Summit Day!

6/9/06

It was three days after the world was supposed to end. And at three in the morning on our summit day it felt as though the prophecy was running late. It was my first big mountain experience and after days of bad weather and frozen tent flies our window appeared. We arrived in Ishinca valley and were greeted by rain that turned to snow. As we fumbled in the dark trying to get some food in our stomachs butterflies were born. Ishinca was the gem of our possible summit opportunities and due to the weather we were unable to establish a high camp and our first summit attempt was to come from base camp. The first hour of our hike was silence only broken by the sound of water and whisk of soft shell pants. As we approached the glacier we spotted another team on Ishinca, they appears as a glowworm moving across the ridge. As we split into rope teams the sun was beginning to rise and the past hours on our approach hike melted away. There was a good solid boot pack from the previous team that we were able to utilize and make our going a bit easier. After the first hour I realized how deceiving the mountain looked, what seems so close was truly far away. Once the sun was shinning the mass of ice we were traveling on become more like an oven. As we looked over our shoulders one could see the rest of the Cordillera Blanca range and the approaching weather mass sliding up the sides of distant peaks. On our approach the old boot pack came and bit us in the ass when we took a wrong turn and saw that the footprints came to an end. After hours in the sun the snow bridge had weakened and for my first time on a big mountain I found myself punched through the snow and pinched over a crevasse. Our team jumped into action and our leader John handled the situation well and we were soon back on the right path heading towards the top. The last pitch was accompanied by weather that lowered visibility to forty feet. We set up an anchor at the top and hip belayed people. Once on top we ran into another team and had to spend an hour and half at 18,000ft. The backside of the mountain got pounded with snow and going down was a bit hairy with the threat of an avalanche. Since we decided to traverse the peak our down climb was new terrain. Once off the glacier the murrain proved to be a lot more technical that though and after eight hours of hiking my feet were not too sure. After many false hopes of our base camp valley we rolled back to base camp with the rain on our heels. Four days after the movie Omen premiered I found myself not concerned with the fate of the world for I had reached a place not of the earth and returned to tell about it. -Nate

Snow at Base Camp

June 8th

Today we planned to wake up at 3am and climb Urus but when we woke up Julio and Neil said Feliz Navidad because the ground was covered by two inches of snow! The snow was unexpected but then again we ended up with snow almost every night. So we slept in and had a lazy morning complete with scrambled eggs and toast. After breakfast the sun came out and we managed to dry some of our cold wet clothes and we attempted to dry our tents by digging drainage ditches so the snow melt didn’t pool under our tents as was the case the night before. We then decided to hike up to the lake so we followed Julio up the trail until we came to the steep rocky moraine that really didn’t look like it had any sort of trail up it. Turns out, there was a trail and we went up the snowy switchbacks until we found the lake. We watched rocks fall into the water and create ripples for a while, then went back to base camp to do some crevasse rescue training. We climbed up on a big boulder right next to our camp and pretended Henry had fallen into a crevasse then we set up and tested a system to create mechanical advantage to pull Henry up. We also learned how to use our prussics. Rain clouds started moving in and we went under the rock to practice self-ascension so we can climb out of crevasses on our own. That was fun; we climbed all the way up the rope then down. Then we went to bed early so we could try to climb Ishinca the next day.

Stormy Weather, Stormy Stomach

June 9th, 2006

Here I sit in Lima, Peru somewhat dejected, looking out over at the cloud cover and being reminded that I´m not in the mountains. And, in fact, not even in Huaraz. It’s not, however, the poor weather which has kept myself and Kyle, one of our team members, in town. It’s poor health. Kyle, ever the trooper, came on this expedition having been previously hospitalized just days before with an unknown virus that created stomach distention and pain, as well as fever.

It all began on the 6th. After acclimatizing well over the first several days up to an elevation of 15,000’ he began to vomit with great regularity throughout the night. During the evening his symptoms presented as mild to moderate altitude sickness despite our careful acclimatization plan. In the morning we were scheduled to transport from Nevado Pastouri to the trailhead for the Ishinca Valley, our next climbing destination. As we began packing up our basecamp, I also began to feel sick and experienced several bouts of vomiting. None of the others appeared affected, ruling out a food-related ailment. Though I generally acclimatize well after more than 40 expeditions over 18,000’ it appeared I was not exempt from altitude sickness.

