Month: January 2023

Day 15: Quilota lake. Looks fake, but I really did take that pic without filters. It's just that beautiful.Also met an alpaca (I was corrected it was NOT a llama).Last pic shows some of the beautiful farmland we drove through m it's crazy how steep some of these mountainsides these farmers farm on.

Day 14: Illiniza norte summit(17,217 ft). Due to its presence on the equator, ecuador is just so much more lush and wet at high elevation. Some peaks had me climbing on grass all the way to the top. On Illniza, all the rock was covered in a think layer of rime. It made for very fun climbing when you had to stem on the slick rock and a slip would be a serious fall :)Before the climb, we stayed in a Refugio about 2000 ft below the summit. I ran into another Coloradian and we got to chat about climbing. There's also a full-time caretaker that lives there, and he cooked dinner for the 10 or so hikers thay were there. I can't imagine staying in a tiny hut in the mountain for 300+ days a year.Once again we were clouded out at the peak, but I was able to snap some pics when it briefly cleared up while my guide Raúl was packing his bag. Later that day ofc the sky cleared up perfectly, so I was able to get a shot of the peak we just climbed.

Day 11-12: Greetings from Ecuador! To start off my 5 peak eztraveganza, I took a bit of a break from high altitude peaks and climbed some easier ones: Pasochoa(13,800 ft) and Corazon(15,718 ft). Corazon means "heart" in Spanish because it's in the middle of a bunch of hugeee peaks including Cotopaxi, illiniza(18k), and Antisana(18k).Unfortunately, ecuador seems to have really overcast, low-hanging clouds most of the time, so on both peaks I wasn't really able to see much views. But I got to see some WILD horses(caballos) which was pretty neat!I've been staying in a small town called Machachi in between all the peak climbing. This is the first part of my trip I've done solo, so I'm getting a groove on how to occupy myself. I found a gaming cafe(well, 2 actually!) that I've been visiting in between climbs. And of course I've been eating at every restaurant I could find. Some of those delicious meals are depicted 🙂

Day 8: Pico de Orizaba, 18,490 ft. The highest volcano in Mexico, and the 2nd highest volcano in the world(after Kilimanjaro). Harder than Mt.Elburus in Russia according to Anna, who was our our team and climbed both.Matt(@sierrasplendor), Eric(@erknucci), Mathias, Anna, and I all headed up the mountain at around 1am. It was a round trip of 11 hours and 4.5k to get all the way to the top and back down.Mathias, still feeling ill from the previous night, didn't even attempt to start; he stayed at basecamp to sleep off altitude sickness. Eric we learned after coming back down made it an hour or so before also getting sick and puking a few times, and turned around as well.Anna also made it to the top, but not after the guide literally pulled her up by the rope the last hundred feet.Matt and I made it to the top after a hard push. But man, what a mental battle. Once we hit the glacier, it was 2 hours of nonstop 30-45 degree slopes. At one point Matt had to go to the bathroom, but there was nowhere to go! He had to just wait to we reached the top.Truly, the glacier felt like it never ended. I would constantly glance at rocks nearby, expecting us to move past them, but they stayed in the same spot!!! But eventually, somehow we moved past them, and reached the top.Pics 5 shows Matt smiling and the absolute exhaustion on my face while on the endless glacier. Pic 6 shoes the "causalities of the mountain": Eric curled up in a ball and Mathias resting after coming partway down the mountain back to the hostel we had lunch. Pic 7 shows a telescope on a nearby mountain that contributed to the picture of a black hole that came out a few years ago. Super cool!This was mountain 3 of 9 for me. I'm on my way to ecuador to tackle another 5, topping out at 20,000 ft, before attempting Aconcagua. More to come!

Day 6(ish): On the rest day after Itza, we decided to check out the local climbing gym. Danni, our guide for Itza, was a route setter there.This was the coolest climbing gym I've been to for a few reasons: 1) it was partially outside! 2) they had 25m walls, which is taller than anything you'll find in an American gym. You needed a full 70m rope to climb them. 3) they had a TREE growing through one of the walls.I show some videos of me climbing one of the 25m walls(and hanging a bunch, I'm out of climbing shape), and of our guide/friend danni absolutely CRUSHING it on a huge overhang/horizonal wall. It was a privilege to belay him.Also added in some other random photos: 1 of the dogs that followed us up La Malinche, and one of me drinking Pulque, a traditional fermented Mexican drink made from the heart of agave. And one of me trying to climb the roof of a house we found at the top of one of our hikes lol

Day 5: Iztaccihuatl, 17,160 ftEric, Mathayus, Matt(@sierrasplendor) and I woke up at midnight, packed our bags, and started our 12-hour 4.5k feet gain roundtrip journey to the top of Itza and back. I was in good spirits and strength, minus the fact I slept for only 1 hour due to some noisey neighbors.Mathayus had stomach issues the whole trip due to some bad flan he ate in Puebla, but made it to the top with the rest of us. I was truly impressed with his resolve.Matt was a MACHINE, leading the charge the whole way. I'm blown away by his strength, let alone at 52.Item #7 shows how slowly you move at 17,000 ft. It shows Eric slowly walking towards the summit. It's comical how slow it is This is full speed any of us can go, mind you. The oxygen is just so low that you really can't go faster without your heart racing and your breathing turning exasperated. Your muscles feel fine, but your cardiovascular system is working overtime to provide oxygen. It's truly a bizarre sensation.This marks peak 2 of 9 for me. Thursday we tackle Pico, at 18k feet, the highest in Mexico.

