Expedition update: Cayambe, Vinson, & Aconcagua

Hap­py New Year! Lots to report today. 12 Moun­tain Mad­ness climbers and four MM guides reached the sum­mit of Cayambe. It was a long day, but a tremen­dous success.

Tino reports that the, ​“Weath­er start­ed out nice in the evening and got very lousy through the day-wind, clouds and pre­cip. We were all cov­ered in rime ice by the end. It was a very strong effort by all and we are very proud of our climbers.” The group is now on their way to Cotopaxi and a brief rest before the next summit.

On Aconcagua, Joshua reports that the team has reached camp 2 in good spir­its in spite of some not so good weath­er- snow and windy. The fore­cast looks good though in a cou­ple of days, so the team plans to move to camp 3 as soon as rea­son­able and get in posi­tion for a sum­mit attempt in a cou­ple of days.

In Antarc­ti­ca, Mark Ryman called in on the satel­lite phone with great news- good weath­er , every­one feel­ing strong , and the team ahead of sched­ule. With some great orga­ni­za­tion by Jacob, who was at base camp ahead of the group, the team bust­ed out of base­camp and moved straight up to camp 1 in one car­ry. This put them ahead of all oth­er teams and enjoy­ing some soli­tude before oth­er groups arrived. It’s been warm, fleece lay­ers only when the sun is out, but when the shade takes over the tem­per­a­tures plum­met and out comes the expe­di­tion down jack­ets in the sub-zero temps. They will move up to high camp in the next cou­ple of days and ready them­selves for a sum­mit attempt.

We’ll post more details and pho­tos soon. In the mean­time, we hope you all enjoy the New Year!