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."