Day 1: 5 days ago, I left america behind to travel for a year. Pictured are the 3 bags I'm bringing with me: 2 duffels for aconcagua, and 1 black bag I'll travel the world with for a year.I don't have a lot of pictures from that day, because honestly it was an extremely stressful and difficult time. I simply did not have enough time in the last month of my time in America to get my affairs in order. I had to move out of my place, visit my family for a week, have a going away party, wrap up work, work out 1-3 hours everyday for aconcagua, and do a million errands: buy gear, buy stuff for my 1-bag, go to the dentist, optomitrist, figure out healthcare, cancel all my reccuring memberships, get vaccines(COVID + travel vaccines). On top of this, the boots I had bought for aconcagua were tearing up my feet something horrible(see last picture). They don't sell the types of boots I needed in America, so it was a real scramble to try and find something that worked. I ended up going to different 2 bootfitrers and endless trips to the store for socks. I'm still unsure if what I settled on will work, send your hopes and prayers to me On top of all that, the relationship that I had been in for 2 1/2 years came to a mutually agreed planned end. Having the emotional bandwidth to deal with that on top of everything else proved impossible.Time moves forward whether you want it to or not. I ended up staying up till 5am packing and got 2 hours of sleep. Some stuff I shipped to myself got to me too late and had to be left behind in America. I wasn't able to go to the dentist or get my COVID booster, and I wasn't able to return a bunch of purchases I needed to.But now that I've crossed the barrier from not-travelling to travelling, things are less stressful. I'm climbing mountains nonstop for the next 1 1/2 months, which is a different kind of stress, but enjoyable. There are still some loose ends I need to tie up, but there is a looser timeline for them.People sometimes idolize long-term travel, but it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Still, it's better than working 🙂

The highest I've ever been, and I wasn't even smoking weed 🤣@sierrasplendor and I tackled La Malinche at 14,567 feet, 50 feet higher than Whitney, the highest point in the lower 48. We've got 2 more to go in Mexico, so we're just getting started. This is 1 of 9 mountains I plan on climbing over the next month or so in Mexico, Ecuador, and Argentina, cumulating in Aconcagua at 23,000 ft.More to come!

Decadence 2022/2023. Amazing group of people and an amazing time. The silent disco was honestly the best part. The ballon drop was dope too.Happy/sad to be leaving these people for a year, but excited to have this hoorah before I go!

Welcome!

If you’re looking at this, I’ve probably directed you to this site and told you this is where you can follow me on my travels.

This blog, or website,  is a work in progress. I feel like people always throw one of those “under construction” pictures across the front, like this, so let me get that out of the way:

Well anyways, here’s what you can expect from this blog:

1. I will setup a “live tracker”, like polarsteps (https://www.polarsteps.com/), that allows you to see exactly where I am/have been, and links to pictures. I’ll need to mess with it a bit so it’s inaccurate enough so I don’t DOX myself.
2.  I will probably spend time updating this webpage so it’s more…interactive. I like wordpress, but I’ll probably want to do some coding projects while I’m on the road to keep myself entertained. So expect this website to change. I’ll make sure that blog.kevinjonaitis.com always has up-to-date information.
3. My instagram photos will continue to auto-post to this page. You’ll be able to tell it’s from instagram if it says “Instagram image” in the title.

 

In terms of content, I will NOT post every day; that’s exhausting. I will try and post something for every “location”, I go to; that could be a city, a country, or an excursion. Ideally my posting frequency will be every few days to a week, depending on how busy I am. I will try to keep the polarsteps updated daily however.

 

Some things I will post soon when I have time:

1. Contents of my 1 bag
2. In-depth itinerary for my worldwide travels
3. Planning/training/trip of Aconcagua

 

In terms of initial timeline and locations, here is what I will b doing:

1. Mexico City for 12 days; I will be climbing 3-4 20k+ peaks with my friend Matt from San Francisico
2. Ecuador, for maybe a week; will be climbing Cotopaxi
3. Aconcagua, starting February 3rd through Feburary 21st(19 day expedition)
4. Peru with Nacho and Sean for 2 weeks
5. Europe for 3 months starting the 2nd week of march! Starting in either Italy, Spain, or Portugal.

Then it gets a little more ambigious. I will leave Europe for 3 months(due to the Shegean visa requirements I’ll explain in another post), go back to Europe for 3 months, and then for December/Janurary 2024 bop around other places.

 

Some locations inside Schengen Europe I hope to visit include:

• Spain
• Italy
• Sweden/Norway/Finland/Netherlands
• France
• Germany
• Portugal
• Switerland
• Hungary?
• Greece?

6 months is not a lot of time to visit the 12 above countries(2 weeks a country), so I’m going to really have to think hard where I want to go.

Outside of Europe, I’m excited to visit the following countries:

• Turkey
• Japan
• South Korea
• Singapore
• India
• Nepal
• Australia
• Columbia
• Brazil
• Parts of Africa
  • Morocco
  • South Africa
  • Madagascar?
  • Namibia/Botswana/Zimbabwe

Activities that I’m excited to do while travelling:

• Climb Aconcagua
• Tour de Mount Blanc
• Climb the Matterhorn
• Everest basecamp trek
• Iowaska
• Festivals
  • Tomorrowland
  • Burning Man
  • EDC
  • Electric Forest
  • Creamfields?
• Conferences
  • Gencon
  • Defcon
  • RTX?

I’m sure there are other things I’m missing, but these are what’s top of mind right now. It’s going to be a great year! Fingers cross no injury, global pandemic, or anything else stops me this time! It’s a big itinerary, and a lot to do in 12 months, so we’ll se what I get to!

I’ll be posting in another week or so, so check back later and I will update it.