South America Climbing Season Coming into Focus
The cold temperatures of fall here in the northern hemisphere reminds us that the Aconcagua climbing season is coming into view. This season Alpenglow Expeditions has eight different expeditions to South America – 2 in Ecuador, 1 in Patagonia, and 5 separate teams heading to the tallest peak outside of Asia, the one and only Aconcagua. We love this time of year as our South American expeditions are truly special to our entire program.
Ecuador is Next on the tick list…
Our first team arriving in Ecuador aims to climb Cotopaxi (conditions dependent, more on that in a moment) in 5 days door to door from home in the US. I’m particularly excited for this one as I’ll be joining the team down there, first hand testing
our Rapid Ascent system for myself and climbing in Ecuador for the first time. Coming soon will be a new blog from me updating everyone on the process of acclimatizing in the Hypoxico tent. I can’t wait to get down there, meet the legendary Jaime Avila and put in my best effort on the mountain.
Our second team arrives in Quito, Ecuador in December. This team is of a more traditional style, acclimatizing in Quito by climbing Ruccu Pinchincha before heading up to the refugio at Tombaxi on the flanks of Cotopaxi. Once at the refugio, this team will spend a few days on the glacier learning skills like glacier travel, self arrest and crevasse rescue. Once they’ve practiced and drilled those skills, they’ll make their own summit bid to the top of Cotopaxi.
A Note on Cotopaxi…
As has been widely reported, Cotopaxi has been closed to climbing for a couple of years now due to volcanic activity. Over the last few months that activity has subsided and the Ecuadorian government has opened the summit to climbing. We are proceeding cautiously here as we are getting reports of strong gasses still emitting from the caldera. We will be monitoring the situation daily as we lead up to our expeditions and if need be will be climbing the beautiful Cayambe as a back up.
After Ecuador comes Aconcagua…
January and February = Aconcagua time for Alpenglow Expeditions. This season we are sending a total of 5 teams down to the highest point outside of Asia. Some members of our teams this year include active Everest dreamers training to take on the Big E in the next couple of seasons. Stay tuned to our blog and social feeds as we’ll be updating the progress of all of our teams on the mountain.
Aconcagua remains one of our favorite expeditions for both our guides and clients. Using our Rapid Ascent system of approaching the mountain we are able to cut down the traditional expedition time of 21 days down to 14.
For more information on our Ecuador expeditions, Aconcagua Rapid Ascent expedition or any of our other international expeditions check out our website. For any questions call our office at 877-873-5376 or send us an email info@alpenglowexpeditions.com.