Chimbo out, climbers heading to Illinizas instead

Bad weath­er thwarts efforts to climb Ecuador’s high­est peak, so the team is off to the twin peaks of Illiniza as a con­so­la­tion prize.

These two peaks offer either a fun rock scram­ble to close to 17,000-feet, which is what you’ll find on Norte, or a mod­er­ate snow/​ice climb on Sur. The team is excit­ed to see what looks good and how the con­di­tions are on these two peaks. Not a bad option either way.

Tino called in to report that the group is hang­ing out and prepar­ing for a vis­it up in the Illinizas. Lots of rain down low, so they are not sure what they’ll see once the skies clear. Every­one in the group is super hap­py with the trip so far and are proud to have not been beat down by a lit­tle poor weath­er, espe­cial­ly true for Cayambe where they sum­mit­ed despite rime ice con­di­tions and windy con­di­tions. But, the rain/​snow will be just too much for a real­is­tic attempt on Chimbo.

Many in the group came for the school with lit­tle or no expe­ri­ence and have found the peaks very doable with some train­ing and prop­er acclima­ti­za­tion. Michael has fall­en in love with the coun­try, it’s peo­ple, food, and moun­tains — what’s not to like he asks! He will be back for Chim­bo, but not before he moves on to oth­er climbs in the world.

Joe says hi to Tam­my and thanks her for the sup­port back home- he’s hav­ing a great time! And Nick says hi to Kevin and wish­es he was there.

So, off they go to climb either Illiniza Sur or Norte, both great objec­tives and a good way to wind down after their suc­cess on both Caymabe and Cotopaxi.

Moun­tain Mad­ness has trips sched­uled through out the year in Ecuador and more imme­di­at­ley has the fol­low­ing avail­able from now until ear­ly March:

• Moun­taineer­ing School
• Vol­ca­noes Expedition
• 9‑day Cotopaxi

We hope you can join us!

In the mean­time, here are some pho­tos of the Illinizas from pre­vi­ous expeditions:

Look­ing up at Illinizas. Illiniza Sur on left, Illiniza Norte on right.

Illiniza Norte.

Scram­bling on Illiniza Norte.

Above the clouds on Illiniza.

Final stretch on Illiniza Sur.