Cabin Fever!

Sorry to be so late with this blog update; but we've been literally pinned down by the weather at the mountain hut on Cayambe. Everyone attempting a summit attempt has been turned back by the atrocious weather. Avalanche conditions are extreme. Even getting up to the hut was an adventure as we had to hike the last 2 miles because of the impassible road conditions. ... and we started the trek in at 14,000 ft! The hut is at 15,200. So needless to say, I was pretty whipped just getting there.

Anyway, after three days of going stir crazy we finally got out onto the glacier for some practice and technique work. Those ice slopes are incredibly intimidating; just getting onto the glacier is a big challenge. The weather finally cleared yesterday .. so we have headed down to the town of Cayambe to stay at a local hacienda to rest up for our summit attempt very early on Friday morning. Hopefully, one more day of clear weather will set the snow to give us a shot. One way or another will try to get pics of the attempt posted.



The scale of these mountains is just incredible. The Sierra and Uinta ranges -- big as they are – simply cannot measure up. Cayambe rises so incredibly high above the hut that it seems almost artificial .. like some sort of movie prop. Glad to be warm and dry tonight ... certainly won’t be that way on Friday morning. To help min8imize avalanche risk we are going to start climbing at 1:00 am when the snow and rock are all still frozen. It’s a full moon, so visibility will be great if the skies are clear.



Wish us luck!

Mark, Joshua, and Me at Lake Coyaucha

At the Center of the World

One foot in each hemisphere!

The "5-star" Mountain accommodations on Cayambe

An angry glacial moraine

Warming up

Crossing the Rock Band on the way io the glacier

Dang! That is a deep crevasse!

Vertical wall practice ... we'd need this experience later!

Scary ... but glad we did this.

Abseil Practice of a 40 ft ice cliff!

In Ecuador we do more stuff before noon than most folks do all year!

The Virgin of Quito

Guayasamin Artwork

Old Quito

City View

City Carved Right into a Mountainside

Well .. arrived in Quito late Tuesday night .. on a cool and rainy night ... and eventually met up with the rest of the team, Mark, Vic, and out Ecuadorian guide Joshua. Wednesday featured a whirlwind city tour,with lots of churches, more churches, and a very interesting art museum featuring one of Fidel Castro's Buddies Oswaldo  Guayasamin. I posted a photo of some of his works to the blog page. Quito is an interesting place .. literally built right into a giant mountainside. Very cool and rainy  (heck its 9500 ft altitude) not tropical feeling at all. But veeery Latin American.

As low key as Wednesday was ... Today was the polar opposite .. the pan was to do an aclimitization climb to a local peak Guagua Pichincha .. which is a little short of 16,000 ft. But like all good plans the trip god sidetracked. The road up was washed out by a mudslide .. and when we tried to cross it our land rover got swept to the edge of the road .. with one wheel off and lurching over a 400 ft drop. Man you should have seen us scurry from the sides of the car. When I opened the side door I was looking straight down 20 feet .. I have to climb across and squeeze out an open window.

Anyway ... it was a loong day digging trench after trench .. and pulling with ropes .. but we finally managed to coax the truck away from the Abyss. Pix on the blog site.

Anyway we did an aborted hike to Cruz Loma pass ... and then went to the Quito Rock gym to practice ropes and Abseil techniques. Oh well .. live and learn ... hopefully this is our disaster for the trip.

Ohhhh Man!  That was scary!

Next stop .. Bottom of the canyon!

Whew  .. AT LEAST WE MADE THE PASS

Ropes Practice

What a View!

Vertical World!

Off to Otavalo and the Cayambe hut tomorrow. The three days of practice on the glacier before we make the summit attempt.