Despite dropping more than 3000’ in elevation on our way back to Huaraz, neither of us was feeling better and a greater concern than altitude sickness was becoming increasingly more apparent. Our team decided to spend an additional day in town, before heading back out into the mountains in hopes that one or both of us would recover. While my vomiting persisted, but leveled off, Kyle’s fever grew and he became weaker from dehydration. During the evening I called a doctor who is the uncle of a Peruvian friend. After coming to the hotel he gave Kyle a direct, needle feed I.V. of dextrose for dehydration mixed with medication for stomach cramping. A course of antibiotic for an unknown ailment topped off the cocktail.

The next day, the 7th we waved good by to John Abbott and the students as they continued on with the modified agenda. They were accompanied by Julio, a certified Peruvian guide friend, hired from Casa de Guias. While it is not ideal for curricular reasons that one of the professors of this credit-bearing course be absent from the mountains, Julio makes a fine addition to the group. His English is strong and his familiarity with the mountains on our agenda is, perhaps, unmatched. Julio’s gregarious nature and local knowledge will add greatly to the student experience.

So it is with emotions as mixed as the weather, that Kyle (greatly recovered, but not out of the woods) and I (fully recovered) soaked in the some of the last sights of Huaraz on the 8th before departing on the 8 hr. overnight bus back to Lima. What a grind!

Today, the 9th, Kyle caught a flight back to the United States in the morning and I am in Lima for the day. I will take the return bus back to Huaraz in the morning to catch up with the group as soon as I can. While the climbing on this trip is over for us, we have enjoyed each other’s company as we soaked in the rich culture and hospitality that surrounds us. It reminds us that international travel has so much perspective to offer us as our world becomes smaller. Thank you for peeking through this window into our experience and hope it has been informative. Please stay tuned for additional text and pictures from our summit team.

Nevado Pastouri, Peru

June 4-5th, 2006

Our group has arrived at basecamp below Nevado Pastouri after being transported by private bus. Our goal is to spend two nights at an elevation of over 13,000’ to allow our bodies to further acclimatize before continuing to a higher camp in the Ishinca Valley, our primary climbing destination. While we are here we will take advantage of the accessible glacier for technical skills development.

Our first day, the 4th, went well. After securing our basecamp for the anticipated strong katabatic winds (dense, strong, cold air that flows down mountain slopes in the evening), our group went for a short hike to test the lungs and view the
unique flora of the area.

Pastouri is one of the few homes to the Puya Raymondi, a century plant that looks as if it sprouts from a cactus. Its appearance is like an upside down tree, with a bushy base and a flowering stem pointing toward the sky. This area of elevation (3700m-4200m) and latitude is one of the few places in the world it lives. This flowering giant (up to 10meters high – yes, that’s 30 feet) has a life span of 40 years and is actually a relative of the pineapple; note the circular nature of growth and hard husk exterior in the enclosed picture of John Abbott. The Raymondi is capable of producing more than 8000 flowers each and six million seeds. We just missed the prime flowering time in May, but were content to the remains of these amazing plants.

Also in evidence here is the strong pre-Incan influence of the Chauvin culture, 200-900AD. Petragliphs found in this area testify to the resilience of this valley for habitation, farming, and natural grazing that still exists (though limited) today.

On the 5th, we hiked up to the snout of the glacier. Once we had a commanding view of our surroundings, Henry, one of our team, gave an excellent presentation on glacial geologic features. He focused on glacial snow-pack formation, effects of advance and retreat on surrounding terrain, and crevasse development. With following discussion additional terms such as seracs (ice towers that calve-off from steep sections of the glacier), moats (rivers of water that carve slippery banks of ice over the glacier surface), and moulins (drain holes for the glacier where moat water drains vertically into the bottom of the glacier) were also described as topography and potential hazards.

