Sean Kristl's Posts

Snow storm thwarts team’s summit attempt

Two nights ago our team of climbers was at high camp, preparing for their summit bid in the coming day or two. That night, 6″ of heavy snow fell in high camp and plastered the face of Alpamayo. The new layer of snow creates instabilities in the surface that are not ideal for safe climbing conditions. That morning, the team decided to pack it up and get back to base camp before more weather moved in.

An avalanche warning was posted the day after the storm and confirmed our team’s belief that it would…

Rock climbing is a rapidly growing sport in the United States. With the popularity of climbing comes a lot of questions about how best to go about learning the correct skills and techniques to rock climb safely and efficiently. Rock climbing guides in Truckee and Lake Tahoe can help you get off on the right foot to achieve your goals of ascending any cliff in the world.

Alpenglow Expeditions provides high quality rock climbing guides in Truckee and Lake Tahoe, giving you the best chance at learning how to rock climb outdoors the right way, the first time. Many…

The Tahoe Truckee area has many reasons why it’s an adventure paradise, and rock climbing is right up there with the best of them. From beautiful views of Donner Lake, to easily accessible cliffs for all ability levels, Donner Summit is a rock climbing paradise nestled right above Truckee, California. 

1. Easy Access – The cliffs and crags of Donner Summit are some of the most easily accessed in the nation. Drive right up Old Highway 40 (Donner Pass Rd) and you pass no less than 5 different crags, all easily visible from the road. Some approaches are literally…

Class is back in session in beautiful Ecuador! Our entire team arrived 5 days ago and since then everyday has been filled with exploring, acclimatizing and now they are moving on to the meat of the expedition – mountain climbing.

First Day in Ecuador

Our first full day is always spent exploring the sights, sounds and smells of one of the most gorgeous high altitude cities in the world. Quito is known for its vibrant culture and our team was treated to some traditional Ecuadorian music in the streets of the colonial section of town. While this might seem like…

The whole gang is together now at ABC on Mount Everest. Lots of chatter this morning between guides and sherpa finalizing summit plans. LAST MINUTE UPDATE FROM CHAD PEELE: “Jaime the team and I are launching tomorrow morning after bfast for our push with a summit date of the 16th!!” So it’s official – the summit push is on. The teams are bedding down for their last night of good sleep for awhile. We’ll update when they wake up.

Final Plans Being Made

Everest + Cho Team leaving EBC on their way up to ABC.

During this final stage, the guides…

Cumbre!!

We’ll go with the most exciting news first – this morning at 10am local time we had 4 members of our climbing team summit Aconcagua. Conditions were breezy up there but winds were noticeably less than forecasted. Our teams are psyched they stuck it out and pushed up the mountain looking for that coveted summit window, and they sure did find it!

The Final Push

Prior to the successful summit push this morning, the climbing team made solid moves from camp 1 to camp 2 on January 29th, with everyone feeling pretty good as the altitude progressed. They spent two nights at…

We last left off with the team heading to Camp 1 on Aconcagua. That day Adrian’s team made it up in a peppy 3.5 hours. The next team followed up with a nice time themselves, 5 hours to camp 1 and everyone feeling good. Our porter team keeps treating us well, and the climbers were super happy to see a spread of charcuterie for lunch upon arrival. Weather for the climbing that day was perfect – sunny and calm in the morning while they made their move. The wind decided to pick up in the afternoon though and was at…

Just a few short days ago, our team of 6 coalesced in Mendoza from various parts of the U.S. and South America. The lead guides for this group are the one and only Adrian Ballinger who is working alongside the man the myth the legend, Jaime Avila. Dinner of course was delicious as it always is in Mendoza accompanied by world class Malbec wines. The easy going atmosphere wouldn’t last long though as the next day the team was in a shuttle heading towards the town of Penitentes where the plan was to hitch a ride with the local helicopter to base…

Our Ecuador climbing team is chugging along and making great progress on both acclimatization as well as learning the necessary glacier travel and climbing skills. Our lead guide in Ecuador, Jaime Avila reports that the mountain has recently been covered in clouds in the morning, and is clearing by mid morning.

Jaime will be evaluating conditions starting tomorrow morning (December 7) and may make the call to begin climbing right away so the team can climb and summit with stunning and clear views. If the weather and conditions are not looking favorable, they will wait until tomorrow night and make their ascent…

Photos: Jaime Avila
Our Ecuador Climbing School expedition team arrived safely in Quito yesterday and enjoyed a city tour. Not only is Quito at high altitude (9,350′ / 2850m) it is a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site.

Today the team acclimatized on Rucu Pichincha. Instead of heading straight to the mountain like our Cotopaxi Rapid Ascent expedition team, they will spend a few days in and above Quito acclimatizing before heading to Cotopaxi National Park. Rucu Pichincha stands at 15,413′ / 4698m’ and is an incredible day of hiking with a little bit of rock scrambling to get the…