Ecuador High Altitude Expedition: Final Dispatch

Ecuador High Altitude Expedition: 

January 7-21, 2011 
Climbers: Brett Davis, Steve and Isabel Herstell

Lead Guide: Pepe Landazuri

January 21, 2011

Pepe called at 5pm Ecuador and US Eastern time with this update:

Hello!  We arrived in Banos yesterday, Thursday.  It is a city with lots of hotsprings.  The group woke up early to do some horse riding today.  The weather has beens nice, and we could see the nearby active volcano Tungarahua smoking away.  It is reasonably calm right now, but it at least a little active all the time.  I think from 1975 until 1985 more or less, AAI used to climb this mountain as an acclimatization ascent before it became so active.  It would be fun to see the photos from those early climbs.

This afternoon we drove back to Quito and had lunch on the way.  We got in around 3:30 or so.

Everyone’s doing very well - very pleased I think with their explorations of Ecuador and especially with their successful ascents of Cayambe and Cotopaxi.  They have a lot to be proud of!  It’s the end of a truly great trip.  It was a real pleasure working with this group!"

[below – Baños and its hot water, super renewable laundromat that's fed by one of the many hot springs in town, and Tungarahua – the vent for the Baños "furnance."]

Ecuador High Altitude Expedition#4: Dispatch 9

Ecuador High Altitude Expedition: 

January 7-21, 2011 
Climbers: Brett Davis, Steve and Isabel Herstell

Lead Guide: Pepe Landazuri

January 19, 2011

Pepe called at 6pm Ecuador and US Eastern time with this update:

"Hello!  This is Pepe calling from Ecuador once again.   I am glad to report that I am feeling a lot better! I got a good rest today, and that helped a lot.

The weather was quite changeable today.  We had a little rain, then sun, then snow, then sun again.  It's been a little crazy!  But, despite all that, the group summited this morning at 7 am! They left at 1 am early this morning and made it in just six hours.  These guys are really fast.  That’s great time!

I met the group at the hut on Cayambe thbis afternoon and brought them down to Hacienda Guachala.  So tonight it's going to be rest, relaxation, and a lot of good food, and tomorrow we’re heading to the hot springs.

Everyone’s doing very well – tired, but very excited to have summited beautiful Cayambe.  I’ll call again tomorrow."

Ecuador High Altitude Expedition #4: Dispatch 8

Ecuador High Altitude Expedition: 

January 7-21, 2011 
Climbers: Brett Davis, Steve and Isabel Herstell

Lead Guide: Pepe Landazuri

January 17, 2011

Pepe called at 1pm Ecuador and US Eastern time with this update:

"Hi again!  This is Pepe calling from Ecuador.  I’m sorry I could not leave a message yesterday – I came down with a cold, and yesterday I could hardly talk.  It's strange how fast this happened.

We are all recuperating.  Brett took a rest day yesterday back at the hotel, and Steve and Isabel went to visit a farm just south of here. We are actually near Cayambe right now. We had originally planned to go to Chimborazo yesterday, but we decided to come back to Cayambe.

You may remember that we could not summit earlier on Cayambe, so instead of heading to Chimborazo, we’re going to try our luck on Cayambe again. In fact, today we are going to try for the summit tonight.
Today we are heading up to the hut.  I’m not going to be climbing with the team because of my cold, and instead it will be another guide, Contingo, who will be guiding them on the climb.  I’m going with the crew today to the refuge, but then I will go back into town.

The weather is great, and I’m wishing them the very best of luck."

 

Ecuador High Altitude Expedition #4: Dispatch 7

Ecuador High Altitude Expedition: 

January 7-21, 2011 
Climbers: Brett Davis, Steve and Isabel Herstell

Lead Guide: Pepe Landazuri

January 16, 2011

Pepe called at 7:27am Ecuador and US Eastern time with this update:

"Good morning from the summit of Cotopaxi!!  We just got here five minutes ago.  It's been an absolutely great climb in perfect conditions.  We are a very happy team!

