Entries By dustin wittmier

Hello everybody!

We are now a couple days into the final RMI Ecuador trip for this winter. The whole team is here and we're settled into the Quito hotel and spa life. The soft landing is nice after basically everyone has to spend a full day in transit reaching Ecuador. Not everyone is sold on the cold plunge and the science is still out on it, but we can all agree on hot tubbing.

Yesterday, we had a nice tour to overlook the crater of Pululahua, visit the equator and see some sights in the old town sector of Quito before the skies fully opened on us and lightning struck within the city. This was real rain, equatorial rain, the kind where you get soaked if you spend any amount of time in it and the streets turn to streams. Needless to say, we all hoped that would not be the case for our hike of Rucu Pichincha today.

I am happy to report that our wishes and our sun dances worked! We had a lovely day on Rucu Pichincha. As clouds built throughout the day, there continued to be nervous anticipation about whether or not we would need to turn around. As much as I love reaching the summit of Rucu Pichincha, I would hate to be struck by lightning. However, the clouds continued to peel away and never quite turned to their menacing, cumulonimbus form. So, we were excited to have every member of the team stand on top, with it being an altitude record for several in the group.

Tomorrow, we head north out of the city working our way towards Cayambe. It's still a few days before we will venture that high, so we have some time planned continuing to acclimate and just enjoy ourselves as tourists in this beautiful country.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier & Team

Today was eventful. We have now all been up for 24 hours and are feeling the effects. Our day actually started last night with a 10pm wakeup to attempt Antisana. By 11pm the team was on the move, although lightning in the relatively short distance and clouds in the vicinity were worth keeping an eye on. As we climbed higher, intermittent clouds were upon us, with even a light drizzle from time to time. Looking in all directions, clouds surrounded the mountain and gave an eerie sense. Compounding these difficulties was also the very dry condition of the glacier. Navigating the dry glacier at night required the utmost attention to efficient footwork. In the end, there were too many factors working against us and we made the decision to turn around just above 17000'.

Every member of the team began the climb and made a valiant effort. While it is disappointing to turn around, the more we climb the more we understand that it is all part of the experience. By now, we have a team that truly enjoys spending time together and works together as a unit in the mountains. That means as much to me as standing on any summit could. To celebrate our new friendships and an overall successful time in Ecuador, we went to a nice group dinner. Jaime, our lead Ecuadorian guide, joined and we all enjoyed recounting freshly minted memories from this journey. As we depart, it is bitter sweet. It may be some time before any of us cross paths again, but we are all excited to reunite with family back home in the coming days (except me - follow the Ecuador Seminar blog!).

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

Following a mildly eventful 4x4 overland, the team is settled in at Antisana basecamp. Similar to Cayambe, the glacier appears very dry. However, the weather seems to be holding, so we have some things in our favor. Spirits are high, bellies are full and we're ready for a final hard day!

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

Rest day!

Every member of this team deserved one day without hiking, climbing or traveling and we took this one at Casa Ilayaku, which is a lovely, modern hacienda nestled on the slopes of a defunct volcano outside of Quito. Reading, chatting with family over the phone, eating nice meals, checking out the gardens and general lounging were just a few of the relaxing activities for the day. It's helpful that the food here is healthy and fresh to help us heal from the events of yesterday (summitting Cayambe) and prepare for our climb of Antisana.

This evening, we turned our focus towards Antisana. We have a solid plan in place, great Ecuadorian mountain guides and are armed with more experience. Now we hope for good weather to cap off what has already been an excellent trip with a fun team.

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

The team started their summit day with an early alpine start, leaving the Cayambe shelter just before midnight. Scrambling up to the glacier under headlamp, and an almost full moon, the morning remained very calm and pleasantly cool. 

After nearly two hours of approach, the team transitioned into crampons and full glacier kits, roping up and embarking up the ridge with their guides. Cayambe remains in a very dry state, leaving very icy and firm walking conditions for much of the climb. 

Furthermore, winds picked up higher up on the mountain, exposing the team to colder more challenging climbing conditions. At around 18k feet, the sun began to rise, giving way to some relief for the final stretches of the climb. 

After roughly 7 hours of climbing, the team topped out at nearly 19k feet. The summit was relatively calm with low winds, allowing the team to hangout and celebrate for nearly 40 mins. 

