Entries by Kurt

Everest Summits!

We are very pleased to report the following Mount Everest summits today ranging from 06:45 to 08:34 local NPT time: Dorjee Gelgen Sherpa Chhetan Dorjee Sherpa Lakpa Wongchu Sherpa Kenton Cool Jon Gupta Rebecca Ferry Congratulations all!  Godspeed for a safe descent.

BREAKING: Climbers Nearing Everest Summit

BREAKING NEWS:  Climbers Kenton Cool, Jon Gupta, and Becks Ferry have been climbing throughout the night from Camp IV on the South Col and are now just about 100m below the South Summit.  Follow along with Jon’s inReach tracker. Fingers crossed for a summit and safe descent to soon!!  Stay tuned, more news as we […]

First Rotation – Camp 1

Early this morning our Everest team began their first acclimatization rotation up the mountain by leaving out of base camp about 2:00 AM.  Climbing by headlight through the Khumbu Icefall they reached the mid-point (5727m) around 6:10 AM and pulled into a well-prepared Camp 1 (6059m/19,879ft) after climbing for 8-1/2 hours at 10:30 AM. Unfortunately, […]

Corazón for more acclimatization

Acclimatization continued today with the Ecuador team climbing the inactive and eroded volcano Corazón (4790m/15,720ft.).  The plan was to get an early start and the team was ready to go at 5 AM, but no weather was not so good with continual rain coming down.  They tried to wait it out but the rain won, […]

Acclimatizing in Ecuador on Pasochoa

Our private 12-day Ecuador Volcanoes expedition got started in style today with the first acclimatization hike on the extinct volcano of Pasochoa, just south of Quito.  Today’s hike to the summit at 4200m had some nice weather, some clouds but no rain.  It was a great day of about five hours of hiking up and […]

100% Summit Success on Chimborazo!

Our final climb on the Ecuador Volcanoes expedition culminates with 100% summit success on Chimborazo, the highest peak in Ecuador!  Terray Sylvester, expedition leader, provides this final dispatch for this very successful expedition: Hello, this is Terray calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Ecuador Volcanoes expedition.  It’s February 3rd.  Today we climbed Chimborazo, the last […]

High Camp on Chimborazo

Tonight is the night!  The Ecuador Volcanoes team is in place at high camp (5329m/17,484ft) on Chimborazo and resting up before starting for the summit and furthest point from the center of the Earth in just a few hours.  Our expedition leader, Terray Sylvester provides this expedition dispatch: Hello, this is Terray calling in for […]

Resting in Baños de Agua Santa

Our Ecuador Volcanoes team spent the day having fun and resting up in Baños in preparation for the expedition’s culminating climb of Chimborazo.  Here’s today’s expedition dispatch from Terray Sylvester, expedition leader: Hello, this is Terray calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Ecuador Volcanoes expedition. It’s February 1st.  Today we’re resting in preparation for our […]

Rest day: Lake Quilotoa and Baños

After yesterday’s summit of Cotopaxi, the Ecuador Volcanoes team spent the day sight-seeing and relaxing at Lake Quilotoa and Baños.  Here’s expedition leader Terray Sylvester with today’s expedition dispatch: Hello, this is Terray calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Ecuador Volcanoes expedition.  It’s January 31st.  Today is one of our two rest days before we […]

100% on the top of Cotopaxi!

Congratulations to our entire Ecuador Volcanoes team for reaching the summit of the second-highest peak in Ecuador, Cotopaxi!  Here’s the details from expedition leader, Terray Sylvester: Hello, this is Terray calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Ecuador Volcanoes expedition on January 30th.  Over the last two days we had a great climb on Cotopaxi, the […]