After familiarizing ourselves with expected hazards of the glacier, we geared up and practiced several technical skills. Our goal was to develop a well, rounded, team of individually competent/confident members. Crampon work was first. For many of our student team this was the first experience walking on ice, snow, and rock with steel daggers attached to mountaineering boots. With practice everyone demonstrated reasonable technique. Next we needed to practice the somewhat tedious, yet essential skill of traveling as a roped team. With differing paces in the mountains, our members found keeping the necessary tension in the rope between members challenging.

This practice session ended higher on the glacier where we found new snow to practice our final and, arguably, most essential skill of mountaineering – self- arrest with an ice axe. Using our axes to stop upside down and backward slides down the glacier was the highlight of the day and provided a level of confidence to our entire team.

Exhausted, but high on the fun factor we returned to basecamp for our final evening. We looked forward to breaking camp in the morning and transporting to our primary climbing destination in the Ishinca Valley. The great meal of spaghetti, music, and companionship of the evening was soon to be interrupted by one of high mountain travels greatest challenges – illness. Please stay tuned for additional dispatches and photos.

Off to the Mountains

6/3/06 Written by Kyle Rohne, UVM student
Here we are in Huaraz at the end of day 4 resting after a gorgeous hike and an equally as good chicken dinner. Excitement amongst the group is starting to increase from its already high mark as we leave for Pastoruri Glacier in the morning. That’s not to say that today wasn’t exciting either. We started the day out early with a breakfast here at Hotel Galaxia, loaded up in a collectivo, and headed up into the Cordillera Blanca just east of Huaraz. After a very rough and rugged hour and a half ride, we reached the park entrance and the trail that would be taking us up to the glacial lake Lake Churup at 14,300 feet. First we had to climb, though, from our starting elevation of 13,000 feet through some beautiful but sometimes treacherous terrain. After the first twenty steps up the trail, everyone was feeling the effects of the altitude except for the local Peruvians passing us like we were standing still. We all combated with the altitude and made it to Lake Churup in approximately two hours which, according to Austin and John, was one of the faster trips up to the lake of which they have been a part.
The scenery leading up to and at the lake was absolutely gorgeous. The lake sits below large cliffs and 17,000 foot peaks which it reflects off of its cold blue water. Being students from UVM and having been hardened by the fierce Vermont winters, three brave souls jumped into the lake which had to be around 40 degrees. They didn’t last very long in the water and shortly after they exited the water, we packed up our lunches and gear and headed back down the mountain. The hike down was quite sketchy but very rewarding as we hiked down along a waterfall leading from the lake to the valley below. Once we completed the hour and twenty minute hike back down to the park entrance, it was time to hop back into the cramped collectivo and head back down the treacherous Peruvian mountain roads.
Now we are packing up our bags for the next part of our expedition, Pastoruri. Tomorrow we will be heading up and establishing a base camp which we will call home for a few days as we learn various climbing techniques, glacier travel, mountain weather, and various other topics.
I can’t believe I’ve only been here for 4 days. I’ve experienced and seen so many new things in such a short amount of time. I don’t think it’s truly hit me yet that I am in Peru attempting to climb 18,000 foot peaks my first time traveling outside of the United States. It’s truly an amazing an experience; I’d be content with not making a summit during this trip, although it would be a very nice perk. We have a very strong and well-connected group that, in my opinion, could tackle any one of these peaks down here.
Well, that’s the update from Huaraz for now. Here’s to us all returning in good health and a couple of summits under our belts 8 days from now.

We will be out of contact until the 11th of June, so please stay tuned for and update then and more photos to come. Thanks for your interest in our adventure.

Acclimatizing to Altitude

June 2nd, 2007

This is our second day in Huaraz and what a beautiful day it has turned out to be. Today, after a quick group breakfast, the students headed out to purchase personal lunches for the duration of the expedition. We have found it easiest to let individuals buy the types of lunch foods they like best, recognizing that most lunches will be “on the run”. Lunch foods need to be packed in pockets and eaten regularly throughout the day instead of taking long breaks.