The descent back to the shelter was altogether speedy despite the effects of altitude being obvious to many of the group. After a brief rest and a late breakfast, the team packed up and departed to Tumbaco for a much-needed upcoming rest day before heading to Antisana. 

RMI Guide Mike Bennett & Team

We are in our beds at the Cayambe hut and feeling motivated for tonight's climb. This evening, the clouds are settling and the mountain is out. We will check back in tomorrow afternoon after our summit attempt!

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

Well, we now sit at the base of a huge mountain. All the acclimatization, organizing, bus riding and patient waiting has brought us here. Now just one last piece of preparation, which is to have our glacier school tomorrow. Tonight, we are in the lower hut at Cayambe and enjoying a quiet evening that included a delicious, traditional Ecuadorian dinner. The team is really bonding and Joe's preamble to tomorrow night's motivational speech already has us feeling excited.

Today was also an enjoyable travel day. We left the Intiyaya residences at a reasonable hour this morning, most of us getting a great night of sleep. That was followed by using our haggling skills to shop at the Otavalo market and get some last-minute supplies or souvenirs. We then had a nice lunch at a cozy little sandwich shop in the town of Cayambe. This place is generally a relief for folks as the owners are English, so the only things lost in translation are things like "chips" (french fries) or "rocket" (arugula). And now we are settled in for an early bedtime as we adjust to the early wakeup schedule.

Our plan at this point is to be standing on top of Cayambe in less than 36 hours. Of course, Mother Nature always has the final say, but if the weather continues to hold, this team is prepared!

RMI Guide Dustin Wittmier

Today we traded the bustle of Quito for the serenity of the northern Ecuadorian countryside. Life is a little slower here in Otavalo where we are staying for the night. We sat down to dinner, which felt like a family dinner as we are the only party in this hacienda tonight. Even the house dogs joined us at the table, making us truly feel like we're at home.

Our day consisted of several hours of driving and another acclimatization hike, Cerro Fuya Fuya. The weather remained quite dry today and afforded us seldom seen views from the summit. To the north we could see well into Colombia, to our east a clear view of Cayambe and to our south a variety of other big mountains of Ecuador. In fact, it was nice enough that the bus driver took a swim at the lake while we hiked.

Tonight, I'm enjoying literally the best chocolate bar in the world and tomorrow an affogato at my favorite coffee shop near the Otavalo market. Some nice treats before we begin walking up very big hills.

RMI Guide Dustin Witmier

The whole team arrived safely in Ecuador and with bags, which is always a good first step. I think we all experienced some bit of turbulence as we escaped the North American winter, but fortunately no door panels removed themselves unexpectedly during anyone's flights.

Yesterday's city tour happened without any hitches. Due to the recent political events, the streets are a bit quiet, but it seems like life is more or less returning to normal. It was great to have our city tour guide to help answer our questions and help us sort through what may have actually happened and what is a bit sensationalized in the American news media. Along with that, we made our first steps in acclimation both to the altitude and a different culture. Some physics experiments at the Museo do Intiñan (the indigenous equator museum) were capped off with us balancing eggs on a nail before heading to old town Quito and seeing some attractions.

Today, we awoke to another beautiful morning. Typically it is rainy in the afternoons here, but for our first two days we have been treated to nice days, start to finish. Blue skies made for a lovely hike up Rucu Pichincha and everyone did really well. We even had a few folks reach new altitude records, congratulations! Hopefully, there are more to come on this trip. The remainder of our evening involves cold plunging, hot tubbing, group dinner and one final night in the hotel before departing for the countryside.

Dustin

Monday, December 11, 2023 - 8:45 pm PT

So it goes with climbing sometimes we take what the mountain gives us and unfortunately that isn't always the summit. The team awoke around 11pm to beautiful weather and had an incredible few hours of climbing under the stars on the upper slopes of Antisana. Every member of Team Cuy Frito showed off their impressive strength navigating a breathtaking and complex glacier, it was really a sight to see. As the team got just above 18,000 feet, we encountered some instabilities in the snow and made the decision to turn around due to avalanche concerns. While we didn't get to stand on top of this one, it was still a wonderful day of climbing. It has been a joy to watch the team come together as one big goofy family over the course of this adventure. We will all be coming back with memories to last a lifetime and our head's held high knowing we kicked some serious butt in the mountains along the way. Thank you for all the support at home and we will be seeing you all soon!

RMI Guide Michael Murray