November 7, 2007 – Team Prepares for Summit in the Comforts of Cayambe Hut

Our attentive class having fun reviewing for the summit

The weather has been quite rainy for most of our trip, especially in the afternoons.

Yesterday afternoon as we walked up here to Cayambe Hut there was still a soft rain. Surprising it can rain at these elevations. Here on the equator it does.

As we moved into a really comfortable hut and happy about living here right now, we set out our gear to dry out and slept in really comfortable beds last night.

Cayambe Hut

The team woke up today for instruction. We spent all of the morning reviewing our equipment, techniques, how to get suited up for a glacier climb; and then reviewing some crevasse rescue techniques; including Texas prusik system for ascending up a rope to come out of a crevasse. As you’ll see from the photographs we sent back, it was quite comfortable in the Cayambe hut while going through these drills.

This afternoon the clouds have moved in again, though we did have clear weather and views of Cayambe this morning. With its magnificence, we are excited about attempting to climb it beginning tonight.

The plan for this afternoon is to hike uphill a little ways to see how we breathe at this altitude. Then we will be settling down early to get some rest before getting up very early to start the climb.

We have enjoyed reviewing our equipment. Things are looking good and the team seems strong. Everyone slept really well last night. Martin told me that he slept soundly without stirring for 10 solid hours, pretty amazing for a first night at altitude. We hope to be at the summit of Cayambe early tomorrow morning, or reach as high as we can climb on the mountain.

Previous | Menu | Next



All Text, Images and Audio Files © Berg Adventures International 2007