably didnt get more than three hours of sleep. Listening to someone sleep at high altitude is a bit strange. They will breathe normally for two or three min. and then take one or two fast, gasping breaths, and then return to normal.
At 6:30 am we brewed up some hot tang and stretched out a bit, then laid back down for another hour or so. (Everything moves slower at high altitude) At 7:30 am we started getting ready to climb above camp onto the glacier to help our bodies adjust to elevation. Weather at this point was still approx. 20 deg. and snowing lightly.
We left camp at 8:30am and ascended to a crevasse approx. 1,000ft above camp. We took a break there. All three of us felt very good, strong, breathing well and healthy, a good change from the night before. At this point, Trav returned to camp to watch our gear and Jer and I continued another 500ft up the glacier. We took cover under an overhanging crevasse and sent out a SPOT signal. Wind was 15-20mph and we had blowing snow and spindrift. After resting for 20 min. we descended back to camp and purified water for the day, had a breakfast of granola and yogurt and went back to sleep. If everything goes as planned and the weather is good, we will go for a summit attempt at in 12 hours.

Jer, sending out a SPOT signal.

Coyote, watching our camp from the ridge.

December 22nd, 2007
7:14 pm
Cotopaxi Base Camp

In five hours we make our summit bid. As of now, everything is looking good. Travis and Jer got some much needed sleep this afternoon. Weather has been on and off. We were tent bound most of the afternoon from before noon until after 4:30pm. Late afternoon the skies cleared, the sun came out, and God blessed us with a wonderful evening. We ate an early dinner at 5:00pm, purified all the water for the climb and prepared for the morning.
The plan is as follows,
Wake up at 11:30pm, brew up tea, eat a quick snack, and leave by 12:30am. I am going to take lead on the rope; we are taking one summit pack, which we will share between us, two liters of water, thermos of hot water, down jackets, med kit, and lots of energy goo. If everything goes well, we will summit sometime between 7:00 and 8:00 am. We all feel strong and prepared. It is now up to weather and the higher altitudes to determine if we succeed.

A rare view as the skies clear the afternoon before our summit bid.

Jer making dinner during a few beautiful, clear hours.

Trav, watching the clouds move across the valley below us.

The summit of Cotopaxi, seen through the mist as the sun goes down and the weather starts to change again.

December 23rd, 2007
10:12 am
Cotopaxi Base Camp

We are back to camp after a successful summit of Cotopaxi! God is good. We managed to sleep through two alarms last night and woke up at midnight. We got dressed, brewed up, prepped our packs and left camp at 1:00am. 15min. out of camp, Trav started feeling very sick with a headache that was getting much worse. We were close enough to camp that he could return safely alone, and he did so. Jer and I continued on, roped up and put our crampons on at 1:45 am and started up the glacier. We were the first rope team of 5 that we going for the summit that morning, we were in the lead, 20 people followed behind us, a line of headlamps in the darkness far below us.
Weather conditions, approx. 10 deg. light snow and gusting winds up to 20mph. We settled into our slow pace and made very good time. At 4:00am with heavier snow and visibility at less than 40ft, we lost the route due to the windblown snow. We took a 20min. break in an overhanging crevasse and waited for another team to catch up, hopefully with someone who knew the route.
After two more attempts to find the route on our own and an hour of waiting, at 5:00 am a team of four arrived at our location and started across a traverse into the darkness, we followed very carefully. As faint light started to illuminate the mountain at 5:30 am we could see that we were 300ft above the route on a ridge that was un-climbable above us, due to a large 70ft ice wall. At this point, two of the climbers that we had been following (who put is in the wrong place), approached us and asked if they could rope up with us. They spoke no English and for some reason were at 17,000ft with no rope or proper equipment. Considering the situation, we decided it would be best to help them. We tied them in on our rope and began a tricky traverse across a rock band and snow slope towards the upper part of the main route. The two climbers now on our rope were slowing our progress quite a bit, and we were moving very slowly now. One other rope team of two passed on the far side of the slope. We took over two hours to climb the last 1,500ft of headwall to the crater rim. By the time we reached the summit, Jer was practically hauling the two climbers behind us. We reached the summit at 7:45 am. We had ten minutes of sunlight and views through the clouds before fog rolled in again and visibility was back to 200ft or so. We snapped our summit photos and began our rapid decent, trying to manage the two Ecuadorian climbers still, which was making things very challenging. As soon as we reached safe ground, we untied from the rope, backpacked it and said farewell to our two “friends”, we glissaded (controlled slide) down the glacier from 17,000ft to 15,000ft in about 15 min. and arrived back at camp in one hour, fifteen minutes after leaving the summit! Eight Hours round trip!!
We are now taking a short rest before packing up and heading out to catch a ride back to Papagayo. It is still raining…

Jer, in the early hours of the morning, making his way through the snow at 16,000ft.

Michael, route finding in the fog.

