Today our Ecuador Volcanoes team climbed up to the Nuevos Horizontes refuge (aka the Illiniza Hut) on Illiniza to get into position for their summit attempt of Illiniza Norte early tomorrow morning. Lead guide, Estalin Suárez has the day’s audio expedition dispatch:
Today is the 5th of January and we hiked up to the hut of Illiniza, which the altitude is about 15,000 feet. So, Dan and Jason are feeling pretty good, so we did about 3 hours up to the hut and now we are just resting, waiting for dinner, and getting ready for tomorrow to push to the summit of Illiniza Norte.
Okay, bye!
At the trailhead and ready to head up to Nuevos Horizontes Refuge, the high hut on Illinizas
On the way up to Nuevos Horizontes Refuge
Day one on Illiniza Norte
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:
Our Ecuador Volcanoes team continued their acclimatizing today with the hike up the inactive, eroded stratovolcano Corazón (4790m/15,720ft). Lead guide, Estalin Suárez has the day’s audio expedition dispatch:
Hello, this is Estalin calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Ecuador Volcanoes expedition. Today is January 4th and just hiked up to the summit of Corazón volcano, which is 15,700 feet. We had a really amazing day with blue sky, sunny and no wind. It was a really, really beautiful day. We started to walk very early in the morning at 13,000 feet more or less and we did a little more than 6 hours around, up and down.
Dan and Jason feel really good and they are really excited about the next because every day they are breaking records that they have never been at this altitude before! So, every day is a new adventure for them. That is great, everybody’s feeling well, and really motivated for the next.
So, I will keep in touch. Bye!
Hiking up Corazón
Hiking up Corazón
Nearing the summit of Corazón
A new friend on Corazón
Heading down from the summit of Corazón
Descending Corazón
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:
Our team members arrived in Quito, Ecuador on Sunday and today started hiking Ecuador volcanoes to begin the acclimatization process and ready themselves for the big expedition objective of Chimborazo (6263m/20,549ft), the highest summit in Ecuador and one of the highest active volcanoes in the world. Today they gained 700 meters of elevation by summiting the extinct volcano, Pasochoa. Here’s lead guide, Estalin Suárez with a recap of the day:
Hello this is Estalin calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Ecuador Volcanoes expedition. Today is January 3rd and we hit our first acclimatization summit which was Pasochoa Volcano with an altitude of 13,780 feet.
We had a really, really beautiful day, sunny, blue skies and almost no clouds. Yeah, really a beautiful day. We made it in about 3 hours up and down. Daniel and Jason felt pretty well with that first hike at that altitude, so yeah, it was a great day.
Now we are just at the lodge waiting for some dinner and having some rest and getting ready for tomorrow and the next climb, so bye!
Hiking up Pasochoa
Descending Pasochoa
Descending Pasochoa
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:
Our Ecuador Volcanoes continued their perfect summit streak by reaching the trip ultimate summit of Cotopaxi, the second-highest point in Ecuador! Lead guide, Estalin Suárez has the day’s audio expedition dispatch:
Hello, this is Estalin calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Ecuador Volcanoes expedition. I’m glad to say that today we got the summit of Cotopaxi, which is 19,347 ft. With this we finish our 9-day climbing tour in Ecuador with 100% success!
Yesterday we started, more or less, at midnight. It took us six hours to reach the summit and then less than three hours down. We had an amazing day – really good weather, almost perfect! Carter and Saskia are very, very happy with the results of our expedition.
Enjoy the pictures and visit Ecuador!
Bye!
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:
Our Ecuador Volcanoes knocked off another volcano summit – Illiniza Norte (5126m/16,818ft) – as they continued acclimatizing and getting ready for Cotopaxi! Lead guide, Estalin Suárez has the day’s audio expedition dispatch:
We just summit today Illiniza Norte, which is 16,800 ft. We had a clear morning, but just before we reached the summit we got some clouds. But anyways, we summitted. Carter and Saskia are feeling pretty good and very motovated to keep climbing and focusing on Cotopaxi.
Now we are at the Chuquiragua Lodge just resting. Tomorrow we are going to drive to the Cotopaxi lodge and just have one day rest before the Cotopaxi attempt.
I’ll keep in touch! Bye!
Hiking up Illiniza Norte
Climbers Carter B. and Saskia J. nearing the summit of Illiniza Norte
Climbers Carter B. and Saskia J. on the summit of Illiniza Norte
Guide Estalin Suárez and climbers Carter B. and Saskia J. on the summit of Illiniza Norte
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:
https://madisonmountaineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Illiniza-Norte-2021-12-08-15-06-42.jpg12001600Kurthttps://madisonmountaineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/logomm-300x138.jpgKurt2021-12-08 23:05:432021-12-09 19:12:40Illiniza Norte Summit!
Our Ecuador Volcanoes team continued their acclimatizing today with the hike up the inactive, eroded stratovolcano Corazón (4790m/15,720ft). Lead guide, Estalin Suárez has the day’s audio expedition dispatch:
So, today we hiked up to the summit of the Corazón volcano, which is 15,700 ft. The weather wasn’t that good. It was a little bit foggy and a little bit windy. But, yeah, we summit! We did around seven hours up and down. The weather didn’t help so much, but anyway, we’ve been having fun training for the next mountains.
Carter and Saskia are feeling well and getting used to the altitude. So we are now at the lodge, just having a rest and looking forward for the next mountains.
Bye!
Ready to head up Corazón
Hiking up Corazón
Climbers Carter B. and Saskia J. acclimatizing on Corazón
Climbers Carter B. and Saskia J. nearing the summit of Corazón
Guide Estalin Suárez and climbers Carter B. and Saskia J. on the summit of Corazón
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:
Our team members arrived in Quito, Ecuador on Saturday and today started hiking Ecuador volcanoes to begin the acclimatization process and ready themselves for the big expedition objective of Cotopaxi (5897m/19,347ft), the second-highest summit in Ecuador and one of the highest active volcanoes in the world. Today they gained 700 meters of elevation by summiting the extinct volcano, Pasochoa. Here’s lead guide, Estalin Suárez with a recap of the day:
We just started with our acclimatization process with a summit of Pasochoa volcano, which is 13,700 ft. (4200m). We got a really nice day, really nice hike, we were walking for around 4 hours, and now we are at the Chuquiragua Lodge at the bottom of the Ilinizas area. We are just resting and getting ready for tomorrow.
So, okay, bye!
Hiking Pasochoa
Climbers heading up Pasochoa
Nearing the summit of Pasochoa
Guide Estalin Suárez and climbers Carter B. and Saskia J. on the summit of Pasochoa
Climbers Carter B. and Saskia J. on the summit of Pasochoa
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:
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)!
https://madisonmountaineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2021.02.22-Ecuador-Day-03-Corazon-03.jpg9601280Kurthttps://madisonmountaineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/logomm-300x138.jpgKurt2021-02-22 23:42:222021-02-24 03:37:16Corazón for more acclimatization
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.
https://madisonmountaineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/2021.02.21-Ecuador-Day-02-Pasochoa-02.jpg9601280Kurthttps://madisonmountaineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/logomm-300x138.jpgKurt2021-02-22 01:30:172021-02-24 03:39:54Acclimatizing in Ecuador on Pasochoa
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:
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)
The walk across the saddle between the Veintimilla Summit (false summit) and the Whymper Summit (true summit)
Reaching the summit of Chimborazo
Chimboazo summit!
Chimboazo summit!
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:
