RMI Expeditions Blog

Hello friends, family and everyone else who plans to follow along! We are off to a great start on another RMI Expeditions Ecuador Volcanoes trip. On this itinerary we plan to (hopefully) visit the summits of both Cayambe and Cotopaxi, the third and second highest mountains in Ecuador, respectively.

To kick of the acclimatization, we traveled around Quito yesterday seeing various sights, mostly related to gaining independence from the Spanish and to the cultural history of indigenous peoples. Of course, that takes us in and out of a variety of old churches as we all marveled at the architecture of these places. In addition to learning some interesting things about Ecuador, it was also a chance to dust off the jet lag and get the bodies moving around a bit.

To continue in that direction, we hiked Rucu Pichincha today. The day started off a bit hazy, but as that layer moved we had glimpses of Cayambe, Antisana and Cotopaxi amongst other high mountains of the Ecuadorian highlands. The group all did well today and we are about to head out for one more dinner in town before we leave for the countryside tomorrow.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier & Team

Hola de Puebla! Yesterday, the team woke up early for our summit attempt on Ixta. It was a long day. After having some breakfast and hot drinks, we set out on the Ayoloco route. Crossing some difficult terrain on loose dirt, over boulders, and up a steep snow slope, we eventually made the summit just before sunrise! After enjoying the beauty of the morning sun, we descended back to high camp. Once we were packed up, we continued descending back down to La Joyita, enjoyed some lunch prepared by the wonderful Servimont staff, and loaded the van for our drive to Puebla. We all enjoyed a good rest and much deserved shower. 

Today we are enjoying the sights in Puebla for a much needed rest. Stay tuned for one more adventure as we make our way towards Orizaba tomorrow!

RMI Guide Ben Luedtke and Team

RMI Guide Ben Luedtke and team reached High Camp on Ixta yesterday afternoon. It was a long day of travelling from La Malinche. 

This morning with an alpine start the team reached the summit of Ixtaccihuatl.

Congratulations to the team!

Monday, November 4, 2024 - 5:44 pm PT

Today was the bees knees!

After our rainy hike yesterday, we popped onto the same trail to attempt the summit of La Malinche. On the way up, we got more comfy with one another telling a plethora of jokes. We found that we all have a similar sense of humor. It was a steep climb of 4,500 feet in 4.3 miles, picking through screen and boulder fields, but we all made the summit and nobody threw up or passed out, so that's a win!

We rested on the summit and then started slowly making our way down the loose dirt and rocks. We finished out night with beer and a hot meal. Off to Ixta tomorrow!

RMI Climber Emily Bowling

Sunday, November 3, 2024

Hola amigas y familias! Thank you all for tuning in to our blog; we are officially underway here in Mexico. After everyone arrived in Mexico City last night, we had an informative team meeting, savored a delicious dinner that included Nutella pizza, and enjoyed some of the local Dia de Muertos festivities. 

This morning, we had an early breakfast and began our van quest towards the volcanoes. Arriving at La Malintzi, we got checked into our rooms and headed out promptly for a hike up Malinche towards the treeline. Just as we were enjoying the scenery, CRACK! BOOM! Lightning, thunder, rain, hail. It was enough to call it a day and head back down the slippery slopes. Hungry and ready for dinner, we plan to hike to the summit of Malinche tomorrow. Buenas noches!

RMI Guide Ben Luedtke and Team

Friday, November 1, 2024

Cotopaxi Summit!

Yes, you heard that right. After a couple years of eruptive activity, the mountain is back open and today was the first Cotopaxi summit for RMI since December of 2021. In that time, a lot has changed.

The two years of eruptions have been characterized by frequent outbursts from the caldera in the form of ash plumes. This has led to a loss in glacial mass as the sun beats down on the dark material deposited on the usually reflective snow surface. The current numbers are not yet known, but also this is not a new part of the mountain's history. Cotopaxi is the second-highest active volcano in the world and has had numerous periods of activity in the past that have led to closures of the mountain for recreational purposes and threatened local communities. In fact, in the past 50 years, Cotopaxi has lost over 54% of it's glacial mass.