At noon we loaded in a small bus and transported to Puenta Cayan, a location in the Cordillera Negra. A cordillera is a chain or range of mountains. In Peru, the Andes mountains are broken into localized chains for easy identification. The Cordillera Negra is composed of snowless peaks up to 15,000’. This foray was one of our first opportunities to gain elevation and to allow our bodies to acclimatize to the elevation.

We hiked to about 13,000 and played soccer to test ourselves. After a very brief game where we were able to identify the symptoms of altitude on the human body, we discussed the physiology of those symptoms and the need to keep careful track of our health and that of our teammates. In order to take the emotion out of decision-making at altitude we introduced a high altitude medical assessment form where we can document daily the key variables for tracking the changes to our bodies at altitude. It was a very instructive time for all.

During our hike we were treated to amazing views of the Cordillera Blanca, the main high elevation peaks in the Andes of Peru. These peaks, soaring up to nearly 23,000’ are our objective in the weeks to come. We were also awed by the amazing agriculture and hard work required to farm and live in these environs.

In the morning, we will be visiting a high altitude lake called Churup at nearly 15,000’ for further acclimatization. Please stay tuned for additional photographs.

Welcome to Peru 2006

6/1/06

Welcome to Peru 2006. This is the 8th year we have operated expeditions to the amazing mountains of Peru. This year I am here with John Abbott and nine students from the University of Vermont. We will be studying expedition planning and mountain travel skills development during our 16 day, 3 credit program. Our hope is to share the various cultural, environmental, and technical learning from this high altitude mountaineering experience with you, the reader.

John and I arrived at the Lima International Airport around 10pm last night, the 31st of May. Several students were due to arrive a short time after us, others had arrived on the preceding day. While two had been waylaid by weather and diverted to Ecuador, everyone arrived safely and all were in bed by 2pm.

Today at 5pm we arrived in Huaraz after 8 hours on a Cruz del Sur bus. We were greeted by our friends at Galaxia Tours and whisked away to our hotel. After unloading mountains of gear we gathered for tea and our evening briefing on travel safety, wellness check-in, and the following mornings agenda.

Each of the days we have access to an internet connection we will be posting an expedition dispatch. We hope you will enjoy keeping track of the expedition and it’s participants and we invite you to send comments and questions. The support of family and friends for our team members is welcome and our goal is to help “bring the adventure home”. Please stay tuned.

Project Completion: Return from China

5/23/06

Sorry for the long delay since the last entry. It was very interesting to experience the great China censorship. After being able to post the first two entries, I was surprised when I keep getting denied access to Blogger.com which hosts our Trip Dispatches page. It was interesting to learn that the Chinese government allows the internet providers in country to keep track of and disallow questionable material. Google in China is able to provide some of it’s services, but not Blogger.com which it owns. Some material gets through, because of the Chinese public’s appetite for blogs (generally non-political) and the amount of traffic. Speaking of appetite, we had the opportunity to sample some of the more interesting food offerings in this part of the world including a local dish of sand worms. Yum!

During our blackout we were able to complete our project: building 7 high elements including a climbing tower, giants swing, catwalk, high tension traverse, dangle trio, pamper pole, and zipline. All these activities were constructed on 55’ telephone poles sunk in concrete. The work was completed in pouring rain (a result of the typhoon) for the entire building process. Nothing like climbing a slick pole with 30 pounds of tools dangling from your harness. Additionally all the work was completed with battery powered tools because of the voltage differences in China.

Once the project was completed, we flew back up to Bejing and were able to visit and climb the Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City, two of the great wonders of this ancient culture. While we enjoyed our visit, it was just a tease and has fueled a desire to return. Fortunately, we anticipate being able to visit again during future climbing instruction clinics and additional challenge course services.

We arrived back from China around 10pm on the evening of May 27th. We had left Bejing at 4pm on the 27th and had flown for more than 17 hours. It is interesting to relive much of the 27th since we were 12 hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time.

This project was one of the most rewarding of our careers. I hope you have enjoyed the brief text and images and your interest has also be peaked.

Challenge Ropes Courses come to China!

