Chimborazo Archives

Ecuador 2023.11.18

Summit Success on Illiniza Norte!

Climbing Illiniza Norte with Illiniza Sur seen behind (Photo by Estalin Suárez)

The Madison Mountaineering Ecuador Volcanoes expedition team has completed their acclimatization hikes and are primed and ready for their upcoming attempts on Cayambe and Chimborazo! Weather and climbing conditions have been outstanding so far, and will hopefully continue for the climbs ahead. Expedition leader, Estalin Suárez checks in with this dispatch from Ecuador:

Hello! This is Estalin calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Ecuador Volcanoes expedition.

Today, we summit the Illiniza Norte which is 16,800 feet with the summit. We finished our acclimatization process! The group is feeling pretty strong and motivated. We had a great day on the mountain and some really nice views of the other peaks around! Now everybody is resting at the lodge.

Tomorrow we are going to move to Cayambe volcano which is our first big mountain on this expedition. Stay tuned… Bye!

Summit photo on Illiniza Norte! (Photo by Estalin Suárez)

Ascending the ridge which leads the way towards the summit of Illiniza Norte with Cotopaxi behind (Photo by Estalin Suárez)

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:

November 23, 2023/0 Comments/by Garrett

Ecuador 2023.01.02

Rest Day in Baños!

The team had a wonderful day exploring the beautiful city of Baños! In an effort to recover after their successful summit of Cayambe, the team returned to lower elevation to rest their bodies, eat good food, and take in the sights and sounds of this must-visit place. Expedition leader, Estalin Suárez, checks in with this dispatch after a fun and restful day in Ecuador:

Hello! This is Estalin calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Ecuador Volcanoes expedition – today is January 10.

We are at the city called Baños de Agua Santa (1820m/5,971ft) – a really nice place for rest! We came after Cayambe (5790m/18,996ft) just to recover here. It’s not as high as Quito (2850m/9,350ft) – we are at 1,800 meters about.

We spent the day doing the water pool tour. Now everybody is just resting getting ready for our main summit push, which is Chimborazo (6263m/20,549ft)!

Everything is going great with this expedition. Stay tuned!

Th team high above the river below!

Taking in the beautiful waterfalls around Baños!

Climber, Stephane Mayer, enjoying the increased oxygen at lower altitude!

The team taking a break from the alpine, and enjoying the jungle!

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 guide’s daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions

– Instagram:

January 10, 2023/0 Comments/by Garrett

Ecuador 2023.01.02

Success on Cayambe!

We are excited to announce that the entire Madison Mountaineering team reached the summit of Cayambe and is safely off the mountain! The team experienced perfect weather and relished in the moment while standing at nearly 19,000 feet, with views above the clouds. Expedition leader, Estalin Suárez checks in with today’s dispatch from Quito:

Hello! This is Estalin calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Ecuador Volcanoes expedition.

I’m very, very happy to announce that the whole team reached the summit of Cayambe Volcano (5790m/18,996ft) in the perfect weather! So, at the moment the whole team is in Quito (2850m/9,350ft) resting, and tomorrow we’re going to drive to Baños (1820m/5,971ft) to have a couple days for rest. Then we’ll push to our main goal which is Chimborazo (6263m/20,549ft)!

Stay tuned…

Ascending the final few steps towards the summit.

Aerial photo of the summit of Cayambe, sitting above the clouds.

The team descending Cayambe after a safe and successful summit!

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:

January 9, 2023/0 Comments/by Garrett

Ecuador 2022.03.01

Chimborazo Summit!

Yesterday our team reached the summit of Chimborazo (6263m/20,543ft) – Ecuador’s highest peak and the closest point to the Moon and furthest from Earth’s center! Garrett, Victor (@VictorVescovo), and Estalin left their high camp on Chimborazo (5304m/17,400ft) at midnight and climbed through a mild electrical storm (lightning) to reach the summit at 6 AM on a clear morning.

They had some nice views at the top of this massive glaciated volcano, then made their way down and are now safely back in Quito. They feel very lucky as the previous week the weather and route conditions (snowstorms, deep and unstable snow) made it impossible for climbers to reach the summit of Chimborazo.

This concludes our private expedition to Ecuador, next up is our Mount Everest and Lhotse expedition in Nepal that kicks off in a couple of weeks! Stay tuned!

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 guide’s daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions

– Instagram:

March 11, 2022/0 Comments/by Garrett

Ecuador 2022.03.01

Cotopaxi Summit!

Victor V. and Garrett on the summit of Cotopaxi!

The Madison Mountaineering team of Victor Vescovo (@VictorVescovo), Estalin Suarez, and Garrett Madison had a great climb of Cotopaxi (5897m/19,347ft)! Despite some challenging weather conditions over the last few days their summit morning was nice with some great views from the top!

