Author: blog_6n83a4

Day 48?: Cocora valley, Salento, Colombia. Imma be honest, riding on the jeep back was just as fun as the hike itself

Day ???: While in Cartehega, we were constantly accosted by people on the streets trying to sell us stuff, even when sitting in restaurants.One of the days, we went out on a snorkeling boat tour. We joked that the "spammers" would show up on jetskis trying to sell us stuff. Well, they did! When our boat parked at an island a bunch of kayakers came up with a full bar trying to sell us liquor. Then later on, a bunch of people came up to our boat on ACTUAL jetskis trying to sell us rides. The hustle is truly alive in Columbia

Day 37: After peeing in bottles, shitting in bags, sleeping in tents at 19,000 feet, and not showering for two weeks, 11/13 of our team made it to the top of Aconcagua at 22,841 ft. The highest peak outside of Asia, beating out peaks such as Denali, Killimanjaro, and Elbrus.Summit day took 14 hrs, with an average heartrate of 145bpm. Truly the hardest single day of my life, and incredibly proud of it. I will write a longer trip report on my blog later!

Day 25: Aconcagua let's goooooooo!!! See ya in 2 weeks!

Day 17: Cayame, 19,000 ft (exactly). The highest I had ever been. The peak was no gimmie, with the glacier truly going on for hours. 7 hours from bottom to top with 4k elevation gain. Luckily due to our speed we got to start at 2am, which was "late"; a lot of teams started at 11pm, one even at 10:30.I had, and continue to have, boot/feet problems. This time I got blisters on my toe knuckles. Honestly the constant boots issues have been the most challenging part of this whole trip. Does anyone else have this problem?The mountains are starting to look and feel like mountains you watch on film and hear about. Long, steep glaciers; cravssse dangers. This one even had ice falls!(see the last pic).This marks peak 7 of 9 for me. I think I'm going to make a film about my adventure called "9 peaks"

Day 21: Some photos I took around Quito, Ecuador during the downtime between climbing mountains.I didn't really realize how pretty stained glass was, but I think I'm in love now.Quito has to be the hillest city I've ever seen. San Francisco has nothing it. I'm not usually a fan of cityscapes, but this one truly took my breath away. I'm excited to see what other cities of the world look like.

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!