In addition to the ash, the country of Ecuador is experiencing its worst drought in 60 years. Due to both factors the route has changed dramatically. It routes through some different aspects of the mountain and is quite icy. The main obstacles we encountered today were moving through steep, icy terrain that at times required front pointing with crampons or the occasional swinging of our ice axes. One big factor did save our climb, which was the 6-8cm of fresh snowfall the mountain received yesterday. It deposited just enough snow on the surface to give a little more traction than the hard ice, but not so much to create avalanche hazards. We hope the snow in the mountains will continue, for the sake of the climbing routes; and more importantly, we hope for the people of Ecuador that this is marking the beginning of the wet season.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

Thursday, October 31, 2024 - 8:22 am PT

Yesterday's trip to Illiniza Norte went quite smoothly. We were on the move just after 5am and were able to complete the loop from the refuge to the summit and down the alternate descent back to the trailhead. The route was a touch slippery to begin with as a wet cloud blew past the mountain all night, but as the sun rose, the rocks dried off and we had mostly dry conditions once we reached the scrambling portion. For our entire climb it was dry and in the afternoon there was a heavy downpour, which may signal the change towards the rainy season.

Today, we are headed for Cotopaxi. The mountain does not seem to have received any fresh snowfall from yesterday's weather as we were treated to perfect views of the mountain from our hacienda this morning. The conditions are "dry" meaning that the glacier itself is mostly ice instead of "neve". Tonight after a few fitful hours of rest, we will make our summit attempt starting from the hut at about 16,000'.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

Tuesday, October 29, 2024 - 6:20 am PT

We had a lovely acclimatization trip to the summit of Rucu Pichincha yesterday. We caught a bit of light rain, not enough to stabilize the electrical grid, but enough to keep us cool for our nice day hike. On the way down, the clouds opened up a little and were treated to views of surrounding valleys, which includes the city of Quito.

Today, we are heading for the Illiniza refuge and hopefully a summit of Illiniza Norte tomorrow morning! While this is labeled as an "acclimatization" hike, it's definitely fun in it's own right. The route from the hut goes up a steep ridgeline that occasionally requires some class 3 scrambling. The views from the summit are astounding and the movement enjoyable.

We will check back in tomorrow with an update as we head towards Cotopaxi!

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

The whole team has arrived in Ecuador and we spent our first day of acclimation touring around Quito. While the activities were the standard preplanned trips to the indigenous equator museum and the old town of Quito, the feel is a little different this time. The country of Ecuador is experiencing it's worst drought in sixty years. Their power grid is based about 70% on hydroelectric power and as such, blackouts are a regular part of life right now. Fortunately for us, the hotel has generators that keep the power on throughout the day, but most residences and businesses in Quito have power for only 10-14 hours per day. This brings some moderate uncertainty to everyone here and it is felt in our interactions with our local friends and service providers. Nonetheless, life goes on and local businesses are happy to have the continued support that tourism brings. All that being said, everyone is doing their best rain dance! It feels like one of those moments where if it begins raining, everyone in the street will stop what they're doing to celebrate and honestly, even if it turns us around on Rucu Pichincha today, it will bring a smile to my face as well.

Dustin

We saved the best for last.  The best weather at least.  While we’ve had clear mornings up high, we were aware that it was still cloudy down below for much of our trip.  Not today though.  It was clear from the start in Lukla today and the airplanes and helicopters took full advantage.  While we had coffee and breakfast in our last tea house, the aircraft were hustling in and out of the nearby strip.  We headed over at our appointed times and got on a helicopter for Kathmandu.  There was none of the usual stress about wondering if we could go or not.  We were gone.  The whole team was in Kathmandu by mid morning.  Then we did about what you’d expect… showers, naps, gear sorting and shopping.  We got together at the end of the day to trek through traffic for a final team dinner.  After dodging mules and yaks, the potholes and taxis of Kat were no problem for us.   Finally -at dinner- we could declare victory and acknowledge how thoroughly lucky we’d gotten.  Things had seemed pretty uncertain at the outset. We’ll start getting back to our own side of the globe in these next days. 

Best Regards
RMI Guide Dave Hahn