As planned,we left at midnight and made very good time.  A little under seven and a half hours is a good rate of ascent.  We have a fit group of climbers making up this team.  The weather is perfect and as I leave you this message we are admiring Antisana and Cayambe to the north, the Illinizas and Chimborazo to the southwest, and El Altar and Sangay rising on the Amazon side.  It's a little cloudy down in the Amazon Basin, which is pretty normal.  The few clouds there were around gave us very pretty colors at sunrise.  

We are very happy!  It was a great climb.  We're going to take some time now to rest, eat and drink our juice and water, and just enjoy these amazing views.  We feel like we are on top of the world.

Everyone sends love and a warm hello to family and friends back home."

Ecuador High Altitude Expedition #4: Dispatch 6

Ecuador High Altitude Expedition: 

January 7-21, 2011 
Climbers: Brett Davis, Steve and Isabel Herstell

Lead Guide: Pepe Landazuri

January 15, 2011

Pepe called at 7:46pm Ecuador and US Eastern time with this update:

"Good evening from Cotopaxi.  I am sorry not to have called yesterday.  We had some battery problems which are now solved.

On Friday we traveled from Guachala to a lodge not far from the base of Cotopaxi.  It's been great weather, so the traveling and the views have been excellent.

Today we drove into Cotopaxi National Park to the end of the road and then made the 45 minute walk a little higher to the hut at 4800 meters.  Tonight we will try for the summit.  Our plan is to get up at about 11pm and then start the climb at midnight.


We are optimistic.  Everyone feels really good and the weather is perfect.  There's been just a little wind at times, but it wont be a problem.


We have finished dinner and now everyone is heading to bed.  


If we can, we call you on the satellite phone from the summit.  We are excited to begin the climb! Talk to you soon."

Ecuador High Altitude Expedition #4: Dispatch 5

Ecuador High Altitude Expedition: 

January 7-21, 2011
Climbers: Brett Davis, Steve and Isabel Herstell

Lead Guide: Pepe Landazuri


January 13, 2011

Pepe called at 5:15 am Ecuador and US Eastern time with this update:

"Hi, good morning this is Pepe calling from Cayambe. Right now we’re just getting back to the refuge. Unfortunately, we could not summit today because the group had some headaches and it was safest to come down.  We were surprised because everyone was acclimatizing so well.  But things can change quickly, and it is most important to be conservative and not keep going up when you are feeling not quite right.

We left at midnight, and climbed for about 4 hours, then decided it was time to turn around.  We got up to about 5,200 meters, though.  Right now, it’s just after 5 am.  We’ll try to get some sleep for a few hours, then wake up and go to some hot springs today that are not too far from here.  Hopefully everyone will feel better after that.  We're all fine - the team's headaches are going away, and now some more sleep will be good.  Tomorrow I’ll call from the Cotopaxi area."

Ecuador High Altitude Expedition #4: Dispatch 4

Ecuador High Altitude Expedition: 

January 7-21, 2011
Climbers: Brett Davis, Steve and Isabel Herstell

Lead Guide: Pepe Landazuri


January 12, 2011

Pepe called at 8:15 pm Ecuador and US Eastern time with this update:

"Hello again!  This is our second night at the hut on Cayambe. We have near-perfect conditions, which is excellent!  Yesterday it was a little windy, but today we have no wind at all – it’s so clear we can see all the other peaks in the area.  It's so beautiful!

Earlier tonight at the refuge we had chicken soup with pasta Bolognese.  It was a success.  In the Bolognese I had onion, carrot, celery, pancetta, a little chopped meat, garlic, wine, Italian tomatoes, stock and several herbs.  'Mighty delicious' was the team's judgment!  I was quite proud of it.