I am excited to be writing from Xiamen, China. Eric Cockren and I are here to build one of the first Challenge Ropes Courses in China and are honored to have been invited to this beautiful and hospitable city. Xiamen lies on the coast of south China across the strait from Tiawan. The course is being built at the Riyuegu Hot Springs Resort by High Five Adventures.

For the last two days we have been working long hours in the rain trying to get a head start on the project before a projected Typhoon hits this area. The typhoon was expected to make landfall in Hong Kong quite some distance to the south. The city made extensive preparation and evacuated many thousands of people. An unuasual storm track, however, has sent Typhoon Chanchu to the north instead and directly up the Strait of Taiwan toward Xiamen. Yesterday, the city and resort community began adding guy lines to trees and stabilizing other infrastructure. In 1999 the last typhoon to hit this area up rooted all the trees on the island. Today, every tree you see on this loose sand island is younger than 7 years old.

We are unable to work today because of the extensive rain at the leading edge of the storm. While the winds are strong they have been reduced as the storm has dragged along the coast. Earlier, they were reported to be 180km/hr. While the winds pose some danger, locals are more concerned about the amount of rain and the mud and rock slides they cause on the surrounding hillsides. The resort staff are confident that none of these hazards are unmanageable.
Our hope is to get back to work in a day or two so that we will complete the project on time and have some days left to travel. In the mean time we have great support from the resort staff and from the Taiwan based teambuilding business, Gungho, who contracted us to do the work. One of our great pleasures is to help train local staff how to manage the course and provide the necessary maintenance. I will be adding further information and photos about our adventure as time permits. I hope readers will stay tuned and share in this unique opportunity.

Comming Soon - China!

We are very excited to have been contracted to install one of the first challenge ropes courses in China. High Five Adventure's Austin and Eric will be flying to Xiamen, China on May 13th. We will be building an extensive challenge course at the Xiamen Hot Springs Resort just across the Taiwan Strait from Taiwan. The project will take two weeks and we will be reporting back to the blog when possible. Austin will also be making contact with the Chinese Mountaineering Association to investigate permits for commercial mountain guiding in China. Please stay tuned to share the sights and adventures of High5adventure.org

Summit Day

April 7, 2006

My name is James Mann and I am an adventure student at LSC. For about a year and a half I have been very interested in climbing Cotopaxi. When I saw that the school would be offering this trip I could not pass it up. My biggest worry about this trip was how I was going to react to the altitude. My main interest in recreation is high altitude mountaineering on glaciers. I do a lot of climbing in the White Mountains but the Whites do not offer either of these aspects. Cotopaxi was supposed to be my first test.

Because this was my first test I trained very hard as I did not want to fail. I believe all of this training paid off because I was chosen as one of the two students to be on the lead team. They paired myself with Jamenson and we were to climb with the local guide named Wilson. I believe I was also put on this team because I felt strong and was showing no signs of altitude illness at all. The fact that the altitude was not affecting me at all made me very happy.

I am choosing to write about today the day of the climb because it is the most important day of the trip for me. We started climbing at about twelve-thirty A.M. I was very nervous at this time. I know that bad snow conditions make travel very dangerous, but I was nervous mostly because I knew this could affect my chance at the summit. There was even some talk about turning back right in the beginning of the climb. Fortunately this did not happen.

First you have to walk about a half hour to get on the glacier. At this point you rope into your team and start a three-hour ascent up a 40 to 45 degree slope. Our group had three rope teams and unfortunately we were the only team to make it past this very tough section. This section was difficult and our guide needed to take a break as he had the grueling job of breaking trail through the rough terrain. With the snow conditions this was tougher than usual. At this point we met a French team who came up behind us and let us know the rest of our group had turned around. We felt strong and decided to continue. The next part of the trip was amazing. For a two to three hour period we meandered through a winter wonderland of crevasses and hanging seracs. It was my first experience in this terrain and I fell in love with it immediately. Unfortunately the snow was getting softer by the minute, which was creating a very dangerous situation for us. Finally we arrived at the Yanascha Wall, which leads to the summit of Cotopaxi. This slope is at an intense 55-degree angle and snow conditions have to be optimum to climb it. It is also at 19,200 feet and is just three hundred vertical feet from the summit. My guide Wilson taught me my favorite mountaineering phrase, “Cumbre Morta”. This means summit or die. He uses it to encourage when you are close to the summit. At this point it felt like I could jump up and touch the summit but with the snow conditions and the 55 degree slope he made me and Jameson aware that the phrase “Cumbre Morta” would be literal not encouraging and there was no way we could climb the last three hundred feet to the summit. I have never had three hundred feet feel so far away.