God is good. 7:45 am, on the summit of Cotopaxi.

Jer, on the decent, looking at a massive crevasse we had passed in the night. With light now, we could see inside. It could eat a school bus whole. 60 ft wide, 150 ft deep, 1/2 mile long.

We are now sorting and cleaning gear and taking off to attempt the Ilinizas this afternoon, For once, we awoke to sunshine outside; hopefully it lasts for quite a while.

Since we will be climbing on Christmas, I will not get a chance to write a blog on the 25th. It is very strange being in a foreign country, alone on Christmas; I would have to say it is going to end up being one of the worst parts of a great trip. Such is the life of adventure I suppose. We all wish we could be at home celebrating with you, but know that we send our love and you will be in our thoughts as we climb Christmas morning.
I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas and may God Bless you.

Love Always,

Michael

A parting photo, Pretty beautiful world we live in!

(see the tent in the bottom right corner)

Ups and Downs

Well I see that some of you have been watching the SPOT and noticed that we did in fact reach our first summit, Cotopaxi at 19347 ft, with the exception of Travis who became very ill when we woke up at 12am and ended up loosing his breakfast along with his strength.

I had my fair share of throwing up and dizzy spells for the first 24 hours. I threw up after only 3 hours at our tent site and thought I was down for the count. I was hardly able to stand up to go to the bathroom with out almost fainting and would stumble back to the tent in the darkness often falling over and collapsing on my sleeping bag completely out of breath from the twenty foot walk. I later found out that I was standing up to fast and needed to take several minutes to change positions from lying down to standing up while taking very deep breaths. After a miserable first day I figured out how to function at altitude (very slowly) while my body did its share of adapting to the lack of oxygen and felt good this morning for the climb.

Remember that we were living for 48 hours at or above the same elevation of Mount Rainer (14,410 ft) the highest any of us had ever been before, and that was only for a few minutes. Michael faired the best and was fine except for a few headaches so he became the pack mule and leader of the climb, hauling the camera, water, coats, ect. up to the top.

There are many good pictures and a few good stories to go along with this climb but will have to wait for a few hours. We are in the process of stripping everything down and drying our equipment out (yes it did rain/snow most of the time) and are also trying to recuperate as we plan on trying to climb the Illinizas tomorrow depending on how well Travis feels in the morning. Be looking out for Michael’s blog with pictures and hopefully some stories if time allows.

~Jeremy

Rain Rain Go Away

So as most of you probably have figured out it is still raining here which is preventing us from getting to three of the four mountains near us. The only one that is possible to reach right now is Cotopaxi, it is the second tallest mountain in Ecuador at 19,347 feet. This mountain is very popular to climb and is well within our abilities. The only problem that we might run into is our lack of acclimatization. We plan on spending two days at the refuge (instead of the normal one day) at 15,750 feet to try and adjust to the altitude and then make our summit push in the wee hours of the third morning.

If everything goes as planed we will be without communication other then the SPOT for the next three days. All of your prayers are greatly appreciated. Hopefully we will be back with good news and great pictures in three days.

Untill then.
ACC

Pray for the rain to stop... Other than that we will decide tonight if we try and climb norte or try cotopaxi, alot if riding on the weather. The roads to alot of these mountains are dirt so with all the rain it makes it very difficult to say the least if not impossible to drive. The place we are staying for the next little bit is amazing, great food, great people and lots of dogs to play with.
Tonight we are going to try the rain go away dance around the fire place so hopefully that works.

Some Recent Photos

Hello Everyone,

We spent yesterday taking care of some last minute details around Quito as well as getting in a few hours of climbing at an outdoor climbing wall. Last night was spent packing for the next leg of the trip into the Sierra. We got up early this morning and walked four blocks, in the pouring rain with all our gear, to meet a bus that took us to our “base of operations” for the next week or so, Hosteria PapaGayo. It is a beautifully restored Hacienda over 100 years old, surrounded by the green rolling hills of farmland near the village of Machachi. It location places us with in an hours drive of four of the mountains we are planning on climbing. The weather is still terrible, raining on and off, lots of cloud cover, completely unsuitable for climbing. We spent the afternoon getting settled at PapaGayo and exploring the surrounding hills in the rain. Here are some photos of our most recent adventures, Enjoy!

The courtyard of our Hotel in Quito.

Our room at the Posada del Maple, the tiny dormer in the roof was our best view.

Travis pulling hard on the stone wall of a building we found.

Michael climbing at the outdoor wall in Quito.

Travis wearing his Mystery Ranch pack, headed out into Quito.

Waiting for the bus in the rain, ah the fun of dirt cheap traveling.

The PapaGayo Hotel.

The backyard of Hosteria Papagayo. Beautiful

Muddy farm road near Papagayo.

A mini-Donkey eating on the side of the road.

Looking over the countryside through the mist and fog.

A farmer headed home, disappearing into the fog.