August 2022

The 2022 Madison Mountaineering Manaslu expedition has begun and members of our team have started to arrive in Kathmandu (1400m/4,600ft), the capital city of Nepal! Today the team went through a gear check and enjoyed a nice dinner at a local restaurant. Expedition leader, Terray Sylvester, checks in with today’s dispatch from Kathmandu:

Hello! This is Terray calling in for the 2022 Madison Mountaineering Manaslu expedition – it’s August 31st.

Today, our first climber arrived here in Kathmandu. We spent the day doing a gear check, then we went out for a nice welcome dinner at Mezze – not too far from our hotel, the Yak and Yeti.

The weather is beautiful here in Kathmandu right now! The monsoon is tapering off and the temperature is perfect, with just scattered showers and beautiful, clear air. We plan to do a city tour tomorrow and then hopefully fly to Samagoan (3530m/11,581ft) where we’ll start our trek the following day.

So, all is well here and we’ll be in touch!

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow our teams as they make their attempts on the world’s most formidable mountains on:

– Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear our daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions. Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.“

– Instagram:

Today our Ecuador Volcanoes team capped off the expedition with a fantastic summit climb of Ecuador’s second highest mountain, Cotopaxi (5897m/19,347ft)! Lead guide Estalin Suárez calls in with the happy news:

Hello, this is Estalin calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Ecuador Volcanoes expedition. I’m very, very happy with the news that today, July 31st, we got the summit of Cotopaxi volcano, which is 19,400 feet in elevation, with Mr. Kevin Gary!

Yesterday we started at midnight, and it took us about eight hours to reach the summit and then a little bit more than three hours down. We had an amazing, amazing view of all the volcanoes around. The weather was incredible – almost no wind, very clear, a little bit cold (but just that, it was okay). The condition of the snow was perfect. So, we had a great, great experience on the mountain. Mr. Kevin is very happy that we were able to reach the summit of Cotopaxi! With this, we finish our expedition.

Again, I’m very, very happy to announce the news of our summit success on Cotopaxi and we’re ready for the next expedition!

Okay, bye.

Alpine start on Cotopaxi

Dawn on Cotopaxi

Beautiful climbing conditions on Cotopaxi

Climbing Cotopaxi on a bluebird day

Heading up Cotopaxi

Amazing views from high on Cotopaxi

Nearing the Cotopaxi summit

Climber Kevin G. celebrates reaching the summit of Cotopaxi

Happy climbers on the summit of Cotopaxi!

Cotopaxi summit with perfect conditions

Cotopaxi from the air

In addition to these expedition dispatches, you can also follow our teams as they make their attempts on the world’s most formidable mountains on:

– Amazon Alexa devices with the Madison Mountaineering Flash Briefing skill:

Enable the skill and add to your flash briefing to hear our daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions. Just say, “Alexa, play my flash briefing.“

– Instagram:

2022 Manaslu Expedition Kicks Off!

Cotopaxi Summit Success!!