Despite not making the last three hundred feet it was my happiest moment in the mountains to date. I knew that Jameson and I would have reached the summit permitting the right conditions. I knew that it was not a lack in our physical fitness our mountaineering skills. We had what it took to get to the summit and we were so close that we could taste it. At this point it clicked to me that this is why I love mountaineering and why it is such a great sport. There are so many obstacles and different variables that contribute to the success of obtaining a summit and that’s why it is dangerous and exciting. With out these elements there would be no joy in victory. As I was post holing down the mountain in waist deep snow all I could think of is when would I be back to conquer those last three hundred feet.

On the Glacier

April 7, 2006

Lauren Jenks, Lyndon State College, Adventure Programming Student

Woah! OK. What day is it? Friday. So Wednesday we took the three-hour ride in a tight but rugged van, stopping along the way at the Supermaxi for our food at the hut. After the long ride through the Cotopaxi National Park we arrived at the parking lot. We strapped on our gear and started up the one-hour hike to the hut at the base of the peak. Immediately we felt the effects of the altitude. We huffed and puffed and finally reached the hut with headaches and lack of hunger. It was pretty dead because of the rainy season and the fact that no one had submitted in over two weeks. I made (with the help of John and Brad) a delicious vegetable stir-fry with roasted potatoes and some sautéed chicken. We tried to eat but the altitude made it difficult. We drank tea and Tang to keep hydrated and called it an early night, although many of us had a hard time sleeping due to the fact the our hearts were beating much faster than usual.

We spent the next day practicing some technical skills that we would need for the long climb later that night. We picked out rope teams and practiced walking together roped-up and with our crampons on. This was something I had never done before and I found it frustrating, especially since I had very little energy in me. We quit early and headed back to the hut to eat and take a nap before dinner.

After a quick pizza dinner and a short three-hour nap, we woke up at 11:30pm to start up Cotopaxi. When I woke up I felt great and was ready to get as close to the summit as possible. The first 45 minutes went fast and as we reached the glacier we tied up to our teams. Austin and John were tied in front of and behind me. We reached a steep section and decided we didn’t need out crampons because the snow was so deep. I was still feeling good although I needed to go to pee. This would be difficult and dangerous because I would need to take off my harness (something the boys don’t have to deal with) and the hill was so steep that I could fall down. We continued up and my stomach began to hurt and every step took a toll on my bladder. Also, John was starting to lose energy as well so Austin made the decision to turn around.

We didn’t make it to the top but we still reached 17,500ft, which is higher that I have ever been in my life. At first I was disappointed for not reaching the summit or at least going as far a possible. After more thought, I realized I had worked hard, as did the rest of the group, and this whole trip has been full of new skills and amazing culture. I think the summit was never the main goal for me. I was after the experience, which has been amazing and will continue to be with our trip to the market in Otavalo tomorrow.

Off to Cotopaxi

We hope you have enjoyed keeping track of our adventures. In the morning we will be leaving for the mountains! We have spent the last several days learning skills that will be necessary for safe climbing and have allowed our bodies time to acclimatize to the high altitude. We are ready to begin our primary climb of Cotopaxi, the highest volcano on the equator.

At 19,448´ the climb covers an amazing amount of interesting terrain. From our base-camp at around 15,500´ we will be departing at 12pm so the glacial snows will remain frozen and stable. We will be ascending the peak for about an hour before reaching the glacier. Using crampons on our feet and protecting ourselves with ropes and ice axes we will ascend almost 4,000´ over the course of 6-8 hours. Upon reaching the summit we will be able to view the surrounding mountains as they poke out above the clouds far below us. The summit is occupied by a large volcanic crater - truly a unique geophysical feature. It will take us another 3 hours to decend back to the hut for a total of 9-12 hours on the go.