Victor’s ice axe has been with him to the top of Everest, the bottom of the ocean (Mariana Trench Challenger Deep) during his Five Deeps Expedition and now the summit of Cotopaxi. The climbers were also able to test out their Omega Speedmaster Moonwatches on the climb, the first watch worn on the Moon! Thanks to Omega for helping sponsor the climb!

The team is resting in Banos for a day before heading off to Chimborazo, Ecuador’s highest peak and the closest point to the sun. Fingers crossed for good weather and route conditions, as recent teams have turned back on their Chimborazo summit attempts due to deep snow.

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 guide’s daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions

– Instagram:

March 8, 2022/0 Comments/by Garrett

Ecuador 2022.03.01

Greetings from Ecuador!

Our team of Garrett Madison, Victor Vescovo (@VictorVescovo), and Estalin Suarez have begun their mountaineering program by acclimatizing on some ancient and extinct volcanoes before heading to their first objective, Cotopaxi (5897m/19,347ft)! They’ve trekked up Pashachoa, Ruminahui, and are heading to Cotopaxi tomorrow evening to make their first summit attempt. Cotopaxi is a stratovolcano, the second-highest peak in Ecuador and one of the highest active volcanoes in the world.

So far the team has enjoyed some cool and moist weather in the lush countryside.

Stay tuned as they make their way up Cotopaxi and later Chimborazo, Ecuador’s highest peak and also the furthest point from the center of the Earth.

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 guide’s daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions

– Instagram:

March 4, 2022/0 Comments/by Garrett

Ecuador 2021.02.20

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, so they finally hit the trail at 7:30 AM with it raining all the way to the summit.

Still, it was a great day, tons of fun, and everyone is feeling strong and having a great time. Pushing hard they made it to the summit and back down in just about six hours. Motivation is really high!

The guys are back at the Chuquiragua Lodge in El Chaupi and laying out the plans for what’s next: Iliniza Norte (5126m/16,813ft)!

Ecuador – Day 03 Corazón 01

Ecuador – Day 03 Corazón 04

Ecuador – Day 03 Corazón 05

February 22, 2021/0 Comments/by Kurt

Ecuador 2021.02.20

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 down. Estalin and Ronan are looking pretty happy on the summit.

The guys are now relaxing in the Chuquiragua Lodge and getting ready for more acclimatizing tomorrow.

Ecuador – Day 02 Pasochoa 03

Ecuador – Day 02 Pasochoa 04

Ecuador – Day 02 Pasochoa 05

February 22, 2021/0 Comments/by Kurt

Ecuador 2021.01.24

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 major peak on our trip. We had a great climb! 100% success – everyone summited.

We left camp about midnight and we had excellent climbing conditions with nice firm snow, just great for cramponing, all the way up the normal route. So, we all topped out on the Whymper Summit, about 20,500 ft. Chimborazo is located on the Earth’s equatorial bulge so the summit of Chimborazo is actually the farthest point on the Earth’s surface from the center of the Earth – which is a cool fact.

Then we descend back to high camp, packed up our things, and went down and met our waiting tour bus. Then we came back to Quito. So we just finished our farewell dinner and we’re preparing for our flights home tomorrow.

Before we climbed Chimborazo, we stopped by a lab in Riobamba and took COVID tests. We all have our negative COVID results in hand so we will be able to reenter the U.S. smoothly tomorrow.

That wraps up a great trip. We actually had 100% success on every peak we climbed on this expedition. We did three acclimatization summits and then climbed Cotopaxi and Chimborazo and everyone made it to the summit on every climb! So, all in all a successful trip and we are looking forward to coming back to Ecuador!

The route in the alpenglow last night

Early this morning while climbing in the moonlight

The walk across the saddle between the Veintimilla Summit (false summit) and the Whymper Summit (true summit)

Reaching the summit of Chimborazo

Chimboazo summit!

The team back at the bus at the end of the day

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 guide’s daily audio expedition updates on select expeditions

– Instagram:

February 4, 2021/0 Comments/by Kurt

Ecuador 2021.01.24

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 the Madison Mountaineering Ecuador Volcanoes expedition. It’s February 2nd and we are all safely up in Chimborazo high camp (5329m/17,484ft). Everybody’s doing really well with the altitude.

It had a bit of a cloudy walk-up, kind of in a, just in a fog until we got to camp. But we just finished dinner and the clouds burned off and we’re looking up at thunderheads, looking out at thunderheads piled up, catching the alpenglow over the Pacific Ocean – beautiful carpet of clouds. We can see Cotopaxi off to the north over the shoulder of Chimborazo.

We’re all just hanging out outhere, taking photos of the alpenglow on false summit of Chimborazo, which is a couple of thousand of feet above us. We can see our route, it’s in good condition! Forecast for tomorrow is not bad, so we are hoping for good climbing conditions and we’re going to crawl into our sleeping bags now, get a little rest, and then get up at 11:00 PM, have some breakfast, and start climbing.

So, we’ll be in touch!