July 30, 2019
Team took advantage of their time this morning before flying to Mineralnye Vody and snuck in a visit to St. Isaac’s Cathedral. The story of its construction and survival through WWII is amazing, and the mosaics inside are not to be missed.
Team will be sleeping in the Caucasus Mountains tonight.
Phil Ershler
July 29, 2019
Pequeno Alpamayo (Greg Vernovage)
IMG Senior Guide Harry Hamlin called from Base Camp to let us know the team had a great day on Pequeno Alpamayo (17,482’). This is a fun climb! The morning starts with a trek to the tongue of the glacier. Once at the glacier, the team puts on their harnesses, helmets and crampons. Roped up, they climb for about 2 hours to the “first summit.†After the first summit, the team downclimbs some fifth class rock and crosses the saddle to the summit ridge. Our local guide Roberto fixed the summit ridge and the team enjoyed a beautiful day on top!
Tomorrow the team will pack up camp and head for the trailhead where they will be picked up and transferred to Base Camp on Huayna Potosi.
All is well in Bolivia!
Greg Vernovage
July 29, 2019
Team 2 in St. Petersburg (Jonathan Schrock)
While Elbrus Team 1 has already returned home, our second team wraps up their visit to St. Petersburg today and will be flying to Mineralnye Vody tomorrow. All continues to go well in Russia! Sasha will meet Jonathan and crew at the airport tomorrow and they’ll all head to our hotel in Terskol. Jonathan has all our climbers and they have all their luggage, so all is good. Time for this team to start getting acclimated!
Phil Ershler
July 29, 2019
Always nice to start off the week with a phone call from Africa saying that we had another 100% successful ascent of Kilimanjaro this morning. Congratulations, team! Phunuru called and was pretty pleased to let us know the team did well, everyone shook hands on the summit and that they were back down to Millennium Camp. That leaves just a few hours hike tomorrow and this climb is a wrap! We couldn’t be more pleased.
Phil Ershler
July 28, 2019
Harry just checked in to let us know the weather continues to be beautiful, and the team had a good day of training on the glacier this morning. The team is back at Base Camp, will have an early dinner and then to bed in preparation for their climb of Pequeno Alpamayo in the morning.
The weather forecast is in their favor, and the team is excited to get climbing!
All is well in Bolivia!
Greg Vernovage
July 28, 2019
Team is in the batter’s box, ready to take a ‘swing’ at the summit.
Weather is perfect and team is pretty much perfect. Phunuru is planning for a 1am departure. It’s a big day, and it can be quite cold early in the morning. We’ll be wishing them luck, but I think they’re more than up to the task. Regardless, a little luck never hurt. The excitement makes it hard to sleep, but they’re pretty much running on adrenaline right now.
Phil Ershler
July 27, 2019
Last weekend, our Huayhuash trek finished up their trek and made they way back home. Congrats to the trekkers for completing the trek in such great style! It’s not only a spectacular experience, it’s a fun challenge that led the team over numerous passes over 15,000 feet during the course of their 10 days on the trek.
Again, well done to our 7 trekkers on this year’s trip!
We’ve set the dates for our 2020 trek: July 4-19, 2020. This trek is becoming one of our more popular treks, so early sign-up is recommended. We hope you can join us!
Jason Edwards
July 27, 2019
Summit of Pico Austria looking at Pequeno Alpamayo (Greg Vernovage)
The Bolivia Team had a great day climbing Pico Austria today. IMG Guide Harry Hamlin said there was snow from Base Camp all the way to the summit but not enough to stop them from standing on top of Pico Austria (17,480’). This is not a technical climb but does a great job giving the team more of an opportunity to acclimatize. The team is now back at Base Camp and will head to the steep tongue of the glacier on Pequeno Alpamayo for training in the morning.
All is well in Bolivia!
Greg Vernovage
July 27, 2019
A couple of days before the end of our spectacular Huayhuash trek, a contingent of 4 trekkers and 3 of our guides climbed to the inspiring summit of Diablo Mudo, standing at 17,805′. It’s a full traverse of the mountain, that includes an approach up one valley, some moderate rock scrambling, and then some rolling snow and ice slopes that lead to the pinnacle of the mountain. After some time enjoying the summit and taking a few pics, the team descended the mountain via a different route, following a different valley, and then reunited with the other trekkers at the next camp.
Congratulations to the climbers and guides!
Jason Edwards
July 27, 2019
On the top of the Barranco Wall (Phunuru Sherpa)
The IMG Kilimanjaro Team just wrapped up a fantastic day on their way to Karanga Camp. This is often the favorite part of the whole approach as the route climbs the famous Barranco Wall. The wall can appear intimidating for some when looking up from below, and it does require a bit of scrambling in places, but overall it’s a couple hours of pure fun.
The team will head to Barafu next where they’ll rest a bit and prep for their summit attempt.
Stay tuned!
Phil Ershler