We will not be able to enter additional journal entries until Friday. Please stay tuned for our audio journal entry from the summit! Thank you again for sharing this experience with us. Austin Paulson

Acclimatizing on Mt. Pinchincha

April 4th

We are inviting students on our 2006 Lyndon State College Ecuador Mountaineering Expedition to reflect on their experience. The following entry was contributed by Jon Sanborn.

The day began at 5:30am for our group, a departure from the 8am breakfasts with which we were accustomed. We loaded up a rugged van and headed off without our customary fresh juice from The Magic Bean.

Our goal, hike Pinchincha, a mountain to the west of Quito. Pinchincha stands at 15,500 feet and this hike was more about providing necessary acclimatization rather than bagging the peak. Still we were all egger to test ourselves against the altitude, but back to the van.

The ride up to the trailhead wound through areas of Quito we hadn’t seen before; much of this area was used by indigenous people for agriculture. As such the roads were poorly maintained. Our driver Hugo navigated these thoroughfares masterfully, though on one occasion he had to stop and fill in parts of the road that had washed away. Once we had reached the trailhead we said goodbye to Hugo.

We started hiking almost immediately, there was a cool wind and everyone wanted to get warmed up. The peak was visible during the beginning of our hike. It seemed much nearer than we would come to find it to be. The pace was moderate to slow. I found myself struggling to keep a steady pace.

We worked our way up Pinchincha, stopping to check our pulse every half hour or so. Jameson kept lying about his pulse. He was saying it was 64 when we had been hiking for 2 hours. LIAR!

We reached the peak in 5 hours, and shared hugs. The mountain gods too wanted to welcome us into their lofty ranks. As we began descending they sounded their mythical cymbals, and threw confetti from on high. The decent took about half the time and we were spurned on by the thought of the ride down.
The ride up took 2 hours and the ride down took 12 minutes. How is that possible? Well, Pinchincha has a tram that operates in the afternoon. After Austin negotiated the fare we boarded and rode down.


The area where we got off the tram is an amusement park…and the amusement park had an arcade…and the arcade had two air hockey tables. Naturally, certain members of the group were making jokes about my world ranking, 38th. So I defended air hockey honor. Our group surmised that this air hockey table was the closest to the sun on all of planet earth. The arcade was located 9,800 feet and combined with the Equatorial topographic bulge, I think our claim is safe.

After this excitement we hopped on a bus and headed back into the city. We all were very tired, and we are going to go to bed early because tomorrow we go to Cotopaxi.
~ Jon Saborn

Training Day

4/4/06

“The world is like a book….Those who don’t travel only read the first page” –Unknown


Hello to all, my name is Jameson, and I’m a student at Lyndon State College who happened to be lucky enough to join Austin, Kelly, and John on this trip. I found this quote looking through a guest book in our hostel, and every day I spend here I find it to be more true.

Our day today began around 8:00am with a glorious breakfast; it’s amazing to think all the fruit we eat probably came from within just a few miles, which certainly explains its delicious taste!
Upon our completion of breakfast we walked roughly a mile to an outdoor climbing gym to practice some skills we’ll be needing on Pinchincha and Cotopaxi mountains. This rock gym was like no other I’ve been to before. The fact that it’s outside and exposed to the elements is a curiosity in itself, but it also has all kinds of fascinating features. The back of the main wall is entirely made of brick, with what some might consider faulty mortaring, but in truth it’s to allow for hand and foot holds. In addition to this, off to the side is a small pyramid-like feature made of stone, likely from a quarry on Pinchincha. It was on this small wall that we did our skills practice today.

Austin and Kelly started us off with an introduction to roped travel. This skill is certainly a handy thing if someone falls in a crevasse. It is also equally frustrating in that it makes for much harder movement because we all have to move together and keep tension on the rope. each person is affected by the movement of everyone else on the rope. After this we split-up into two groups. Austin went over crevasse rescue techniques, while Kelly showed us how to ascend up a rope if, by chance, we fall into a deep crevasse. When that was all said and done we grabbed some lunch. I don’t know about everyone else, but Brad, Lauren, and I all found some excellent Indian food.

