Alpine Ascent's Volcanoes of Equador: Team Pararayos reaches 19,200 ft on Chimborazo. Congrats!!

Earlier:

Mike reporting for team “Pararayos”: team made it to the summit of Cotopaxi (19,347feet) now they are moving to La Cienega hostelry (9,857 feet) to recover, rest and prepare for Chimborazo. Congratulations team “Pararayos”!:

Hi, this is Mike with Alpine Ascents Team Lightning Rod checking in at the José Ribas Hut on Cotopaxi.

We had a nice stay at a lodge inside the national park, at Tambopaxi (at 12,201) and got a little bit of rest before we moved up to the José Ribas Hut on the side of the mountain (at 15,750 feet).

We left last night at 1am to arrive at the summit at 7am (at 19,347 feet), about a 3,600 foot gain over about 6 hours. And the sun came up at 6am. We had a clear night, and then clouds came in when the sun came up, so we got a couple good photos that we’ll post on the website. And for most of us it was the first time travelling thru a true icefall and we were glad it was dark. When we came back down during the day today, we were surprised at how large some of the ice blocks and other crevasses throughout this area were. But we all safely made it down and made it to the summit.

We’re moving to the Hacienda La Cienega to recover, and rest, and prepare for a nighttime summit attempt at Chimborazo, which should be Friday and we’ll check back in before then.


Mike Grigsby reporting for team “Pararrayos” from Tambopaxi lodge: team reached 18,700 feet on Antisana but unfortunately had to turn around because of a big crevasse:

This is Mike Grigsby with Alpine Ascents “Pararrayos” Team, or Lightning Rod, a name that we took after being caught in a storm high up on an acclimatization hike on Rucu Pichincha, that turned into a mud slide and turned us around.

A couple nights ago, we were camped at a hacienda on the open cow field at the base of Antisana Volcano (at 13,405 feet) before moving up to the high camp (at 14, 870). At night we went to bed pretty early to wake up at midnight to climb Antisana, to arrive at around 5:30 in the saddle between the north and south summit for the sunrise. Cotopaxi and Chimborazo could be seen off in the background above the clouds, and as the sun came up Antisana cast a shadow of its peak on top of the clouds, which were down beneath us. As the sun came up, the volcano Sangay was also erupting off in the distance. We front pointed up a 50 degree slope to a crest 150 feet below the 18,891 foot summit ridge, that ended in a large crevasse that was impassable. So we down-climbed and back up again to the same dead end twice more, before realizing that we had climbed as far as the route would take us.

We’re now at 12,355 feet in the Tambopaxi base camp, while waiting to move up to the hut tomorrow night for another midnight summit attempt, this time on the 19,347 Volcano Cotopaxi.

That’s all for now, another webcast to come after our summit attempt.


Eddie Ahyakak reporting for team “Pararrayos” from Antisana Advanced Base Camp (14,800 feet) waiting for midnight to attempt the summit:

Hola, family and friends, this is Ed Ahyakak and today’s cybercast is from Advanced Base Camp (at 14,800 feet) on Antisana.

We’ve had a nice transition to ABC camp and had a huge pasta dinner. Everybody is excited for tonight’s summit attempt, beginning at midnight. The weather forecast is for clear skies, five to fifteen miles per hour winds.

Mike, Dennis, Paul, Drew, Vanessa, and Lacy say a big “hello” to everyone listening. Adios!


Team enjoys a long day working on skills on Antisana
Posted on November 9, 2012 by alpineascents

Hi, this is Lacy and we’re in Ecuador on Antisana, and we’re doing great.

The team went up to about 15,700 and we were working on skills, self-rescue, and running belay and a lot of foot work on the glacier. It went really well, everyone performed great. Long day, great food, good fun!

Bye!

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