Hello Everyone,

Happy New Years!

Below are pictures of our climb of Volcán Rumiñahui Sur that we did yesterday as well as our game plan for the remaining two weeks here in Ecuador.

View of Rumiñahui from the pasture in front of Papagayo, A sunny sunrise finally!

The route we took yesterday, assended via the ridge on the left and descended down the face on the right. A long day, with no trails and lots of falling rock.

Trav making his way up the south ridge.

Down climbing on very very loose rock.
View of the ridge line from the summit of Sur as the clouds cleared after a short snowstorm.


All three ACC climbers, together on a summit, with good weather and our summit flag!!

Amazing.

Jer, making his way through waist deep grass on the descent

Travis and Jer finishing the hike out tothe lake. All in all, about a 9 mile day.

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, we have changed our climbing plans around a little bit. After discussing it a lot between the three of us we have decided to forgo our attempt on Chimborazo, the highest mountain in Ecuador ($1000 sponsorship, for those of you who sponsored us). We did so for a couple of reasons.
First, conditions on the mountain for the past few weeks have not been good for climbing. We were in touch we a group of climbers from Colorado who attempted it last week and they did not even start the climb due to safety concerns. Weather has not improved any since than and conditions are still not reasonable, a near by active volcano has been depositing ash on the slopes of Chimborazo as well, only making the conditions worse.
Second, As you all know, Travis has not been able to handle high elevations well and has shown signs of Acute Mountain Sickness when we have climbed above 16,000ft. For our last two big climbs, Cotopaxi and Cayambe, he has not been able to join us, but has been stuck sitting at camp waiting for our return. As you can imagine, this does not help his spirits at all. Even though Jer and I made it to the top of these mountains, we were not doing it as the ACC team and it didn’t feel right. This being the case, we have decided to forgo our attempt of Chimborazo and focus instead on some of the smaller mountains that Travis can climb with us. Our climb of Rumiñahui Sur took us to 15,400ft and all three of us felt very good on the summit. Now that Travis has spent at least 4 days above 15,000ft, he should better acclimatized and ready to try something a little bit taller. This afternoon we are leaving to attempt Iliniza Sur, for the second time. It has an elevation of 17,200ft and is a technically more demanding climb than Chimborazo is. It is a beautiful mountain and one that many people sponsored us for ($200 sponsorship). We are looking forward to climbing it and hoping that the snow conditions on the mountain have improved.
After we attempt Iliniza Sur, we will return to Papagayo for another day of rest and leave to attempt our last mountain, Antisana, on the 4th. Once we return from Antisana on the 5th or 6th, we will have six days left until our return home. If all goes well on the next two mountains, we will have climbed six peaks above 15,000ft here in Ecuador. Considering the weather conditions which have made climbing very difficult, it will not be a bad finish at all. We will spend the last six days here, cleaning and packing our gear for the trip home, catching up on some much needed rest, and taking some time to explore some parts of Ecuador that we have not had the chance to do yet.

Hope you all had a wonderful New Years,

Keep your comments coming; they are always very encouraging to us.

God Bless and Love Always,

Michael