Ready to launch!
We're all set to tackle our first objective tomorrow, Ishinca. We spent the day today training on the glacier, in the 16,300 ft vicinity. Everybody had a blast, performed well, and is excited to begin what soon will be (with permission of the mountain gods) the opening summit. Hoping to check tomorrow from "la cumbre", that's it for now.
RMI Guide ElÃas and team
Good evening from Base Camp in the Ishinca Valley! We're settling in for the night, an early bed time, as tomorrow we'll have our first semi alpine start of the program. Today was spent reviewing the fitting and use of our equipment (the name of the game has been proclaimed as "we'll be the most pro-looking team on the mountain") followed by a thorough review of the knots and hitches we'll use on this trip. A gourmet lunch by our cook Emilio, (fresh trout and quinoa soup) gave us the energy we needed to take a stroll to "Ishinca Cocha", the glacial lake perched 1,000 ft above camp, and to continue to stimulate our bodies in the acclimatization process. Stay tuned for more!
RMI Guide ElÃas de Andres Martos and team.
Greetings from the Ishinca Valley! We're writing from our base camp, at 14,400ft, right at the foothills of our first two objectives; Nevados Ishinca and Urus. We left our hotel this morning in Huaraz, and an uneventful bus ride took us to the sunny village of Pashpa, where we met our pack of donkeys and their gentle drivers. Four hours of hiking through a forest of quenuales (the Andean staple tree) took us to the open meadow where camp sits. Everyone hiked in pretty good style! Our first day of training starts tomorrow, and everyone is looking forward to move further uphill soon!
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
Greetings all,
Today was one of those beautiful bluebird days in Huaraz where the views of the surrounding 20,000ft peaks are especially stunning. Our team took advantage of the perfect weather and made an acclimatization hike up into the hills above our hotel, to about 11,500', in preparation of our move to 14,000' base camp in the Ishinca Valley tomorrow. Views from the top gave us a great birds eye view of the city of Huaraz and the surrounding peaks. After the hike, we treated ourselves to a pizza lunch at El Horno, a local favorite located near the Casa de Guias, in the climbing center of Huaraz. After a packing session and a casual dinner, we're prepped and ready for our move into the Ishinca Valley first thing tomorrow.
Thanks for following and we'll be in touch from base camp tomorrow!
Best,
RMI Guides Robby Young, Elias de Andres Martos, and Team
Greetings from Huaraz!
We have arrived to the Andean capital of climbing after our standard eight-hour bus ride from Lima. Everyone is doing great and growing in excitement to get into the range soon. The highlight of the day was to see the Cordillera Blanca as clear as it could be from about two hours out, on a strategic bus stop; a few gasps of amazement were audible.
Tomorrow we'll start our acclimatization process with a morning hike on the surrounding hills, to be continued by a packing session before hitting the trails for good the next morning.
That's it for now from Huaraz,
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos and team
Hey, This is Tyler with the Chilean Volcanoes crew. We are calling from the base of Volcán Llaima. We have had an interesting couple of days on the mountain, yesterday we camped above treeline. It was pretty windy and getting up there, but we were able to build a bomb proof camp. We woke up this morning to sunshine and potentially clearing skies which was a little bit of a tease. We got up the big face that we wanted to ski from the summit and it was pretty much a sheet of ice, which made it a no-go, and then the weather also closed in to sort of seal the deal that it wasn’t happening. We were able to ski nearby sub peak on the north peak, and now we are almost back to the trailhead.
We will head back to Temuco tonight and have our final night of the trip. We look forward to seeing everyone back home and we will send one more dispatch before the trip is over.
We will talk to you all soon, best from all of us.
RMI Guide Tyler Reid & Team.
Hello from Aguas Calientes,
We arrived to Macchu Picchu this morning!! After a super early 3:30am wake up call, and 4:30 start, we hiked the last couple miles to this one of the world's seven wonders of architecture. Light rain and plenty of clouds greeted us at Intipunku (Sun Gate), perched on the hills of Macchu Picchu mountain. But upon descent to the citadel itself, the ceiling of vaporized water cleared up and we could admire, as a reward for the last week of intense hiking through the Andes, the mysticism of this "lost City of the Incas" as well as its dramatic mountain cliffs surrounding us.
We are now resting at our hotel, equally excited about tomorrow's hike to Huayna Picchu, above Macchu Picchu. Stay tuned for the last report and pictures.
Regards,
RMI Guide ElÃas de Andres Martos and the Team.
PS: photo attached from Puyupatamarca, Inca site on our descent to Macchu Picchu yesterday
Hello, this is Elias and the Machu Picchu trekking team. We are at Winaywayna and we are having a wonderful time on our awesome trek. Tomorrow we will wake up very, very early to [broken] two hours [broken] that will lead us into Machu Picchu where [broken]. Tomorrow we descend to beautiful [broken]. We will be checking in tomorrow from Machu Picchu. [broken]
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos checks in from the Machu Picchu trek.
Hello, this is ElÃas and the Machu Picchu trekking team. First of all, we want to apologize for the lack of communication yesterday, but we were in such a narrow valley that our satellite phone wouldn’t pick up the signal. However, we had an awesome day crossing the Continental Divide, from the Pacific side to the Atlantic and dropping to an amazing valley, where we saw herds of llamas moving around. And we had awesome views of Nevado Salkantay, a 6,000+ meter peak, and amazing glaciers. Today we merged with the classic Inca Trail, where we are today. We are just camped here, perched on a terrace right above treeline, and it’s been an amazing day! We went from the dry Andean landscape to the rainforest we have just crossed, and we’re having an awesome time discovering this amazing land of the Inca. We’ll keep you posted tomorrow, as we have our second journey into the classic Inca Trail, and again, we have left behind the three days of incredible hiking up mountain passes in the Andes. That’s all for now! We’ll check in again tomorrow. Bye.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
Elias de Andres Martos calls in from Machu Picchu.
Hello this is Elias with the Machu Picchu Trek. We are at our camp right below Nevado Salkantay under the impressive north face. We had a really good first day of hiking. We are in the vicinity of 13,000 feet. Everybody did really well. We are about to enjoy a nice dinner cooked by our amazing cook, Alejandro. Tomorrow we will visit Incan ruins and the Inca Calendar. and will keep you posted when we get to the next camp.
RMI Guide Elias de Andres Martos
Elias de Andres Martos calling in from the Machu Picchu Trek.
The mountains are calling, hope all have a great first summit experience on Ishinca!
Posted by: Laura Voisinet on 7/3/2015 at 5:14 am
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