Volcano Archives

Ecuador 2022.01.02

Corazón 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:

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

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:

– 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 5, 2022/0 Comments/by Kurt

Ecuador 2022.01.02

Jan 2022 Ecuador Volcanoes Kicks-off!

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

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 3, 2022/0 Comments/by Kurt

Ecuador 2021.12.04

Cotopaxi Summit!

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:

– 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:

December 12, 2021/0 Comments/by Kurt

Ecuador 2021.12.04

Illiniza Norte Summit!

Guide Estalin Suárez and climbers Carter B. and Saskia J. on the summit of Illiniza Norte

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:

Hello, this is Estalin calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Ecuador Volcanoes expedition. Today is December 8th.

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:

– 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:

December 8, 2021/0 Comments/by Kurt

Ecuador 2021.12.04

Corazón Summit!

Guide Estalin Suárez and climbers Carter B. and Saskia J. on the summit of Corazón

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 December 6th.

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:

– 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:

December 6, 2021/0 Comments/by Kurt

Ecuador 2021.12.04

Dec 2021 Ecuador Volcanoes Kicks-off!

Climbers Carter B. and Saskia J. on the summit of Pasochoa

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:

Hello, this is Estalin calling in for the Madison Mountaineering Ecuador Volcanoes expedtion. Today is December 5th.

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:

– 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:

December 5, 2021/0 Comments/by Kurt

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!