January 9, 2016
BUSY season for IMG teams in South America and Antarctica.  Let’s starts with our Vinson teams first.
Vinson Team 3 in Punta Arenas
As you know, Greg Vernovage, Austin Shannon and their team all stood together on the summit of Vinson a couple of days ago. They flew off the Ice this morning, exactly on schedule. One night in Punta Arenas and they’ll be saying good-bye to one another. Great team, great success. Austin Shannon remained on the Ice and met the 4 climbers on our third and final team this morning. They are standing by for their flight to Vinson base camp now. China, Korea, Canada and the USA. They should have fun. We will be posting dates for the 2016/17 Vinson expeditions soon. Hope you don’t miss out.
On Aconcagua, Josh McDowell, Robert Jantzen, Martin Lucero and team decided discretion was the better part of valor and are retreating from the mountain. Snow and wind was making their potential summit attempt simply too much this time around. That’s OK, they’re healthy and unhurt and hoping there’ll be a rematch with Aconcagua in their future. Team will be back in Mendoza late on the 12th. Great effort and solid, consensus decision-making. Jonathan Schrock will be teaming up with Martin and the next IMG Aconcagua group in just over a week. We’re wishing them much better luck with the weather.
Ecuador team touring Old Town Quito
And, we need to report in on our final Ecuador trip of the season. Led by Luke Reilly, the crew is in Otavalo today. The famous Indian market there was on the agenda early this morning. They’ll be taking in the sights/sounds/smells and getting in a couple of acclimatization hikes in the surrounding mountains prior to heading towards their first objective – the summit of Cayambe. Luke Reilly and Romulo Cardenas “do†an Ecuador climbing trip unlike anyone else. The group is in for a treat.
Phil Ershler