Tonight is our first major summit night and everyone has gone to bed early to get lots of rest. We plan to wake up at 11pm and get moving by midnight. We’ll try to make the summit by 8am. This is the usually turn around point for Ecuador volcanoesbecause we want to have nice firm conditions in the snowpack on the glaciers.  After that, the snow gets soft and the snow bridges are weakened.  In places like Bolivia or Peru it's a little colder and as a result you have more time, but here we have to be more conservative with the timing – so as always, we'll make a very early start.

Wish us good luck.  We’ll call again tomorrow and let you know how it goes."

Ecuador High Altitude Expedition #4: Dispatch 3

Ecuador High Altitude Expedition: 

January 7-21, 2011
Climbers: Brett Davis, Steve and Isabel Herstell

Lead Guide: Pepe Landazuri


January 11, 2011

Pepe called at 7:45 pm Ecuador and US Eastern time with this update:

"Hello! This is Pepe calling again from Ecuador!  Right now, we are at the Cayambe refuge at 4,600 meters.  This is our first night on the flanks of Cayambe.  Right now, it’s very clear.  It looked great today, and the group took a lot of great photos.  It was beautiful.  We could see Antisana across the way.

[the painting below is by American landscape painter Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900).  He painted in Ecuador in 1855.]

We just finished a big dinner of pizza and spirits.  Tomorrow morning we’ll do a skills session and go over some mountaineering techniques for about 3-4 hours.  We’ll also climb up to 4,800 meters and do a short walk-around.  We’ll come back to the refuge and get ready and rested because tomorrow night we’ll try for the summit of Cayambe.  Everyone is doing well.  Brett even has his own sat phone, so he’s been calling his friends and family.  See you tomorrow – I mean, I’ll talk to you tomorrow!  Hasta manana!"

Ecuador High Altitude Expedition #4: Dispatch 2

Ecuador High Altitude Expedition: 

January 7-21, 2011
Climbers: Brett Davis, Steve and Isabel Herstell

Lead Guide: Pepe Landazuri


January 10, 2011
Pepe called at 8:58 pm Ecuador and US Eastern time with this update:

"Good evening this is Pepe calling from Ecuador!  Today as planned we climbed Gua Gua Pichincha, a peak of 4800 meters.  We got to summit by mid-day and basically did over 2000 meters of altitude gain and loss in 5 hours.  That’s pretty good.  We also saw a condor!  It was a very big one.

On the way up it was a little cloudy but by the time we got up high, it was very nice, very sunny, and completely clear.  Right now everyone is resting in the Hacienda Guachala below Cayambe. We plan to start our trip to Cayambe tomorrow.  That’s it for today.  I will call tomorrow for another update."

Ecuador High Altitude Expedition #4: Dispatch 1

Ecuador High Altitude Expedition: 

January 7-21, 2011
Climbers: Brett Davis, Steve and Isabel Herstell

Lead Guide: Pepe Landazuri



January 10, 2011
Pepe called at 7:20 am Ecuador and US Eastern time this morning with update:

 "Good morning! This is Pepe calling from Ecuador. I’d like to update you all on the team.   As you probably know, we are working on our acclimatization in anticipation of our high altitude climbs of  Cayambe, Cotopaxi, and Chimborazo on this trip. On Saturday we went to Otovalo market and enjoyed that very much.  There was a lot of activity and, as always, quite a variety of goods to look at.  The 'people watching' was excellent.

On Sunday we climbed up to the summit of Pasachoa [below] as a warm-up. The summit is at 4500 meters, and the group is incredibly fast and fit. We made it there in about 3.5 hours! I’m glad to see them doing so well.

Today is another acclimitaztion hike. We’ll do Gua Gua Pinchincha in the afternoon, which is about 4800 meters. Luckily the weather looks good – it’s going to be very clear.  Saturday was was nice too – we saw Cayembe and Cotopaxi from Otavalo.  I would say we are having excellent luck with the weather so far.  I will call you with more news later, probably tonight."