After lunch we all met up again and headed over to a tram (arial cable car like a gondola) which would take us a fair bit of the way up to Pinchincha. According to the GPS I was carrying the tram took us up to an elevation of roughly 13,000 feet. Considering that Quito is at an elevation of 9,000 feet, this was enough to get us feeling the altitude. Megan and I were interested in just how much it would help us, so we decided to go for a short run to get us feeling it even more. We were shocked by how much it affected us, after about 50 feet we were short of breath and had to stop. I was still determined to keep running, so I started up once again after I caught my breath. I made it maybe 20 feet that time before I was ready to drop. This was pretty much a continuing trend as I tried to run around. We got some amazing pictures while we were up there. Pinchincha is looking a lot more fun to climb than it did when I was looking at pictures online before the trip. After this we sat around and talked about various things such as altitude sickness symptoms, altitude physiology, and a quick debrief of the skills we had covered earlier in the day.

Right now the remainder of the night is looking like getting dinner (Brad and I are thinking Thai), shopping for our breakfast and lunch for tomorrow, and then bed. It looks like we’re getting up around five in the morning, so we’re all hoping for an early lights out. Thanks for keeping up with this everyone, we really appreciate it, and it’s definitely fun to share our experience with friends around the world while we’re still living it! -Jameson

LSC Ecuador Mountaineering 06

April 2, 2006:



Hello everyone. Presumably, if you are viewing this page you have been invited to by a member of our Lyndon State College 2006 Ecuador Mountaineering expedition. This expedition dispatch page is intended to update the friends and families of our expedition members. Our hope is that we can share the spirit of our adventures with you. We will be updating this page as regularly as possible given the geographic and technological constraints of our expedition. Please stay tuned for images, text, and audio recordings throughout our ten days here.

Our team members are: Brad Allain, Lauren Jenks, Jameson Kneeland, James Mann, Jon Sanborn, Meg Skidmore, Jason Smith, John DeLeo (faculty), Kelley Rossiter (leader), and Austin Paulson (leader)

We arrived in Quito, Ecuador yesterday after a long day of travel on American Airlines. My friend and longtime in-country partner, Ramiro Donoso, was there to meet us and shepard us to our hotel, The Magic Bean. After a late dinner and welcome we retired for a great nights sleep.

Today, fueled by the best coffee in Ecuador and fresh squeezed juices we commenced with a discussion of Expedition Behavior. Our goal was to identify lines of behavior that would help us all achieve the most from this experience. I’m happy to report that good thought by all team members contributed to the success of this discussion. We really appear to be on the same page and are supportive of both individual and group stated goals.

The afternoon was a great, shared experience learning about the history and culture of the city of Quito and Ecuador in general. We were able to learn a lot from our city tour guide, Gloria, about the colonial architecture, indigenous peoples, religion, economy, and geopolitical situation in her country.

We are all in good health and are allowing our bodies to acclimatize to Quito’s 9000’ elevation. Several days of light activities and technical skills training around the Quito area will help us develop more red blood cells for efficient oxygen transportation at higher altitudes. Over the course of the next few days we will climb to higher elevations in the surrounding mountains (upwards of 15,500’) to prepare our bodies and minds for a move to mountain hut at the base of Cotopaxi, our primary climbing objective for this expedition. The amount of usable oxygen per breath at this elevation is 50% of that at normal living elevations, thus the need to acclimatize. After two additional training days on mountain and glacier hazards, roped team travel, cravasse rescue, and work with ice axes we will attempt to climb to the summit of this 19,448’ peak. We will provide updates of these day when possible.

We are grateful to all the support our friends and families have provided to make this expedition possible. We hope that you will enjoy following the experience and sharing in the adventure. Please stay tuned for more. Austin Paulson

Adventure Above the Rest

We will be adding dispatches of our recent expeditions soon. Thanks for helping us to "bring the adventure home" and to keep the spirit of adventure alive.